Hurts So Good
Just knowing that old John Mellencamp song makes me far too old to personally enjoy the near pain-inducing sour flavor of this kid riot-causing candy. If you don’t know, Mega Warheads is a candy so sour that all packages come with this cautionary message: First 50 seconds are EXTREMELY INTENSE. Hang in there!
In spite of this upbeat encouragement, I have not made it past mega-spitting the very millisecond my saliva glands meet their Warhead maker. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the product genius behind its creation, or the marketing opportunities it affords those of us who like our pleasure without the pain. The situation is this: Mega Warheads enjoys cult status among kids, particularly boys 8 to 16. The playground talk value it creates is nearly all the awareness it needs. But, alas, many a kid has been swayed in the candy aisle by another bright, shiny wrapper. Even worse are the lost boys who can’t find Mega Warheads at their local candy haven. We had to build loyalty, continuity, and increase national distribution.
First the kids. How about the chance to blow out their eardrums while they simultaneously annihilate their taste buds? That’s the magic behind The Mega Sour Collect & Win Game. Kids collect gamepieces to win a mega Sony Electronics system or win one of 10,000 prizes instantly. Instant gratification with a long shot at winning big – two tactics that work with kids. We announced the promotion on-pack and in DC Comics. We supported it with Warhead survival contests in key markets and appearances by the Warhead mascot, Wally. Lots of Wally merchandise to build brand awareness. The message was out.
Now to convince grown-up retailers to stock kid-targeted products they’d never heard of. The unpredictable “what’s next” nature of the kids business makes research next to impossible to get until the sensation is in full swing. We educated our customer with sales materials making bold claims about our supreme sour positioning. We double-dog-dared them to try Warheads at the Candy Expo. We added true life stories of kids’ experiences with Warheads: being banned from school, mobbed on the playground, locked in semi-permanent puckering. The results of this mega promotion? While The Foreign Candy Company won’t divulge sales figures, they do admit, as keepers of the Mega Warheads empire, life is sweeeeet.
