Candy show set to launch

Discount Store News, Jan 26, 1998 by Laura Liebeck

Big promotions and candy introductions are slated for the upcoming American Wholesale Marketers Association winter show Feb. 19 to 21 in Houston.

Perhaps the largest confectionery event leading into the show will be the Jan. 25 (Super Bowl Sunday) launch of M&M/Mars' Millennium campaign for M&M's. With "spokescandies" red and yellow, M&M's is mounting a huge ad blitz on TV, radio, print, product packaging and in-store signing that will eventually reward a lucky consumer with $2 million in prize money. The award goes to the snacker who unknowingly purchases but does not consume a package of all red M&M's (each printed with double "M's" on each candy). As part of the promotion, the red and yellow M&M's will proclaim themselves "The Official Candy of the Millennium." Product will be shipped April 13 to May 5.

Hershey also is committing major ad dollars this year to two new introductions, ReeseSticks and Jolly Rancher's Jolly Jellies. Both new products, plus a line extension on TasteTations (chocolate mints) will be on display at the booth.

The new ReeseSticks from Hershey combines Reese's peanut butter with a crispy wafer and milk chocolate. It is available nationally on Feb. 9 and will be promoted on national TV and in print ads plus consumer promos, trial shippers and offers introductory trade allowances. The product is available in 1.5-oz. standard bars and in six-packs.

Jolly Rancher Jolly Jellies will be officially introduced on March 2. This new candy features an intense fruit flavor in a soft chewy candy in two flavor families, Tart `N' Tangy and Sweet `N' Fruity. Each flavor variety offers six assorted flavors. Jolly Jellies also will be advertised on television. The candies will be available in 14-oz. laydown bags, 2-oz. count good bags and 5-, 7- and 9.5-oz. hanging bags.

Ragold is slated to hit the airwaves during the second and third quarters of the year with its new vitamin-C enriched Juicefuls candy line of real fruit-juice-filled hard candies. Ragold's theme, "No pulp. No peel. No pits. Juicefuls, better than fruit," will be the core of the bran&s national print ad campaign and the subject of a 25-cents-off coupon program.

Ragold, like many other candy vendors will be introducing products in line with the new food-enriched trend now gripping numerous product lines within the consumables field. Other popular trends in candy continue to be licensed goods, novelty candy/toys, powerful mints, real flavor goods and low-fat/no-fat products.

In the larger business sense, technology issues, especially those related to the year 2000 computer challenge and product merchandising will be the focus of various seminar programs at AWMA.

The 1998 winter AWMA show is expected to attract between 6,000 and 7,000 attendees, according to AWMA show organizer Jackie Cohen, vp of government and public affairs. The show is a sellout, she said.

Confectionery is the largest part of the show, which also includes tobacco products, H&BC goods and assorted other goods. According to the AWMA, candy vendors accounted for nearly 60% of all 1997 winter show exhibitors.

In addition to the new product and program introductions and launches by M&M/Mars, Hershey and Ragold, the following is a sample of upcoming introductions by other manufacturers.

* Concord: Candy Stampers, pressed dextrose candy shaped like conventional stampers that produce a stamp -- for paper, skin, etc. -- when a child licks the bottom. The stamper can be reused until it is eaten. So far, the stampers will stamp out bug shapes and various other images, and the flavors include an assortment of popular fruits. Candy Stampers is packed in multi-packs of eight stampers.

* Cap Candy: New products include M&M's Minis Swarmees, plush M&M's Minis character with a tube of M&M's Minis strapped to its back; and new figures to its Spin Pop line including Tweety & Sylvester with Tweety spinning around Sylvester's head.

* Leader Candies: Lollypallooza lollipops, 240-count lollipop pack in five assorted flavors; Ghost Slime, cold-water gel that kids can squeeze out of its container and packaged in a Halloween haunted house motif, in a 72-count

* Pez: A new Disney Mickey For Kids line, which includes new designs for Mickey, Donald, Pluto and Goofy as well as brand new dispensers for Minnie and Daisy; continuing strong for Pez is Star Wars.

* R.M. Palmer: Cookie Creatures, a sandwich cookie coated in chocolate, individually wrapped and packaged in Halloween graphics; and peanut pumpkin cups with the bottom of the candy cup dressed with a pumpkin face, in different chocolate colors. Both were created as trick or treat giveaways.

* Russell Stover/Whitman's: Laydown bags of snack size Russell Stover candy bearing the Looney Tunes license in 12 1/2-oz. bags plus a similar program under the Whitman's label, but with the Snoopy license. The new Russell Stover candy bars are peanut butter nugget with peanuts covered in milk chocolate, and the other is crispy milk chocolate and caramel covered in milk chocolate. The new Whitman's candy bars are caramel and peanuts covered in milk chocolate, and the other, caramel and granola covered in milk chocolate. While the bags are geared for Halloween, they are not seasonally decorated. The bags, however, are featured in seasonal fixtures. For Christmas, the candies are wrapped in seasonal packages. Also new from Russell Stover will be 1 3/4-oz. bars of Sugar Free Pecan Delights coming out this Mother's Day; 75th anniversary commemorative collectors tins; and 4-oz. Looney Tunes milk chocolate tree novelty ornaments.