Health & Wellness & Candy?

With today’s consumers more interested than ever in better-for-you eating, the intersection of health and candy was a frequent topic discussed at the recent 2015 Sweets & Snacks Expo, and the key takeaway for candy retailers including convenience store operators was the importance of messaging and marketing candy as a permissible “treat.”

Health concerns and candy’s public image are issues retailers and suppliers alike should keep in mind, but National Confectioners Association (NCA) President and CEO John Downs pointed out that consumers would rather adjust their overall sugar consumption by cutting down on sugar that is hidden in non-candy products and enjoy candy in moderation as a treat.

“Consumers understand what they are getting when they buy candy,” Downs said, citing the extraordinarily high 98-percent household penetration rate of candy, which beats out other products many would consider to be more important, such as toilet paper. He encouraged the industry to “celebrate” candy’s role in a balanced lifestyle. “Life is sweet — celebrate it.”

All products can be part of a healthy lifestyle, according to Mary Myers, director of product development at Mars Chocolate North America, who was one of the speakers during an educational session entitled “New Era in Candy Land: Navigating Health and Well-Being.” During the same session, consumer trend analyst, food marketing expert and “Supermarket Guru” Phil Lempert advised that “people want education” in this subject area because just as retailers face confusion over health and wellness, so too do consumers.

In 1986, 71 percent of people claimed to always avoid snacking. Today, only 39 percent do so, and avoiding sugar is more important to consumers than avoiding fat. As a result, better-for-you is the fastest-growing snack segment, cited Darren Seifer of The NPD Group, who discussed the changing role of snacks in consumers’ diets as part of another educational session. “Things change,” Seifer said, comparing the shift in snacking patterns to the tectonic plate movement of the Earth. “They change slowly, but they change.”

The timing of snacking is also changing, as snack foods move into main meals and main meal foods move into snacking occasions. Seifer advised suppliers to understand their products’ proper place during the day in order to connect with consumers (and help retailers sell more of their product). “There’s a time and a place for these products,” he said.

For example, sweet snacks are consumed more often toward the end of the day, but that doesn’t mean suppliers should remove sugar in an attempt to reach another daypart. Instead, they should focus on when consumers seek to treat themselves and protect their brand equity.

CONVENIENCE & CANDY

At the expo, Convenience Store News caught up with NCA Vice President of Industry Affairs Larry Wilson to discuss sweets and snacks in the convenience channel specifically.

“When we think about candy’s role in the diet, it’s important to distinguish the permissibility of candy,” Wilson told CSNews. “It’s not a snack or a food substitute; it’s a treat.”

C-stores should “celebrate” candy by making it widely available and merchandising it throughout the store, he recommended. By thinking about how and when customers buy it, retailers can merchandise candy in a way that reminds them of that usage occasion. He cited Halloween as an opportunity to focus on the occasion rather than a specific brand, and noted that Target and leading non-food retailers have category imagery worth emulating.

“I think that the watchword for c-stores is to execute the basics exceedingly well,” Wilson said. “What happens a lot of times for c-stores is that [candy] often isn’t a focus category and yet it has the potential, given its scale, to really add significant sales.”

To maximize candy profits, Wilson recommends c-store operators work with manufacturers and brokers to get as much education on the category as possible, and pay attention to the details they may have overlooked in the past while focusing on other categories like fuel and cigarettes.

“It’s a very simple business, but let’s not confuse simple with easy,” Wilson said. “It’s simple, not easy. And if you can make the simple easy, then you can win.”