Just in time for Halloween comes welcome news for the makers of chocolate candy: Last year, sales for the holiday jumped 12 percent, and sleuthing by industry analysts has turned up some intriguing reasons. Not only are chocolate makers getting more creative with their ingredients, they are also experimenting with their packaging as well — embracing what brain scientists call the smorgasbord effect, offering shoppers a variety of tastes in one purchase. And the strategy is spreading throughout the grocery store.
A Chocolate Boom
Chocolate candy sales for last Halloween hit $217 million, up 12 percent from the year before, the consumer market research firm Packaged Facts reported in September. For all of 2013, the American market for chocolate grew 4 percent, to $21 billion in sales. But chocolate lovers took a hit this summer, when Hershey and Mars announced price increases of 8 percent and 7 percent, their first in three years.
Here’s Why
One reason for the higher prices is the rising cost of cocoa butter, arguably the most luscious ingredient. This is the vegetable fat, extracted from the cocoa bean, that gives chocolate its richness. While food chemists have searched for cheaper oils to substitute, none seem to create the same magic mouth feel.
New Flavors
But don’t expect higher prices to dampen sales, analysts said. The biggest companies are selling more by adopting the flavors and styles of boutique chocolatiers. Hershey last year introduced Almond Clusters with Sea Salt. Intense Dark, a line of chocolates from the Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli’s Ghirardelli brand, now sells at Target stores. And the boutique companies have begun the next wave of add-ons, including seeds like chia and quinoa.
The Mixed Bag
Chocolate makers have also adopted a marketing strategy that is increasingly driving sales: the variety bag, a single package filled with several different types of bars. Mars said sales of the variety bag it introduced a few years ago (with Milky Ways, Three Musketeers and such) grew by 14.5 percent in 2012, accounting for 54 percent of its total Halloween sales growth, and have remained strong.
Many Treats, One Trick
Scientists who research how our brains respond to food have another term for variety: the smorgasbord effect (as in stuffing yourself at Chinese buffets). Studies show that we quickly acclimate to any food or flavor we’re eating, causing the brain to register a feeling of fullness. Variety delays this process by keeping food exciting. If you’re trying to get kids to eat more vegetables, variety may help. With processed snacks, it can override the brain’s brake on overeating.
Hello, Halloween
George Puro, the analyst who prepared the Packaged Facts report on chocolate sales, said the trick-or-treat bag, stuffed with a motley collection of candies, is a case study of variety. When his children divide the family’s leftover handouts, he said, “I have to make sure they have the exact same kinds, or there are fights.”
Varied New World
Variety isn’t new in the grocery store. One of its earliest manifestations was the package of mini cereal boxes introduced by Kellogg’s in 1941. Now there are variety packs of Mexican beers, salsas, sliced lunch meats, ramen noodles and chewing gum. Besides the added allure, the variety pack delivers another sweet reward for companies: persuading consumers to try new or less popular flavors and brands.
“It’s in essence a way for us to get operating experience with a new brand, gives consumers a taste and gives us a preview of consumer response,” Tom Long, the chief executive of MillerCoors, told analysts this year in discussing a new product: the Pick Different Variety Pack of 12 Redd’s ales, which includes a newcomer, Hard Iced Tea.
