The confectionery industry, a thriving multibillion-dollar sector, offers a vast market for growth; From local candy shops to global giants like Haribo and Nestle SA, the industry is ripe with potential. In this article, we will explore strategies of social responsibility, production line efficiency, and visual representation that both corporations and local candy stores can harness to tap into this potential.
Color-based Strategies for Confectionery Businesses
Future of branding and visual attraction of products is dependent on consumer behavior, sustainability, and health. Companies and small stores must first identify these new trends and adapt to them to resonate better with customers who are seeking these trends. Understanding social media influence, in addition to market disruptors, helps you identify new trends with innovative products that challenge traditional categories. These factors directly influence customer choice. We will explore new trends and offer color-based strategies that can help you take advantage of these trends.
Food For Body and Mind
The dominating trend in the market is foods that enhance physical and mental health. Taste is no longer the main factor, as consumers are now more interested in ingredients like ashwagandha and maca, which boost mood and immunity. This trend, along with others, underscores the correlation between emotional well-being and physical health, providing a new perspective on marketing confectionery products.
Psychological concepts like altered state of mind support the idea that a connection between mind and body exists. For example, using colorful ingredients like CBD and neurogenic can promote feelings of relaxation and general health. As an owner of a bakery that produces confectionery businesses, you can use healthy ingredients like Ashwagandha in your baked goods to promote your shop as a place that genuinely cares about its customers’ health. Remember that you have to express the fact you are using healthy ingredients, whether through your bakery menu or your social media account.
Healthy Hedonism
Most brands use ingredients with a colorful design. Many brands are using bold colors and fun designs to attract customers who care about both the health benefits and aesthetics of confectionary products. The main objective of this confectionery marketing strategy is to create a connection between health benefits and the enjoyment of confectionary products that are usually considered to be unhealthy and full of sugar. A good example is using subtle and calming colors for sleep products like gummies that have melatonin in their ingredients, emphasizing tranquility and calmness.
Healthy hedonism is a new trend that emphasizes healthy food. It combines multiple factors, such as nutrition, physical condition, and mental health, dictating consumers to choose products that are both enjoyable and healthy. Healthy Hedonism aims to destroy misconceptions about health being boring and not pleasant to eat. This trend undermines conventional beliefs that healthy food can only have a dull appearance.
How do colors influence Consumer Behavior?
For confectionery products, colors are crucial. One of the primary consumers of these products is children, who can’t differentiate candy brands based on their name or health benefits but on their color. Children are more likely to choose candy because its color is the same as their favorite color. If you put a child in a situation where they have to choose between two different colors, one being a candy from a famous brand and the other a cheap candy from a local store, the child in this scenario will choose the cheap candy if the color of the candy is their favorite color.
When we talk about kids, you may think that it is normal for a child to choose a candy or cake because of its color, but what about adults? They don’t just decide based on the color. They consider other factors such as economic efficiency, health benefits, and the actual taste of the product. To be blunt, that is not the case at all. Adults like to think they consider more important factors, but they tend to choose confectionery products similar to the ways that kids do. Sensory experience is by far more important than taste, and new generations like Generation Z select more colorful products, showcasing how the creative presentation of confectionery products can bring up memories of childhood and evoke a kind of escapism.
Colors and consumer demands for sustainability
There are several ways to showcase sustainability in your products, but one that has been remarkably more efficient than others is using natural colors. Many brands are adapting farming strategies for cocoa to ensure their customers that they care about environmental responsibilities in production. You have to adapt to your customers’ demands regarding sustainability, emphasizing both social welfare and the environment. Most brands are now under pressure from Generation Z consumers to be more transparent about their products’ ingredients and production processes.
While famous brands have the agenda to become more green, using natural colors and vibrant packaging, they are still resisting changing policies that are actually beneficial for the environment. A lot of people criticize confectionery corporations for not changing their policies. At the same time, those people advocate for local small businesses that are making an effort to maintain sustainability. As a business owner, no matter what type of confectionery products you are selling, you can take advantage of this trend and advertise your shop as a green shop on social media to attract more customers.
A bulk handling system
In this section, we will explore the benefits of a bulk-handling system for a production line design, including improvements in quality, payback of investment, and circularity. A bulk handling system is a strategy for automated dosing that can improve working conditions and product production volume based on the requirements of a specific application. The main goal is to design a turnkey system. A system is considered turnkey when it is user-independent and covers the whole process without any need for a third-party supplier.
You have to look at the bulk-handling system as an organic unity that covers all the departments in your company, including marketing and technical departments, as well as warehouses and production.
You must consider several factors before designing a system for your business or company. These include optimizing your product line, reducing waste, increasing product production volume, establishing facilities, and achieving your personal goals.
steps of installing a bulk handling system
There are three significant steps for installing the bulk handling system.
- Material design
- site evaluation
- connection with production
Material design
The first thing to consider before applying a bulk handling system in your company is analyzing the ingredients you want to use in your products. These processes work for both small business owners and companies that are still in the early stages of development. For example, you aim to produce products that enhance both physical and mental health. In that case, you need specific ingredients like ashwagandha, so you have to be aware of the technical necessities for ashwagandha in order to increase the capacity of your production line. In material design, you should focus on more than just the products that you are currently producing. Still, you have to think a step ahead and consider the necessities for the products that you want to include in your production line in the future.
To identify possible future products, you need to assemble a marketing team to analyze trends and identify products with the most potential. If your business is still developing and you cannot afford to hire a marketing team, you can identify trends through social media to find products with future potential. By identifying potential products, you can calculate the cost of ingredients that you need and prepare the technical requirements for processing the ingredients.
Site Evaluation
Basically, in site evaluation, you have to decide where to put your technical equipment and connect it to other equipment in your factory. Site evaluation is a delicate process because you must have the technical knowledge to install equipment in a manner that can reduce power consumption and ease the workflow in your factory or workplace. Factors that you have to consider in these parts are potential outdoor or indoor space for installing your equipment, the height of the building and rooms, environment evaluation and mixers, and dosing points.
Connection with Production
After you finish the site evaluation, you can start focusing on connecting with production. Knowing what type of products your customers consume is essential for interacting with other parts of the installation process.
Automation
Automation plays a crucial part in a bulk-handling system because it allows you to design solutions based on the requirements. Automation gives you the ability to upgrade your production line in the future. This is very beneficial when you get a tip from your marketing team to add a new product because you can prepare for production faster than your competition and with less money. It is also helpful in gathering all the information you need for your products and machines, including details of ingredients. The data then can be used by an EPR to analyze all aspects of the production line.
Packaging for confectionery products
Packaging your products influences your pricing and sales volume. There are two types of validity that you can use to measure the quality of your packaging. First is face validity, which, as its name suggests, is about the design and looks of your packages. The second type of validity is sustainability; you have to use sustainable materials according to the concept of extended social responsibility.
Sustainable packaging for confectionery products
As producers of a product, you have responsibilities over the packaging of your products, whether related to the expiration date or the sustainability of the materials used in the packaging. Extended producer responsibility, or EPR, is a new concept that extends the responsibilities of a product to the post-consumer stage. The general belief is that if you use materials like paper or plastic that are labeled as recyclable or composite, you set for packaging sustainability. However, new data indicates that there is actually a discrepancy between products that are labeled as recyclable and products that get through the recycling process.
More than just using products with recyclable tags is required; you have to think about strategies for tracking your products after your customers are done with them. Circularity is a concept that dictates the return of used materials after they are recycled back to your company. As small business owners, you may need more facilities and a bigger budget to ensure that the material you are using gets back to your shop or production line. Still, you can hire companies and services that provide you with actual recycled materials. You can even have promotions for your customers by giving them a small discount to redeem the package of the products after they have consumed it. This strategy is more than just sound in terms of material. Still, it also attracts other customers because customers care about social responsibilities just as much, if not more, than the quality of your products. Also, you can gain the loyalty of the customers that you already have. Recycling for small shops and bakeries can also be a great way to earn extra cash.
Since consumers and policies demand sustainability, you have to use other strategies to assure them that you’re trying your best to cater to their demands. One way is to educate your employees on the recycling process so that when customers ask about your recycling policies, they get the answer they want. Regardless of the challenge and extra budget that sustainability policies can have for your business, you have to look at this situation as an opportunity to enhance your customer service and build customer loyalty.
