“A smiling traveller is a spending traveller” – that’s the key message behind Mars International Travel Retail’s (MITR) new category vision and strategy for confectionery, which was unveiled at the Baoli nightclub in Cannes last month.
As revealed on our Moodie Live feed, MITR believes that confectionery is best placed as a category to create those traveller smiles, and by overcoming “the four barriers to smiling” the category can be doubled by 2020.
More than 150 travel industry executives gathered at the unveiling, which began with a welcome introduction by MITR Sales Directors Christophe Bouyé and Simon Knapp. Travel Retail Business Editor Doug Newhouse provided an overview of the confectionery business in travel retail; this was followed by key presentations from Marketing Director Lieke Duijmelings and General Manager Craig Sargeant.
“We need the full support of the Trinity to unlock the potential [of] this fantastic category,” said Duijmelings. “Everybody loves confectionery: it brings smiles, it is great for cross-penetration sales and it is the most effective footfall driver.”
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The Mars ITR team at the unveiling of the company’s new category vision in Cannes (L-R): General Manager Craig Sargeant, Sales Director Christophe Bouyé, M&M Red, Marketing Director Lieke Duijmelings, and Sales Director Simon Knapp |
At the heart of the new strategy is extensive research on more than 5,000 travellers of all nationalities over a four-month period. Undertaken by m1nd-set at nine key airports globally, the study has revealed several new – and somewhat surprising – insights, according to MITR.
“We have found that, despite what is generally thought, only 20% of travellers who purchase confectionery actually buy it for someone else. Indeed, most people buy for themselves (45%) or for sharing purposes (35%), even though they may buy formats which are targeted as gifts,” Duijmelings noted.
MITR has identified five main shopper needs within airports: Home Sweet Home, Travel Treats, Celebrating Parenthood, Showing Thought and Trip Memories.
“We believe that by closely targeting these needs with the right portfolio and high impact activations and promotions we can create the smiles that are needed in order to not only grow the confectionery category but all categories,” Duijmelings explained. And, she added, given the ever changing traveller profile, with more middle income travellers, more frequent flyers, more leisure travellers and more low-cost carriers, the confectionery category will become even more important in leveraging sales within the airport retail environment.
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Smiles were aplenty at the Baoli nightclub which was transformed into an M&M’s Wonderland |
MITR said it believes that the confectionery category’s full potential can be unlocked by harnessing the correct areas for growth. “And we have the brands to do it,” Sargeant pointed out. “We have the brands to win the traveller’s smile: M&M’s, the global no.1; Snickers, the global no.2; Galaxy (aka Dove), the global no.4; along with Maltesers, Skittles and Extra, the global no.1 gum brand.”
Sargeant continued: “We know that by attracting the passenger with compelling activations and promotions we can convert browsers to shoppers and build the basket size – and we have some brilliant case studies to prove the point including our highly successful Watch M campaign, Beach Ball campaign, M&M’s Stores, Colourhagen and many more.”
Putting all this together, MITR has come up with a plan of action which it believes will benefit all stakeholders of the Trinity, and it has produced a “˜Category Vision One Pager’ for discussion with airports and retailers. For more information, contact Lieke Duijmelings, Marketing Director, MITR; tel: +31(0)413 383303 or e-mail: lieke.duijmelings@effem.com.
