Wrigley India, known for chewing gum brands such as Boomer and Orbit, has tied up with all the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisees to become their official gum partner. The company has already kick-started brand promotion for the cricket extravaganza.
“Wrigley has been associated with sports worldwide but this is its first association with cricket in India. While, Orbit, the sugar-free gum is the official chewing gum, Boomer is the official bubble gum for the IPL teams”, said Gautam Sharma, managing director of Wrigley India.
As part of IPL tie-up, Wrigley has started several promotional activities during the T20 season, such as launch of special edition packs, jars and trading cards that will be available for a limited period and will give cricket fans an opportunity to win tickets to South Africa to watch the IPL matches. The company has also planned 360 degree communication to inform the target audience about these activities.
On the company’s plan for this financial year, Sharma said, “Per capita gum consumption in India is just 8 pieces per year compared with 200 pieces per year in the US or 100 pieces a year in Russia. Thus, India is a very nascent gum market and has huge potential. We keep introducing new products. I can’t divulge details about the future plans but we would focus on launching more variants of the existing brands.” The company claims a market share of over 50 per cent in the
estimated Rs 1,000 crore Indian chewing gum
market.
“We sell 10 million pieces of gum every day and have a presence in 1.2 million retail stores across 2,000 towns and cities in India, Sharma added. Regarding the gum market, he said the segment was growing at 20 per cent annually till the onset of the present slowdown. “Now it has slowed a bit but is still between 17 and 20 per cent,” he added.
Source – mydigitalfc.com