Blair Candy: Product Expansion Strategy

I. Company Profile

Blair Candy is a family owned candy distributor based in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The company has been in operation since 1939, with current management comprising of the third and fourth generations of the founding family (Blair Candy). Despite its name, Blair Candy distributes a wide range of products, including tobacco products and accessories, paper products, party supplies, bar and restaurant supplies; its primary focus remains candy products, however. It should be emphasized that Blair Candy does not manufacture any of its products; the company distributes products sourced from manufacturers.

Blair’s sphere of operation is interesting: its customer base is comprised of businesses and individuals, meaning it handles both wholesale and retail. Currently, customers can place orders through their online outlet at blaircandy.com, purchase in person from their warehouse in Altoona, or contact the company directly vis email or phone call for a wider range and customized product orders. From the way their website is organized, it is apparent that the online store is more geared towards direct-to-customer retail sales, as customers have the option to purchase smaller quantities; their warehouse and custom orders via phone call/email are likely more geared towards other businesses.

In terms of their product lines, Blair has an extremely wide selection of candy products sourced from ‘almost every manufacturer’(Blair Candy Blog), and customers can see them categorized by both event/holiday and type (chocolate, lollipop, dummies etc.). Blair’s product selection is constantly updated with new products released for upcoming seasons and/or holidays. A recent release they have highlighted on their online store is the Halloween Popcorn Ball manufactured by Kathy Kaye Farms.

fig.1: Product Listing of the Halloween Popcorn Ball on Blair’s website

I.a. Product Description

The product is designed for sale during Halloween season, denoted by the color and design of the packaging (orange with black halloween patterns). More specifically, it is designed as a trick-or- treat product, as each popcorn ball is individually wrapped in festive packaging, and the box containing them all includes the phrase in large print. The product contains 24 individual popcorn balls, and is currently listed on Blair Candy’s online retail website for 10.95USD. Blair Candy’s description markets the product as both a trick-or-treat item and a ‘delicious autumn snack’, highlighting its low calorie count at 110 calories per ball, its individual packaging, and and its domestic manufacturer (blaircandy.com).

I.b. Market Segments

From the characteristics of the product and its product description on the website, several relevant segments can be identified. The product’s specific design means that it is only relevant to those who partake in the corresponding holiday: Halloween. As such, the relevant bases of segmentation include demographics — the appropriate age groups, family dynamics, and income conducive to purchasing this product; geographics — locations that would be more suitable for trick-or-treating, for example; and lifestyle and behavior — relevant lifestyle and consumption choices that drive people to purchase the Halloween Popcorn Ball. The following customer profiles have been built with the aforementioned segments in mind: parents of children, students and student groups, and employees looking to host company-wide events.

1. Parents

This customer profile would include parents with children of all ages but with a focus on toddlers to early teens, as they are the primary participants in neighborhood trick-or-treating. It is more likely that they would be living in suburban areas with high safety, likely near a school district with a high density of households with children, as this is an environment that is more conducive to trick-or-treating. In terms of lifestyle, these parents would be more invested in their children’s needs, willing to spend more on their education and other childhood experiences, Halloween included. A feature of the Halloween Popcorn Balls that would further help define this profile would be the low calorie health appeal, as there has been a trend in younger ‘millenial’ parents geared towards healthier diets for their children (D’Adamo 2015)

2. Employees

This customer profile would include employees looking to order products for company snack rooms or company social events. This means that demographically, the relevant segment would be white collar workers, and geographically, they would be located near larger cities with a high concentration of white collar company branches. The individual packaging of the Popcorn Balls would appeal to the lifestyle choice of this group, as most 9–5 companies have pantry areas with snacks for employees.

3. Student Groups

Student activities groups, particularly those in college comprised of students aged 18–25, is another relevant customer profile as they often host themed events for purposes such as fundraising and on campus visibility/recruitment. The geographic segment would be college towns; the corresponding lifestyle and behavior segments would be budget and style consciousness, as they would likely focus on saving and creating profit, in addition to buy ing products relevant to their events.

In addition to this, a separate yet relevant market segment for the Halloween Popcorn Balls would be speciality stores such as Spirit Halloween or Party City, due to the customized, event- specific nature of the product.

Other than the characteristics of the product itself, Blair’s dynamic sales outlets and varying customer types is another way of understanding the relevant market segments for this product. While the online market has been designed for direct-to-customer retail, it has also become an online channel for its wholesale market (Demery 2018). The online store has seen a recent growth in a new, unexpected segment of customers: those who began with smaller scale retail purchases for personal use, such as holiday or birthday parties, then returned to purchase higher quantities for work related purposes such as events or company break rooms (Macharola, quoted in Demery 2018). Blair has capitalized on this new customer base by creating an online wholesale royalty program, where frequent and high volume customers are able to receive discounts on purchases above 150USD, on tiered categories depending on their purchase history (Blair Candies Wholesale Program).

I.c.Target Customer Profile

Between these relevant customer segments, Blair’s unique online loyalty-based wholesale program is a factor that helps determine the most fitting customer profile to target for the new Halloween Popcorn Ball product. It suggests an ideal customer who is a combination of several segments: families with children under the age of 18 living in the suburbs who also work in white collar jobs. The former segment corresponds to customers who would be interested in purchasing candy in smaller retail quantities; the latter factor would ensure that the customers would be interested in taking advantage of the online wholesale option for possible corporate functions, allowing Blair Candies to establish a more sustained customer base in the long run.

II. Expansion Strategy

Several variables have been placed into consideration to pinpoint a geographical area for Blair’s product programming of the Halloween popcorn balls. As the best fit customer traits were parents working in white collar jobs with small children living in safer suburban areas who were willing to spend on behalf of their children’s entertainment, potential areas in the US were ranked in terms of white collar employment percentage, percentage of married families with children under the age of 18, and average spending on candy and chewing gum. Additional variables placed into consideration were neighborhood safety, expenditure on boys and girls’ costumes, and entertainment supplies as indicators of the residents’ willingness to partake in Halloween festivities.

The first variable considered was the average expenditure on candy and chewing gum, as it was the category most directly relevant to the product in consideration and the company at large. Among the top 20 cities in the US, Ben Avon Heights, PA stood out at 11th place (129.77USD per household) as it had the highest percentage of married families with children under the age of 18, at 53% (Simplyanalytics). It also happened to be located in the same state as Blair, which can be advantageous for several reasons. Firstly, customers may feel more inclined to purchase from Blair as it is a family owned business in their home state; secondly, despite the fact that these individual customers are more likely to purchase the products online, customers would also have the option to purchase the products in person at the warehouse if needed; thirdly, the proximity to the warehouse means faster shipping times, another incentive for customers to purchase the product.

Other Location Possibilities

Several other neighborhoods in Pennsylvania were considered alongside Ben Avon Heights. The process involved cross-checking data from Simplyanalytics with another online source, HomeSnacks, which combines census, FBI, and map data to evaluate communities across the US (About Us, HomeSnacks). A neighborhood that consistently ranked highly in the lists for safest best places to raise a family in PA were Franklin Park and Fox Chapel (Kolmar 2019), which coincidentally also had high household expenditure in entertainment supplies and children’s costumes, a high percentage of white collar workers, and high percentages of families with children under the age of 18. What was interesting, however, was that these three neighborhoods were in close proximity of one another, and were all suburbs of Pittsburg, PA, which relates to an aforementioned point that geographically, a relevant market segment would be the suburbs near large cities.

Conclusion

Considering the characteristics of the three possible neighborhoods, a potential option for Blair could be to target either the general suburb area, or create campaigns in downtown Pittsburg areas where residents of all these suburban neighborhoods would frequent. Besides having factors that correspond to an appropriate target customer for the Halloween Popcorn Balls and Blair Candies at large, choosing an area within Pennsylvania as a product programming target carries its own advantage, and is the best option for Blair Candies.

Works Cited

D’Adamo, Ann. Millennial Moms Prioritize Healthy Foods | Wmi. https://www.stellarising.com/ blog/2015/11/millennial-moms-prioritize-healthy-foods/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2019.

Demery, Paul. “A Candy Wholesaler Finds Sweet Growth on the Web.” Digital Commerce 360, 25 July 2018, https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/07/25/a-candy-wholesaler-finds- sweet-growth-on-the-web/.

Kolmar, Chris. “10 Safest Cities In Pennsylvania For 2019.” HomeSnacks, Sept. 2019, https:// www.homesnacks.net/cities/safest-places-in-pennsylvania/.

Kolmar, Chris. “10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Pennsylvania For 2019.” HomeSnacks, 23 Feb. 2019, https://www.homesnacks.net/best-cities-for-families-in-pennsylvania-1211125/.

Watt, Abigail. Blair Candy Co. Celebrates 16th Year Online with Discount Program. 7 Oct. 2015, https://www.candyindustry.com/articles/86977-blair-candy-co-celebrates-16th-year-online- with-discount-program?v=preview.