Industry insight Sharing packages
Keeping the chocolate consumer engaged through sharing and impulse packs. By Marcia Mogelonsky, Director of Insight. Mintel Food & Drink.
“Sharing” packages
One of the biggest developments in chocolate confectionery over the past couple of years has been the emphasis on “sharing packages,” a trend exemplified in the UK and other markets by share packs from Cadbury, Mars and others and in the US by such products as Hershey Drops, shareable packages of familiar brands reconfigured to be more conducive to “sharing.”
The sharing trend has been positioned as a response to tough economic times: the dynamics of socializing have changed during the recession and consumers now tend to spend more time in groups at home, participating in social activities such as “at home movie night” instead of going out to cinemas and other venues. In the UK, for example, a decline in out-of-home eating and entertainment expenses was balanced by a sizeable increase in at- home food spending over the past year The confectionery market has responded by providing “shareable” packages of popular treats – large bags, typically resealable, containing multiple portions of confectionery.
While the concept of sharing is not
new, the market for shareable treats should not be discounted: in the UK, for example, Mintel’s research shows that 56% of chocolate eaters say that they “usually end up sharing their chocolate,” and the likelihood of sharing becomes more prevalent in households with children and those with a higher level of income. Overall, only 19% say they do not share chocolate.
While sharing packages encourage communal consumption, the packs may also provide a more economical way for consumers to buy chocolate for them to eat alone: in the US, 51% of chocolate buyers “look carefully at the size of chocolate candy packages to determine the best value for the money,” and 22% plan to do this in the future. Either way – as a product to share with others or one that provides multiple servings for the purchaser, the interest in “sharing
8 Kennedy’s Confection September 2012
packs” has increased significantly over the past year, as have the number and variety of sharing packs on the market.
Impulse buying
When considering accessibility, sharing packages promote the idea of making chocolate available to groups of people in a convenient way. Sharing packages encourage communal enjoyment (or parsimonious hoarding for economy’s sake), and consumers organizing an evening at home with friends, or setting out to spend their shopping money carefully, are likely to buy shareable packs as a deliberate purchase, not as an impromptu one.
Sharing packs may be more economical on a per-serving basis, but they represent a larger outlay of money up front; in the current economic environment, that suggests a “planned purchase.” They also represent a planned purchase because of package size: because sharing packs tend to be large, they are typically to be found in the confectionery aisle of a store. Purchase is likely to be deliberate, and so is the positioning in the store. Sharing packs are not a feature of the most impromptu in-store purchase zone, the checkout line, nor are the likely to feature in other last-minute purchase venues such as vending machines, travel-based kiosks (e.g. airports, train stations) or front-of-store displays. But this facet of accessibility – the ease of access to an impromptu purchase – does not fit with the sharing pack. Instead, manufacturers must explore this type of accessibility in another way: by increasing the variety of confectionery in vending machines, for example, or by finding ways to put more confectionery at the checkout or in other “of the moment” venues.
Cadbury’s new packaging concept
To capture impulse shoppers, manufacturers have had to work at developing more single serve packages of chocolate confectionery, a tactic that seems at odds with their efforts to grow
the “sharing pack” market. But, both types of package must be available to consumers in order to engage consumers at different points in their shopping experience. From Kraft’s Cadbury comes a new way of capturing the impulse chocolate buyer, through a new flow-wrap package that makes it possible for single-serve chocolate bars to be displayed on hooks at the checkout or other places throughout the store. The package has a hole through which a hook can be placed vertically at the cash, instead of being displayed on racks horizontally, as they typically are. The packaging innovation redistributes the bar within the flow wrap pack, making the sealed bottom end shorter and the top end longer, to accommodate the hole. It also is designed to allow the bars to hang at an angle, which could allow for more products to be displayed or for more dynamic displays of different products to be designed. Currently, the packaging is in a developmental stage; the company has just filed an international patent and is not yet in production. But, the company maintains that the development will ensure that products “can be displayed more easily in regions close to the till or sales counter where customers often have to queue and where they may be open to impulse purchasing.” Cadbury is not the only company to be looking for ways to capitalize on both sides of the “accessibility” issue by providing easy access to confectionery through sharing packs and at the same time developing better ways to capture the impromptu, single-serve buyer. In the US, Kraft is developing new retrofitted shelving to improve the vending process for gum, while Mars is experimenting with smaller pack sizes for products displayed at checkout. Cadbury’s new packaging is among the first to consider the “real estate” at the checkout beyond the racks and bins where treats are usually displayed and instead to utilise the vertical space at consumers’ eye level.
kennedysconfection.com
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