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Once that new baby comes home, the whole world totally changes, including consuming habits. Instinctively, parents pay much more attention to aspects related to product quality, nutrition, and provenance — even when it translates into bigger expenses than they would incur for themselves. A new set of purchasing criteria comes to the arena, and brands have to juggle them to be competitive. So how are baby food brands catching parents’ attention and inspiring their total trust? In this report, we’ll explore the language of baby food. We’ll show examples of how infant foods are adapting to current market demands and setting new trends as they address evolving consumer (and regulatory) needs.

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The Baby Food Brand World

Safety First Smart Solutions Go Green Brand Language

We will be discussing 3 major trends in baby food as well as taking a few slides at the end to explore baby food language including words and imagery.

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Safety First Responsible parents provide security for their infants! Everything should be safe, from the corners of the cribs they are laid in to the toys they play with. From the water used to wash their bottles to the water they drink with every meal. Demands from consumers and regulators are shaping the landscape of the packaging industry. Thus, manufacturers are compelled to find alternatives in order to comply with stricter standards.

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Safety First

For example, in spite of some ongoing political and scientific controversy, BPA-free packaging of baby products (especially food) is on the rise. Recent studies have led to the ban of the potentially harmful compound Bisphenol A in baby bottles in many countries, including the EU. Many brands want to show they share this worry with parents by focusing on the use of glass, adopting safer plastics or alternative materials.

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Toddlers, already at a more interactive stage of development, can be influenced by packaging visuals and often play a role in the purchasing process. Many healthy food brands are now taking a page from the playbooks of their sugar-filled competitors by looking to make their products as fun, tasty, and attractive as sweets. This is an effective way for brands to help parents convince their little ones to eat healthier alternatives — or, at least, to distract them with a playful visual identity.

Healthy Disguise

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Practicality Busy parents on the go welcome packaging options that keep the product fresh and make their hectic lives easier. One convenience-based solution being adopted at a growing rate by baby food brands are pouch packs. They are not only affordable, portable, safe, and recyclable, but also occupy little space and are easy to open. Many options are re-sealable and allow all the content to be scooped or squeezed out. Practically their entire surface is printable, which is another advantage, giving producers much more space to provide visual or nutritional information.

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More than Food Food isn’t only about nutrition. Some foods can aid in tactile development, motor skills development, and self—feeding. Finger foods, for instance, are a fun way to develop all three of these skills. Some brands have also recognized and leveraged baby-friendly characteristics of existing products. For many years, Cheerios have been touting the fact that their cereal enables self-snacking without the risk of choking due to the hole at the middle of every Cheerio. They've even extended their brand with formats designed to take advantage of these qualities.

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Though there is still no conclusive evidence that organic foods are healthier than conventional foods, (nor is there even a universal definition), the possibility of some benefit is reason enough for an increasing number of concerned parents to choose bio offers for their babies. This is also the reason why even the category’s biggest players are emphasizing their organic credentials or launching bio brands and ranges.

Nestlé’s organic brand Gerber

Ella’s Kitchen pack detail

Bio

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Sustainability Social responsibility is an increasingly important aspect of many brands. Baby food is one category where social issues, particularly the environment, really resonate. For many parents, a newfound sense of legacy comes with their bundle of joy. They become motivated to choose brands that are engaged in making sure a better planet will be passed on to their descendants. Once again, the use of glass and highly eco-friendly pouch-packaging provide popular solutions that seem to satisfy many of the needs of these new parents.

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Baby Symbols Baby products commonly rely on a wide range of symbols to convey identity.

Familiar and common themes include baby rabbits, birds and teddy bears, toy trains and illustrations of happy babies on a pastel color background.

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Baby Talk In line with emotionally charged visual elements, written communication also tends to be soft and velvety. Non-aggressive, lower-case, rounded and chubby fonts are in the lead.

Cute names and childish word choices are widely employed for a self explanatory and memorable effect.

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Parent Meeting Some baby food brands take a more grown-up approach, focusing their visual and verbal messaging on responsible parents. These brands do not use the symbols and language of the baby world, but rather choose to have an adult talk, using grown up visuals and big words. Gourmet-appealing brands that emphasize premium quality are a perfect example. They highlight attributes that the buyers value when purchasing for themselves, showing relevant information about the product. Baby symbols are not excluded: the tone is still charmingly soft, but more mature.

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Nothing better than fresh, home-made food to guarantee only the best ingredients have been chosen for a delicious meal prepared with all love and care for your baby, right? Many brands are claiming their offers are as good as if they have just left mommy’s kitchen.

Just Like Mommy’s

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In a market environment that is more and more competitive, many baby food brands are betting heavily on shelf impact to call parent’s attention. Strong and bright colors, simple, obvious and attractive images and shapes are an efficient way to make parents grab the product to find more about it on the packaging’s backside.

Simply Impacting

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The high level of demand from all stakeholders coupled with fierce competition within the baby care category brings a great deal of responsibility and a lot of work to whomever fathers (or mothers) a baby brand. We hope that this quick overview has provided you with inspiration and useful insights to help you care for your own baby brand, no matter if it’s newly born, if it’s crawling, or has already been up and running for a while! If you would like more information or ideas of how you can best improve your own baby food branding, please don’t hesitate to contact Cocoon Group.

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention!

For more information, please contact: Cocoon Group Douglas Kaufman d.kaufman@cg-eu.com (+420) 222 998 598 U Pruhonu 13 170 00 - Prague Czech Republic www.cg-eu.com

© Cocoon Group 2012 All Rights Reserved

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