Dive Brief:
- Larabar, a better-for-you snack maker owned by General Mills, is making its first television appearance to advertise its products as "food made from food."
- Larabar's previous marketing campaigns have mainly centered around print, digital, and sampling, but the brand intends to reach more health-conscious consumers with its on-air debut.
- Over the past two years, the Larabar Original Fruit & Nut Food Bar line reported compound annual sales growth of 20%.
Dive Insight:
Between announcing its progress on making 100% of its cereals free of artificial flavors and colors by 2017 and fostering growth of its Annie's brand, General Mills has made a push to introduce more natural and organic products to the processed foods category, including Larabar.
Processed foods sales have been on the decline as foods consumers deem to be healthier flood the market, such as products that are natural or organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and allergen-free. Larabar uses its first TV ad to "[play] on the idea that a lot of packaged food is not made from real food," Ad Age reported.
Chobani, in its quest for the healthy segment, has taken a different approach with its latest ad campaign. Where Larabar generalized packaged foods' ingredients without isolating any specific brands, Chobani went on the offensive. It depicted consumers throwing out Yoplait and Dannon Greek yogurts because of their use of artificial ingredients. Cease and desist letters and lawsuits have flown back and forth since the Jan. 6 campaign debut. Larabar's ads are not expected to lead to a legal tussle.
Though, Larabar has stiff competition in the better-for-you snacks market, including Kind bars, which more than tripled its sales volume in the two years leading up to 2014. As snacking becomes more popular among on-the-go consumers, more companies and categories have turned to the snack format to innovate existing product lines, from cereal to meat snacks.