Trick or treat with m&m’

M & M’s chocolates, distributed locally by Master Foods Philippines Inc., is giving real meaning to the trick or treat tradition of Americans this Halloween as it deploys agents in exclusive villages to give away those rounded chocolate candies to children doing their greeting rounds on Halloween.

"What better way to show our appreciation for these kids and their families than rewarding them free single packs of chocolates for their effort and make them happy even for that single evening," said Master Foods Philippines Inc. marketing manager John Philip San Miguel.

This is the first time Master Foods is doing this village rounds on Halloween night with free face painting, picture with the mascots and free chocolate treats.

Master Foods has made arrangements to stage these Halloween festivities for Palms Country Club, Alabang, and Corinthian Gardens and Acropolis on Oct. 29; Oct. 30 in Green Meadows and Oct. 31, Bel Air and Greenhills East.

Master Foods is setting up a tent or rent one room in the village clubs to house the candies to be distributed to kids on Halloween.

San Miguel said M & M’s falls under the social category of chocolates, or one that is shared with others since the candy comes in small colored rings with a letter M on top that comes either in flavors sugar-coated plain chocolates, peanuts, almonds and milk. They come in 40 grams (the fast moving size), family size (150 grams) and six individual packs in 40 gram plastics.

The market for M & M’s is the more mature age group of 24 to 30s, mostly yuppies, who either take it as dessert or as a meal in itself, or an energy food to be shared with office or social peers, San Miguel said.

Master Foods is aggressively pushing its M & Ms and Snickers using the below- the-line promotions or through text messaging raffle programs. Its first SMS raffle promo was for Snickers called "Download Snickers" held for two months in 2004; then the Star Wars promo of M & Ms last July then a Christmas promo for Oct. 15 to Dec., 31, 2005.

"We realize that our consumers do not want to go through the hassles of filling up forms in supermarkets, dropping at the drop box and other procedures. Besides, SMS is very cost effective and has wider reach," he said.

Undeniably, the imported M & M’s chocolates and Snickers which Master Foods are exclusively marketing locally are quite pricey for ordinary C, D and E children to splurge on.

The regular patrons of M & M’s and Snickers thus come from children in the A, B and upper C or those living in exclusive villages and other high-end communities.

San Miguel describes Snickers as a "sleeping giant" because it sells faster than we expected with very little marketing effort. Master Foods promotes Snickers through sponsorships of special sports events–like the recent basketball and golf tournaments–which resulted in higher awareness among golfers of Snickers’ energy- giving value.

The three categories of chocolates are: social under which Hershey’, Snickers, M & Ms and Kisses fall; functional that includes Hershey’s bar, Kitkat, Snickers, Mars, Rally and Baby Ruth; and emotional such as Cadbury, Toblerone and Snickers.

The peak season for chocolate sales are Christmas, Valentines, Easter and Halloween while lean season are usually after enrolment of June and July, San Miguel said.

According to a recent AC Nielsen market survey, Snickers is the single biggest SKU (shelf keeping unit) in convenience stores these days, even bigger than M & Ms, reported San Miguel.

Of the current lines of chocolates marketed by Master Foods, 40 percent are functional chocolates; 35 percent emotional and 25 percent social.

With the current campaign in the US against obesity–and the blame being pinned on chocolates and junk foods– Master Foods is one step ahead of the campaign since it has removed the king sized packets from the stores. "We just retained the small ones, which are for singular or shared use and this is also the strategy in the Philippines," San Miguel said.

But with or without the campaign on obesity, he said, the market can only absorb the small packets since the big ones are too expensive for an ordinary Filipino to buy. "As it is, imported chocolates are already more expensive because of the foreign exchange factor but only the rich can continue to buy chocolates on a regular basis. Others just buy it for special occasions," San Miguel said.

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Master Foods Philippines Inc.

28F Tower 2, The Enterprise Center, Ayala Avenue

Phone : 8858442/8493912 (Fax)