Most chocolate and candy bars are bought last minute on the way to the cash register, a difficult experience to recreate online, where there is no physical checkout.
Rankin Carroll, Global VP and CMO of Mars Chocolate, oversees a portfolio including Skittles, M&M’s and Snickers, and he must not only transform their business models as grocery shopping moves online, but recreate key purchase moments in a digital world.
“We’re doing experiments so we’re not hamstrung with bricks and mortar,” Carroll said.
Mars is also building up its arsenal of first-party data, both through direct-to-consumer (DTC) online plays and owned and operated retail stores, to serve more relevant offers to consumers.
The impulse buy of the future, for example, might be about serving someone an offer before they’re about to have a party, rather than trying to sell a single candy bar at the end of a generic purchase.
“Data informs experience,” Carroll said. “Wherever we’re collecting data, we’re trying to bring that back to the total experience of the brand.”
He spoke with AdExchanger.
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