home : hartbeat : wellness-2012-jamba-goes-to-school

01.26.2012

“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.

Archives »
Click here for an archive of past HartBeat articles

digg
del.icio.us

reddit
twitter

friendfeed

StumbleUpon

Wellness 2012: Jamba Goes to School

Health and wellness trends, driven by consumer demand, continue to reconfigure both food culture and the settings in which foods and beverages are consumed. CPG food and beverage, as well as retail and foodservice brands, continue to adapt themselves to this changing social and business climate. Consider Whole Foods Wellness Centers, Walgreen’s Well, Subway Fresh and PepsiCo's focus on balancing indulgence and health within its brands or Nestlé's commitment to health and wellness at an R&D level, and we think you probably get the picture.

While the vectors that intersect between social concerns over obesity, weight management and children remain a politically-charged topic, we couldn't help but notice the interesting announcement by Jamba Juice in December 2011 that they would look to grow the chain "into a global brand—starting with elementary and secondary schools." As described in Nation’s Restaurant News:

“Jamba Inc. chief executive James White said he is ready to grow the Jamba Juice smoothie chain into a global brand — starting with local elementary and secondary schools. By next week, the 752-unit chain will have opened about 30 pilot locations of a new platform called JambaGo, designed as a licensed outlet that could go into self-service venues. … the focus will be the move into elementary and secondary schools, where foodservice providers are looking for more healthful options as a growing number of states prohibit the sale of junk food on K-12 campuses. “We’re leveraging technology and a system that makes us more accessible in venues we don’t have access to,” White said. “We think it’s a really incredible growth opportunity.” Taking roughly the space of a soda fountain beverage dispenser, the JambaGo format, which White calls a wellness center, includes the chain’s branded packaged products, as well as the option of several pre-blended smoothies that White said would rival the blended-to-order quality of those made in traditional locations.” Nation’s Restaurant News, 12/11/11

The move by Jamba is interesting from several perspectives, not the least of which includes the recent purchase by Starbucks of Evolution Fresh, clearly a move designed to explore what is believed to be continued public interest in take-away health and wellness beverages—a space primarily dominated by Jamba, dabbled in by the likes of McDonald's (e.g., "smoothies"), and then a host of smaller brands. As a self-proclaimed, albeit small, "wellness center" for schools, the move by Jamba is of particular interest because it seeks to tinker with an area of public life which, while increasingly under scrutiny in the form of soda and sweet and salted snacks jettisoned from K-12 campuses, professes to give kids the "healthier option" in school settings—something parents have told us, via surveys and interviews, they'd actually look forward to. Notably, whether reporting as parents with or without children who have weight issues, a wide range of meal occasions influences why children might weigh more, including what children eat in the home and away from home. Of great interest, among parents reporting no issues with children and obesity, 71% eat meals together as a family and 35% encourage children to find healthful recipes (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Parents reporting no weight problems with their children report better practices in regard to their children's health. Parents reporting no weight problems with their children are more likely to eat meals as a family, keep healthy snacks available and say they encourage their children to exercise or participate in sports, while parents reporting weight problems with their children are most likely to talk with their children about weight issues.

Consider for a moment, findings from our recent “How America Eats” weight management study, which show that when it comes to concern about childhood obesity, consumers point primarily to the larger cultural factors that constrain parents’ ability to prevent weight gain in their children. In this context, many consumers believe that “hectic” American lifestyles lead to poor eating habits in order to meet family priorities around time management rather than weight management. Findings from our study show that families today have schedules which lead to:

Children snacking unsupervised in the home
Quick and easy, but less healthy, processed meal solutions

Consumers also fault the relationship that parents have with their children in today’s society where parents are seen as less authoritarian and more democratic. As a result, children decide what they will eat and how to use their time:

“Snacks and sodas used to be a privilege, today they’re a right.” “Kids spend way too much time on the Internet and playing video games.”
For all age groups, parents are the final arbiters, but children are a large influence in the decision-making process. Parents who are intuitively healthy eaters exert the most control over what, how much and when their children eat, and are most likely to complain about other parents who don’t. The move by Jamba Juice has many interesting components to it, not the least of which is the attempt to assist children with healthy choices outside of the home.

Comment »