Pandemic forces Halloween candy makers to get creative to protect $5B in sales

MarketingDive.com (Oct. 12, 2020)

Mars Wrigley, Hershey, and Ferraro have changed up their strategy of packaging, selling, and marketing their candy and chocolates this Halloween due to the pandemic.

Consumers spend on average about 13% out of $36 billion US candy and chocolate sales during Halloween according to the National Confectioners Assoc. Halloween is the single biggest revenue generating day of the year, followed by Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter.

In March, Mars Wrigley started to receive orders for Halloween and noticed order quantities that were inconsistent with past orders from retailers due to the uncertainty caused by COVID-19. Since then, retailers have revised their orders to better reflect the infection rates or other trends in their areas.

As a way to connect with consumers on their computers and phones, Mars Wrigley created a virtual trick-or-treat website and app called Treat Town to create spooky avatars, custom Halloween decorations, and virtual "knock" on doors for candy. They also decided to change the bag size from 200-plus count bags to smaller mixed bag offerings to accommodate for possibly less children trick-or-treating and more of at-home celebrations. 

Hershey has partnered with Google to review consumer search data to identify regions with severe pandemic outbreaks to supply candy for indoor celebrations or backyard scavenger hunts and regions that are recovering to supply candy for trick-or-treating. They has also decided to package its candy and chocolate more in its year-round packaging to minimize unsold bags which would have to be offloaded at a discount.

A poll by Piplsay of more than 30,000 Americans found 46% of parents will allow their kids to go trick-or-treating while 23% are unsure. 41% are not looking forward to Halloween due to safety reasons and not wanting to celebrate at all.

There is data which supports that Halloween will bring decent demand for candy and chocolates from consumers. Reviewing Easter's performance in April at the height of the pandemic, sales only decreased 7% from prior year. Although 1/3 of consumers said they would not participate in the holiday, only 15% actually did not. Therefore companies like Mars Wrigley, Hershey, and Ferraro are cautiously optimistic about Halloween that is quickly approaching.