When getting your teeth into something new, you wouldn’t immediately think of a confectionery brand. Although, and it may not come as a surprise, if you get it right, the rewards can be immense. Not just all the fun you would have to pretend to be a modern-day Willy Wonka but financially the sector is expected to reach a value of around £45 Billion in the UK this year.
The product list of the confectionery sector is vast, you may only be after a tiny slice of the pie, but we assure you a little slither would be more than enough. So whether it’s canned drinks, sweets or chocolate, we are going to look at the steps to follow in order to be a success. And, the stumbling blocks to avoid too.
What are you bringing to the party?
The confectionery sector is hazardously saturated. If you aren’t bringing something new to the table, your brand has the potential to be overlooked. There are a lot of variations of products out there and some are largely more successful than others. When devising your idea and developing your product, we would advise conducting extensive market research.
If you can find a space in the market for your product and a potential audience that isn’t yet catered for, you’re on to a winner.
When building your business strategy for a confectionery brand, it’s essential you plan for the long haul as spin-off products and other formats of the product may open up to your business over time. For example, your brand that initially sells sweets may decide on producing an ice lolly, like Chewits! Or like Coke, you may decide to add twists on your product like Cherry Coke.
That being said, you should walk before you attempt to run. Plan for what could happen but initially develop a few brilliant products to force your way into the crowd.
What’s your flavour?
Without sounding like we’re Craig David megafans, knowing what flavour of the product you are bringing to the market is vital. The flavour you choose dictates a lot of driving factors of the business and therefore shouldn’t be overlooked. A flavour can be memorable if it’s something people haven’t had before. It can be marketable if it creates a bright coloured product, remember Sunny Delight all those years ago? People went crazy for the vamped-up orange juice, purely because of the variations of colours. Not quite sure what was in those things to this day, but we all heard the story where someone changed colour because they drank too much, pretty sure that wasn’t true in hindsight.
Product flavour is also essential when it comes to branding, it will largely dictate the colour of your marketing, labelling, packaging etc. So, do your product testing, find something great and run with it!
What makes your brand great?
As you probably know by now, branding is always something we will champion. As a branding agency, we understand the value of everything that makes you special, and we would say we are pretty great at making those attributes stand-out.
In the confectionery sector, branding is vital. Even more so than most other sectors. This is due to the high level of competition, and the branding and marketing budgets of those companies. If you are going into the energy drink sector, your product has to fight for its space on the shelf because Redbull, Monster and Relentless aren’t just going to sit back and give you those sales. And, they have huge teams of marketing and branding gurus on their side. So, you have to think smart about this.
Sell your passion and desire for what you do, why you’re in this sector in the first place. Obviously, a brilliantly constructed logo is key, but beyond that what is your story?
Take Candy Kittens, for example, the owners talk of how their love of sweets and desire to feel a little bit Willy Wonka, drove them to do what they do today. They speak of the journey, the long winding road which led to being stocked globally and the battle to grab some of those sales from Haribo. The story sells you on the company, their ethical stance and their vegan manufacturing process. They are telling a story of doing things differently and that is a story people want to be involved in.
Signed, sealed and delivered? ✉️
One of the final pieces of your confectionery brand puzzle is your packaging. In the confectionery, sector packaging has one of the largest parts to play. In terms of the puzzles, it’s probably one of the corner pieces that make everything else align. We have actually heard of brands designing from the outside inwards in the confectionery sector and that doesn’t surprise us.
The properties of your packaging are far more important than just driving sales, and we know that sounds crazy because sales are survival after all. But, within the confectionery sector, your packaging needs to include all the legal requirements such as a list of ingredients, dietary requirements and allergen information. As well as those legalities your packaging also needs to keep your product fresh and edible. It has a big job!
As with any brand, building a confectionery brand won’t be an easy process, especially as you attempt to take on the giants in the sector. With our expertise, you’ll be able to formulate a product and brand that will be in the best possible position to attempt to break the mould. At Create8 we have helped many companies create and launch new products. With our team’s wide skill set and thought-provoking approach, we believe we are the agency to take you to the supermarket shelves. We can’t wait to hear from you.
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