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At Your Leisure - 28 May 2007
Life in Mars?
When thinking of everyday culture, it's hard to overlook the role of food: snack foods, fast foods, food fads, food allergies. Food-related stories dominate the headlines: food safety, youth obesity, celebrity chefs. People's lives are so hectic, with demands on their time throughout the day, that it is often easier to just grab a snack to satisfy an appetite, rather than having a proper lunchtime meal.
And at the end of the day, what do many people do? Sit back in their armchairs, eating a comforting meal straight from the supermarket carrier bag. Afterwards, what better treat than a bar of your favourite chocolate? Food as a form of comfort. Other comforts in these stressful days come from spending time with one's pets. These creatures also need feeding once or twice a day. What people want is a company which can make products to meet all of these needs.
Given our appetite for these products, it's no surprise that companies meeting these needs tend to thrive. One of the biggest and most well-known is Mars.
Company overview
Mars is an $18bn business operating in over 65 countries. Established in 1911, Mars takes its name from its inventor Frank Mars who produced the Milky Way. This was designed to be a snack bar version of popular chocolate-flavoured milk drinks. In Europe, the confectionery was called the Mars bar. Mars went on to produce a range of well-known products such as Snickers and M&Ms.
A Snickers bar - one of Mars' most well-known products. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Forrest Mars, Frank's son, introduced a new range of food products - this time in pet foods. Mars launched products which combined modern manufacturing processes with advances in nutritional science. Mars has a pet nutrition research centre, Waltham, which it uses to drive product development in pet foods.
Mars also applied modern processes to its production of rice under the Uncle Ben's brand name. A specialised Mars process where rice could be parboiled on a large scale enabled nationwide distribution of the product in the USA.
The company also ventured into the 'delivery' of snack food products to the consumer. Its Klix and Flavia vending machines are contemporary examples of these delivery systems.
A summary of Mars' brand names and the segments targeted:
| Market Segments | Brand Names |
|---|
| Confectionery & snack foods | M&Ms, Snickers, Mars, Twix, Bounty, Celebrations, Galaxy, Tracker, Revels, Topic, Starburst, Skittles, Tunes, Lockets. |
| Pet foods | Whiskas, Pedigree, Cesar, Sheba, Kitekat, Pal, Aquarian, Trill. |
| Main meal foods | Uncle Ben's, Dolmio pasta and sauces. Ice creams. |
| Vending systems | Klix, Flavia. |
Masterfoods is a division of Mars UK Limited. It was created in January 2002 by the merger of Mars Confectionery and Pedigree Masterfoods.
The company's UK factories are based in Slough, Berkshire; Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire; Peterborough, and King's Lynn, Norfolk. Confectionery and snackfoods are processed in Slough. Pet foods are produced in Melton Mowbray and Peterborough. Main meal foods are made at King's Lynn.
Mars marred?
Two recent case studies illustrate how Mars has faced modern-day challenges in ethics and environmental issues typically faced by large business organisations.
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In December 2006, Mars were fined by the Environment Agency for breaches of European carbon trading rules. The agency failed to submit permits for the amount of carbon it emitted in 2005, the first year of the scheme. Mars were fined Euro 78,000 for failing to obtain allowances for some 2,000 tonnes of carbon it produced.
Under the European Union (EU) system, firms are given allowances for the amount of carbon they can emit. If they exceed their allowance, they must buy additional permits from other companies to cover the shortfall.
According to the Environment Agency, Mars produced 1,952 tonnes of carbon. It did not submit permits to cover these emissions until nearly eight months after the deadline. Mars said in their defence that they had "not been discharging excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and in fact its emissions at the Peterborough facility have reduced."
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Using millk to make chocolate is obvious. But using rennet, an extract from calves' stomach membranes? Suddenly, you're not so hungry after all! Copyright: Paul Ijsendoorn, from stock.xchng.
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On May 1st, 2007, Masterfoods began using animal products in many of its snack foods. The affected brands included the following: Mars bars, Maltesers, Bounty, Snickers, Twix, Minstrels and Milky Way.
The animal product used in these brands is whey. This is used in cheesemaking and involves the use of rennet, a chemical from calves' stomachs.
The announcement was met with anger by vegetarian groups fearing the loss of some favourite chocolate bars, which previously had been free from animal products.
Following an outcry from the Vegetarian Society and interested MPs, among others, Mars UK announced a U-turn. At the time of writing this decision is not believed to affect its full range of products.
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Sources of additional information:
Tasks and activities
- Analyse the Environment Agency's action against Masterfoods over the European carbon trading scheme. Identify the impact it might have across the range of Masterfoods' stakeholders. What action would you suggest Masterfoods take to improve their environmental reputation?
- Are the actions of Mars UK operator, Masterfoods, justified in introducing animal products into its confectionery? How would you evaluate the impact of many of these well-known brands becoming unsuitable for vegetarians? Did Mars UK do enough to handle the protests? What does this case tell you about the power of consumers?
- How would you expect Masterfoods to capitalise on the research results detailed in the article from Runner's World? Devise a marketing slogan which the company could use to make best use of these findings.
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