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:
- Poll students about their candy consumption.
- What kinds of candy do they buy? How much do they spend on candy in a month?
- Show Nerds Super Bowl commercial: https://youtu.be/VHjNKVwIHfs?si=nHPchTuHRIr3pzGx
- Show Nerds website: https://www.nerdscandy.com/crunchy-gummy-yummy
- Divide students into teams. Each team will develop a new candy product.
- Who is the target market for the new candy?
- Describe the new candy product.
- How will the candy be priced?
- Where can it be purchased?
- How is it different from an existing candy product?
- 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.