Eventful end for the year in the market of sweets

Austerity measures do not seem to have had much effect in the market of sweets, with supply showing dynamic growth. The expanded assortments of Bonbonetti Choco Kft., Nestlé Hungária Kft. and Storck Hungária Kft. are all examples of this phenomenon. Nestlé Hungária Kft. is a leader in the field of innovation, with 25 per cent of its assortment being made up of up-dated or brand new products from year to year. One of these was the hollow Santa Claus figure made with biscuit and cinnamon. Kit Kat Santa Claus and Boci Santa Claus are proof that Santa Claus figures can taste just as good as chocolate bars. – Bonbonetti has both Santa Claus figures and fondants for the Christmas season: the special quality Tibi Santa Claus and Disney branded fondants – reveals Beáta Kerülő, trade marketing co-ordinator of Bonbonetti Choco Kft. Tibi also has new flavours for its chocolate bars. – Consumers have more confidence towards products they are familiar with all around the year – says Andrea Gémes from Storck. – During exceptionally important seasons like Christmas, we use special packaging and designs for our Merci and Toffifee pralines. The intention of Storck Hungária Kft. was to enhance the gift function of its product by packaging two Tchibo Exclusive coffees with its 250 gram Merci praline. These were sold in limited quantity in a single sales channel. In order to generate maximum sales, companies used many promotions linked specially to the end of the year period. Bonbonetti used the cartoon Macskafogó to promote the Tibi brand in the autumn and the winter. Both the ATL and the BTL communication used the same message. Communication was also co-ordinated for the Cherry Queen praline, with a promotion linked to buying flowers in hyper markets. Storck Hungária Kft. organised an integrated, nation-wide prize game for Toffifee customers, with the primary objective of image building. – We paid attention to details, like allowing enough time for our message to reach customers and for buying our product, drawing and sending the drawing back to us. This is why we had started our activities six weeks before the 6th December – adds Andrea Gémes. In-store tools were also used to support the media campaign for the Toffifee promotion. The main communication tools for Storck products. – spot campaigns – are not influenced by seasons, as their message is always the same. Panna Miklós, brand manager of Nestlé agrees with this approach. – As the end of the year period is very intensive, ATL tools are not necessarily the best.They work for some categories, but POS tools are more important in general. As a result of marked differentiation between the target groups of different store types, assortments have also become quite different. Being channel-specific has become one of the keys to success. As hyper markets generate the most substantial sales in the Christmas season, this is where manufacturers focus their efforts.