Healthy Snacks? Not for me!

There are regular statistics about how the Indian market or the consumer in general is becoming more and more health conscious. And hence the advent of all the healthy snacks and awareness about the calorie count in your aerated beverage. But is it really a good idea? What is the consumer really looking for when he goes to purchase a mid-meal snack or a beverage? Isn’t it about craving something, something different from your everyday food, something to munch on while watching the movies, something chatpata? So it’s basically taste that we want in our snacks. If someone could make them healthier, nothing like it! Who wouldn’t want to NOT feel guilty every time you open a pack of yummy chips? But the problem is that none of the healthy variants taste the same! Everytime I would visit a store and I had a choice between a Lay’s or a Bingo and Smart Chips or Hippo, I’ll pick the former because frankly, if I was that health conscious I wouldn’t be out hunting for indulgences in the first place. I would be munching on some carrots or something. I’m not saying that there is no market for healthy chips at all. The newspapers and magazines prove how ‘potentially huge’ the market is. But my point is that nobody is going to want to give up on taste for a healthier version of chips that taste crap. And for that matter, I don’t want to know how many calories I’m consuming each time I have cola drink. I KNOW it’s not good for my health. It’s not enabling the consumer to make an informed decision. Who are they fooling? It just turns me off the drink.

Let’s give the consumer some credit; we know what we’re doing!