Spotlight On: Mars Chocolate North America

At more than 100 years old, you would think it would be safe to say that it is time to slow down. 

Yet, the people who run Mars Chocolate North America, the candy division of Mars Incorporated, have a totally different view. Instead of slowing down and perhaps resting on their laurels, they are in the process of introducing more and more items to the candy segment, hoping that these products will bring in new customers and give existing shoppers more choices. 

To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, rumors of the decline of the candy market have been greatly exaggerated for many years. Industry officials have long said that consumers are looking for healthier alternatives to traditional candy products, seeking to eliminate as much sugar from their diets as possible. But often what consumers say they want is quite different than how they act when they walk supermarket aisles. In fact, the candy section may be the best example of this behavior. Industry statistics show that candy sales are increasing and retailers are responding with more space on shelves, and thankfully for a market where more than 80 percent of volume is on impulse, more secondary locations that spur these decisions. 

Still, officials at the Hackettstown, N.J.-based Mars Chocolate division are hedging their bets a bit on the candy market. On one hand, they are moving full-steam ahead on line extensions on such products as M&M’S, Dove, Snickers and Milky Way, confident that new varieties of these popular items will generate additional consumer interest, build sales and add profits to the ledgers of retailers across the country, not to mention Mars itself. 

“Candy consumption is going up,” says Larry Lupo, Mars’ vice president of sales—grocery, convenience stores and drugstores. “And it remains one of the most profitable segments for retailers that still want innovation from the category. So we are giving it to them with products like Snickers Crisper and M&M’S Crispy, at under 200 calories per serving, and three new flavors of M&M’S peanut (honey nut, coffee nut and chili nut), for example.”

On the other hand, the division is clearly trying to introduce more health-conscious items. These include the aforementioned lower-caloric versions of M&M’S and Snickers and its latest entry, goodnessknows, a new snack featuring fruit, dark chocolate and whole nuts in bite-size portions, available in three flavors, which began shipping last fall. goodnessknows was in product testing for about three years, a sure sign that Mars officials wanted to be certain that they were bringing a product to market that consumers not only felt they needed, but tastes great too. 

“We realize the trends in the marketplace and the need for us to introduce items that are geared to those consumers who are more focused on health and wellness,” Lupo adds. “Our goal is to offer a product that we feel met the needs of those consumers looking for healthier products. We are backing goodnessknows with $40 million in advertising support and we plan to introduce more choice for consumers in the near future.”

The company’s muscle, at least in terms of distribution and product assortment, can only help as well. Based in McLean, Va., the parent company, which Forbes magazine says is the fourth largest privately-held business in the country with net annual sales of more than $33 billion, operates a number of different divisions, including pet care and beverage operations. It started a Symbioscience division in 2005 and acquired Wrigley, one of the leading gum manufacturers in the world, in 2008.

Mars officials are quite proud of the company’s history, while at the same time promoting its future. Frank C. Mars started things off by making and selling butter cream candy from his Tacoma, Wash. kitchen in 1911. The Milky Way bar was introduced in 1923, followed by the Snickers brand seven years later. M&M’S came along in 1941 and quickly gained popularity because of its inclusion in military rations with American and some Allied soldiers during World War II.

In fact, Mars officials are taking full advantage of M&M’S 75th anniversary this year. In early March, the company launched “Celebrate with M,” its largest marketing campaign in M&M’S history and the company managed to get some of its top executives on a number of high-profile television news shows. The campaign is designed to build brand awareness with Millennial and younger consumers through the use of a modern remake of the 1972 song The Candy Man. Other marketing moves include retro packaging and a voting contest between the original peanut M&M’S version and the three newest versions. 

Lupo notes that the company’s goal is to build the candy business through the use of three important marketing tools: product innovation, merchandising and having the ability and desire to tap into consumer insights to understand how they shop and what they are looking for. 

“The innovation end of this is simply our desire to keep bringing out great new products that consumers will come to love,” he says. “As for merchandising, we focus on key holiday shopping periods, like Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter, to help retailers build excitement in their stores for our products and the overall category. We show them the focal points of the category and counsel them how to correctly merchandise these items in their stores.”

But offering insights on consumer shopping patterns and behaviors may be the most important facet of the Mars marketing strategy. “We have greatly increased our shopper insight over the last year and can now come to retailers and show them our initiatives that are all rooted in consumer insight,” Lupo says. “We are also looking to help them with their valuable front-end space, where our insight program, done jointly with Wrigley, can help retailers maximize profits from this area.”  

There is no doubt that current Mars officials want to continue the success of their predecessors and keep the company at the forefront of the candy category. “At the end of the day, it is all about the candy category,” Lupo adds. “If the category keeps growing, we are going to keep growing too. That is why it is so important for us to stay focused on what we do and to keep doing it right.”