Perfetti van Melle (PVM) will unveil new Mentos and Chupa Chups products at next month’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes (Mediterranean Village P17).
The 276g Mentos Connecting Tin of fruit-flavoured dragees is exclusive to travel retail.
“Mentos is all about connecting, and saying ‘Hello’ is a common social gesture that is known worldwide; so there is no better place to buy them than in travel retail,” said Perfetti van Melle Travel Retail Brand Manager Femke van Veen.
The Mentos Connecting Tin packaging and dragees are decorated with multilingual greetings and landmarks. PVM said this offers a “fun, educational tool for younger consumers interested in learning foreign languages”.
Its launch is supported by a holobox which will be used in promotional activities at airports. The holobox will feature at Cannes along with a Mentos-themed selfie wall, with a map of the world and detachable speech bubbles. Visitors will be encouraged to take away a polaroid photograph or leave one behind on the ‘wall of fame’.
“Research conducted by Counter Intelligence Retail reveals that the key strength of the Mentos Connecting Tin is the distinctive and eye-catching packaging,” van Veen continued. “Millennials are significantly more likely than older travellers to agree that the product is ideal for sharing with friends and family, and one of the key features they were attracted to is the use of multiple languages on the packaging.”
The new Chupa Chups ‘Do You Love Me?’ concept uses popular emoticons on Chupa Chups packaging and wrapping and aims to increase brand awareness amongst teens.
“Nowadays, teens are using more and more emoticons and short text in their daily communication. The ‘Do You Love me?’ concept is our way of increasing the Millennials’ interest and enthusiasm in the brand by supplying them a product in line with their daily habit and way of communicating,” van Veen added.
The ‘Do You Love Me?’ range includes a resealable bag of 25 fruit-flavour Chupa Chups lollipops which feature printed emoticons. The packaging was designed for airport, ferry and cruise ship shops, while a ‘Do You Love Me?’ presentation of 50 lollipops was designed for border stores.
An elephant soft toy has been added to the Chupa Chups Cool Friends Back Pack range, which includes Monkey, Frog and Dinosaur. The pack contains 16 Chupa Chups lollipops.
PVM said the new lines continue its ‘Sweet Smiles’ strategy which includes new product launches as one of three pillars designed to build sugar confectionery sales in travel retail.
According to PVM, the confectionery category generally divides into 55% chocolate and 45% sugar, compared with 87% chocolate and 13% sugar in travel retail.
The company believes those figures could change through a focus on ‘must-have’ lines and new product introductions being key to driving sales. Research conducted by m1nd-set shows that globally:
- 60% of sugar confectionery purchases are because of the exclusivity of the product.
- 47% of confectionery purchases are bought as a snack.
- Young adults mostly buy confectionery for themselves to snack on, while seniors buy more confectionery for gifting purposes.
van Veen commented: “Besides having the right core assortment, it remains our ambition to continuously excite retailers and travellers with surprising and eye-catching products which are perfect as a gift for somebody else or as a gift to share.”
“A sugar confectionery purchase is driven by a high impulse decision-making process, resulting in direct incremental basket spend”
During the TFWA World Exhibition PVM will also discuss two further pillars to confectionery growth: a ‘must have’ in-store assortment, which highlights the top ten sugar and gum confectionery products that retailers should stock to drive sales; and the importance of cash till point sales with a ‘must have’ cash till point assortment, which highlights the top six items that fit best at the cash register.
“As we see in other industry categories, the sales opportunity at the cash register is an important point of interest,” van Veen said.
“A sugar confectionery purchase is driven by a high impulse decision-making process, resulting in direct incremental basket spend. Research has shown that 48% of travellers would like to find products like sweets, candies and mints at the cash till point. Additionally, 55% of travellers cite gum as being the perfect product to buy at the cash till point. PVM is able to fully support retailers in having the right assortment at the right location to meet the travellers’ needs in both these areas.
“We have seen a strong performance this year, with Europe currently being the fastest growing region for us. We have seen promising results in Asia, where there is still a considerable amount of potential for further growth. The Middle East is also doing very well for us at the moment; our brands are well known in the region and the sugar products we have are favourable within their confectionery selection. We are also back on track in the Americas following a slight slowdown in the region last year,” van Veen concluded.
