On the same theme as the last candy-eating post, Malaya and I have lately been idly wondering just how big those new giant M&Ms are, based on seeing perhaps 5000 commercials for them over the past week of the ad blitz. They never show the actual product in the commercials (just huge fake ones the size of a hubcap), and there aren't even any photos of them on the M&Ms website. So I searched on the subject, and found success with the second return, a
business article from the NYTimes. If you haven't done so before, you'll need to register to read it, or use bugmenot.com for a password, but I found it interesting. It answered my most basic question, and then gave me far, far more.
FIRST there were regular-size M&M's, then tinier ones. Now, the Masterfoods USA division of Mars is bringing out a supersize version, called Mega, with each milk chocolate or peanut piece about 55 percent larger than the equivalent standard-size M&M's.
...Mega M&M's will be aimed at adults rather than children. Although the animated M&M's characters appear on the packages, they are absent from the ads. And the colors of Mega M&M's are meant to appeal to more mature audiences; the regular hues like red, green, yellow and blue are being supplanted by shades like maroon, gold, beige and teal.
"Adults have said they like a bigger bite-sized product with bigger bite-sized taste," said Martyn Wilks, president for the Masterfoods USA snack-food division. "This is definitely for a subset of our target market."
...Mega M&M's will mostly be sold in packages that are intended to be passed around, like 12.6-ounce and 19.6-ounce bags, rather than in single-serving bags.
I like how they've got the colors all thought out and the product designed scientifically. I'm not likely to eat them since we're not fat and we therefore avoid candy when possible, and because the big
Shrek M&Ms clogged up our M&Ms dispenser. Plus they were bigger, but like 75% of that was the crappy M&M chocolate, with tiny little peanuts floating deep within, like the poison gas center of a golf ball.
Wondering about the market trends of larger-sized candy and junk food, what that means for Americans in general, and the market risks of overextending an existing product line? Read the whole article. Here's a little chocolate-y taste:
Mega M&M's joins a lengthy list of variations on the M&M's theme that include, in addition to regular M&M's and Minis, crispy M&M's, almond M&M's, M&M's filled with peanut butter, dark chocolate M&M's and pieces for baking. The strategy is a common one in consumer marketing, known as line extensions, by which new versions of a best-selling brand are brought out continually to capitalize on the popularity of the parent.
Marketers often deem it safer and cheaper to introduce a line extension of a tried-and-true product like M&M's - a Top 10 candy brand with estimated annual sales of almost $1 billion - than to develop a new brand that consumers may ignore or not like. A problem with line extensions, however, is that they run the risk of diluting a brand's image.
..."It just sows confusion, and confusion is the enemy of effective marketing," Mr. Trout said, adding: "People stare at the shelf and don't know what to buy anymore. It's bewildering. And you see it in every category: 'This Bud's for you.' Which Bud do you have in mind? Bud? Bud Light? Bud Select?"
How about people buy the kind they like the best, while not buying the kinds they don't like, much the way they don't buy brands they don't like? Still, perhaps Mr. Marketing Consultant has a point, though I don't see various different types of chocolate in a candy shell, or types of weak American beer in a can, as being different enough to confuse consumers. Companies get into trouble with that when they diversify overly, and start making clothing and toothpaste and food and dish soap and other unrelated things all under the same product name. Read
Matt Haig's excellent book,
Brand Failures, for more information about that issue.
