Brian Flanagan, Regional Director, Global Talent Team

2012

$30 billion 70,000 Associates 11 billion-dollar brands 300+ locations Still family-owned

By Putting our Principles into Action, we make a difference to People and the Planet through

Performance

Our Challenge

“Ah,  the  Mars  bar.  That’s  part  of  Hershey’s,  right?”  

 Our  Challenge  

In  the  past,  Mars  approach  to  Employer  Branding  has  been  restricted  to  

local  market  ini=a=ves  and  no  global  governance.  

In  2007,  with  the  re-­‐branding  of  all  of  our  legacy  businesses  to  Mars,  we  

started  a  journey  of  building  a  more  visible  corporate  brand.  

The  Employer  Brand  followed,  and  over  the  past  3  years,  the  majority  of  

local  ini=a=ves  have  been  stopped  and  two  approaches  were  developed.  

Although  both  meant  a  step  forward  for  our  EB,  we  believed  that,  neither  

had  the  poten=al  to  assume  a  global  lead.  

 How  we  got  here  

•  Lack  of  global  clarity/guidance  –  lots  of  “not  invented  here”  

•  Underinvestment  compared  to  other  key  brands  

•  Remaining  on  campaign  level  vs.  holis=c  approach  

•  Lack  of  integra=on  of  marke=ng,  corporate  affairs  

•  Varying  level  of  exper=se  in  the  EB  field  

•  Inconsistent  messaging  across  regions  and  businesses  

•  Varying  quality  of  execu=on  

•  Below-­‐average  performance  compared  to  rest  of  the  industry  

 Why  we  failed  in  the  past  

 The  Results  

 Mindset  ShiY  

FROM:  

developing  adver=sing  campaigns  with  nice  crea=ve  concepts  and  

appealing  imagery  

TO:  

crea=ng  an  overarching  employer  branding  strategy,  covering:  

•  global  brand  essence  based  on  target  group  insights,  and  in  line  with  

the  rest  of  the  corporate  communica=ons  

•  flexible  creaBve  framework  with  room  for  local  adapta=ons  

•  experBse  for  holisBc  implementaBon  (target  group  insights  genera=on,  

routes  to  market,  sourcing  strategies…)  

 Step-­‐change  in  our  way  of  thinking  

 The  Briefing  

•    Brand  &  crea=ve  framework  need  to  work  across  all  6  segments  and  all  regions  

•    Needs  to  work  with  acquisi=ons  (Wrigley,  Royal  Canin)  that  need  to:  

 –  be  integrated  under  the  Mars  umbrella  

 –  yet  maintain  their  unique  brand  equity  

•    Different  markets  will  have  different  themes,  and  areas  of  focus.  Our  framework  needs  to  be  broad  enough  to  accommodate  that,  and  at  the  same  =me  be  specific  and  to  the  point  so  as  not  to  come  across  as  generic.  

•    Layering  of  messages:  overall  Mars  message  vs.  local/segment  specific  message  (i.e.  Petcare  vs  Chocolate)?  

•    Some  brand  promises  will  work  very  well  in  some  markets,  but  not  at  all  in  

 others.  (i.e.  graduate  development)  

 Some  challenges  

• The “Yeah Right” effect – not believing in the importance of our

principles or the uniqueness of our culture

• Coming across as trite – PIA – “trying to save the world” • Blending in with the crowd – everyone claims to have values,

offer great opportunities and focus on the individual

• Not being authentic – we must be able to deliver on the

brand promise • Not being relevant – does what matters to us matter to our

target groups?

• Budget – we can’t be the loudest, so how do we stand out

from the crowd?

 More  Challenges  

• Generally, people do not comprehend the size and breadth of our business

• Unlike our competitors, we are decades behind in opening up and establishing our corporate brand vs. product brands. We therefore need to work much harder in establishing Mars, Inc as a brand

• Some markets have established EB brands with strong recognition (UK, Germany, NL). Some have no brand recognition (US). Some are tied to a particular product we produce (Galaxy in Middle East)

• We are a business of great brands: they need to support but not lead our employer branding image

• Our Five Principles are at the core of our DNA, and easily understood internally. They are difficult to bring across externally in a credible way

 Learnings  

 Defining  the  Brand  

 The  Essence  

 The  Silver  Bullet  –  or  not  

 Our  Brand  Promise  

 Posi=oning  Statement  

 Storytelling  brings  our      employment  offer  to  life  

 How  to  tell  our  story  

 THE  CREATIVES  

 The  Market:  Look  &  Feel  

 The  Market:  Tone  &  Style  

 Our  posi=onings  

Our Challenge

Unite  powerful  brands  with  powerful  stories  in  a  unique  way  

 Crea=ve  Challenge  

Employer  Branding:  US  

 INTEGRATING  OUR  ACQUIRED  BUSINESSES  

 The  Results  

Times  Top  100  Graduate  Employers  –  Best  Ad  2011  

RAD  Awards  –  Top  3  Interna=onal  Campaigns  

Mars  US  enters  Universum  Top  100  

Top  50  Global  Employer  

 Campaign  vs.  brand  

Brand  Guidebook   Brand  Deployment  Handbook  

Brand  Portal  

 Employer  Brand  Council  Key  markets,  global  HR,  global  Corporate  Affairs,  

Global  Marke=ng,  Agency  Partners