|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
| |
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||||
|
The following are excerpts from a handbook for regional sales representatives of Mars, Inc. They came into our hands due to sloppy handling by an unknown M&M/Mars rep. These internal documents speak of Mars's evil plan to addict our children to candy. I believe it is in the public interest to release such corporate schemes to the world (unless of course, I'm under contract not to, but that's another story). Now, don't get me wrong, packed with peanuts, Snickers® really does satisfy. But the sales tactics of your average confectionery marketer are still pretty abhorant. Here they are, straight from the horse's mouth.
Mars makes more than candy. They also own Combos® snacks,
Skittles® and Starburst® candies, and Uncle Ben's® rice.
The even have an electronics subsidiary (Mars Electronics® International)
which, according to their literature 'pioneered the world's first coin
mechanism based on a revolutionary technology of electronic recognition'
in the 1970s. So, it was because of them that one of my old "citizen's
markdown" tricks faded into memory during the early 80s. Back
then , my friends and I would pound nickels with a hammer until they
were the size of a quarters, and use them to buy candy and soda from
vending machines. Ah those were the days.
We need freedom to shape our future; we need profit to remain free. The creation of profit is a requirement for freedom, since it allows the company to control its own destiny. . .
From
'Snack Food Postioning'
M&M/Mars has embarked on a long-term strategic effort to change both the consumer's and trade's perception of chocolate confection from 'indulgent' candy to a 'permissible' snack food. The first step in this process was our sponsorship in the 1984 and 1992 Olympics. This snack food's positioning brought many benefits (increased consumption) to M&M/Mars and the candy industry by establishing candy as a socially acceptable, nutritional snack food with an appropriate place in today's active lifestyle. Large-scale expenditures on advertising are wasted if trade support is not obtained. A store manager who believes that candy is 'junk food' can do irreparable harm M&M/Mars efforts. [But, uh ... candy is junk food. Kinda like, cigarettes are addictive.]
Corporate Goals From "Strategies" To increase the permissibility of our brands by associating them with important snacking occasions ["I'm sorry I can't make it, I have an important snacking occasion to attend." — Ed.], to increase the value perception (i.e., the right price point) of our brands, and to trade consumers up to larger sizes. To maximize the impulse-purchasing behavior through aggressively seeking to improve point-of-purchase material and strong retail coverage support. Putting Bottomless Pit Principles to Work: Why Confection and Snack Promotions Build Long-Term Retail Profits and Why Most Other Store Categories Don't Maybe because the category has been around so long, a lot of retailers don't promote confections and snacks as much as they should. It's unfortunate, because snacking items offer unique long-term volume and profit building opportunities for retailers. It all relates to building fundamental consumption and why retailers should carefully consider adding more confection-snack events to their promotional calendars. The Unique Difference Monday night a consumer goes to the laundry to wash some clothes. As luck would have it the detergent box is empty. No soap, no wash. What does the consumer do? The consumer leaves the clothes in a heap, buys some detergent on Tuesday, and washes the clothes Tuesday night. The net change in per-capita annual detergent consumption? None. There's a certain amount of washing annually, and regardless of the price or The In-Home-Availability of detergents, a certain amount will be consumed annually... The same consumer goes to the pantry for a candy bar, and the candy jar is empty. What does the consumer do? Buys candy on Tuesday and eats candy on Tuesday. Net effect on per capita consumption of candy? Loss! Why? Because the consumer would have eaten the snack Monday and Tuesday, and is probably not going to eat twice as much on Tuesday to make up for Monday. That's the way it is with impulse foods — opportunity lost is gone forever!
Epilogue (May, 1999): So, perhaps we shouldn't only pick on Mars. All marketers will use whatever tactics available to increase consumption and boost profit margins. Case in point: McKee Foods, the makers of Little Debbie Snack Cakes, has created a "S'mores Granola Treats" brand extension to its Sunbelt Chewy Granola Bar line...
"McKee is pushing its entire portfolio via a targeted pitch in People
and on game shows, talk shows and home shows to reach its mid- to upscale
suburban female target ... Mckee ... is aiming to reach families with
outdoorsy, on-the-go lifestyles both with the new graham crackers, milk
chocolate and marshmallows bars..." The recently deceased founder of Mars, Inc., Forrest Mars Sr. "went to weird lengths to remain anonymous" (Washington Post obituary). Apparently, the trade secrets of Mars Inc. are kept tighter than most other companies. And yet they could not escape Culture Freak. Read Mr. Mars's obituary on Goodbye.com: "...Insofar as a confectioner with no armaments can, Forrest Mars did conquer the world. He built an empire which included not just candy like M&Ms, Snickers, Mars, and Milky Way bars, but also gourmet pet food and Uncle Benšs Converted Rice. He built a personal fortune of billions, and a corporation with higher annual sales than McDonalds or RJR Nabisco. Like many empire builders, he loathed his children..." |
To
address the labor shortage issue by providing packaging options that
reduce the labor required from the back room to the shelf.