The bubble gum from Cadbury-Kraft Foods is targeting young adults as opposed to pre-teens.
The ad is bang on. The first visual shows a rather chubby adolescent, the cynosure of the eyes of his neighbourhood aunts. Tired of being the plump little boy, he chews Bubbaloo gum in the hope of drawing the attention of the girls. He succeeds. The girls are drawn to him.
The new ‘Face Ka Gym’ commercial for Bubbaloo bubble gum is a quirky take on the consumption of gum, but it also summarises what Cadbury-Kraft, the maker of the product, is attempting to do. Since 2010, the foods major has been targeting young adults in a bid to move up the consumption curve.
Traditionally bubble gum has been identified with children. It is also the larger of the segments within the Rs 1,200-crore overall gum market, occupying 64 per cent of the space. The other segments include chewing gum, both functional and sugarised, and sugar-free gum. Their shares are 8 per cent (chewing gum functional), 27 per cent (chewing gum sugarised) and one per cent (sugar-free gum) respectively.
But this wasn’t how the market was shaped six years ago. Bubble gum in 2005-06 constituted 80 per cent of the overall gum market, with the balance 20 per cent being chewing gum.
In the last few years, the chewing gum category has grown from 20 per cent to 35 per cent (both functional and sugarised put together), which according to market experts is because gum consumption is no more perceived as being a kid's pastime alone. It is slowly but steadily evolving into an adult category.
The result is that not only the chewing gum players but also the bubble gum manufacturers are speaking to adults.
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Narayan Sundararaman, director, powdered beverages, gum and candy, Cadbury-Kraft Foods, says “We found that Bubbaloo was liked by young adults as much as by pre-teens. We thought this could be leveraged.”
Even a competitor like Big Babol from Perfetti Van Melle has been targeting both kids and teenagers through its advertising. Says Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Worldgroup India, the creative agency for Big Babol: “With Babol we have focused on the obsession that children and teenagers have of blowing disproportionately large bubbles. They simply love it.”
According to market experts, with the chewing gum category growing at 30 per cent per annum against bubble gum’s 15 per cent, bubble gum players are gearing up for what is likely to happen in the future: chewing gum emerging as a larger category than bubble gum.
World over chewing gum is a much bigger category than bubble gum. India, say market experts, has been an exception this far. But with gum makers coming up with both indulgent and healthy products, the trend could change, they say.
Anand Ramanathan, associate director, KPMG, says, “Chewing bubble gum has always been dissuaded by parents in India. In contrast, chewing gum as a category has benefitted on account of the endorsement by oral care practitioners.”
Chewing gum advertising itself has undergone a sea-change in the last 10 to 15 years with humour playing a major role in most commercials.
Joshi, the architect of campaigns for Happydent and Chlormint from Perfetti, says humour is possibly one of the best tools in a category such as gum. “How else do you make it exciting?,” he asks. Says Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy, in charge of gum brands Center Fruit and Center Fresh from Perfetti: “Since you are speaking to a youngster, it becomes important to find something that can make him laugh.”
This thought is slowly but steadily beginning to resonate in the bubble gum category too.
While brands such as Boomer from Wrigley’s continue to play up the kiddie theme, other players are singing a different tune. Sundararaman says that the packaging of Bubbaloo has also undergone a change recently to reflect the new reality.