Swiss premium chocolate producer Lindt & Sprüngli this week formally unveiled a bold new category vision for travel retail, led by a drive to “add confectionery to every basket by 2030”.
On Wednesday, at the company’s Home of Chocolate – a museum that has already become Switzerland’s second-most visited attraction since opening in September 2020 in Kilchberg, near Zürich – Lindt outlined its plans to travel retail media. They are designed to boost the chocolate category and “make travel more indulgent”, according to the brand owner.
The strategy is based on research data from an extensive domestic and travel year-long consumer study called Polaris, which is continuing. So far over 100,000 interviews have been conducted, allowing Lindt to identify multiple consumption moments and hone five key demand growth drivers for travel retail specifically:
*Treat – something quick and easy that feels like a treat
*Indulge – something that offers an escape
*Recharge – something practical to combat hunger, low-energy, or boredom
*Connect – something to share
*Delight – something to give to others.
Lindt has further refined these five lead demand drivers based on 20 sub-elements such as ‘considered gifting’, ‘refined moments’, ‘sociable sharing’, and ‘emotional boost’ and allocated each one a percentage that defines their importance. Using this matrix, the company plans to recruit more buyers into the category; increase volumes per shopper; and push up the value of each transaction from buyers.
For the latter task, travel retail has the biggest role to play versus domestic markets because it is already a premiumised channel where confectionery has one of the best footfall rates (21%) and conversion rates (49%) compared to other core categories like alcohol or perfumes.
Last year, the division also saw triple-digit year-on-year sales growth of +109%, which was higher than the overall organic growth at Lindt & Sprüngli Group, where turnover grew +10.8% to CHF4.97 billion ($US5.43 billion).
Some 55% of those surveyed in the study were willing to pay more for premium chocolate and Lindt can also rely on the fact that 64% of consumers said that they “love chocolate” while 65% claimed they always have chocolate in the house. This is therefore a very loyal market that can be tapped further using a targeted approach in travel retail, said the company.
Head of Global Travel Retail Peter Zehnder commented: “The beauty of the demand landscapes we have identified allows us to really tailor retail and product concepts for different locations in the channel.”
London Heathrow places first HPP under new strategy
A good example of the strategy in action is the first airport high-profile promotion (HPP), which opened on Thursday at the Dufry/World Duty Free store at London Heathrow Terminal 4, in time for Easter. The installation is aligned to the Delight (gifting) pillar.
The HPP encourages travellers to ‘bring home the gift of bliss’ and focuses on one of Lindt’s bestseller lines, Lindor, with freshly-made truffle balls in 400g tubes. Also present is a live master chocolatier making fresh balls for passengers to taste. The products are sold with fully-dedicated gifting extras like wrapping, cards and bags. The pop-up runs until 26 April.
Scalable physical concepts derived from this first pilot are ready to be deployed in smaller airport and other spaces. Discussions with travel retailers are underway and up to around six of the larger HPPs are possible this year, plus smaller promotions totalling more than 100. “Retailers are increasingly looking for these kinds of experiential activations and are willing to try new ideas, especially after Covid,” noted Zehnder.
What may change in each location is the demand driver. “We will look at specific nationalities and products and decide on the pillar that will be used elsewhere,” added Zehnder. “The biggest demand driver is the ‘refined moment’ (within the indulgence pillar) and this will be very much about premium ingredients and a sophisticated experience.”
Lindt is also keen to expand the touchpoints where confectionery can be exposed to travellers. “We can improve the personalised spaces in the core confectionery areas but there is room for confectionery at the cash tills and other locations. In supermarkets you can find confectionery everywhere because it is an impulse buy but travel retail is not yet fully leveraging this potential.” ✈
