With the resumption of travel post-COVID-19 as well as the growth of the entire snacking category, Mondelez now sees an even brighter future for confectionery than ever before, and this is especially so in the travel retail space.
“We now know that about two-thirds of the population prefers several small meals as opposed to three large meals so snacking has become a big part of many lives,” Mondelez Head of Customer Marketing World Travel Retail Beatriz de Otto Mendez told the floor at a recent Tax Free World Association (TFWA) event zooming in on the confectionery sector.
“88% of consumers further believe that a balanced diet needs to include some indulgence – and this is a good sign that confectionery can grow even more, as long as the marketing and products are done right.
“Mondelez has been working to bring confectionery to the forefront of travel retail with various initiatives including more visible placements, maximising cash till space that was previously reserved for other types of products, and also introducing new categories like biscuits and snacks.
“Today, the basket size of the confectionery shopper is double that of any other products, but there is much more that can be achieved in terms of penetration, conversion and category growth.”
To achieve this further evolution for the category, the firm believes that providing consumers with the right experience is rapidly emerging as a vital proposition as this is increasingly being expected by consumers today, especially younger shoppers.
“Brands can no longer just offer a single product and just put this on shelves -it is now important to offer a full experience via the products, as consumers want to share their experiences physically as well as on social media,” de Otto Mendez said.
“This means providing experiences with suitable physical and emotional touchpoints via concepts that resonate with the consumers, such as promoting activities linked to our producer markets in Asia and Africa in the stores, educating the consumers on what is being done and getting them to engage further – this is the sort of experience that can create emotional connections with them.
“Travel retail is a good platform to deliver stories and concepts that are relevant and true to shoppers, but it is important to ensure such activities are communicated well. These must be able to communicate specific initiatives e.g. who is being helped or like what we did with Toblerone, but a Toblerone and see one tree planted – things like these are easy for the shoppers to understand, and also to engage with.”
Digitalisation the next frontier
With younger consumers from the millennial and Gen Z age ranges rapidly making up the majority of travellers today, using digitalisation and technology to reach these shoppers has become ever more important.
“Technology is a key enabler for us is two major ways – the first is to help to leverage consumer experience in-store, and the other is to connect with the shoppers even before they leave their homes or step into the airport,” she added.
“This is so important when it comes to communicating with younger travellers so that they are aware of the activities we want to bring to them, and will actually go into the stores to participate in these experience or else there would be no point in planning these, and this is the participation we need to increase store penetration and ultimately conversion.”
