ABSTRACT Snickers, the well-known chocolate bar, has recently witnessed drastic changes in its marketing and positioning strategies. This has happened thorough numerous TV commercials and massive social media campaigns. In the following report, these strategies adopted by Snickers® have been studied and analysed in detail.
SNICKERS® Study on Product and Consumer Behaviour
Aditi Yadav Venu Madhav Nivedita Patnaik Rushikesh Thakkar Swati Singh
ABM10037 PGP29360 PGP29355 PGP29350 PGP29361
The Snickers Product Snickers is a candy bar made of peanuts, caramel and chocolates, owned by Mars Incorporated. The brand derives its name from one of the favourite horses owned by the Mars family. Salient features of the product –
A normal Snickers bar gives energy equivalent to 276 kcal. Globally it is positioned as a snack rather than chocolate. The same positioning has been adopted in India.
Mars India was set up in 2004 as a subsidiary of Mars Inc. It spreads over other South East Asian countries – Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Product line of Mars includes Mars, Milky Way, M&M, and Snickers etc.
Recently, Snickers has launched Snickers Green Dot, vegetarian Snickers in India to cater to the Indian consumers. It will be available in two pack sizes (32g & 54g). The company claims that there has been no change in taste, and its nutritional value has been kept intact.
A certain set of consumers still believe it to be a chocolate, while another section who think of it as an energy bar have it only when they are hungry. Following charts show the correlation between the different sets of consumers.
You are running late for work and you are hungry. Which one will you pick? 23
12 6 Burger/ Sandwich / Wraps
Chips / Cookies
Chocolate / Energy bar
Figure 1 Consumers preference for a quick bite
What is your perception of Snickers?
17
14 8 2
ENERGY BAR, I IT'S ONLY A WON'T HAVE IT CHOCOLATE!! UNLESS I AM HUNGRY
LUXURY / IMPORTED BRAND LIKE HERSHEYS ETC
SIMILAR TO DAIRY MILK
Figure 2 Perception of the product Snickers by consumers
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Snickers Green Dot – The Vegetarian Variant The product is composed of nuts, caramel, milk chocolate and nougat. It is currently manufactured and imported from UAE.
The new Snickers Green Dot is especially launched for the vegetarian population of India that stands at approximately 20%-42% of the entire population (based on FAO survey).
The launch is in line with their business objective of growing Snickers range in India – an innovative step forward as part of growth strategy in India.
Product
Promotion
•Peanut based candy bar •Energy content - 276 cal
•Minimum
advertising Tried to leverage global brand equity in 2004 •International ad campaign adopted in the year 2012 •Placed in stores alongside market leader, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
/54g bar •Launched, Snickers Green
Dot, a vegetarian variant largest selling candy bar
•World’s
Price
Placement
•Price of 25gm candy bar
•Product availability in
reduced from Rs 25 to Rs 15 •Price of 50gm bar reduced fromRs 45 to Rs 30
shopping malls until 2012 •Scaled up distribution network in 2012 to include kirana stores •Greater market penetration
Figure 3 4Ps of Marketing Mix for Snickers
Placement The Indian chocolate market estimated at around Rs 3,000 crore is expected to grow at 15% in the year 2013. According to a report by TechSci Research, the chocolate market in India is expected to grow at about 20 percent and become Rs 19,200 crore by 2018. The product placement saw the following changes take effect in the subsequent years after its launch –
Availability of Snickers was confined to malls and high end outlets little over a year At that time it was majorly positioned as a luxury brand and perceived as an imported chocolate for high income consumer
Post 2012 some major changes took place in their marketing and positioning strategies
The distribution channel of the product has expanded. Local dealers and grocery store
owners were selling the product alongside the familiar Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
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Promotion / Placement The visibility of the product has increased due to the aggressive promotional activities via billboards, posters, television, Facebook groups and product placement at all local grocery, confectionary stores. They are also planning to launch an app coming for android and iPhone users soon. This has been elaborated in the section Evolution of Snickers Advertising in India.
Evolution of Snickers Advertising in India Unlike some global brands that follow a different marketing mix for launching the product in India compared to launching it globally, Snickers followed no such strategy during its launch.
Essence of the Global Snickers Campaign The objective was to make people think about Snickers when out and about. The solution was to tap into one of basic and the most powerful requirement of mankind, ‘hunger’. Snickers decided to tap between-the-meals hunger of its potential market which included everyone above the age of 13. The following situations in their global television campaigns very aptly convey the message –
Moments when people feel irritable, bad tempered, and hunger aggravates that irritation
Snickers brand was positioned as a one stop solution to this hunger. Thus, any time one
feels angry or irritable because of hunger, grab a Snickers instantly. A key issue with the campaign was that one is unlikely to face such moments while
watching a TV. It is more likely to happen when one is out with friends, travelling or at work. Therefore a perception had to be built wherein Snickers had to own those "You're not you when you're hungry" moments. The Facebook fan page very cleverly capitalizes on that by placing the Snickers bar next to everyday such as a work station, a book shelf.
Early Launch in India (2004) Snickers first made its foray in India in 2004 as an imported product. The $3.6bn candy bar, owned by Mars International and imported by Mars India along with Mars, Galaxy, Milky Way, Twix etc in its product line. Advertising was sparse and they relied on global brand equity (Snickers is the largest selling candy bar in the world) for sales in India as well. Likewise distribution was narrow.
First Campaigns (2008 – 2012) The product was first advertised in 2008 and revamped later in 2012, the former tagline being “Hunger bajaye char, Snickers khol yaar”. This campaign turned out to be a slow starter for sales in India. The reason was the high price point owing to high import duties and the resulting perception of the candy bar as a luxury commodity. Conclusion – Price point should be right, distribution should be rectified. Unless Snickers makes a dent at the price point of its competitors, it will always remain as an exported product. Mars Int’l India understood this and that if they wanted to make a dig in the
Indian market and start manufacturing in India, they had to address the price and distribution of Snickers in India. 4
Indian Adoption of Global Campaign (2012 – 2013) With continued efforts at positioning itself as the preferred between-the-meals snack, Snickers launched an Indian adaptation of its international campaign. The English tagline (you're not you, when you're hungry) becomes 'Hunger Achhe Achhon Ko Badal Deta Hai', and iconic Bollywood diva Rekha replaces the many renowned Hollywood actors Snickers has previously featured. The advertisement shows how a big bite of Snickers turns the cricketer back to an energetic and agreeable man from an irritable diva Rekha. To supplement the TV commercials, Snickers has a very active Facebook fan page (over 1.3mn fans and 8,500+ users tagging the product on a daily basis) only for Indian consumers and evokes the culture, personal factors with posts related to the youth – It tell a joke day, friendship day; events having significance to Indians – Independence day and festive occasions. Other active promotional strategies, social campaigns, online gaming, on – ground activities, initiated by the company are summarized below –
On-ground activities for communication to drive awareness
Gaming has been used as an integral part of its communication plan
Effective personal interaction with customers facilitated through word of mouth publicity when consumers share experiences via discussion in person or social media website
Massive online and on-ground campaign using technology has been instrumental in
creating excitement around the launch of the all new vegetarian Snickers Active campaigns to attract consumers conducted at tier-2 cities as well.
First campaign flagged off in Ahmedabad and subsequently to cover Surat, Jaipur and other tier II cities.
Gaming zone set up by Snickers at a well-known shopping centre in Ahmedabad
Consumer Buying Behaviour A consumer behaviour survey was conducted to understand the marketing and environmental stimuli resulting in the ultimate purchasing decision. The responses were analyzed using the stimulus – response model as shown in the figure. The demography targeted was in the age group of 18 to 25, since a good percentage of consumers belonged to that category as per the Mars market research survey results summarized in the appendix.
Consumer Psychology Consumer Characteristics
Stimuli
Buying Decision Process Figure 4 Stimuli - Response Analysis of Snickers
5
Stimuli
The stimulus for having a chocolate was divided into 5 broad groups, their distribution given in the chart.
Main reason for buying a chocolate ? 13
12
9 4
3 CONVENIENT SNACK
HEALTH / NUTRITIONAL VALUE
INDULGE IN A CRAVING
ON IMPULSE
OUT OF HABIT
Figure 5 Purpose to buy a chocolate
Social factor was dominant in recognition of the product Snickers as majority came to first
hear of the product from friends / relatives How did you first know about Snickers? Overseas visit 5% 10% From friends/ relatives 27% TV ad featuring yesteryear actress Rekha 58% I haven't heard of it !!
Figure 6 Information about the product
Perception of the product – Perceived as an energy bar to be consumed when hungry indicating a success of the active campaigning by Mars (Mapped in Figure 2)
Consumer Psychology
Quick replacement for a snack – driving factors are hunger and running short on time (Refer
Figure 1) The personal factors that facilitated sales of chocolates were also the inherent need to indulge in a craving for chocolates, succumbing to being an impulse buyer or just out of habit. Few considered chocolate having a nutritional value or as a convenient snack.
Consumer Characteristics
Consumers differentiated between the different types of chocolates that they can purchase from the market (response in graph below)
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What kind of chocolates do you like?
12%
Caramel chocolate
44%
Milk chocolate
20%
Dark chocolate Chocolate with nuts
24%
Figure 7 Preference for type of chocolate
The frequency with which one would purchase a Snickers bar –
Frequency of purchasing Snickers
5%
Once in a while, when I am looking for a change
10%
Never ! I dislike Snickers 24%
Can't have, am a strict vegeterian
61%
Almost daily, I love Snickers
Figure 8 Frequency of purchasing a Snicker bar
Consumer Behaviour Survey – Qualitative Analysis
The most interesting insight was received from respondents who loved to have Snickers and consumed on a daily basis. The irony was that they became aware of Snickers only a year ago, even though Mars Inc launched Snickers way back in 2004
When did you first hear about Snickers? Past 6Last months - 1 year 6 mths – 1ago year
2 years More Past than a1 – year ago Last66months months Last 0
5
10
15
20
Figure 9The first time one came to know about Snickers
7
25
30
Most respondents, who didn’t consume Snickers because it had egg as a chief ingredient, are
still unaware of the new Green Dot
Some consumers showed a brand loyalty towards the market leader in chocolates “Cadbury”
and hence over a period of time preferred to have a Dairy Milk or 5-Star over Snickers
Recommendations
Snickers can look forward to targeting the segment that prefers dark chocolate (24% of the
respondents, who seemed favourable to try the Snickers Dark chocolate variant) The Snickers Product line in international markets features includes Snickers Peanut butter, unwrapped bite, Snickers Almond, Snickers Ice cream, Snickers Dark chocolate, Snickers
miniature. Once Snickers starts production in India, it can increase the consumer base with the reduced
price (achieve reduction in import duty by 30% on average) Given the high energy content that can be derived from an average Snicker bar (~276 kcal – 54gm), sportspersons, adventure sport enthusiasts can use a high energy variant of Snickers. There is a specific variant existing globally known as Snickers Marathon bar.
Appendix Research studies by Mars International Inc.
Figures from Mars International India show 29% of people eating chocolate in the country are 13-19 year olds, while 23% were 20-25 years old, a total hitting 19% for 26-30 year olds and 30% for 30-40 year olds. Also, as a marketing code of conduct, Mars Inc. has stated that it does not direct any of its ads for the children less than 12 years of age. The company's research also found that 24% ate a bar of chocolate for relaxation. Hunger posted 23% on this measure, the same score as sharing, and ahead of rejuvenation on 14% and indulgence on 11%. Below is a pie chart
Which group do you belong to? College student
32% 5%
just started working
63% Working professional for more than a year
Figure 10 Survey re spondents - Income and age classification
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