THE COMPANY’S BACKGROUND

Mars nutrition is a company that is famous of producing chocolates and candies. Mars nutrition products are highly consumed by everyone whether you are male, female, children or adult. It owns a lot of well known products such as (Snickers, Skittles, M&M’s, Dove, Twix...Etc.). With almost 100 years of chocolate making history, the company managed to use 100% cocoa butter in almost its entire product, furthermore Mars Nutrition Company operates in more than 65 countries.

M&M's are colorful button-shaped candies produced by Forrest Mars, Incorporated. M&M's originated from the United States in 1941. It produces a variety of flavored confections ,including milk chocolate, dark chocolate, mint-flavored chocolate, peanuts, almonds, and peanut butter. M&M’s are now sold in over 100 countries. At 1954, a very important year in the history of the company marks the day where M&Ms Peanut Chocolate Candies were presented, the M&Ms Brand characters and the famous slogan "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand" were both trademarked. Forrest Mars got the idea and the recipe for M&Ms chocolate during the Spanish Civil War. Mars saw soldiers eating pieces of chocolate covered with a hard sugary outside layer to prevent the candy from melting in the hot sun. M&Ms first starts to sell in the United States, while the World War 2 was taking place. The government used this candy as a snack to the solders, because it was a candy that could last in almost any climate.

The letters M&M stands for the first initials of the last names for the creators of the candy - Forrest Mars Sr. and R. Bruce Murrie.

­M&Ms have stores all over world, mostly Europe and the United states. The three biggest are located in U.S.A, namely;

      1.      M&MS world Las Vegas.

      2.      M&MS world Orlando.

      3.      M&MS world New York (opened recently)

M&M ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

STRATEGIC MARKETING

M&M’s have also focused on the unique recipe for their chocolate. Having the right level of sweetness encourages snacking. The more successful the recipe is, the more consumers will eat. Using celebrity endorsers is something that has helped them over the years with advertising. The Spoke candies have also played a huge role in advertising and have helped expand the business for them.  The spokes candies appeal to the sentimental history of the candy. 

GENERAL MARKET

 1. GEOGRAPHIC

 2. Demographic  is one of the most essential part of marketing strategies, it involves covering and dominating a large number of socioeconomic market that focus on gender, age group, sex, level of income, normally if a company have a good marketing coverage, it have many opportunities of involving in large scale selling, M&M's would be recognize all around the world because of the effort and planning strategy they dedicate in executing and perfecting they company’s coverage in the environment,  M&M's product would be sold all around the world. However the company devotes it time, money, resource and effort to offer many varieties of product improvements to satisfy the customers and consumer’s desired satisfaction and expectation all over the world.

3. Psychographic target market show that the product can be obtained by any one and those who loves chocolate/candies.

In coverage a company most always be aware of product improvements and as well as consumers’ expectations, in other to keep the perfect relationship with the customers and consumers as well.

SPECIFIC TARGET MARKET

In the beginning, Forrest decided he needed to know who was buying his product, who was not, and why.  Sophisticated marketers like Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble had long prepared studies like the ones he used, but no one in the candy industry had approached marketing in such a specific manner.The results showed that M&M’s festive colors and bite-sized pieces had a special appeal to kids.  In studies, children chose M&M’s over every other chocolate candy they were offered.  The problem was that children weren’t in control of the family purchases.M&M’s early target audience was children and, in turn, getting the children’s parents to buy the candy.Children are still a huge part of M&M’s target audience.  Children are the main reason behind such products as M&M’s minis in collectable plastic containers that can be opened and closed.  But it was WWII that changed the demographics for candy eaters. Before the war, candy was child’s play.  But after the war, men and women bought as much candy as children, and candy eating came out of the closetM&M’s decided to reflect this change. At this time, other studies came out that documented food cravings, especially chocolate cravings among women.In every country where it is eaten, chocolate is the food craved most often.  Its appeal is particularly strong for premenopausal women.  One of the largest studies on food preferences ever undertaken, found that 97 percent of college-age women have specific food cravings, and they crave chocolate more than anything else.Women are M&M’s primary target audience. In fact, M&M’s has combined its previous target market with this new one of college-aged women.  By aiming its advertisements at women, M&M’s gained both single women who just crave chocolate and mothers. The change from solely targeting children to targeting adult women is evident when looking at where M&M’s has placed its new advertising. These same women are likely to have children and share their candy with their children as well.  The great thing about the M&M’s spokes candies is that although they might be in a situation that appeals to the adult women, they are still fun characters that children love and find funny.

PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

SERVICE/PRODUCT CONCEPT

BRAND NAME

M&M's one of the most popular candy in the united states and around the world, it was discovered during the Spanish civil war by Forrest Mars Sr. and R. Bruce Murrie .The name M&M’s refers to the first letter from the last name of the creators (Mars and Murrie) The candy shells, each of which has the letter "m" printed on one side.

PRODUCT

M&Ms comes in a variety of candy types, colors, sizes and that’s just the candy itself!  M&MS also has 30 licenses to promote other products such as sweatshirts, M&Ms dispensers and plush dolls of the Spokes candies (M&M’s website).  Recently, M&Ms has allowed customers to customize their own bags of M&Ms by visiting the website and picking out their preferred colors and even personalized inscriptions.  What M&Ms is perhaps best known for is having their candies seasonally appropriate several times a year.  Pastel colors for Easter, red and green for Christmas and orange and black for Halloween are just a few of the color types offered for different times of the year.  This does not include the special promotions offered during other times of the year which have included in the past: tie-dyed colors and black and white.

POSITIONING AND COMPETITIVE DIFFEREMTIATION

We now observe regulations more stringent for food. Laws were passed to prohibit distributors of chocolates in some schools.With current trends, due to the awareness of the importance of good food, welfare, etc. the market for safe, quality is growing. Since 2005, the increase is constant every year since 1999, an average increase of 9.5% was recorded in a context where the whole food market progressed to 3.6% per year. This doesn’t seem to bode well for the sale of M&M’s, which is not related to a healthy product for your health. However, the brand can take comfort from the figures of consumption of chocolate: the EU has the most consumers of chocolate, in the second we find United States. The gourmet market remains fairly large for the brand to continue to sell.   Today, it is expected an increase of 12% of single person households. This is important, in that single people still tend to snack and eat chocolate, rather than preparing a meal. Studies show that over 37% of the population snack between main meals, and it is mainly young people. Also, 13% eat chocolate when they are away from home. M&M’s is positioned on a highly competed: the sweets in general and that of chocolate confectionery in particular. The direct competitors of M&M’s chocolate candies are shaped ball: Smarties, Maltesers, Kitkat Ball. Indirect competitors are chocolate confectionery, such as Ferrero products broken down into differebt forms (Kinder, Chocobons) and sugar confectionery.

M&M’s has the differentiation from its competitors to enter the market for chocolate confectionery. This differentiation involves taking a position on the political product, price, distribution and promotion (marketing mix).This consistent set has enabled the brand to stand out from its competitors.

SERVICES PROVIDED

M&M has been creating many categories of serving its royal customers in the best way they can around the globe, it offers some great customer care value to serve its customers in an integrated marketing strategy to satisfy each and every one, M&M offers:

International order:

M&M creates an international order to satisfy each and every M&M lovers around the world in respective  of where you may be, If you wish to ship product outside the continental U.S.,call Customer Service at 1.866.290.6854, and a representative will gladly assist you with the available destinations and corresponding shipping and handling charges.

Availability:

M&M Company makes every effort to provide the costumer with the real-time status of the products availability prior to ordering. However, if the costumers have had a greater demand than expected, and cannot fulfil your order, the company will inform you via e-mail and provide you with an estimated ship date.

PLACE

CHANNELS:

M&M’s company only considers two types of channels. One is through the internet where shop owners and even customers can purchase any M&M’s product that they desire all the way through the internet either internationally or locally. M&M’s company will grantee to their customers that their online purchase will be safely delivered to the address that the customer had provided to the company. The second type is only offered to shop owners where they order the product from the manufacturer. The manufacturers will take action and supply the product to the shop owner from the warehouse directly to the shop address.

COVERAGE

Coverage is one of the most essential part of marketing strategies, it involves covering and dominating a large number of sells in some certain location around the world, normally if a company have a good marketing coverage, it have many opportunities of involving in large scale selling, M&M today is almost recognize all around the globe because of the effort and planning strategy they dedicate in executing and perfecting they company’s coverage in the environment,  M&M product are now sold in over 100 countries in the world, in 2008 M&M was awarded as the most admired chocolate in Europe and south America because of the perfect marketing coverage, today even in Malaysia M&M have created a beneficial relationship within the country by offering a duty free shipping of M&M product in support of the award winning Airport KLIA in 31, august 2007.

However M&M company devote it time, money, resource and effort to offer many varieties of product improvements to satisfy the customers and consumers desired satisfaction and expectation all over the world, in coverage a company most always be aware of product improvements and as well as consumers’ expectations, in other to keep the perfect relationship with the customers and consumers as well.

ASSORTMENT

M&M’s company is one of the most famous chocolate companies in the world. The company did a great job by introducing their product to the customers .nowadays everyone knows what is M&M’s because of their perfection in their product coverage. M&M’s managed to provide their product in just about everywhere .M&M’s are found in shops (grocery shops), supermarkets (jusco, carfore and tesco) ,petrol stations (PETRONAS and shell ) and amusement parks(genting highland, sunway lagoon and park Dickson ).basically wherever the costumer go ,they will surrounded with M&M’s product.

LOGISTICS:

Logistics is a little similar to transportation. It involves the physical distribution of the goods like deliveries and the flow of the goods. M&MS don’t often do home deliveries, but in some countries they attend to online deliveries. When a customer orders online, they deliver it strait to their homes. It is a way in which they expand their sales and customer relations.

They make the deliveries through the little company trucks with the M&M logos on them. The delivery person appears in uniform designed for the M&Ms Company.

INVENTORY

inventory is primarily about specifying the size and placement of stocked goods at hand that are available for a company, company like M&M have many different branches over 100 countries in the world, some certain branch’s may require at different locations within a facility or within multiple locations of a supply network to protect the regular and planned course of production against the random disturbance of running out of materials or goods. Every company has common reasons of keeping it inventory in stock due to:

Time: Time is very essential in supply chain towards a company production, from suppliers to every user and stage involved that is required to maintain a certain inventory for lead time. M&M company is conscious of that, that is why is always ahead of its competitors in the chocolate world.

Uncertainty: inventories are kept and maintain to meet some uncertainty and business casualties in other to meet demand and supply and also product movement.

Economies of scale: ideal condition of one unit at a time at a place where user needs it, when he needs it, principle tends to incur lots of costs in terms of logistics. So bulk buying, movement and storing brings in economies of scale, thus inventory.  

           

TRANSPOTRATION:

In any marketing business, transportation is essential so as to make circulation of the product easier. Especially from the factories to the stores.

M&M is an internationally consumed product, so customers even order online. The factories are located in so many countries, but some places with very little amount of resources will have to depend on other locations to make the production and transport it to them. So in this case, M&M’s will have to make use of all means of transportation. So they will have to own larger trucks and shipping systems. So in order to reduce the cost of production, they will have to make good maintenance of their vehicles and other transport materials.

PRICE

PAYMENT PERIOD:

M&M’s company consider only two types of payments; one of it is cash payment for immediate selling such as cash or credit cards and the other is online payment to cover one of M&M’s features which is customized M&M’s where customers are required to pay online in order to get their customized M&M’s .
ALLOWANCES:
Allowances play a vital role in the marketing of various products. But in the case of M&M’s, they don’t undergo this stage.
CREDIT TERMS:
This is a payment agreement that is usually negotiated between the buyer and the seller. But in this case, credit terms do not apply in the marketing process of this product.
DISCOUNT:
discounts are created so that you can drive sales on products or groups of products to your customers who meet certain specified conditions, M&M incorporated create many varieties of product promotions, but less of discount, this is because of the standard marketing rate for the product, normally discount and other promotions are made because you may have a product in your inventory that has not been selling as planned. You can create a discount for that product and promote it to customers who you think may need that product. M&M Corporation have not encountered any of these unanticipated situations for pass recent years. That is why it provide promotion and very less of discount rate in the market because of the product progress and improvement in the market place.
And further more M&M always stay on top in the world of chocolate factories producing due to the dedications and commitments to its customer in term of producing superior customer value expectations towards it product, M&M incorporation always believe in product improvements and delivering more than customers expectation in the marketing sector.
LIST PRICE:
M&M’s produces a variety of products or flavors, each flavor has a unique taste, and the prices of these products are listed below:

PROMOTION

Advertising:

Advertising consider a very important element in marketing, where companies tries to promote their product .M&M's may be an old brand, but it is not afraid to try new things, the company is using a lot of effective ways to attract their target which is the costumers, it’s using a variety of advertising to encourage people to buy their product. Types of advertisement that M&M’s uses are listed below:

1. Balloons
2. Clings
3. Pieces hanging on mobiles
4. Pins
5. Booklets
6. Standees
7. Clothing
8. Posters
9. Brochures
10. Danglers
11. Paper
12. Shell sheets
13. TV commercials 

SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It’s a simple, yet effective way of evaluating organizations which not only makes sure you aware of your current surroundings but also helps you shape how you want your business or organization to be.

M&M’s are hard shell coated chocolates that are highly recognizable and know worldwide. They are owned by The Mars Company and date back to 1948.

1. Strengths

      Worldwide reputation, meaning the world recognizes them and trusts the brand.

      Part of The Mars Company, giving them back-up from other chocolates they make such as Galaxy.

      Their marketing and advertising image is individual with sweets as characters.

      Affordable chocolate that pretty much anyone can afford, making the sweets easily accessible.

      Lots of varieties of colors, appealing to a lot of people and any occasion.

      Personalization of M&M’s, making gift ideas and for weddings, birthdays etc.

2. Weaknesses

      Although M&M’s are the number one chocolate sellers, their adverts and marketing take cost a lot of       money in comparison to other Mars products.

3. Opportunities

      Having a worldwide market means that any new product they undertake will be instantly warmed to.

     The M&M shops worldwide are not only shops but tourist attractions, increasing sales all the time    ultimately widening their consumer market which will be ready for any new products.

       They have over 30 licenses to create other products such as t-shirts, mugs, soft toys and figurines.

       Advancements in technology- building up on their characters, developing more products.

4. Threats

       Lots of competition everywhere from othe     r confectionary and chocolate makers.

      Their main competitors ‘Hershey’s’ are always creating new chocolate bars.

   

Evidently, M&M’s are a huge company who must have gone through some SWOT analyses in their experience of building up their business. Weaknesses of them is something which I struggled on, as obviously they can’t have too many weaknesses as they wouldn’t be the great success that they are. The major threat to them, like any company, is their competition. Making sure that they come above bigger and better than their competition is something which businesses thrive upon. Finding customers that would rather go to their company than their competitors is vitally important. Their advertising strategy of using their sweets turned into characters is something that I have picked up on a lot, and something which I believe makes them stand out from the rest of the chocolate and confectionary world. Although it costs an awful lot more money than other chocolates in the Mars Company, which I have stated as a weakness, it’s an idea that has definitely worked in getting them recognition.

RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

M&M is a company that produce chocolate, founded by Forrest mars and Bruce Murrie in 1941 in united states, and the company’s name was found through their names (M was for Forrest E. Mars Sr, and the other M was for Bruce Murrie) Forrest Mars, Sr. founder of the Mars Company, got the idea for the confection in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting, so forrest and Bruce bring the idea of providing M&M to enable the soldiers to be able to eat the chocolate and shallow as well.

Another factor to consider is expanding into more international products.  At this point in time, they do have a considerable presence in international markets such as Hong Kong and Japan, but are missing some key global players such as mainland China, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands.  Potential expansion to Eastern Europe and Middle East should be considered by M&M’s and Master Foods, but should not expand until further market research is done.  By increasing the Asian presence they will be able to reach a large demographic given the region’s large population and interest in American products. 

Another future prediction for M&M’s Brand is following the market need for social needs and wants.  The market is currently moving towards more gourmet and specialty chocolates for both consumption and gift-giving.  M&M’s is currently not active in this market, therefore potential diversification to provide customers with specialty products will keep them in line with market trends.  Current diet trends such as the South Beach Diet and Atkins is leading to a growth of consumer’s requests for sugar-free and low carb candy options.  This could prove to be a big market for M&M’s if they decide to enter this growing market segment.