Do you know why candy corn became so popular? How about the origin of the “m” on M&Ms? Do the repetitive sounds of “Kit Kat” and “Jelly Belly” hold the secret to successful brands? Unwrap these and other candy secrets.

For candy producers, Halloween is the sweetest holiday of the year, beating Easter, Valentine’s Day and Christmas in candy sales. In 2007, firms producing chocolate and cocoa treats shipped $14.4 billion worth of products. Meanwhile, non-chocolate confectionery manufacturing was a $5.6 billion industry.

Did You Know? The Snickers candy bar was named after a horse owned by the Mars family.

In 2008, there were 1,317 U.S. manufacturing establishments making chocolate and cocoa products, employing 38,369 people. California led the nation in the number of chocolate and cocoa manufacturers, with 146, followed by Pennsylvania, with 115. Moreover, there were 422 U.S. establishments manufacturing non-chocolate confectionery products, employing 16,860 people. California also led the nation in this category, with 47 establishments.

Did You Know? Although no one today seems to know where Hershey’s chocolate Kiss got its name, the most popular theory is that it was named for the sound or motion of the chocolate being deposited during the manufacturing process.

Considering that Americans consumed 24.3 lbs. of candy per capita last year — and are expected to spend an average of $20.29 on candy this Halloween season — it should come as little surprise that candy companies are pretty successful in the U.S.

Did You Know? The Curtiss Candy Company, which renamed its candy bar from Kandy Kake to Baby Ruth in 1921, claims its famous chocolate was named after Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth and not after baseball legend Babe Ruth.

In commemoration of Halloween, here are some more candy-related facts that you may find surprising.

Why Candy Corn Became So Popular
Candy corn, a Halloween staple, has been around for more than a century. In the 1880s, Philadelphia-based Wunderlee Candy Company’s George Renninger invented the popular yellow, orange and white candy. In 1900, the Goelitz Candy Company, which later became the Jelly Belly Candy Company, started manufacturing the snack and continues to make it today.

“When candy corn first appeared, it was popular among farmers because of its agrarian look,” according to the National Confectioners Association (NCA). “The tri-color design was considered revolutionary and the public went crazy for it. Lack of machinery meant that candy corn was only made seasonally from March to November.”

More than 35 million lbs. — nearly 9 billion pieces — of the kernel-shaped candy were produced last year. The Halloween season accounts for 75 percent of the annual candy corn production. In fact, October 30 has been designated National Candy Corn Day.

Here’s how it’s made:

Origin of the “M” on M&Ms
M&Ms candy was innovative in that its hard sugary coating prevented the candy from melting in the hot sun long before air-conditioning. Forrest Mars, Sr. (whose father, Frank Mars, operated a successful candy business of his own) received a patent for his manufacturing process in 1941 and, to fund the candy’s launch, entered into a partnership with Bruce Murrie (the son of Hershey executive William Murrie). Mars eventually purchased Murrie’s shares in the venture and became one of Hershey’s primary competitors.

M&Ms actually stands for “Mars & Murrie’s,” the last names of the candy’s creators. The candy hasn’t always had an “m” stamped on one side. Even though M&Ms chocolates were first introduced in 1941, the “m” didn’t appear on the candy until 1950. And it used to be a black “m,” not white like it is today, M&Ms’ own timeline says. According to the Q&A column the Straight Dope, the letter “m” is printed on each candy with a simple vegetable dye using a process “akin to offset printing.”

Another interesting bit of trivia: Originally sold in hard cardboard tubes, the packaging changed in 1948 to the brown plastic pouch known today.

More than 400 million M&Ms chocolate candies are produced in the U.S. every day.

The Secret Recipe of Gummy Bears
Haribo’s Gummi Bear candies have been around in one shape or another since the 1920s — German candymaker Hans Riegel invented the Dancing Bear, which ultimately became the world-famous Gold-Bear product in 1967 — but it wasn’t until the 1980s that American markets caught on to the gummy craze. The little bears became so popular that Disney even stepped in to capitalize on the popularity, with a cartoon called The Adventures of the Gummi Bears that ran until 1991.

The success of the original Gummibärchen (“little rubber bear”) spawned numerous gummy animals and objects, and today there are many variations on the traditional soft, chewy and fruity bear. While research shows that the Gold-Bear recipe contains four main ingredients, including glucose syrup, gelatin, sugar and dextrose, “the exact recipe and method of production of the Haribo bears remains a closely guarded secret,” according to Mental Floss.

“And although there are many pretenders to the throne who’ve tried to usurp the gummy crown (Trolli, German inventors of the gummy worm, are a notable example),” the trivia magazine says, “Haribo remains one of the largest manufacturers of gummy in the world, if not the biggest, producing more than 80 million bears a day for distribution the globe over.”

According to the Metro Candy Blog, approximately 100,000,000 Gold-Bears are produced every day.

The Sweet Science of Brand Sounds
Kit Kat candy bars, Jelly Belly jellybeans and Hubba Bubba bubblegum are all delicious, but there’s something else in play that makes them so attractive: repetition. A study published recently in the Journal of Marketing found that the sound of brands with repetitively structured names favorably affects how consumers perceive and choose items and where they buy them.

“In one experiment, researchers used identical samples of ice cream but gave them two different names — one that contained repetition and another that did not,” Business News Daily reports. “Study participants more frequently chose the ice cream with the repetitive-sounding name.”

Although savvy marketers have been using the tactic for years, the study provides the first evidence of its effectiveness.

“In six experiments, the current research provides the first evidence that positive affect arising from certain types of brand names influences consumers,” the study says. “In general, we find across multiple brand names and product categories that brand names containing phonetic sound repetition that are spoken aloud elicit positive affect, which in turn has implications for consumer evaluations and choices.”

Still, marketers beware: The researchers also found names that stray too far from natural linguistic sounds (for example, a restaurant called “ranthfanth”) can induce negative reactions.

Which U.S. President Loved His Jellybeans?
Jelly Belly was the favorite candy of President Ronald Reagan, who eventually made the beans a staple in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. During his presidency, there was even a special holder designed for the plane so the jar of Jelly Belly beans would not spill during turbulence.

Moreover, Jelly Belly beans became the first jellybeans in outer space when President Reagan sent them on the 1983 flight of the space shuttle Challenger “as a presidential surprise for the astronauts,” according to the candy maker’s website.

His favorite flavor was supposedly licorice, although blueberry was invented especially for him in 1981. Today, a portrait of Reagan made from 10,000 Jelly Belly jellybeans hangs in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Image Sources

Halloween candy assortment: ©iStockphoto.com/evgenyb

Haribo Gold-Bears: Haribo.com

Jelly Belly Reagan portrait: JellyBelly-uk.com