Monthly Archives: December 2024

by | Wednesday, December 25, 2024 · 7:14 am

Latest Candy Hit – Nerds Gummy Clusters

Do you love candy? We love candy – a lot! It typically starts around Halloween and continues until Easter. So many holidays to celebrate and candy is one way to enjoy them.

The problem is that there are also a lot of candy products from which to choose, many of which have been around for decades and have a devoted consumer base. That makes it difficult for new products to gain a market following. It can be even harder to resurrect a dying product, but Nerds has done it. Enter: Nerds Gummy Clusters, a gummy core holding just the right amount of mini Nerds to make the perfect, crunchy bite.

Nerds needed revitalizing. In 2018, Nerds sales were only $40 million. But in the past year, with the new product, sales have increased to $800 million.

Of course it doesn’t hurt sales to have celebrity Kylie Jenner rave about the product to her 200 million followers on Instagram. And then follow that with a Super Bowl commercial. The result is great brand awareness and sales for the new candy.

What are Nerds Gummy Clusters? The candy is manufactured in Illinois, beginning with a melted gel that is poured into molds that create small, chewy orbs that look somewhat like a gummy bear. Added to that is dots of sugar (also called baby Nerds) in which the gummy balls tumble through a river of baby Nerds until completely covered. Crunchy and gummy.

Yum…

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students about their candy consumption.
  2. What kinds of candy do they buy? How much do they spend on candy in a month?
  3. Show Nerds Super Bowl commercial: https://youtu.be/VHjNKVwIHfs?si=nHPchTuHRIr3pzGx
  4. Show Nerds website: https://www.nerdscandy.com/crunchy-gummy-yummy
  5. Divide students into teams. Each team will develop a new candy product.
  6. Who is the target market for the new candy?
  7. Describe the new candy product.
  8. How will the candy be priced?
  9. Where can it be purchased?
  10. How is it different from an existing candy product?
  11. Finally, have teams develop a marketing campaign for this product and market.

Source: Sanders, H. (29 October 2024). Inside the colorful and cultish world of Ners Gummy Clusters. New York Times; Vranica, S., and Cohen, B. (7 November 2024). America’s newest hit candy is gummy, crunchy and printing money. Wall Street Journal.

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by | Wednesday, December 18, 2024 · 6:28 am

Spray-ON Shoes are Ready to Run

Many competitive runners (and some not-as-competitive runners) swear there are performance benefits to be had by running in light-weight shoes. The lighter the better, and consequently the lower the running time.

Cutting weight from running shoes can’t get much lighter than Swiss sportswear brand On and its new “spray-on” shoes made using robotics that spray polymers into complex shapes. On’s Cloudboom Strike LS weighs about 100g lighter than other popular running shoes of the same size. Using robotics and unique materials also cuts CO2 emissions by 75% compared to manufacturing other racing shoes.

On sprays the shoe’s uppers from a thermoplastic that can be sprayed by a robot in one long movement onto a standard foot mold. It can then be attached to the carbon-fiber and foam rubber sole using heat instead of glue. This eliminates the need to stitch together multiple pieces of fabric and takes roughly three minutes to assemble. There are no laces, tongue, or heel-cap, giving the shoe a translucent, sock-like appearance.

We’ve seen spray-on textiles used for custom-fit dresses and costumes before this, but not shoes. Spray-on fibers have also been used in the beauty industry – think “hair in a can” that can be used to conceal bald spots.

Cloudboom Strike LS costs $300 a pair and is targeted to the serious runner market. Olympian Kenyan athlete Hellen Obiri wore the shoes to win the Boston Marathon, and then again to win a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Weight matters.

Let’s run!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Have they traveled by train
  2. Show website: https://www.on.com/en-us/lightspray?srsltid=AfmBOoqz06S8CRtgIHMX4I9Zt_dwDSNZhWBWjsAEtjMdHCIcnPMra9d0
  3. There are a number of videos on the website that show how the shoe is made and performs. Show these in class.
  4. Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
  5. For this product, who is the target market?
  6. Divide students into teams and have each team develop a profile of a target customer. Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
  7. Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for those customers?
  8. Have teams develop a marketing campaign for this product and market.

Source: Dolan, L. (17 July 2024). Marathon-winning ‘spray-on’ running shoes could shake up Olympics. CNN; Moss, T. (2 November 2024). Made in three minutes, feels like a sock: Are spray-on sneakers the future? Wall Street Journal.

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by | Wednesday, December 11, 2024 · 7:23 am

‘Tis the Season for Advent Calendars

I don’t know about you, but I have seen a LOT of Advent calendars this year. For years,  the only Advent calendars available were rather inexpensive and had a single piece of chocolate behind the door for each day of Advent. But now it seems as if every product category is offering some sort of Advent calendar.

You may now be asking “what is Advent?” Advent, from “adventus” in Latin, means “coming” and refers to the four weeks leading up to Christmas. It started as a religious period for both remembrance and anticipation. Now, as the times have changed, so too have Advent calendars changed.

While the calendars still mark the days of the season and countdown to Christmas, they have evolved from having a small piece of inexpensive candy each day to now having full-sized products and gifts.

Today, Advent calendars are sold with makeup, jewelry, toys, foods, spices, alcoholic drinks, and more, with prices ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. [There are also more expensive and branded Advent calendars such as one from Swarovski with jewelry priced at $1,200 and Williams-Sonoma’s calendar of foods and goods is $300.]

One of the more popular calendars this year is from French jam company Bonne Maman with 25 days of differently flavored jams for $45. The calendar has become so popular that this year it opened for ordering in July (last year it opened in August). Since 2017, it has increased production of the calendar by 400%.

What Advent calendar would you like?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the use of Advent calendars in marketing a product or company.
  2. Poll students: What types of Advent calendars have they received or seen?
  3. Google Advent calendars and view an assortment of products.
  4. View Wirecutter’s list of Advent calendars: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/our-favorite-advent-calendars/
  5. Divide students into teams.
  6. Have each team select a product that they believe could be promoted using Advent calendars.
  7. Develop a marketing plan for the calendar. Make sure to start with target market and include product description, price, distribution, and promotion.
  8. Since this is a time-sensitive product, build the timeline for development and promotion, through delivery.
  9. Teams could also prepare a mock-up calendar with artwork and daily gifts.

Source: Hennessy, M. (29 November 2024). How the Bonne Maman Advent calendar became a hot commodity. New York Times; Wirecutter. (24 October 2024). Our 20 favorite Advent calendars of 2024. Wirecutter.

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