Spradley is careful, however, to complement attention-getting techniques with solid marketing and distribution efforts. The Marshall Field's introduction, for example, was timed to coincide with the Goo Goo's entry into the Chicago market And he has capitalized on the candy bar's strength below the Mason-Dixon line by carving out toeholds in chains that are prominent both in Tennessee and in other regions. The most recent addition to the fold is The Kroger Co, the nation's second-largest supermarket chain, with stores in southern, central, and southwestern states. The chain agreed to place Goo Goos in about 500 stores in the Tennessee area, where the candy's risk of failure was low. It proved popular, and last March Kroger placed it in all 1,470 stores. ln the next 12 months, when Spradley tries to conquer such cities as Denver and Philadelphia, a key stratagem will be to plant Goo Goos in the local stores of large chains that reach to those cities
Standard Candy has already appointed brokers in several new cities in addition to Chicago, including Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. The brokers sell to wholesalers, who in turn peddle the company's products to retail outlets like supermarkets, merchandise stores, and mom-and-pop candy stores.
Candy is known as an "impulse" item. The closer a bar is to a consumer's attention, the more likely that his fingers will get itchy and grab it. Big companies like Mars therefore put a great deal of effort into point-of-sale merchandising techniques, providing retailers with such amenities as freestanding bag display fixtures and vertical candy racks, where candy is next to gum and not beneath it. Spradley's distributors, who can't afford to use such techniques very often, instead emphasize discounting and often use just plain cajolery to get Goo Goos near the cash register.
So far, all of these strategies have worked pretty well. Sales have tripled in the past 18 months, suggesting a high repeat factor among Goo Goo initiates. According to a report put out by Distributor Concepts, a tracking service that measures confectionery sales, Goo Goos jumped during Spradley's brief tenure from #136 on its ranking of the country's favorite candy bars to #79 at the end of 1983. "There's nothing else like it on the market," summarizes Spradley. "Once we get people to try it, they're hooked."
To build up his marketing firepower for future guerilla attacks, Spradley has begun raiding the competition's camp. A year ago, for example, he hired E. David Jarrett, a sales manager at Hershey for the previous 12 years. Jarrett is now Standard Candy's senior sales manager, spending most of his time on the road and in the trenches, rallying the company's 28 brokers
"Introducing a new bar nationally can be very complex, like raising up a child from birth," Jarrett says matter-of-factly. He adds with a hint of disdain that the Goo Goo Cluster's only limitation all these years has been management's lack of vision. "The Goo Goo is not a new bar. It has a history, and it always had the potential to go national. Our brokers have already seen a dramatic difference, from almost no support when Jimmy first got here, to a great deal of it."
Spradley is also reorganizing his sales structure to prepare for the demands of territorial growth. Last January, a second sales manager, Bob Alexander, was hired away from Mars, and a slot for a third manager is in the works. Currently, sales work is shared by Jarrett, Alexander, and, to a lesser extent, Spradley himself. Soon, he hopes, the Goo Goo's territory will be divided into three regions of roughly equal size, each headed by a manager. By delegating most day-to-day tasks, Spradley is preparing to ease out of selling completely
"When we hit $30 million or so in sales, which is about all our present factory can handle, we'll start thinking about things like bringing aboard more sales managers and building factories in other regions," says Jarrett. "In the long run, the sky is the limit."
Spradley has not confined his innovations to marketing alone. One of his first moves was the introduction of a new product, the Goo Goo Cluster Supreme, a cluster loaded with pecans instead of peanuts. He says the Supreme has been "ecstatically received," and already accounts for 20% of the company's chocolate sales. To circulate the Goo Goo name even more, he prompted an ice cream company, Fantasy Flavors Inc. in Wheaton, Ill., to devise a mixture called Goo Goo Cluster Ice Cream. Fantasy Flavors has been selling the ice cream's ingredients since March 1983, in return for a nominal licensing fee to Standard Candy.
"It's the fastest-growing new flavor our company has ever introduced," says Bob Anderson, Fantasy Flavors's marketing director, enthusiastically. The ice cream, already picked up by 47 ice cream manufacturers and dairies throughout the United States, has been such a hit that Standard Candy and Fantasy Flavors came out last February with the Goo Goo Cluster Ice Cream Bar, a gooey combination that some observers think will benefit dentists as much as it will Spradley. "Getting the name out in any manner is what counts," says Spradley. "I mean, let's face it: 'Goo Goo' is a dumb-sounding name, but it sells the candy. No one ever forgets it."
Standing in his office, not far from the ceaseless bustle of his factory, Spradley dramatically sweeps his hand across a wall map of the United States. "Once we consolidate the areas we're already in," he says, "we'll continue to slowly spread sales coverage in overlapping circles." He pauses, then, with cheerful certitude, declares, "We can be a major candy company someday."
Perhaps. But for now, the real issue is whether Spradley's scheme can spark a nationwide mastication of Goo Goos, or whether the clusters rolling off his production line are destined to stay as provincial as grits. "Mars and Hershey spend millions of dollars on promotional work and advertising when introducing a new bar," says Lisbeth Echeandia, executive vice-president of American Consulting Corp. in Orlando. "But making it work Standard Candy's way is possible. I do know that the Goo Goo has a lot of Southern appeal. What I don't know is whether that Grand Ole Opry stuff will wash with New Yorkers."
