This past year, Americans finally got a chance to see whether any the 2015 references in “Back to the Future Part II” would come true. Although the Chicago Cubs attempted to make the World Series prediction a reality, they fell short. However, in business, prognostication is less about fantasizing about the future and more about anticipating how your products and services can benefit, or even shape, the future. In Beverage Industry’s New Product Development Outlook 2015 Study, respondents helped to shed light on what they think will be the latest product attribute trends, flavors and much more in 2016.
According to survey-takers, “organic” will be the latest trend in the new year. With only 10 percent of respondents listing it as a low need/interest, the remaining 90 percent indicated its prevalence. The trend led all other product attribute interests with 38 percent of survey-takers listing it as a latest trend. This is vast change from last year’s study where it came in at No. 8 and only 18 percent listed it as a latest trend.