A Look at Glanbia Nutritionals MegaTrends #5: Sense-ational

Delivering a Sensory Experience

One of the top MegaTrends playing out in a big way in food and beverage is to excite the senses. With more consumers eating at home in the past year due to pandemic lockdowns, missing the restaurant experience, and fighting off boredom, retail brands that can deliver a total sensory experience will stand out from the crowd.

For food and beverage companies, this means being laser-focused on the sensory experience itself, rather than just making sure the product looks and tastes good. This can mean creating familiar products with a twist—a surprising color, a new texture, or a bold, craveable flavor. Better yet, brands can deliver a multi-sensory experience to create a strong emotional connection with consumers.

Tapping into Instagram and Social Media

Consumers are online more than ever, making social media—especially highly visual platforms like Instagram—the perfect way to showcase foods and beverages. Professional photos can entice through vibrant and surprising colors, as well as texture close-ups that show, for example, gooey cheese or a crispy crust. And don’t forget the impact of food “action shots” like steam rising from a hot beverage or soup.

Elegant or cool plating ideas and creative recipes and pairings help catch the eye and make a product more likely to be shared on social media. Even during the product development phase, manufacturers can keep an eye on making their products “Instagrammable” right from the start.

Bold Flavors

After drawing consumers in with a strong visual, it’s essential that the product delivers on expectations with a delicious taste. But it takes more than just delicious taste for that wow factor that will drive repeat purchases. For a truly sense-ational experience, bold flavors are key.

Manufacturers can take it to the next level with intense craveable and decadent flavors, as well as nostalgic flavors with an edge. Whether it’s the unexpected heat of chili pepper or the tang of exotic citrus fruit, adding bold flavor gives consumers a taste holiday without the travel. 

Sense-ational Food Experiences at Home

Food and beverage brands have an exciting opportunity to provide consumers with new experiences—right from home. Beyond visual appeal and bold flavor, brands can create new sensory experiences for consumers with fun and unusual textures like gels and bubbles or tactile engagement through interactive packaging. A rich sensory experience from food is just the thing to give consumers a little joy and relief from stress and boredom during the lockdown.

See just how important engaging the senses is right now in our latest MegaTrends webinar on-demand, which unpacks how nostalgia and emotional connections with food and beverage are helping consumers navigate their mental health during the pandemic. And for tips on creating a sense-ational experience for consumers and to learn more about the other four Glanbia Nutritionals megatrends impacting the industry, check back to download the latest MegaTrends Guide.