Cereal bar targets travellers to boost brand

By Catherine Boal

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Eat natural Nut Wolfberry

UK snack company, Eat Natural, has launched a new addition to its
range of natural cereal bars and teamed up with airline Virgin in
an unusual marketing tactic designed to boost brand recognition.

The company, whose Eat Natural brand is valued at £22m (€32.6m), is rolling out the Mile High bar on flights this month before introducing it to retailers at a later date.

By putting the snack on premium economy flights to and from the UK, the company hopes to introduce the product to a wide consumer base and build on this by selling it to travellers in airports as an 'on-the-go' snack.

According to a report released this year by market analyst firm Leatherhead International, branding is key to development within the cereal bar sector with successful products relying on consumer recognition and loyalty.

In addition, the New Generations Snack Food report stated: "A key area of focus for NPD at present is that of healthier cereal bars, including low and light products and those containing functional ingredients; a diverse range of ingredients is being used."

Eat Natural's Mile High bar contains health-boosting ingredients such as cranberries, walnuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and the antioxidant 'superfruit' goji berry.

The company emphasise that the range is 100 per cent 'natural' without artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

According to Leatherhead, cereal bar sales rose 9.6% in the US, Japan, Australia and the five largest European countries last year and are expected to rise around 4.8% per annum over the next five years to reach $3bn (€5.9bn) by 2010.

Eat Natural has experienced year on year growth of 48 per cent since the creation of the company in 1997 and claims to outperform growth in the total UK cereal market by an average of 12 - 15 per cent.

Related topics Processing & Packaging

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