BIKA has been well known for its large range of tapioca-based snacks sold in Malaysian school canteens as well as various retail outlets for over four decades, particularly its Chicken and Vegetable variants of classic chips.
While its branding continues to inspire recognition amongst local consumers and schoolchildren today, the firm has found that many more nuances need to be fulfilled in order meet today’s snacking demands – even amongst schoolchildren.
“It has become clear that whether it is children spending money to buy snacks at canteens, or adults buying snacks from supermarkets today, the trend in snacking has shifted to become less price-sensitive but with a high demand for new things, things that no one has ever thought of before,” BIKA spokeswoman Eryn Wong told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“Even the schoolchildren are no longer going to be satisfied with just a regular pack of chips – they want a unique experience to go with it, and we have innovated in this regard with products like the Mix-and-Shake with incorporates a sachet of seasoning into the packs so they can have two flavours of chips for one price – e.g. chilli chips with a cheese seasoning so they end up with a chilli cheese flavour.
“It’s all about things being experiential and interactive, as this is what they are really looking to trying and sharing with one another.
“There is also a novel trend of snacks moving towards a more premium flavour direction by seeking inspiration from cuisines, meaning that conventional flavours like just chicken or cheese are no longer enough, but the kids will seek out things like grilled chicken or buffalo wings instead as they find these more exclusive.”
BIKA has a strong positioning in many markets across Asia and the Middle East, and this breadth of exposure has taught the company that there are vast differences between the preferences of snacking consumers in these markets.
“Based on the flavours that do well, we know that every market requires its own special marketing insights in order to meet local consumer demands – for instance, a well-known segment would be in Indonesia and Thailand which prefer spicier flavours, and the tolerance for spice is much higher than that in Malaysia or Singapore which we also need to reflect in our formulations,” she added.
“Then there is the Middle East where we have found flavours that are based on seafood or relating to seafood tend to be very unpopular, but instead things like cheese, dairy and generally richer flavours are what do well.
“Singapore is another different segment, where our main target is still schoolchildren and as a snacking brand we want to also be mindful of the Health Promotion Board Healthier Choice scheme when it comes to this segment, hence we have also adjusted our formula to contain less salt and sugar for some of our key products here like the chicken chips, vegetable chips, potato sticks and more.”
Convenience increasingly appealing
In addition, BIKA has also noticed a rising demand for convenient options even in the snacking category which is generally already based on convenience.
“Convenience is a common theme in snacking, but we have found that there was a white space in terms of one aspect which was maintaining clean hands after eating these, without using additional cutlery,” she said.
“So we came up with a corn sticks snack that can be eaten directly from the pack without the kids needing to dirty their hands, which can add to that convenience factor for both them and the parents, and is also both savoury and sweet which they really like.”
