Stride (gum)
Stride is a brand of chewing gum created by Cadbury-Schweppes. Its main competitor is 5 Gum.
Overview
Currently, there are seven flavors available: Winterblue, Spearmint, Forever Fruit, Sweet Peppermint, Sweet Berry, Always Mandarin, and Sweet Cinnamon. Stride was available only in the United States and Puerto Rico until January 2008, when the Spearmint, Sweet Peppermint and Forever Fruit flavours were made available in Canada. The growing gum market for Stride and other Cadbury-Schweppes brand Trident in the United States contributed to unexpectedly strong sales for the company in 2007.[1][2][3]
Marketing
Stride chewing gum first drew notice at its unveiling at the All Candy Expo in 2006, when following three years of product development Cadbury claimed that through the use of proprietary sweetener "encapsulation" it had produced a gum with longer lasting flavor.[4] Cadbury marketed the gum as "The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum".Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Following competitive campaigning, New York based advertisers JWT were selected to handle the $50 million launch advertising,[5] creating a series of work-place related ads that proved popular with consumers, according to polls by USA Today.[6] In addition, Cadbury received an industry OMMA Award for online advertising creativity on September 25 2007 for "Best Use of Gaming" in connection with its "The Ridiculously Long-Lasting Gaming Event", when on June 21 2006 Stride teamed with Xfire to host a live "shoutcast" national videogame all-star challenge.[7]
In 2007, Crain Communications' correspondent Julie Jargon described the brand's debut as "the most successful new gum launch in the last five years".[8]
In addition, Stride chewing gum sponsered a world-wide trip by Matt Harding in order for him to produce a popular viral video on youTube in 2004.
Wrapper
Soon after the release of Stride, a rumor began to circulate that the wrapper can dissolve while the gum is being chewed.While some say its true it is also speculated that it just merges with the gum and never really dissolves at all. The rumor was similar to rumors in the past about other brands of chewing gum. This myth has since been confirmed false:
"While Stride(r) gum is designed to be chewed for a ridiculously long time, our gum wrappers are not. All of our gum wrappers are made with materials that comply with FDA regulations for food contact materials; however, none of our chewing gum wrappers are designed to be ingested. While there’s nothing toxic in them, gum wrappers aren’t intended for ingestion and gum wrappers should not be eaten. Should you have any questions or concerns about your children ingesting gum wrappers, please contact your doctor or other health care professional. - Cadbury-Schweppes[9]
References
- ^ Cadbury profits so sweet Express and Star.
- ^ UK chocolate revival, US gum cheer Cadbury Just Food
- ^ Cadbury sees 2007 sales growth beating its target Washington Post.
- ^ Fuller, Janet Rause. (June 8 2006) Taking gum to new lengths Chicago Sun-Times. Accessed December 12 2007.
- ^ Sampey, Kathleen and Andrew McMains. (March 16 2006) Cadbury Picks JWT to Handle $50 Mil. Stride. Adweek. Accessed December 12 2007.
- ^ Howard, Theresa.These ads include the CEO of Stride gum begging customers to buy more gum as it was popular at first but lasted too long and nobody came back for more. (October 29 2006) Stride ads go the distance to show gum's flavor lasts. USA Today. Accessed December 12 2007.
- ^ Omma Awards Winners details mediapost.com Accessed December 12 2007.
- ^ Jargon, Julie. Wrigley chewed up by U.K. rival. Chicago Business. Crain Communications Inc. Accessed December 12 2007. P.S. the green kind is the best
- ^ Myth Busted: Stride Gum wrappers should be eaten, candyaddict.com, June 19, 2007