Hip lollipops prove that success sucks
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Martha Woodham Staff Writer
Heard of Chupa Chups? No? Ask your kid.
Chances are, your children not only know about the trendy lollipops, they have sampled one, while most American adults are among the terminally unhip who have never heard of the Atlanta-based suckers with the grown-up taste.
Even though about 230 million will be sold in the United States this year. Even though the brand has been sold in this country for about 20 years.
Chupa Chups has never advertised, yet the company expects U.S. sales of $50 million this year -- literally by word of mouth. The company has captured free publicity by giving away Chupa Chups in New York nightclubs and at star-studded Hollywood and MTV events.
Distributed to the paparazzi-pursued, the suckers ended up in front of famous faces in slick fanzines. Chupa Chups may be found with models at fashion shows in New York, with rock stars at MTV events, with the in-crowd at New York and Miami nightclubs, with Atlantans as they stand in line to see "The Blair Witch Project" at the Tara movie theater.
"Our objective is to let the consumer experience the brand," said Greg McCormick, general manger of Chupa Chups U.S.A., of the company's "street" marketing. "People use cigarettes as a flirting tool. It's a replacement for cigarettes. It's sexy, innocent fun. A taste is worth a thousand words."
Piggybacking onto the celebrity of events or people is an inexpensive way for companies like Chupa Chups to reach their target market -- young consumers who see themselves as young style-setters.
And the prize is no mere trifle: The National Confectioners Association of McLean, Va., estimates that the candy industry is worth $23.5 billion annually.
Maximizing ad dollars
"It's a David and Goliath issue," said Dr. Thomas Leigh, University of Georgia professor and director of the Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies. "The Hersheys and the Mars companies are the big powerhouses. The little company comes in with a limited advertising dollars. The question is, how do you concentrate your efforts to try to get some impact?"
Compared to Hershey Foods Corp. (NYSE: HSY), with annual sales of $4.4 billion, and Mars, a privately held, diversified company with worldwide sales for all products estimated at $15 billion, Chupa Chups is tiny, one bonbon in a 500-pound box of chocolates.
But the company is gaining recognition in its target market. Research shows that brand awareness for Chupa Chups among 14- to 24-year-olds is 47 percent. It drops to just 2 percent for older, more MTV-challenged Americans.
"This slightly irreverent product lent itself to a different approach," said Jan Lewin, managing director and senior vice president of Manning, Selvage & Lee, the Atlanta communications agency that handles the account.
`Licking' the competition
Lewin's company came up with the idea of "lick lines," where Chupa Chups representatives pass out free suckers. It's a simple idea with a complicated marketing concept behind it: Everyone in line wants to share the group's experience of tasting the suckers.
"It breaks through the clutter," Lewin said. "You have a captive audience. You have nothing competing for their attention."
Before the celebrity buzz as "sucker to the stars," brand recognition for Chupa Chups was very "spotty," McCormick said. Since celebrities such as Brandy, Elton John and Sheryl Crow have been sucker-sighted, sales have doubled.
From its beginning in 1957, the privately owned S.A. Chupa Chups, based in Barcelona, Spain, has always seized marketing opportunities. Founder Enric Bernat called his lollipops "Chups," derived from the Spanish word for "to suck." But he renamed the candy after consumers misunderstood an ad jingle and began asking for "Chupa Chups." Bernat later turned to Surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design the Chupa Chups logo.
Bernat's children now run the company, which also selsl SMINT, strongly flavored mints popular with teenagers, and other candies.
Ramping up marketing
Now Chupa Chups is further ramping up its marketing. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chupa Chups, called Tongue Painters, were introduced in commemorative tins at Halloween. Packaging one of TV's hottest shows with lollipops that turn the tongue green, purple or black was a marketing move that went straight for the jugular.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer personifies the Chupa Chups spirit," said Greg Heanue, the Chupa Chups brand manager who masterminded the deal."The target for the show enjoys our brand. This affiliation makes us even more relevant to the show's audience."
The company is also poised to add advertising, a move that McCormick hopes will not alienate its young, media-savvy consumers, a notoriously fickle group. The first Chupa Chups commercial for the United States will be shot in London this month.
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