They easily dominate the chocolate bar market as they own the likes of ‘Snickers’ ‘Mars’ ‘Maltesers’ ‘M&M’s’ and ‘Twix’. But do they dominate the ice cream bar market? Mars ice cream bar
The Mars ice cream bar was first brought out in 1988. ‘ Introduced in response to a growing consumer interest in and demand for higher quality ice cream products with universal appeal, the Mars ice cream bar was an instant success, winning many major food awards, and becoming the best selling wrapped ice cream.’
In the report that was sent to me after requesting information from where Mars began, Slough, they claim that the Mars ice cream bar ‘ remains a best seller.’ However the report sent to me is 4 years out of date so I will not consider that to be true and will have to find out from independent retailers if they are in fact today’s best sellers. Since that report The ‘Magnum’ ice cream bar has become increasingly popular and foreign brand names have also grown in Britain, for example ‘Carte D’Or’. To get the information I need I will construct a questionnaire and I will ask the nearest couple of supermarkets for the sales figures relating to ice cream bars.
But another part of my report is to look at how they promote their ice cream bar.
How Mars Promote Their Ice Cream Bar.
Like all their other products they have the full package in promoting the Mars ice cream bar. They advertise on T.V., radio, billboards, and in magazines.
Advertising
On T.V. Mars uses the approach of showing lots of people enjoying their Mars ice cream bar in different ways and then asking how you would enjoy it. This is to give the viewer a feeling that everyone else is eating the bars and finding it the best brand so you should be eating them as well. Also all the people shown on the advert are attractive and are shown in big houses, which gives the effect to the viewer of a connection between success and Mars ice cream bar.
On radio they use humour to advertise their product. There is a man telling the listener that if they see anyone else eating an ice cream bar that is not a Mars ice cream bar they should shout at them to eat a proper ice cream bar, and embarrass them. This also gives a message to the listener underneath the lines that Mars simply believe that their bars are so much better than anyone else’s and it would be stupid and embarrassing to eat any other kind of ice cream bar. This particular advert was put out on the airs in June 2000 and is not running any more but it must have been good as it has stuck in my head all these months ahead of any others I have listened to recently.
Mars does not use billboards as much as T.V. or radio. I have been told because not as many people pay attention to them nowadays, as there is so many around and they don’t stand out to people as much as they did when they were first introduced. The few boards that they do use have linked up with the T.V. adverts, where the picture shows an attractive person in a big house eating a Mars ice cream bar.