Mars Wrigley International Travel Retail (MWITR) will share the next chapter of its ‘moment-led’ strategy in travel retail during the upcoming TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, 1-5 October (Bay Village 41).
According to MWITR, the company is focused on “bringing moments to execution on the shop floor, exciting and engaging travellers with the right offer at every relevant touchpoint”.
As reported, MWITR introduced a category vision and strategy last year, with ‘moments’ as the key to unlocking further category growth.
The latest update features new product innovations and opportunities to “unlock the full potential of the transaction zone to accelerate category growth”. MWITR will also share further details on the introduction of its 100% Responsibly Sourced Cocoa logo within global travel retail.
MWITR Sales Director Marcus Hudson said: “Last year we made the shift to a ‘moment-led’ strategy putting customer and shopper needs at the heart of our thinking. The relevance of making this move is underlined when we look at how shopper behaviour changed over the last years.
“We know confectionery has the highest conversion rate of any category in our channel when travellers visit the category. However, just one out of five travellers are visiting the confectionery category in duty free.
“We need to confront and inspire travellers in the right way, create more excitement to bring travellers into the category and inspire better moments to convert shoppers into buyers. I am looking forward to engaging with our customers in Cannes on how our brands can make that happen for the category,” Hudson added.
MWITR will reveal an expanded portfolio at the Cannes event, with a focus on dominant moments within travel retail including ‘enjoying travel time together’, ‘give a gift’, ‘refresh and energise on the go’ and ‘unwind and indulge’.
“We will launch a range of new products and share how we are optimising our current portfolio to have the right offer for every moment, especially for the moment refresh & energise on the go,” Hudson added.
“Expanding the company’s product range for this moment taps into Mars Wrigley’s ambition to unlock opportunities for incremental sales in the transaction zone to further accelerate category growth.”
Hudson noted the transaction zone has “huge potential”.
“Around 500 million travellers buy products in travel retail every year, this means 500 million opportunities at the check-out area for incremental purchases. We need to better satisfy the traveller’s impulse needs in this area, and here confectionery can play a much bigger role.”
Hudson also underlined MWITR’s success in generating category growth by optimising transaction zones in partnership with customers in domestic markets for decades. “We know what works, how to optimise space and value, not only for confectionery but for all relevant categories at the transaction zone. We want to share this knowledge with our ITR partners so we can tap into the potential of this area together,” he said.
The Mars Cocoa for Generations sustainability plan will be highlighted at Cannes. Click here for further details.
Responsibly sourced cocoa is also on the MWITR agenda at Cannes. The company is committed to creating a modern, inclusive and sustainable cocoa supply chain, with all cocoa purchased by Mars Wrigley for its factories in Europe verified as Responsibly Sourced Cocoa.
“Next year we will take the next step in engaging travellers on this important milestone as our 100% Responsibly Sourced logo will appear on packs of products made in our European factories,” Hudson said.
“I am looking forward to sharing more with our customers about our Responsibly Sourced Cocoa programme through which we aim to deliver real, lasting positive change across the supply chain for future generations,” he concluded. 
