Frozen food brand Blender Bites is leaning heavily into immunity boosting for its latest product launch.
The brand makes premium, organic and plant-based pre-portioned frozen functional foods, like fruit to be made into smoothies. Now, it is introducing an immune supporting smoothie innovation, Daily Defen-C. There’s a lineup of frozen drinks launching shortly, which the company says is disruptive to the category and part of its efforts to revamp the brand to be a leader in frozen functional food.
Chelsie Hodge, Blender Bites’ CEO and founder, tells strategy that with immune health top of mind right now, it’s heavily leaning into product functionality. The Daily Defen-C smoothie is high in vitamin A, which naturally supports immune system function, and is high in vitamins C and E, and has a blend of 15 organic vitamins and minerals, as well as on-trend ingredients like ginger, turmeric and probiotics.
“We wanted to have a higher [probiotics] dose than the leading probiotic yogurt,” she says, saying the highest concentration yogurt has one billion colony forming units (CFU) and that it offers twice as much.
Eventually, the entirety of Blender Bite’s product line will match the Daily Defen-C SKU look and feel.
According to Hodge, it wanted messaging on pack that’s really clear so that consumers can understand what the product is. “One step smoothie” is the brand’s new way to convey just how easy the product is to use.
It is also opting for more modern font and brighter colours, because the previous packaging had a dated look. “I want young parents and moms to gravitate to the bag,” Hodge says.
The Daily Defen-C product is coming to Costco, and Hodge is hoping to get broader distribution to Loblaw, Sobeys, Safeway, Save on Foods and Whole Foods Market.
Like all of Blender Bites’ one-step smoothie innovations, the company’s latest SKU is certified organic, vegan, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, soy free and contains no added sugar.
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“I believe this flavour is going to be a huge hit with families looking to keep their children healthy through the next school year and the older population who are continuing to put their health as a top priority,” Hodge says.
Hodge has opted to eschew traditional shopper marketing due to cost considerations, instead focusing on online channels. “Like most food brands out there, we are very conscious of our budget,” she says.
Instead, it’s focusing on working with influencers and getting the message out via moms with at least 70,000 followers.
Blender Bites was founded in 2016 and was first to market in Western Canada with a pre-portioned “easy smoothie” puck-shaped products free of inner plastic packaging. Blender Bites products are certified organic, vegan, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free and soy free and the company competes against Evive, a Quebec brand with a stronger presence in the eastern part of the country.
Langley, BC’s White Canvas Design is working on the social media/influencer marketing.
