Candy

Marketing

Even everyday candy sells itself through its packaging; a cursory look at the candy section of even the smallest convenience store will reveal an amazing display of marketing strategies in the form of package design, materials, color, and font. Novelty candy, like some breakfast cereals, have actually become part of the broader marketing strategy of other products. There are candies that are tied to the release of new movies, sporting events, and even concert tours as exemplified by the guitar- and microphone-shaped gummy candy sold to promote the 2010 concert tour of 15-year-old Hannah Montana.

Holidays

Candy is celebratory. Almost every culture celebrates with sweets, but in the United States, candy and its holiday packaging is central in the celebration of holidays such as Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and New Year's; a box of chocolates is often considered the perfect gift for the person who is “hard to buy for.” Candy is also big business. Much of the candy industry's total sales of around $28 billion per year are sold around the holidays. According to the National Confectioners Association, of the $92.91 spent on candy per person in the United States, $20.39 is spent on Halloween candy alone.

Most candy packaging ends up in landfills and can also be found anywhere people litter, such as on streets or in waterways. The mixed polymers used in plastic-film candy packing do not recycle well; most of this waste eventually winds up in a landfill.

Consumer-Driven Packaging and Waste

All of this celebrating results in a punishing amount of material being sent into the waste stream. Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP), the United Kingdom's waste management program, estimates that 3,000 tons of waste are generated by the packaging of Easter candy bought in the United Kingdom. In 2009, WRAP worked with confectionary manufacturers, who then significantly reduced the environmental impact of their Easter products.

Not all of candy's packaging is based on marketing strategy; much of it is driven by science. A candy dish is still seen as a form of hospitality, whether it is sitting on a grandmother's coffee table or on a hostess counter at a restaurant. Historically, people would simply reach in with fingers to grab a few unwrapped candies, but people now want after-dinner mints to be individually wrapped so that they are germ free. Keeping germs out of foodstuffs requires packaging.

Some design is concerned with keeping candy from breaking; people want to open candy and find it intact to have the pleasure of breaking it, dividing it up, unraveling or stretching it into bite-size pieces. Keeping candy intact during shipping and storing requires packaging.

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