Fresh Foods

Licensors are always looking to innovate by capitalizing on opportunities to pair a property with a rising consumer trend. That process can be more involved in the food industry than in other categories. But a handful of current food and beverage trends—some of which have been around for a while—are starting to spur the development of licensed products:

• Vegan ice cream. Plant-based products in general have been the focus of a growing number of licensing deals and other partnerships (e.g., meal kits). Vegan ice cream has become one of the newer trends in this space as the product has improved in taste and texture. Breyers offers a licensed Oreo Cookies & Cream flavor made with almond milk that is targeted primarily toward consumers who are lactose-intolerant but is also billed as being suitable for consumers following a vegan diet.
• Cannabidiol (CBD). CBD purportedly offers some of the health benefits of its cousin marijuana, such as pain relief, but without the psychotropic properties, and has been a hot health trend over the past year or two. The recent farm bill designated hemp, from which CBD is derived, as an agricultural crop, which should further commercial opportunities, although the FDA must still approve any food or supplement containing the substance. Level Brands and its licensee Isodiol released CBD products under the Chef André Carthen Edibles brand this summer.
• Spiked beverages. Alcohol-infused beverages including wine water and spiked seltzer—billed as lighter and less sugary than cocktails, beer, or wine, but with nearly the same alcoholic punch—have been on the market since 2013 but have gained momentum in the last year or two. Hornell Brewing, an affiliate of Arizona Beverages, the longtime maker of Arnold Palmer iced tea-and-lemonade drinks, licensed Molson Coors to market a 5% alcohol version, Arnold Palmer Spiked Half and Half. Consumers and bars have long been making spiked Arnold Palmers, but until now the commercial version was non-alcoholic only.
• Cauliflower. This vegetable has been gaining popularity as a substitute for gluten (through cauliflower-based dough), carbs (cauliflower rice), and meat (cauliflower “steak”), thus appealing to a wide swath of consumers on low-calorie or specialty diets. Kraft Heinz’s O, That’s Good! line of foods, marketed in collaboration with Oprah Winfrey, introduced frozen cauliflower crust pizzas last August.
• Cookie dough. Safe-to-eat raw cookie dough has come on the scene in the past few years, both in cafés and on store shelves. Mondelez’s Oreo has jumped on this bandwagon, pairing with the Cookie Dough Café brand for Oreo Gourmet Edible Cookie Dough, sold through grocery chains such as Mariano’s.
• Fermented foods and beverages. In the Pacific Northwest, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks have both partnered with local companies for branded kombucha, the former with Brew Dr. and the latter with Humm. The Seahawks’ product has been on the market for three years.

It should be noted that innovation by latching onto consumer trends is easier to do in categories such as apparel and paper goods, which feature shorter lead times, less investment to launch a product, fewer regulatory hurdles, and less risk than foods and beverages. Licensors and licensees in the food industry not only need time to develop, test, and introduce a new product, but also want to wait to enter a trendy new category until they believe it is here to stay.

Watch for the next Raugust Communications e-newsletter, which will be distributed Tuesday, January 15, 2019. The Licensing Trend of the Month features a discussion of the benefits of multiple (e.g., more than two) partners in licensing deals and collaborations; the Datapoint research spotlight focuses on the eyewear category. If you are not a subscriber to this free publication, sign up here.