Chewing Gums on stage !
How can marketers make the chewing-gum attractive ? That's a big question to deal with when you're a product manager at Wrigley's or Mars !
In fact, they do it pretty well ! Today chewing-gum is part of our lives. Who doesn't think about chewing a gum before an important date with the woman/man of his/her dreams ?? NO ONE !!
Everybody is concern about his breath and chewing gum has become THE must-to-have to have a good one.
So, how brands create a special environment around the products ???
TV ad campaigns :
In the chewing-gum industry, tv ads are most of the time funny to catch the customer attention in the flood of advertising.
Freedent is very good at this (cf. Freendent article here).
But other brands too ! For example Airwaves do a very good job in its last TV ad :
This ad melt drama and humor while delivering a strong message : Airwaves is the chewing-gum you need to face your challenges. When you need a big breathe to give you the courage you need, Airwaves can help you !
This new orientation in the Airwaves' communication is also relayed on the website http://airwaves.fr
This sport orientation is new for Airwaves and gives a certain dynamism to the brand. It's reinforced by the new partnership Charlotte Consorti who is the world champion of kitesurfing in the speed category for the second time.
It shows that the brand want to focus on its core target : the young active people rather than the overall market of chewing gum which represent more or less 70% of the population.
Their old advertising campaigns was not that targeted and it seems like it was not as efficient as the marketers wanted to !
Mentos has a wide variety of gums : - The washing-machine TV ad for Mentos Pure Fresh gums :
Mentos Washing Machine from Hugo and Dean on Vimeo.
- The Pool Party TV ad for Mentos Pure White :
In those two ads, we can feel the "American atmosphere" and an interesting way of using sexuality which make the basic product becoming a love enhancer !
Chewing-gum beeing a symbol of the "american way of life" since the Americans introduced it in France during WWII, and the United States of America are kind of a dream for a lot of European people because it symbolizes the "Self-made Man" and gigantism. Chewing-gums are part of this "American dream" !
Sex in advertising is a good way to catch customers attention and is well-received by the target of gum company : young active people. It makes Mentos a "cool" brand ! And it supposes that if you don't have a Mentos, you won't kiss that easily...!
The lasts TV ads seems to be more customized for the european market. The target is still the same but the atmosphere has changed. The environment and the people look more european than before.
The Party Ad for Mentos Squeez :
The humour is still the base of the campaign to make the product funny in customers' mind. All the gum brands use this technique in their ad so there is a kind of synergy between the brands which gives the product a good image.
The only UFO in this industry is Malabar because the target is not the same as other brands. Malabar's target are young people between 5 and 15 so their ad campaigns looks like more than the "Prince de Lu" ones.
We can see the new mascotte named Mabulle and children playing around then using a Malabar to stop bad boys who stole the boy's cap :
Malabar gives you super powers !!
Conclusion :
In order to sum-up, we can say that advertising about chewing-gum is not that simple. A lot of techniques are used by the brands to differentiate their products from competitors.
All the brands have their own orientation in their TV ads. Some are more sex-oriented, others are more emotion-focused. But humour is always the base of the ads.
Chewing-gum is now in our consumption habits and everyone can find th one which best fit to his lifestyle !
Hope you had a good time reading this article ! Thanks !