Into the spooky spirit

AMSTERDAM - Every year Halloween becomes more important and that’s not just the case at our British neighbors. Although the Dutch market is definitely different from the British and especially in the case of Halloween, also in The Netherlands the interest for this spooky celebration is growing. Halloween has its origin in the Celtic festival of Samhain, held around 1 November, the date that marked the transition from autumn to winter. It was believed that it was also the time that the dead came back to the world of the living and needed to be honored. Enough reasons for a celebration… 

We see a temporary uplift in the sales of tasty products like confectionary, beer, bakery products, soft drinks and even champagne. Mintel estimates this rise in sales in the UK around 400m pound, Kantar Worldpanel says last year’s Halloween was worth 117m pound. And although these figures differ, analysts agree that Halloween is now the 4^th important sales opportunity in the UK after Christmas, Eastern and Ramadan. 85% of parents of children under five buy into Halloween, but the fastest growing group is the millennials born between 1990 and 1999. 77% of this age group participated in Halloween events in 2017 compared to around 60% in 2016. However, they are looking to buy much more an experience instead of a physical product. The traditional pumpkin sales seem to have decreased with 5%. An example of a brand that really invested in Halloween is Fanta. With a live human autopsy, faces on flickering tv screens, masked figures and a ‘real VR’ elevator crash Fanta created unforgettable moments. ‘And a fearful moment shared with a brand increases consumer connection. Like Coca Cola is to Christmas Fanta is to Halloween’. And last year, Fanta saw an increase in sales of 26%. 

Besides the increasing popularity, also the criticism on Halloween increases. Opponents indicate that just like Valentine’s day the commercial parties use Halloween as a very welcome reason to pimp the slow period between the summer holidays and Christmas. And they do this with most of the time with unhealthy, sugar and alcoholic containing products. No matter what, also this year food companies will invest in spooky products and we just have to wait and see how scary this all will become… 

TEN follows the trends in the food market and often carries out market research projects for food companies, also in the UK. TEN the export network advises and supports food & beverage companies that are aiming to broaden their horizons. They co-ordinate food export activities, encourage business development projects, and create new international links. TEN also helps improving the standard of existing export activities, and operates as SIB advisor (Starters International Business, an initiative of the Dutch government) for SMEs. For more information have a look at http://www.theexportnetwork.nl or contact TEN for a first meeting: http://www.theexportnetwork.nl/contact/

Source: The Grocer, July 2018

Foto: TEN, Fanta