Revenge of the Nerds

How would you like to grow your company from $40M in sales to $800M in 2024 in just six years?  Oh, and do it with a product that was first released 41 years ago!

Welcome to the World of Nerds!

For the uninitiated, Nerds are small, tart crunchy colorful candies, eaten by the handful, that were first invented in 1983 by the Willy Wonka Candy Company.

Nestle acquired Nerds twenty years later and thought it would be fun to combine the crunchy candies with a gummy-like rope shaped candy.  They called it Nerd Rope.   It was popular, but it was very messy as the little Nerds coating the gummy rope fell off when customer took a bite. Great idea, but wrong product execution.

Ferrara, which acquired Nerds in 2018, focused on making Nerds relevant again.  They knew the popularity of combining a gummy candy with crunchy colorful balls was a winner. But, they looked to the consumer to find out how to do it.

Consumers loved the combination of gummy and crunchy, were attracted to all of the bright colors, liked the fun of eating the candy, and wanted something that could be eaten without the mess.

The answer seemed to be a small football shaped gummy completely coated with brightly colored mini nerds that were smaller than the original candy, but just as crunchy and just as fun – and could be eaten in one bite with no mess.

Unfortunately, the first Nerds Gummy Cluster got mixed reviews in conceptual consumer testing trials. But the company so strongly believed in their knowledge of what consumers wanted that they took the risk and launched the new product in stores in 2020.

In January 2021, Kylie Jenner, the youngest Kardashian-Jenner, became “obsessed” (her word) with Nerds Gummy Cluster. She posted a rave Instagram story to her more than 200 million followers.  Completely free advertising!

Of course, Google searches for Nerds Gummy Cluster soared after the post and sales spiked as a result. As more people ate them (and created their own Gummy Cluster videos), they began trending on Tik Tok.  The Revenge of the Nerds had begun!

In 2024, the Nerds Gummy Cluster went from a risky product introduction to being featured on a Super Bowl ad.  And the rest is candy history.

You don’t have to be a nerd to figure out that if you actually know what the consumer truly wants and needs and give it to them, that is a winning recipe.

Kylie Jenner does not usually give away free Instagram posts.  She was clearly wowed by the Gummy Clusters.

Ferrara had a clear understanding of their consumer’s needs and designed the new Nerds Gummy Cluster candy to not only satisfy those needs, but to exceed their customer’s expectations.  And it worked.

Here’s the recipe:

Know your customer
Know what they need
Give it to them
Exceed Expectations
Enjoy the results!