Challenge

How to make a candy product interesting to a broader spectrum of customers

Image credit: Bruna Gomes

Joice araújo Feb 16, 2021

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Can we find a way to increase the age range of the consumers of our product? Our product is only attractive to children so far, how can we get the attention of other potential consumers?

candy marketing

Creative contributions

Unusual taste for adults

Darko Savic Feb 17, 2021

Candy with unusual taste:
spicy pizza
wasabi sushi
etc
Things that adults might give a try out of curiosity. Make it taste great so that they can get accustomed to it. Kids might try it and give it to friends as s a prank.

Market it as "cany for adults only". That would make all ages curious to give it a try.

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Psychoactive candies

Povilas S Feb 18, 2021

Candies could contain natural, mildly psychoactive substances, e.g.: stimulants -  guarana, ephedra, sedatives - valerian, and others. There are many unscheduled and rather harmless psychoactive plants that could be used. People would use such candies both out of curiosity and for the effects. 

However, this would have to be only for adults, 16+, or so, so a separate category and selling regulations would be necessary. This would also require formulating the ingredients for each different psychoactive candy to make the taste appealing enough because it requires a considerable amount of psychoactive plant material (which affects the taste) to get a noticeable effect. Mixing nutmeg (which is mildly psychoactive in low quantities) with chocolate and guarana sounds like a good recipe, for example.

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Idosos e Diabéticos / Elderly and Diabetics

Gabriel Souza Feb 18, 2021

Português: Sabores de doces pensando em idosos, por exemplo sabores menos enjoativos, que não necessitem da adição de muito açúcar e possam ser gostosos e ingeridos por pessoa diabéticas, assim ampliaria não somente a faixa etária de clientes, mas também atenderia uma classe um tanto quanto esquecida pelas docerias.

English: Flavors of sweets with the elderly in mind, for example less nauseating flavors, which do not require the addition of too much sugar and can be delicious and eaten by diabetic people, thus not only expanding the age group of customers, but also serving a somewhat forgotten class by the candy shops.

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Joke edition candy

Darko Savic Feb 17, 2021

Make a few awful-tasting variants. Market it as "the don't try it candy". You are counting on it going viral as a joke/prank

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"After cigarette" candy

jnikola Feb 18, 2021

Depending on the ingredients, maybe you can target smokers in a way that the candy reduces not only the taste and smell of tobacco and smoke, but also reduce the risk of tongue, mouth, or even lung cancer. This way the adults could use it as a sweet after every cigarette or teenagers to hide the smell of the cigarette.

Maybe we can work something out, but it would be useful to know (at least generally) what eco-materials do you use for candy production.

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Candies that the kids can eat with their medicines

Subash Chapagain Feb 18, 2021

One of the toughest thing about medicating kids is that the awful taste of the medicines, in general, makes them repulsive.  Given that the overall state of mind and appetite becomes altered when kids are sick, this problem becomes even more serious. This sometimes results in the kids being too reluctant to complete the course/dose of the medicines that they are supposed to take.

However, if we dedicatedly produce candies that can go along with the most used medicines for children, maybe we can dodge around their psyche and make them love (or at least not hate) the medicines.  However, the specifics of the candy's contents, compatibility with the medicine, and its digestibility/ potential allergenicity should be carefully determined before formulating it for the children's muse.

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Marketing campaigns // Chamadas de marketing

Flávia Pereira Feb 17, 2021

English: To solve that issue I think we should invest in marketing campaigns, because as they say "publicity is the soul of bussiness". It could be a solution to reach other age groups.

Portuguese: Para solucionar o problema acho que devemos investir em chamadas de marketing, porque como dizem "a propaganda é a alma do negócio", então seria uma solução para atingirmos outras faixas etárias. 

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Fernandes Gabriel4 years ago

 Penso na ideia de gerar as três linhagens com foco no público infantil, mas também com catálogo para adultos e jovens. Para adultos seria um de modelo de catálogo mais minimalista. Para jovens algo mais arrojado voltado para rede social que é o que está em alta, social mídias.
 Dessa forma a eco candy teria um foco nas crianças com um produto de nome x e também teria outras duas linhagens extras que seria voltada para adultos e outra para jovens.

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REBECCA SILVA CARDOZO4 years ago

Colocar desafios nas redes socias 

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REBECCA SILVA CARDOZO4 years ago

Primeiro mudar o marketing focando no que os adolescentes preocupam, fazendo propagandas com influência, tentar colocar jogos que está em alta (onlines) ex: free fire. 
Fazer publicidade com alguns famosos, fazer promoções...

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Controversial shape

Darko Savic Feb 17, 2021

Can you come up with a candy shape that is controversial and worth talking about?
weapon-shaped (small Kalashnikovs, guns, etc)
sex-themed shapes
face of a controversial historic person

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Edible functional toy gun

Darko Savic Feb 17, 2021

Can you come up with a functional toy gun that is also edible? It should be able to shoot a few candy bullets via a vacuum-powered mechanism or something like that.

It would be fun to play with friends (classroom, office) and eat in the end.

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Emphasis on the eco/bio/organic

Darko Savic Feb 18, 2021

If you want to market it to people who are conscious of what they put into their bodies the backside of the packaging could be designed along these lines to emphasize there are no harmful additives hidden in the small print (except sugar;)

Children don't know and don't care about the ingredients. Adults are the ones who do the buying. Marketing it as bio/eco/organic gets the adults to influence the choice of product their kids get acustomed to. In either case, it's the adult that makes the choice and this is one way to convince them.

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Making different product lines for children, teens and adults / / 3 linhagens jovem, adulto e criança

Fernandes Gabriel Feb 18, 2021

English: I think it would be a great idea to generate different product lines with a focus on children, teens and adults respectively. For adults the product could have a more minimalistic product, maybe with more original or "chic" flavors. For teens something more bold, with the objective of becoming trending in social media and attract more teens. 

That way, an eco-candy could have a focus on children with a particular product and also two other product lines that attract the other audiences.

Portughese: Penso na ideia de gerar as três linhagens com foco no público infantil, mas também com catálogo para adultos e jovens. Para adultos seria um de modelo de catálogo mais minimalista. Para jovens algo mais arrojado voltado para rede social que é o que está em alta, social mídias.
Dessa forma a eco candy teria um foco nas crianças com um produto de nome x e também teria outras duas linhagens extras que seria voltada para adultos e outra para jovens.

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Manel Lladó Santaeularia4 years ago

Hi Gabriel, that is a very interesting idea! I know some companies have been successful with that kind of marketing strategy, but it's not always easy to draw the attention of new customers. Could we try to expand on those great ideas, maybe by integrating some of the contributions by other thinkers? For example when talking about the teenager line, we could mix both bold flavors and bold shapes. I remember one candy that used to kill in my youth were spicy jelly peppers. They looked like a pepper and, while sweet, they were spicy as hell. I think that we could think of some ideas with a similar concept:
-A bag of candies that has 1-2 candies in it that taste differently: that could be spicy, straight up bad taste or something particular related to the marketing strategy.
-Candies with particularly provoking shapes: sexual is the easiest and less controversial probably. Lots of possibilities there. I would avoid religious symbols, violence and celebrity faces because of the potential issues (rights, bad publicity, discrimination acusations) but some of them could actually work if coupled with the right marketing campaign.
-Interesting, original tastes: no need to limit to spice, I'm sure there are a lot of original tastes that could be achieved. But how to keep it eco-friendly?

Let's see if we can find some more ideas following on this topic!

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Darko Savic4 years ago

Manel Lladó Santaeularia I like the idea of adding a few "surprise" pieces in the mix with normal ones🙃 

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Manel Lladó Santaeularia4 years ago

Darko Savic yeah, it worked amazingly well for the "every flavor beans" inspired by Harry Potter. It made them an original product that people buy for fun, to play with their friends or make viral challenges, instead of just for their consumption. I imagine a bunch of gummy skulls, and all of them taste awesome and then there are a couple that are extremely spicy. That would be a fun viral challenge.

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Caffeine candy for adults only

Darko Savic Feb 24, 2021

100 mg of caffeine per candy. A big warning sign on the bag so people don't go overboard:) Similar could be done with other legal drugs.

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Candies with a message

Martina Pesce Mar 03, 2021

Another possibility could be to make candy with a text on it.
This opens many opportunity:
you could have candies that substitute the typical pieces of paper that are exchanged during elementary school and highschool lessons, such as "I am sorry", "I love you", "peace?" ;
you could make them be an invitation, such as  
                   -to a party, which keeps it very open for the age range ("You are invited to my b-day/ graduation party/ bachelor ") ,
                   -to a dinner,        
                   -to a marriage,  
                   -to a thesis diseration,
                   -to the end of the year -anysport/activity you can think of- show,
                   -to a date
for people with a bar/restaurant you could produced candies with the text "thank you" or "see you soon", or even offer a personalizing service to be able to add the details to find the bar/restaurant on the internet. Could be a good and tasty advertisement. 

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Amber candy

Darko Savic Feb 17, 2021

A darker colored insect made of hard candy inside a softer transparent/tinted gummy-jelly like candy material

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Povilas S4 years ago

A real insect inside would get much more attention. Many insects are edible. I'm not prone to this idea, because it would require killing the insects, but it would definitely give the thrill required to attract people. Maybe using edible pest insects is an option

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Darko Savic4 years ago

Povilas S The honey ants come to mind. Also known as “repletes” or “plerergates,” designated worker ants that are fed nectar by their colony until their abdomens become living food storage. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jwzzbjYHC3w/hqdefault.jpg

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Energy/focus boost candy

Muhammad M Rahman Feb 19, 2021

How about energy boosting candy that stimulate the body in short bursts? This might be something that you could take during a workout that could help you go the extra mile. It sounds like a performance enhancing drug which is illegal but if the ingredients are all safe, that could be a unique selling point. Also, I’ve also had lots of sweets before taking any exams as it gets my brain working so you could have a ‘brain boost’ candy which could stimulate and focus the mind. Even if the effects are minimal, if marketed well you may get a placebo effect making the candy seem more effective.

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Manel Lladó Santaeularia4 years ago

Nice point about sweets being a great energy boost. I've used them for studying and before exams as well, and they work beautifully to give me more brain clarity. However, thinking about the fitness community, I believe a candy that boosts performance would be less appreciated because of the inherent high processed sugar content. A lot of fitness people try to avoid sweets because they go against muscle growth. Would it be possible to produce an ecological, protein-rich candy and still make it taste good? In that case I'm sure the fitness community would be all over it, could be a nice substitute to those horrible protein shakes.

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Muhammad M Rahman4 years ago

Manel Lladó Santaeularia Candy for fitness enthusiasts could be sweetened from natural sources like fruit, they can also have the good extracts from superfoods like avocado as a selling point. The flavouring may be difficult to correct but I imagine fitness conscious people will not be too concerned given the benefits of having these sweets. Regarding protein shakes, rather than eliminating them we could have people consume half a protein shake and supplement that with a few sweets then that would appeal to those who struggle with the healthy eating side of fitness.

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Healthy candies

Nitish Mar 15, 2021

Diseases like diabetes, obesity, fatty liver, and insulin resistance etc., are often associated with added sugars. And, the sugary or sweet taste of the candies is their sole virtue. Therefore, with the growing demand for candies, there is a need for healthy candies with a low or negligible glycemic index. It is good for marketing purposes that candies have myriad attributes like taste, shape, aroma, etc. What if your candy also has health benefit like low blood sugar or probiotic activity. People will surely prefer such things. 
One such innovation linked to the candy industry is the use of rare sugars such as D-allulose, D-Tagatose, Apiose, and Allose instead of traditional sucrose and synthetic sugars. Rare sugars are not only sweeter than sucrose but have a much lower glycemic value. In addition to this, they are also known to have probiotic activities     . Therefore, the use of rare sugars could be an economic and health beneficiary innovation in the candy industry. 

[1]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28457550/

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Probiotics

Martina Pesce Mar 02, 2021

I find the tablets and the small bottles (often in plastic, which is never good) that you are given to take probiotics very boring. Making a candy out of it would make it more pleasuring/stimulating and easier to remember to take it daily since is somehow seen as an unnecessary step after taking antibiotics.  

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Candy construction material for kids and adults to build edible structures

Darko Savic Apr 17, 2022

Here's another idea that you might find interesting:
Replicate real-looking house construction material and process in a miniature, edible variant. Miniature candy bricks and mortar so that kids and adults can build edible structures. It's about getting your hands dirty, following the classic construction process - with food. 

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General comments

Darko Savic4 years ago

What other purposeful uses could a candy have that is statistically more specific to adults? We listed diabetes, after-smoking. What else can we think of?

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Manel Lladó Santaeularia4 years ago

Hi Joice, thank you for creating this session! 

While the topic of marketability of new products and how to reach a broader consumer range is very interesting, it would facilitate the discussion and the contribution by more people if the discussion was done in English, since it is a more widely-used language. We aim to include everyone in the discussions and that is the easiest way to achieve this.

I have edited your session to add a more descriptive title and an English translation. If you are not able to contribute in English, please keep contributing in your language and we'll try to find a way to translate your contributions.

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ByMatěj Fišer

Name/title of a podcast about psychology and behavioral economics in relation to communication and marketing

4 years ago

How to make a candy product interesting to a broader spectrum of customers

Please leave the feedback on this challenge

Necessity

Conciseness

Bounty for the best solution

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Creative contributions

Unusual taste for adults

Please leave the feedback on this idea

Psychoactive candies

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Idosos e Diabéticos / Elderly and Diabetics

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Joke edition candy

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"After cigarette" candy

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Candies that the kids can eat with their medicines

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Marketing campaigns // Chamadas de marketing

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Controversial shape

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Edible functional toy gun

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Emphasis on the eco/bio/organic

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Making different product lines for children, teens and adults / / 3 linhagens jovem, adulto e criança

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Caffeine candy for adults only

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Candies with a message

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Amber candy

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Energy/focus boost candy

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Healthy candies

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Probiotics

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Candy construction material for kids and adults to build edible structures

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General comments

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ByMatěj Fišer

Name/title of a podcast about psychology and behavioral economics in relation to communication and marketing

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