Candy CRM: Beyond the Customer’s Taste Buds

Candy CRMEe bus Beyond the Customer's Taste Buds. Candy companies have long been masters of customer relationship management. Here are awesome aspects of candy, besides the taste, that fulfill the three phases of CRM: 1. Acquire 2. Enhance 3. Retain 1. Acquire Customers Before inventing its dispensers, P33 was a mediocre European breath mint company. Their tins of black peppermint breath mints did not attract a lot of customers. PEZ lit the fuse of success when they introduced a cigarette lighter shaped PEZ dispenser in 1948. Dispensed Candy Dispensed Fire PEZ becomes the company we know today when they introduce the big head PEZ dispenser in 1955. Creating a fun toy and recasting PEZ as a children's candy company allows them to cross sell toys along with their candy. P33 has since become an American icon. Highest price paid for a PEZ dispenser on Ebay: $32,205. $32,205 could buy 8,000+ lbs of PEZ candies. TPEP 1982 World's Fair Astronaut B. 2. Enhance the Experience fixed the one thing people didn't like about chocolate. Chocolate candies had been enjoyed since 1847, but since chocolate has a low melting point of 93 degrees farenheit the candies would melt in the customer's pocket. Sales would drop significantly in the summer. During the Spanish Civil War, Forrest Mars got the idea for M&Ms when he saw soldiers eating chocolate candies with a tempered chocolate shell that prevented the chocolate from melting. In 1941, Mars improved the shell, making it a hard candy coating. He then partnered with Hershey's Chocolate to make M&M's for American soldiers fighting in WWII. The candies were a welcome delicacy and they didn't melt in the heat of battle. have since become the best selling candy in America with sales of $673 million per year. The colored shell palette has gone through several changes over the years. Brown Yellow Red Orange Green Violet Tan Blue 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 3. Retain Customers Belly Succeeded in turning jelly beans into food for athletes. In 1997, Red Bull entered the US market. Energy drinks became the new, cooler, way to ingest sugar, caffeine, and energy. Energy drinks gained more and more market share in the US and began to steal customers who ate jelly beans for the energy in the candy's sugar. Jelly Belly realized their product did have inherent advantages as an energy food. It was portable, quick and easy to eat, did not have to be kept cold, and tasted great. By adding a few energizing ingredients they modernized their product to remain competitive. Jelly Belly Has since created a professional triathalon team. That's more than 34 fully loaded Jelly Belly produces 34 million lbs of jelly beans per year. 747s. Jelly Belly Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management#Types.2Fvariations destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/What-Is-CRM-46033.aspx destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/The-Truth-About-CRM-Success-&-Failure-45491.aspx destinationcrm.com/articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/Looking-for-Loyalty--55703.aspx pezcentral.com/history.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M&M%27s PEZ EPE PEE YEPEZ PEE PEZ :PEZ