Mars Easter Eggs

Mars have launched 10 new Easter Eggs for this Easter following on from Nestlé Rowntree announcing their new eggs.

Last year Mars sold 9.8% more Easter eggs over the previous year whilst on average the market was just 4% up. And this is for a reason - they sell great Easter Eggs!

Impulse buys of Easter eggs are dominated by the small filled eggs with the Galaxy chocolate caramel filled egg being the most popular for Mars, but it was only the third best selling filled egg last year.

But Mars aren't resting on their laurels. New for 2008 is the Mars & Friends Mini Egg Gift Pack which is a 180g back (RRP £1.99) which contains a mix of Mars, Maltesers, Milky Way and Galaxy Mini Eggs. This should turn out to be a good informal gift at Easter.

2007 saw the big growth in the premium end of Easter Egg market (30%) and should continue into 2008 with Mars's range of shell eggs which now include the Galaxy Caramel and Galaxy Hazelnut, Raisin & Almond.

Mars are also creating a new range aimed at young adults (16-24 year olds). This new range will retail at £3.99. These eggs are different from the young teen market as they have a more "adult feel". This range will include Mars Planets, Galaxy Ripple and the Celebrations Egg.

They will also be launching the new Galaxy Dark egg on the heals of the introduction of the Galaxy Dark Block. The Galaxy Dark which contains a dark shell and a 125g Galaxy dark bar will retail for £4.99.

The "Get some nuts" campaign will continue with the launch of the Snickers Egg. Snickers isn't my favourite bar so I hope they've worked hard to make it not so "sickly".

2008 will also see the launch of the Maltesers & Minstrels Tubes for Easter.

Mars aren't ignoring the boxed chocolate sales either. Last year Easter accounted for 22% of all boxed chocolate sales.

If you're looking for a more "green" chocolate - in terms of environmentally friendliness, not gone off chocolate, then Mars has moved further in this direction with the signing of the WRAP Courtauld Commitment which aims to reduce the amount of packaging used. As part of this they've reduced the amount of plastic inserts by 10% over last year and are all recyclable. They'll also use recycled board for the Child, Teen and Young adult ranges.