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Sticky business Ptooie!... Gum on the outs
with U.S. chewers
By Bruce Horovitz
Thur., July 16, 1998
FINAL EDITION
Section: MONEY
Page 1B
Say it ain't so, Bazooka Joe.
The gum world's in a wad of trouble.
Sales in the $2.7 billion industry are fast losing flavor. Domestic sales of
regular gum have fallen almost 5% over the past year, reports
Information Resources. And sales of many sugarless gum brands, which
account for about a third of all gum sales and had been propping up the
industry, have slowed. Top-selling Wrigley's Extra, for example, fell
1.9%. And Carefree dropped 7.5%.
Things are so bad that some of the world's biggest gum makers are all
but giving up on making gum fun. Instead, they're making it, ugh,
functional. Some suggest the future of gum is to cajole chewers to:
Wake up. Stay Alert, a gum with the caffeine equivalent of a cup
coffee in a single stick, has just hit the market. It's made by
Amurol, a division of Wrigley that until now has specialized in
kid-targeted bubble gums like Bubble Tape.
Smell better. Teens concerned with bad breath are the targets of
new, powerfully flavored gums such as Dentyne Ice, Ice
Breakers and Winterfresh. All are big sellers.
Lose weight. Chroma Trim Gum from GumTech claims it
''increases metabolism and reduces fat.''
Smile wider. Arm & Hammer just introduced Dental Care, an
oral-hygiene gum with baking soda that it says can reduce plaque
by 25%. It's sold on the toothpaste aisle. Trident also last month
introduced Trident Advantage, an oral-care gum made with
baking soda.
Live healthier. GumTech has an array of gums on the market that
it claims will improve your love life (Love Gum with ginseng is
called a ''full potency gum for romantics''), strengthen your
bones (Calcium Gum) and soothe your throat (Zinc Gum).
Take vitamins. A single 25-cent gum ball of Ford Xtreme
Vitamin C Gum, sold mostly in health-food stores, has the
vitamin C equivalent of a glass of orange juice.
Breathe easier. Amurol is looking into gum to relieve congestion.
Some gum makers are waiting on the sidelines. LifeSavers, a division of
Nabisco and maker of Carefree and Ice Breakers gums, has no
immediate plans to create functional gum. ''There's too much hoopla
right now,'' says President Jim Goldman. ''We'll stick to creating gums
that taste good.''
Not all functional gums are hits. After a short stint on the market,
Nautilus Sports Gum -- with a liquid center of vitamin C -- was
dropped last year. ''Retailers didn't know where to put it,'' says Chris
Tzetzo, marketing chief at Clark Gum.
Still, functional gum is the industry's fastest-growing sector. Does that
mean gum is turning its back on kids? No. Kids are turning their backs
on gum.
''The problem is, kids moved along but the category stayed stagnant,''
says Paul Cherrie, marketing chief at Concord Confections, which
recently bought Dubble Bubble gum. To boost interest in the brand, a
Dubble Bubble gum ball is in the works.
Even toymakers are aware of gum's decline. Some are stuffing novelties
with candy instead of gum. ''Kids tell us they don't want gum,'' says Jay
Tapper, whose toy firm instead puts goodies such as Gummies into its
toys. ''Gum's boring.''
A hip Bazooka Joe
After almost a decade of dwindling sales, the makers of Bazooka
bubble gum figure there's just one thing left to do: turn mascot Bazooka
Joe into a '90s kind of dude.
He's about to start a rock band. And his pals soon will look a lot less
white-bread. He'll be hanging out with A.J., an African American who
plays blues guitar and wears dreadlocks, and Kara, a Hispanic girl
whose long bangs cover her eyes.
''Gum could stand to get a lot more edgy,'' says Tom Doggs, brand
manager for Bazooka, which is owned by Topps. ''Kids still get tossed
out of school for chewing gum. If you're a gum chewer, you also can be
a bad ass.'' Or a tough cookie. Like Michael Jordan. Or Madonna. Or
Jack Nicholson. All are known to snatch a stick now and then.
But even they can't seem to make gum cool.
Chewing gum used to be an early sign of autonomy for kids, says Jerald
Jellison, a social psychology professor at the University of Southern
California. But today there are more dramatic ways to anger parents.
Like smoking. And drinking. And drugs. Gum isn't even being chewed
anymore by teen heartthrobs and other prepubescent trendsetters in the
movies or on TV.
Worse yet for the gum makers, as America ages it chews less and less
gum. ''The demographics are working against us,'' says John Craig,
who heads the gum division at Warner-Lambert, which makes Trident,
Dentyne and Chiclets.
Consider: The majority of gum chewers are between the ages of 6 and
18. But the average age of all Americans was 34.6 in 1996, compared
with 30 in 1980, reports the Census Bureau.
Besides, adults make lousy gum chewers. Some suffer dental problems.
Others don't want to set poor examples for their kids. And they rarely
see their peers chewing gum.
What's more, ad budgets for most gum makers are paltry. Bazooka
isn't spending one nickel on TV ads. And even the gum world's biggest
ad spender, Wrigley, spends about one-third of what candy giant Mars
spends in a year to tout its chocolates.
The big gum makers say the most gnawing competition is coming from
outside -- not inside -- the industry. Makers of sour candy, salty snacks
and breath mints are cleaning up, even as gum makers fight for what
they call ''share of stomach.''
Gum-free zone
Some candy stores have given up on gum altogether.
''I stopped carrying gum about 10 years ago,'' says John Reilly,
manager of Dairy Fresh Candies, a popular sweet shop in Boston. Not
only doesn't it sell well at his store, he says, but he can't get the good
deals on it that he can get on candy.
At Candy Castle in Westwood, Calif., one of the larger candy, gum
and novelty shops in southern California, gum is getting less shelf space.
''About the only time people buy gum in here is when they need change
for the bus,'' says Shirly Agaki, assistant manager.
That is not to say that Americans don't chew a lot of gum. Last year,
Americans chewed 485 billion sticks of gum. That's about 2,000 sticks
for every man, woman and child.
And some newer brands are seeing tremendous growth. Sales of Ice
Breakers gum rocketed 70% last year to about $75 million. And in its
fifth year, Winterfresh has evolved into a $150 million brand. Dentyne's
sales jumped 15% for the first quarter of 1998, in part due to strong
demand for Dentyne Ice.
But overall, gum sales in the USA are down. That's why companies
such as Wrigley and Warner-Lambert are relying on foreigners --
especially in Eastern Europe, Japan, Russia and India -- to chew more.
Wrigley sells 65% of its gum outside the USA.
And boosting domestic revenue by raising prices on a pack of gum is
like, well, pulling teeth. Wrigley, which sells about half the gum sold in
the USA, knows best of all how consumers revolt when the price of
gum goes up.
''They don't like it,'' understates Ron Cox, marketing chief at Wrigley's,
maker of Doublemint, Juicy Fruit and Big Red. Two years ago, when it
raised the price of its value packs from $1.39 to $1.79, consumers
responded by buying less, Cox says.
As a result, Wrigley's hasn't raised the 25-cent price of a pack of
regular gum since 1987.
''What else you can buy for 25 cents,'' Cox asks. ''Not even a phone
call.'' |
