KIND Protein From Real Food bars

Company: KIND Snacks

Introduced: January 2018

Distribution: National

Suggested Retail Price: $1.99 per bar

Product Snapshot: In a move consistent with its 14-year history of disrupting and elevating categories, KIND Healthy Snacks (KIND) has entered the protein bar category with the release of KIND Protein From Real Food bars. The product line, which delivers 12 grams of protein and is made from real food, is set to reinvent a category full of sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners and/or protein isolates that have often lead to an unsatisfying taste and overall experience.

Like all KIND snacks, KIND Protein bars were created in a way that is consistent with the KIND Promise – the first and predominant ingredient in its snacks will always be a nutrient-dense food. KIND Protein delivers on this promise in a category that has traditionally offered snacks packed with artificial sweeteners which tends to lead to products with an unsatisfying taste. Among the five largest protein bars, none have a nutritionally-dense first ingredient, and two of those five do not even have a nutrient-rich ingredient within their entire nutritional makeup.

“At KIND, we’re always striving to challenge conventional wisdom and eliminate false compromises. We tried to think differently about what we would want in a protein bar,” says KIND’s founder & CEO, Daniel Lubetzky. “We discovered what was missing was a protein bar that tasted delicious, and delivered protein from premium, whole ingredients that we can recognize and feel good about putting in our body.”

The protein bar category has traditionally under-indexed on delivering tasty options. Over the past year, there were 64 million Google search results related to protein and taste. Within this, “best tasting protein bars” is the #8 rising search query in the entire protein category, up 70% in 2017.

“As a brand committed to empowering people to make healthy eating decisions, we saw this as an opportunity to elevate the current market through a protein bar that meets our high nutritional standards,” says Stephanie Perruzza, registered dietitian and Health & Wellness specialist at KIND. “Emphasizing a snack that delivers on taste, but also one that provides protein predominantly from nuts allows us to differentiate ourselves from the current offerings.”

In an effort to demonstrate that real food tastes better, KIND today launches an online taste-comparison – with a twist. The first 10,000 participants that opt-in on www.kindsnacks.com/protein will not only receive a first taste of KIND Protein bars, they will also have the chance to compare KIND Protein to one of the largest protein bars on the market. “We’re so certain that KIND Protein wins on taste that we’re inviting people who are fans of competitor products to not only receive a bar of their choice, but also a free sample of ours,” says Drew Nannis, vice president of integrated communications at KIND. “We know a bar with a majority of the protein coming from nuts tastes great; we’re willing to do just about anything to share that with as many people as possible.”

KIND Protein delivers 12 grams of protein and does not contain any genetically engineered ingredients. KIND Protein is available at www.kindsnacks.com and retailers nationwide, with a suggested retail price of $1.99 per bar.