Jenni Spinner

July 15, 2016

3 Min Read
Food trucks drive inspiration for snack labeling
Chip packaging graphics connect with the popular food-truck dining trend.

Wise Snacks is steering into the multibillion-dollar food truck market with packaging design that taps into the mobile dining trend.

The first two flavors in the Food Truck Favorites line—Loaded Chili Cheese Dog, inspired by famed New York City purveyor Papaya King; and Beef Barbacoa Tacos, from Boston’s North East of the Border—are launching as the craze surges nationwide. Revenue for meals-on-wheels vendors will reach $2.7B by 2017, according to the National Restaurant Assn.

Wise Snacks (founded in 1921) has a loyal Baby Boomer following but also hopes this trend-forward line will connect with Millennial consumers. Company chief marketing officer Jeremy Bjork—himself a professed fan of food-truck dining—says the company sees significant opportunity in selling snacks that draw from the trend.

“With such a range of high-quality food and flavors, my R&D team, marketing team and I thought there could be huge potential bringing these flavors to life on our flagship Wise brand,” he says.

The company partnered with Source Communication (based in New York City and Boston) to seek out trucks that attracted the most enthusiastic customers and positive reviews.

“They let us know who were the ‘tried and true’ trucks, like Papaya King in NYC; and who were the ‘up and comers,’ like North East of the Border in Boston,” he said. “From there, we developed flavors to match menu items they had.”

Then, Wise Snacks engaged Perspective: Branding to come up with ways to bolster the concept in a way that truly captured the spirit of the food-truck experience.

“We always aim to create a design that is visible, visceral and memorable on the front of a package,” says Simon Thorneycroft, founder/CEO, Perspective: Branding. “For food trucks, we added impact with a simple, bold design; bright background colors; and powerful Wise logo. The sumptuous food photography reminds you of the ‘moment of truth’ when you can almost taste the delicious food truck meal, and the shiny silver foil packaging represents the metal of the truck’s serving window—an icon of the food truck movement.”

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Each flexo-printed foil film bag bears photo-realistic imagery of the food inspiring the chip flavor resting in a to-go tray with chips surrounding it, over a colorful background that helps distinguish the individual varieties. The 1.25- and 7.5-ounce food packaging pays tribute to the food trucks that inspired the flavors with a logo prominently positioned on the front and, on the back, photos of the owners and social media handles for the business. Design details like “rivets” accenting the information panels drive the concept home.

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Wise Snacks plans to rotate the Food Truck Favorite chip flavors every six months to keep things fresh. To stir up consumer engagement and excitement, the company is inviting the public to nominate their favorite local food trucks for future flavor inspiration.

The Food Truck Favorites chips currently are sold at retail outlets along the East Coast, and on the company’s website, www.wisesnacks.com.

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Former Packaging Digest senior editor Jenni Spinner is a trade journalist with two decades of experience in the field. While she has covered numerous industries (including construction, engineering, building security, food production and public works), packaging remains her favorite.

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