In Battle Of The Brands
Australia’s last post we looked at the sweet biscuit consumer; which
demographics enjoy chomping on a sweet biscuit.
Which it turns out is children and the elderly, but not so much those of
us in between those two extremes.
In this post, we will
do the same for “savoury biscuits”, a wide reaching category which covers
everything from Arnott’s Shapes to water crackers to rice crackers and rice
cakes.
Our first savoury biscuit consumption
graph – on what proportion of each age group eats a savoury biscuit on any
average day, and based on the ABS Australian Health Survey - throws up a few interesting factoids.
Savoury biscuits, like sweet biscuits, are particularly favoured
by the young and the old, with those in the middle not particularly fussed
about them.
Quite which savoury biscuits each age group consumer probably
differs wildly… not wanting to get too stereotypical here, but one can assume
that the 2-3 year olds are nibbling on a rice cracker, the elderly a Jatz with
a slice of cheese on top, which the teenagers stuff their faces with Arnott’s
Shapes.
And when I say “stuff their faces”, I mean it; look at that
graph!
Whilst the average savoury biscuit consuming Australian eats
just less than 20g of savoury biscuits each day (or about nine Arnott’s
Shapes), the average Australian teenager consumes about 42g! Or about 18 Arnott’s Shapes!
For teenage males
the figure is even higher: the average savoury biscuit consuming teenage
Australian male consumes 56g of savoury biscuits (most of which are probably
Arnott’s Shapes) a day!
That’s 24 Arnott’s Shapes!
This of course may have changed given the recent hoo-ha about the "new and improved" (ie "made worse") Arnott's Shapes recipe, but it's too early to say.
This of course may have changed given the recent hoo-ha about the "new and improved" (ie "made worse") Arnott's Shapes recipe, but it's too early to say.
Now let’s have a look at the male/female split.
Regardless of the teenage male obsession with Arnott’s
Shapes, the savoury biscuit market is primarily a woman’s world, with the ABS
Australian Health Survey telling us that the number of female savoury biscuit
consumers significantly outnumber their male counterparts.
This is particularly
the case for rice crackers and rice cakes, and anything promoted as being low
in calories.
When looking at the
volume of savoury biscuits being consumed, the Arnott’s Shapes guzzling male
teenage demographic swings that proportion to… exactly 50/50!
Now if we put both the
age group and the gender split together we can see again the extent to which
the savoury biscuit market is dominated by the female demographic, particularly
amongst the older age groups.
The world of savoury
biscuits (and sweet biscuits for that matter) is a diverse one. A broad church. To figure out which brands
are winning the Battle Of The Biscuit, we are going to have to look a little
closer at all the different sub-categories.
Chocolate biscuits, “flavoured snacks”, rice crackers, crackers &
crispbreads… and that is what we are going to look at next.