In this guest column, Mondelez World Travel Retail (WTR) Managing Director Jaya Singh reflects on a challenging but illuminating year, and the lessons that travel retail can leverage from the pandemic as we focus on driving the recovery.
As the end of the year approaches, it’s natural to take stock, reflect, and then turn our attention towards our plans for the future. Looking in the travel retail ‘mirror’, the reflection is stark; 2020 has been anything but a traditional year.
Yes, the image is vastly altered, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. While it’s unfortunate that I can’t refer to ‘confectionery category growth’ or even ‘channel growth’ in my observations, immense growth has taken place nonetheless.
Across the channel, we have adapted, overcome and worked together in ways that we might have never believed possible. We have learned new skills, adjusted to the challenges of remote working, collaborated on solutions across sectors, developed alternative strategies and created or discovered new ways of connecting to one another and to travelling consumers.
Yes, we have suffered great losses, but it would be remiss not to acknowledge the remarkable value gained, and how we can harness our learnings in driving the recovery.
So, how do we ‘play’ the recovery? Quite simply, the way that the Covid-19 pandemic ‘played’ us.
PLAY FAST
The pandemic’s effects on the travel industry were swift enough to induce whiplash. Almost overnight, airports emptied. Stores and restaurants shut their doors. Shelf life and aging stock became today’s problems, rather than tomorrow’s. At Mondelez WTR, equally swift action on our side – with great cooperation from our retail partners – helped us to solve such issues with agility and speed. In this current landscape, it’s become clear that things can change overnight, including the needs of both our customers and our traveling consumers.
The quickest route to adapting? Not necessarily overnight reinvention, but certainly almost-immediate realignment. For us, this means focusing on a core portfolio of best-selling products that helps to leverage supply chain efficiencies and improve product rotation.
Power brands like Toblerone, Milka and Cadbury have hundreds of years of consumer trust, and with confectionery being a powerful impulse and universal category, best-sellers from these brands are also well-positioned to drive travellers back into duty free stores.
PLAY HARD
Saying that travel retail was ‘hit hard’ by the Covid-19 pandemic might be an understatement, and I don’t see the need to recap the damage – only the need to hit back hard. ‘Playing hard’ for Mondelez WTR means doubling down where it matters and giving consumers more of what they want by leveraging gifting occasions and key ‘Sense of place’ locations.
Our assessment is that gifting will remain the primary motivation for confectionery shopping, especially when people can travel and visit their loved ones again. Uncertainty and instability do not encourage experimentation, however; the product portfolio should be focused around proven best-selling gifting products.
‘Playing hard’ also means approaching in-store innovation head-on in an environment now characterised by social distancing and limited physical interaction. We have already pioneered a number of digital technologies in confectionery in travel retail, and we’re ready to use our digital expertise to re-engage travellers once more.
PLAY FUTURE
It is not enough to focus on the recovery; we need to think beyond it. If we don’t play for the future of our industry, then it’s long-term health and viability may be threatened.
Playing for the future means considering the evolving needs of our consumers as well as the future of our planet.
Sustainability will become even more critical in the period ahead, with TFWA’s recent survey establishing that sustainability credentials influence the purchase decisions of the majority (71%) of travellers.
At Mondelez we’re deeply committed to sustainability; 99% of our travel retail chocolate product portfolio uses sustainably sourced cocoa through our Cocoa Life programme, and the majority (93.3%) of our packaging is already designed to be recyclable.
Through strategic communication – including an upcoming packaging redesign – we will make sure that these benefits are clearer to travellers to further enhance their value perception, and we’ll continue to explore partnerships and fresh opportunities to assist consumers in making more sustainable choices.
#STRONGERTOGETHER
As a final thought, on a more personal note, you may have recently learned of my appointment to TFWA President; a humbling development in an already-humbling year. As the very fortunate leader of a fantastic team at Mondelez, the old adage “a leader is only as good as their team” has consistently resonated with me. Above all, I firmly believe that this year has taught us how much more we are capable of when we face our challenges together – that we are so clearly #StrongerTogether.
As President, you have my commitment that collaboration and partnership across our industry will remain the highest priority in our drive towards recovery. Here’s wishing you a peaceful and happy festive season. I’m ready to take on the challenges alongside you in the new year, whatever comes our way.
