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Opportunities Galore for breakfast beverages
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Thursday, 01 March, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ranjana Sundaresan
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Ready-to-drink breakfast beverages are likely to appeal to consumers who are on the move and may be pressed for time to prepare breakfast.
Highlighting the time-saving aspect of these drinks is as important as their nutritional benefits.
Given that young women are the top consumers of dairy drinks and are most likely to want to eat healthy compared to young men, there is scope to position breakfast drinks as nutritious and convenient options for women.
India’s retail milk market is projected to be the fastest growing globally, with a volume CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 13.9% during 2016 to 2020, according to Mintel Market Sizes. Dairy also plays a very important role in the Indian diet and is strongly associated with health in the minds of consumers.
According to Mintel research, more than three in five Indian consumers think that ready-to-drink (RTD) dairy drinks are healthy, while almost half think that these drinks provide them with energy and are hygienic. In 2017, PepsiCo marked its entry into India’s dairy space with the launch of its range of grain dairy beverages under the Quaker brand, aimed at the breakfast space. The Quaker Oats + Milk range claims to provide 10% of the recommended daily fibre requirement and 15% of the daily calcium requirement. PepsiCo is not the only company to have turned to dairy to reduce its dependence on the carbonated soft drinks category. In 2016, Coca-Cola India launched a range of flavoured dairy drinks under the brand Vio, with dairy drinks offering particular opportunities due to their traditional role in drinking habits.
Breakfast drinks featuring oats and dairy
In 2017, 6% of flavoured milk and meal replacement beverages were positioned as breakfast drinks through the inclusion of oats or oats derivatives as ingredients, according to Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD).
Indian health startup Zago Life introduced a range of breakfast shakes in early 2017 that contain oats and oats fibre, while Goodness! Beverages, a local on-demand RTD beverage startup, launched a range of breakfast smoothies to market. Both Bangalore-based brands have seen some success among health-conscious consumers on the strength of word-of-mouth publicity.
Oats-based dairy drink launches in India
Zago Breakfast Almond Flavour Breakfast Shake with Oats is free from gluten and preservatives and is made with the goodness of oats from Australia. It contains proteins and vitamins and claims to enliven. The drink is said to provide the nutrients that the body needs to kickstart the day or anytime it needs a reboot. This vegetarian dairy-based beverage contains added nature-identical flavourings.
Oh My Goodness! Vanilla Flavoured Oats Smoothie is said to be an anytime homogenised heat-treated milk breakfast beverage that is perfect for on the go. This dairy-based drink is packed with the goodness of oats, is rich in fibre, and provides protein. The vegetarian product does not contain artificial flavours, colours, gluten, or preservatives.
Quaker Oats+ Milk Almond Flavoured Dairy Drink is said to be India's one-of-a-kind grain-dairy beverage with the goodness of milk and fibre. This drink is described as a smooth and tasty beverage that blends the goodness of grain and dairy to charge up the breakfast. This vegetarian product is a source of calcium, contains real milk and fibre advantage that helps digestion.
These products are positioned as convenient and nutritious breakfast options, and specifically focus on the use of oats in their formulation. Oats as a breakfast option has done phenomenally well in India, outpacing cold cereals in terms of growth. Mintel Market Sizes reveals that the hot cereals segment accounted for 58% of total breakfast cereals by volume in 2016, up from 55% in 2015; in 2012, hot cereals accounted only for 12% of the category. The launch of savoury flavours, in line with the Indian preference for hot, savoury breakfasts, saw the category really take off.
The popularity of savoury oats in India is undeniable, but these products are not ready-to-eat and require the addition of water and cooking. This is where the oats-based dairy drinks have a clear advantage, despite not being standard breakfast fare in the country. They are ready-to-drink, targeted specifically at on-the-move consumers with hectic schedules and little time for a sit-down meal. This is in line with the Mintel 2017 Global Food and Drink Trend ‘Time is of the Essence,’ which highlights how time investments needed to prepare or consume products is becoming as influential as nutrition or ingredient claims.
Breakfast beverages for health-conscious women
Breakfast drinks are especially likely to appeal to consumers who have dairy drinks for breakfast because they are convenient. Mintel research found that two in five Indian adults aged 18-64 had consumed packaged RTD dairy drinks in the three months to June 2016. Of those adults who had consumed RTD dairy drinks during that period, 28% had done so for breakfast. Interestingly, women were slightly more likely than men to choose dairy drinks for breakfast, with the most significant difference being observed in the 18-24 age group.
This may be linked to the fact that women in the 18-24 age group were more likely than men to say that they eat healthy so that they do not have to exercise (33% vs 25%), as Mintel research has found. This indicates that there is scope for breakfast beverage products to increase their targeting of young health-conscious women by positioning breakfast drinks as nutritious and convenient options for them. Indian women have been gaining significant respect as athletes over the last few years and are increasingly being showcased in sports advertisements, such as 2016’s viral Nike advertisement that featured 10 Indian female athletes.
(The author is food & drink analyst, India, Mintel)
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