Sunny D Beverages is launching a sort of oral equivalent of “scratch and sniff” that puts the flavor of SunnyD Smoothies on Peel ‘n Taste flavor samplers in a thousand Food Lion stores.
According to a report in Marketing Daily, Beverages Holdings LLC used First Flavor, which invented and holds the patent (pending) on Peel ‘n Taste, to create the flavor strips.
The company is touting SunnyD Smoothies as a way to give people a dose of calcium and vitamin D. The line extension launched in April with Orange Whirl and Strawberry Swirl flavors.
The edible film strips are currently available in shelf-edge dispensers in Food Lion supermarkets, which has locations across 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
Jay Minkoff, president and CEO of First Flavor, told Marketing Daily that while sampling programs ó or “try-vertising” ó are critical for brands faced with saturated markets and a proliferation of flavors, mass sampling and sampling by mail isn’t practical for some products.
“They might be frozen or they are beverages. You can’t put beverages in direct mail or print, and you can’t sample in-store something frozen,” he told Marketing Daily. He said about 80 percent of the products using Peel ‘n Taste have been beverages, many alcoholic.
Minkoff said the Sunny D version is “this is the first time we are launching at grocery.”