Mars Wrigley boasted a strong presence at the 2024 NACS Show in Las Vegas, with its booth showcasing several new products and twists on some of its classic offerings. After the show, Mike Gilroy, the company’s VP of trade development and sponsorship, shared the following recap with The Griffin Report.
What is new with Mars Wrigley?
Onsite at the NACS Show, Mars Wrigley unveiled several new insights-backed products, nodding to evolving consumer preferences as they seek a wider variety of products, formats and textures. These innovations include:
- M&M’s Peanut Butter & Jelly: This is the latest addition to M&M’S Peanut Butter portfolio, featuring berry flavored bite-sized chocolate treats with a peanut butter center that is reminiscent of a PB&J sandwich.
- M&M’S Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich: Now you can get the taste of M&M’S Peanut Butter in an Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich. M&M’S Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches offer a multi-texture experience that combines M&M’S Milk Chocolate Minis candies, baked sugar cookies and 100 percent real peanut butter ice cream.
- Skittles Pop’d: The newest innovation from Skittles, Skittles Original and Sour Pop’d provides a crunchy, crispy way to enjoy Skittles’ fruity flavors.
- Snickers Dark Ice Cream Bars: Snickers Dark is made with caramel, peanuts, chocolate-peanut butter ice cream and dark chocolate. Snickers Dark is 100-percent real ice cream and combines a ratio of textures.
- Snickers Pecan: A twist on the classic candy bar – a blend of caramel, nougat and milk chocolate, now complemented by pecans.
- Snickers Shapes: Made with peanuts, milk chocolate and nougat, these chocolate bars have all the traditional flavors of Snickers Candy Bars with an added holiday flair.
What are some of your key takeaways from the show?
- C-store shoppers are seeking more variety. Those on the move are more likely to be adventurous with their purchases, which is why the convenience channel is such a significant opportunity for brands to deliver new formats and texture offerings. In fact, 71 percent of adult consumers find new products and brands in convenience stores. For Mars Wrigley, that underlines the importance of the convenience channel for some of our latest innovations, such as M&M’S Peanut Butter & Jelly and Snickers Pecan.
- Gen Z is particularly loyal to c-stores. Gen Z’s affinity for c-stores provides an opportunity to build further fandom – 92 percent of Gen Z enjoy the c-store experience. In fact, Gen Z is projected to have the fastest growth in spending power, overtaking Baby Boomer spending by 2029. It is vital to look at generational trends to stay relevant and bring in new users, in addition to satisfying existing users. While gummies have been part of the Mars Wrigley portfolio for decades, they are increasing in popularity as Gen Z consumers look for new textures, and now there are more gummie offerings from Mars Wrigley to meet this demand.
- Seasons are extending. Shoppers are tuned into the seasons and want to participate in them, including through impulse purchases on-the-go. As seasons are extending, consumers are celebrating with activities and rituals, and they plan and shop for these occasions well in advance. For example, consumers started celebrating Halloween months in advance with moments like “Summerween” and “Augtober” trending in summer. The inaugural “Mars Tricks, Treats and Trends” report, which was launched in May as retailers were prepping for the season, found that 85 percent of those planning to celebrate Halloween planned to go bigger or retained similar plans from the previous year – this was even higher for Gen Z and Millennials, at 90 percent.
- Getting one more item to the basket. At a NACS panel, Jim Dodge, VP of convenience at Mars Wrigley, discussed actionable strategies for navigating challenges along with the other panelists – including how to get one more item in the basket. C-stores look to differentiate themselves and drive consumer loyalty. One pathway to drive that loyalty includes foodservice. Mars Foodservices works to drive consumer excitement with unique menu offerings that leverage Mars Wrigley’s brands. Whether added to cookies, brownies, cakes, frozen yogurt or shakes, the team collaborates to deliver brand power and differentiation with unique flavor innovations that consumers are seeking.
What are some of the biggest challenges that grocery retailers are facing now, as well as in the future?
Shopper expectations are higher than ever, and speed and convenience at checkout are vital. Retailers are relying more on self-checkout and automation to offset labor gaps and often, these technologies are implemented in silos, which can cause operational headaches. As the transaction zone evolves, the risk to impulse purchases increases unless retailers adopt innovative tools to create engaging and frictionless experiences. The Mars Wrigley Transaction Zone team works with retailers to mitigate these challenges. Launched in 2022, the team partners with retailers to formulate a transaction zone plan optimized for shopper satisfaction, operational efficiency and sales growth.
What are some opportunities for grocery retailers?
The opportunities that grocery retailers can take advantage of – along with how to navigate this market – comes down to product innovations, delivering what consumers are looking for and providing solutions, given how the pandemic has forced us to think about how consumers shop.
Gen Z consumers are drawn to different textures, such as gummies and freeze-dried textures, and fruity and sour flavors are on the rise within the group. Skittles tapped into the growing freeze-dried trend within the Gen Z population to bring Skittles Pop’d to market, which was unveiled on site at the NACS Show. These freeze-dried candies blend a unique, crispy texture with the original fruity flavors and new sour flavors.
Ice cream is another category growing in the U.S. At Mars, we have ambitions to reach $1 billion in global ice cream sales by 2030. Building on the popularity of our treats and snacks portfolio, Mars Ice Cream gives consumers new, innovative products
For instance, coming off NACS and specific to c-store, Mars holds several of the top-selling products in c-stores – Snickers is the No. 1 frozen novelty item and Twix comes in at No. 2. Innovations in ice cream, such as Milky Way Ice Cream Bars and M&M’S Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich, build on Mars Ice Cream’s success and meet consumers’ needs for new flavors.
Mars Ice Cream also has worked to make ice cream more accessible by developing a mini-freezer that sits on top of a Mars Wrigley floor stand. These compact freezers provide the opportunity to combine c-store’s top two frozen novelty SKUs with leading confectionery brands in a compact space. Currently, these freezers can be found in market at locations such as MicroMarkets, airports, college bookstores, hospitality and grocers.
For Mars Wrigley, we are not only committed to success as a company, but also to the success of retailers and the category. From focusing on store layout, experience and assortment to appeal to shoppers, there are a lot of factors retailers have to consider in order to stay in lockstep with the consumer of today and the future.
[RELATED: ‘Purpose-Driven’ Mars Wrigley Touts Innovation, Choices At Sweets & Snacks Show]
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