How Sweet It Is: A Profile of Amurol Confections Co.

Managing impulse buying is a tricky business -- just ask Bruce Thompson, vice president of marketing at Amurol Confections Co. He faces the challenge of drawing consumer attention to products that are admittedly "whimsical" purchases. Thompson meets that challenge by providing retailers with a variety of merchandising options in the hope of gaining multiple placements in stores.Amurol, the wholly-owned novelty gum subsidiary of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., is the industry leader in the novelty confections category. The company continues to add high-concept products to its lineup, which includes such brands as Bubble Tape, Big League Chew, Bubble Beeper and a host of other specialty gums. At the same time, the Yorkville, Ill.-based confectioner has successfully penetrated a broad spectrum of trade classes, including mass merchants, supermarkets, drugstores, c-stores, warehouse clubs and video stores. The need for effective P-O-P has increased as the company strives to meet the special needs of each class of trade."Almost every class has a different requirement," says Thompson. "Drugstores want countertop displays with smaller pack counts, while supermarkets like to do a lot of floor displays. Convenience stores like to do power wings and mini-wings because they don't have a lot of space. The club stores like big pallets with multi-packs."Teeth and GumsAmurol was founded in 1948 by Dr. Bruno Petrulis, a Naperville, Ill. dentist. The company's first products were ammoniated toothpaste and tooth powder. Dr. Petrulis soon expanded his company's product line to include sugarfree chewing gum.In 1958, Dr. Petrulis sold Amurol to the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. and the company continued to manufacture sugarfree gums and candies. Then in the '60s, the company developed the first soft, sugarfree bubble gum, named Blammo.During the '70s, Amurol became interested in the novelty gum business and in 1979, Mork Bubble Gum was introduced to the marketplace, followed by Chu-bops, Tidal Wave and Big League Chew.The company discontinued its sugarfree business in the mid-1980s. At about the same time, Amurol introduced one of its most popular products, Bubble Tape."Since the majority of our stuff is kids novelty products, it tends to be an impulse purchase," says Thompson. "As a result, you have to clearly communicate and attract a person's eye, either a kid or a mom with kids. Color and graphics play a huge role in that as well as trying to get as many placements in-store as you can get."Display FlexibilityThe company gains its multiple-store placements by offering retailers a flexible assortment of P-O-P options. For example, the Everest gum launch included a floorstand that had two mini-wings inset in the display. The unit could be used as a floorstand or the two wings could be hung together as one power wing or separately as two mini-wings."Wings and mini-wings come in handy because you can take mini-wings and put six of them around a store," says Thompson. "You have the same amount of product in the store that you would have on a floorstand, but you have six different locations where someone might be able to see it."When approaching a new product, the company begins by determining the classes of trade the product will be sold through, a decision usually made by the marketing and sales departments. They develop a clear objective for the displays and propose possible merchandising vehicles to Thompson and the vice president of sales and merchandising. The graphics department works to develop visuals that support the marketing objectives. Purchasing is then called in to work with vendors to design and produce the display."We spend an awful lot of time making sure that the graphics clearly communicate instantaneously what the product benefits are and why someone would want this product," says Thompson. "In terms of printing, we have very high standards. We work with a number of different vendors and expect them to deliver the kind of printing quality that we require."Though the company works with a variety of suppliers, its key vendors are Commander Packaging Corp., Chicago, and Gamon International Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill. When these companies are contracted to work on a display project, they typically present Thompson with four or five display options. "They'll create and cut prototypes so you can look at them, touch them, put product in them and see what they look like," he says.The display creation process is headed by the brand manager for new products. "The brand manager works closely with sales, purchasing and our graphic design department to pull everything together. It's their responsibility," Thompson says. "For an existing product, most of the displays are already made. We redesign them but that's driven more by the sales department."Thompson evaluates the effectiveness of Amurol's packaging and displays in a variety of ways. For product, packaging design and graphics testing, the company has assembled the Candy Tasters Club. This group is made up of 3,000 children who give their opinions on product ideas, packaging and graphics.Once displays make it into stores, the company uses its own sales data reports and IRI scanner data to assess their effectiveness. "We watch that on a daily basis to see what kinds of sales we've gotten off different merchandising vehicles, how that compares to prior years and how that compares to our forecast," says Thompson.In the end, Amurol's success at retail can be attributed to knowing their consumer and providing retailers with the right tools to stay in front of the customer. "These are impulse items so we have to find as many ways as possible to attract the consumer," says Thompson.

How Sweet It Is: A Profile of Amurol Confections Co.

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