Confectionery giant’s expert chews over category insights
CONSUMERS can be creatures of habit when it comes to their shops in convenience.
Plenty of customers will come in with a plan in mind and a list in hand, wanting to check this off quickly across the store and keep their visit as efficient as possible.
However, those moments when a product catches their eye and it’s just impossible to not add it to their basket become absolutely key to a retailer’s arsenal.
These impulse buys will sometimes just be a spur of the moment decision, but they can also create a whole new shopping mission for consumers, adding a regular item to the shopping list and bring them back to the store.
It’s this opportunity that Ross Ripamonti, gum brand director at Mars Wrigley, reckons will be key to driving sales for the overall gum category in retail, and convenience stores will play a key part in this plan.
He said: “What we want to do is provide more reasons for people to chew gum.
“We’ve mostly had a focus on the importance of freshening, so chew gum to get fresh breath essentially, but there are so many other benefits to gum that could create more regular shopping missions here for consumers.
“And we’ve heard from customers about how this is already changing and how people are moving away from just wanting to freshen their breath, with a lot of shoppers telling us they often purchase to help them concentrate at work or with studying, or even because it can just be fun to chew and blow bubbles with it as well.”
This shift in perspective with the gum category is, ultimately, what will support Mars Wrigley in its ambition to grow the category further.
The firm has set a goal to “get half the nation chewing” and to increase household penetration for the category from 30% to 50%, with its brands, including EXTRA and Hubba Bubba, playing a large role in this.
This saw Mars Wrigley launch a new campaign for EXTRA gum in January of this year, which Ripamonti said marked a noticeable shift in terms of marketing for the brand.
He said: “We wanted to play so much more into that broader appeal of chewing gum, with the different types of benefits that comes with it.
“The campaign, ‘chew good’, is about how gum can play a role in those little ‘me moments’ for consumers.
“We’ve seen very encouraging results from this and there is still a lot more to come, with this initiative kicking off the beginning of a journey for our brands.”
Heading up this journey is the fruit gum subcategory, where the shopper demographic changes and builds up the chance to drive extra sales.
Ripamonti said: “The shopper tends to be a little bit younger and, sometimes, a bit less affluent, and it’s these reasons that make fruit gum so attractive here.
“It’s affordable, it’s portable and it lasts longer than other sweet products, meaning shoppers get more value for their money, too.”
This is where the convenience channel can shine as well, says Ripamonti, and build on those spur-of-the-moment purchases with gum.
He said: “Gum is a massively impulsive category, so the critical job for retailers is to provide the right range that can disrupt in store.
“If their preferred flavour isn’t there, a purchase may not happen. In fact, about 46% of people will not actually buy any gum product based on this. There needs to be the right breadth of range for shoppers to ensure that retailers can maximise sales.
“So, for example, EXTRA has its mint products and has its fruit flavours like Strawberry or Blueberry, but it also has the EXTRA Refreshers range, which is a mix of mint and fruit.
“There is also Hubba Bubba, which is a much more fun focused brand here, too, all of which can meet those shopping missions, that is whether they want to refresh or they want that extra hit of flavour.”
