Table of Contents
Scope and Themes
-
- What you need to know
- Definition
- Data sources
- Sales data
- Consumer survey data
- Abbreviations and terms
- Abbreviations
- Terms
Executive Summary
-
- Market size
- Two major suppliers dominate
- Mergers may make the strongest stronger
- Category marketing activity is concentrated in sugarless gum
- Recent innovation has focused on flavor
- Expanding distribution outlets equals expanding sales
- Key advertising themes delivered with a dose of irreverence
- Kids, teens, young adults control the category
Insights and Opportunities
-
- Can regular gum be re-invented?
- All-natural chewing gum; how sweet it could be
- Gum with attitude
- Wanted: big idea for breath fresheners and mints
- Gourmet mints
- Celebrity mints
- Green mints
- Health mints
Fast Forward Trends
-
- Search for Meaning
- Science Goes Pop
Market Size and Forecast
-
- Key points
- Sugarless gum leads category growth
- More retail outlets means more chances to pick up gum
-
- Figure 1: Total U.S. sales and forecast of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at current prices, 2002-12
- Figure 2: Total U.S. sales and forecast of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at inflation-adjusted prices, 2002-12
Competitive Context
-
- Corporate dealing changes the category playing field
Segment Performance
-
- Key points
- Spurred by new brands and innovation, sugarless gum has become the format of choice for the category
-
- Figure 3: U.S. sales and forecast of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at current prices, by segment, 2002-12
- Figure 4: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners, by segment, 2005 and 2007
Segment Performance—Sugarless Gum
-
- Key point
- Sugarless gum has become the focus of innovation for the category
-
- Figure 5: U.S. sales and forecast of sugarless gum, 2002-12
Segment Performance—Regular Gum
-
- Key points
- Buoyed by kids … but for how long?
-
- Figure 6: U.S. sales and forecast of regular gum, 2002-12
Segment Performance—Breath Fresheners
-
- Key points
- Breath fresheners left out in the cold as consumers turn to gum
-
- Figure 7: U.S. sales and forecast of breath fresheners, 2002-12
Segment Performance—Plain Mints
-
- Key point
- A quiet segment receives little attention, but keeps on rolling
-
- Figure 8: U.S. sales and forecast of plain mints, 2002-12
Retail Channels
-
- Key points
- Riding a wave of convenience
-
- Figure 9: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners, by retail channel, 2005 and 2007
Retail Channels—Convenience Stores
-
- Key points
- Along for the ride
-
- Figure 10: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at convenience stores, 2002-07
Retail Channels—Supermarkets
-
- Key point
- Gum and mint sales flat as channel struggles to redefine itself
-
- Figure 11: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at supermarkets, 2002-07
Retail Channels—Drugstores
-
- Key point
- Category helping spur front-end sales growth
-
- Figure 12: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at drugstores, 2002-07
Retail Channels—Other
-
- Key points
- A collection of growing channels leads to growing sales for the category
-
- Figure 13: U.S. sales of gum, mints, and breath fresheners at other channels, 2002-07
Market Drivers
-
- Shifts in population composition by age and race/ethnicity will impact the market
-
- Figure 14: U.S. population, by age, 2002-12
-
- Figure 15: U.S. population, by race and Hispanic origin, 2002-12
- Interest in healthy eating
-
- Figure 16: Attitudes towards healthy eating, 2002-07
Leading Companies
-
- Key points
- The strongest may be getting stronger
-
- Figure 17: FDMx Sales of leading gum, mints, and breath fresheners companies, 2005 and 2007
Brand Share—Sugarless Gum
-
- Key points
- In with the new…
-
- Figure 18: FDMx brand sales of sugarless gum, 2005 and 2007
Brand Share—Regular Gum
-
- Key points
- Rapid share declines may be difficult to reverse
-
- Figure 19: FDMx brand sales of regular gum, 2005 and 2007
Brand Share—Breath Fresheners
-
- Key points
- Looking for a leader … and a big idea
-
- Figure 20: FDMx brand sales of breath fresheners, 2005 and 2007
Brand Share—Plain Mints
-
- Key points
- Not quite candy, not quite breath fresheners
-
- Figure 21: FDM brand sales of plain mints, 2005 and 2007
Brand Qualities
-
- A whole new Orbit
- Older brands reinvented
- Dentyne
- Trident
- Wrigley’s classics on the ropes
Innovation and Innovators
-
- A flow of new fruit flavors and combinations
- Back to the future – new gums that go squirt
- Two new brands offer new flavor experiences
- Hershey tries to extend Ice Breakers beyond core category benefits
Advertising and Promotion
-
- Overview
-
- Figure 22: Media expenditure of selected gum/mint brands, 2005-06
- Oral Care
-
- Figure 23: Orbit television ad, 2007
- Figure 24: Orbit television ad, 2007
-
- Figure 25: Orbit White television ad, 2007
- Figure 26: Trident White television ad, 2007
-
- Figure 27: Trident Original television ad, 2007
- Flavor
-
- Figure 28: Trident Watermelon Twist television ad, 2007
- Figure 29: Wrigley 5 television ad, 2007
-
- Figure 30: Stride television ad, 2007
- Figure 31: Extra television ad, 2007
-
- Figure 32: Ice Breakers Ice Cubes television ad, 2007
- Figure 33: Altoids Mints television ad, 2007
- Fresh breath
-
- Figure 34: Ice Breakers Ice Cubes television ad, 2007
- Figure 35: Eclipse Gum television ad, 2007
Usage
-
- Incidence of use highest among kids, teens
-
- Figure 36: Usage of gum and breath mints/strips—adults, teens and kids, May 2006-June 2007
- Figure 37: Usage of gum and breath mints/strips—adults, by age, May 2006-June 2007
-
- Figure 38: Usage of gum and breath mints/strips—adults, teens and kids, by race/ethnicity, May 2006-June 2007
- Kids and teens prefer sugared gum. Adults evenly split between sugared and sugarless
-
- Figure 39: Type of gum chewed—adults, teens and kids, May 2006-June 2007
-
- Figure 40: Type of mints eaten—adults, and teens May 2006-June 2007
- With many brands chewed per week, loyalty appears to be low
-
- Figure 41: Brands of gum chewed—adults, by age, May 2006-June 2007
- Figure 42: Brands of gum chewed—teens, May 2006-June 2007
-
- Figure 43: Brands of gum liked best—kids, May 2006-June 2007
- Fewer mints/strips brands used
-
- Figure 44: Brands of breath strips/mints used—adults, by age, May 2006-June 2007
-
- Figure 45: Brands of breath strips/mints used—teens, May 2006-June 2007
- Figure 46: Brands of breath strips/mints liked best—kids, May 2006-June 2007
- Usage patterns: teens chew most frequently
-
- Figure 47: Average amount of gum/mints used—adults, teens, and kids, May 2006-June 2007
Attitudes and Motivations
-
- Considerable interest in trying new flavors of gum and mints
-
- Figure 48: Trying new flavors of gum and mints, by age, March 2007
- Gum and mints are an everyday thing … except for business meetings
-
- Figure 49: Attitudes towards and opinions about gum, by gender and age, March 2007
- Long-lasting flavor highly valued in gum
-
- Figure 50: Attitudes towards and opinions about gum, by age, March 2007
- Interest in functional gum strongest for oral-care benefits
-
- Figure 51: Interest in functional gum for oral health/care, by age, March 2007
- Figure 52: Interest in functional gum for purposes other than oral care, by age, March 2007
- Gum appropriate for a wider array of uses than mints
-
- Figure 53: Uses for gum and mints, by age, March 2007
Cluster Analysis—Young Guns, Health Mints, and Mature Abstainers
-
- Insights—Young Guns
- Insights—Health Mints
-
- Figure 54: Fruit2O Relax and Fruit2O Immunity—TV ad, 2007
- Insights—Mature Abstainers
-
- Figure 55: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters, March 2008
-
- Figure 56: Usage of Gum, mints, or breath strips in the past week, by user clusters, March 2008
- Figure 57: Uses for gum, mints, and breath strips, by user clusters, March 2008
-
- Figure 58: Attitudes towards and opinions about gum, mints, and strip users, by user clusters, March 2008
- Figure 59: Types of chewing gum tried or interested in trying, by user clusters, March 2008
-
- Figure 60: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters, by gender, March 2008
- Figure 61: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters, by age, March 2008
-
- Figure 62: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters, by income, March 2008
- Figure 63: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters by race, March 2008
-
- Figure 64: Mint, gum, and strip user clusters by Hispanic origin, March 2008
- Methodology
Custom Consumer Groups
-
- Gender and age
-
- Figure 65: Past week use of gum, mints, and breath strips, by gender and age, March 2007
-
- Figure 66: Attitudes towards and opinions about gum, by gender and age, March 2007
- Race/ethnicity and age
-
- Figure 67: Past week use of gum, mints, and breath strips, by race/ethnicity and age, March 2007
-
- Figure 68: Attitudes towards and opinions about gum, by race/ethnicity and age, March 2007
-
- Figure 69: Past week use of gum, mints, and breath strips, by gender and income, March 2007
IRI/Builders Panel Data
-
- Consumer insights—gum
- Sugarless gum
- Sugarless gum: brand leaders by penetration
-
- Figure 70: Top sugarless gum brands, by household penetration, 52 weeks ending June 24, 2007
- Regular gum
- Regular gum: brand leaders by penetration
-
- Figure 71: Top regular gum brands, by household penetration, 52 weeks ending June 24, 2007
Appendix: IRI/Builders Panel Data Definitions
Appendix: Trade Associations
Back to top