The Snack Food Association has come a long way from potato chips, and the group’s new branding strategy hopes to underline that point.

This week, the association revealed that it would begin transitioning to the new SNAC International branding, because it better encapsulates both its members’ diversifying product lines and the association’s growing international reach.

“The snack food industry is changing and our association is leading the way,” the group’s president and CEO, Tom Dempsey, said in a statement. “This update reflects the ever-broadening snack category in the marketplace, which includes both classic snack products such as potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn along with ‘better for you’ options like bars, nuts, and dried fruit snacks.”

We wanted to be very careful to not forget our heritage, but we needed to make sure we know where we’re going.

According to Food Dive, it’s the first change the association has made to its branding in three decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vCnaM_SfA4

Since the group launched in 1937 as the Potato Chip Institute, the industry has seen numerous expansions as consumers’ tastes in snacks have expanded beyond the traditional convenience-store fare. While the group has long been an international organization, the latest change plays up the international element to highlight member expansion into the global sphere.

Outgoing SNAC International chairman Dan Morgan noted that the new branding approach is meant to strike a balance between new and old.

“We wanted to be very careful to not forget our heritage, but we needed to make sure we know where we’re going,” Morgan told Food Business News. “Our goal was to broaden our tent and be more inclusive and broaden our involvement in these emerging categories, both nationally and globally.”

The rebranding effort comes roughly a year after the association announced it was looking at ways to expand its member base to take into account the array of snacks on the shelves—many of them healthier than the word “snack” implies.

The new branding, approved by the group’s board of directors at the association’s annual SNAXPO meeting, will take effect immediately.

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