The product life cycle has 4 very clearly defined stages, each with its own characteristics that mean different things for business that are trying to manage the life cycle of their particular products.
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Decline
Currently, Snickers is the best chocolate in the USA. It is at the Maturity stage there.
However, in India, being a late entrant, it is still at the growth stage.
Industry Life Cycle:
Chocolate industry is at the maturity stage overall.
Snickers does not only compete within the chocolate industry, but outside it as well! This is because, Snickers is marketed as a snack instead of a candy bar. While the USA has easily adopted it as a snack, India is yet to see it become a snack.
For Indians, anything made of chocolate is a chocolate or sweet dish, not a snack. This is the biggest problem for Snickers in India.
Snickers competitors within the industry in USA:
Below is a list of the top 3 competitors of Snickers in USA. Currently, Snickers is at number 1 position.
M&M: Coming from the same parent company, Mars
Reese's: The Hershey Company
Hershey's: The Hershey Company
As is clearly evident, there are two companies ruling the roost in the USA: Mars and Hershey.
Snickers competitors within the industry in India:
Snickers has a tough competition in India as it is a new entrant in the market as compared to established brands like Cadbury and Nestle. Cadbury has such a wide impact that chocolate is synonymous with Dairy Milk almost all over India.
Dairy Milk and it's variants: Cadbury
Kitkat: Nestle
Munch: Nestle
Snickers needs to come up with some really brilliant advertising and promotion campaigns to make a mark in the Indian scenario.
Snickers competitors outside the industry in India:
As said earlier, the idea of snacks is something different in the mind of the Indian consumer.
Some of them are as follows:
Vada Pav
Street Food
Chips and Samosas
It may take a while for Indians to view Snickers as a snack.
Right proportion of chocolate, caramel and peanuts
Should not be too soft
Peanuts satisfy the hunger pangs and the mood.
Chocolate uplifts mood
First time buyer vs repeated buyer
First Time:
It’s an international brand, now easily available in every store. Must try.
Peanut, nougat, caramel
Interesting ingredients.
Yummy taste. Different from the other plain chocolates available in the market.
Ads promise killing of hunger pangs.
Repeated:
Need it to satisfy hunger pangs.
Should not be too soft else it will become sticky and messy while eating.
Slightly more expensive than other chocolates.
Heavy on the stomach, can’t have in large quantities.
Eat in limited quantities as it is not good for health.
Deliberation in the head of the consumer
This chocolate is different from the others present in the market.
It consists of peanuts and is fulfilling.
Other chocolates satisfy taste, this satisfies hunger.
The taste is very good.
Stages of decision making:
Explanation with respect to Snickers:
Need Recognition: Hunger satisfaction or chocolate craving
Information Search: Search for quick snacks or chocolate
Evaluation of Alternatives: Compare with snack options like Vada pav or with chocolate options like Dairy Milk.
Purchase Decision: Go for Snickers as it seems to satisfy both, hunger pang as well as sweet tooth.
Post-Purchase Behaviour: Go for Snickers again if it satisfies the consumer.
Every product has a customer, a consumer and a retailer or channel partner. To elaborate on this, a customer is simply the one who purchases the product. A consumer is the one who uses the product. A customer and consumer may or may not be the same person. For example, if your mother buys Snickers for you, your mother is the customer and you are the consumer.
A retailer or channel partner is simply the one who purchases goods in bulk from the company at a lower rate than MRP and sell it to the customers at the MRP.
Now, let us understand how Snickers has different value for each of the above groups:
Customer: The customer is satisfied when the product is easily available, worth the money and is branded. Snickers is not only easily available, but also affordable. Moreover, it has the famous MARS brand behind it.
Consumer: The consumer primarily is satisfied if he/she likes the taste of the chocolate. Moreover, as Snickers is promoted as a mini-snack, the consumer eats the chocolate to fight hunger pangs.
Retailer: The retailer looks for a good profit margin, saleability of the chocolate and is happy when the product has a long shelf life. Moreover, the product must be strong enough to pull the customers to the retailers outlet.
Even though it can be eaten by people of all ages and gender, the advertising is mostly targeted towards young males.
Snickers is a candy bar that consists of nougat, peanuts, and caramel with a chocolate coating. It was created in 1930 by Mars, and named after the favorite horse of the Mars family. Since then, there have been several Snickers products such as Snickers mini, dark chocolate, ice cream bars, Snickers with almonds, and Snickers peanut butter bars, however, this blog focuses on the original Snickers chocolate bar which is available for Rs. 30 in India. The mini version of the bar is available for Rs. 15.
Even though Snickers had always been a well known brand, it started some aggressive advertising in the beginning of 1995 to re-position itself in the market. Snickers ran ads which featured someone making a self-inflicted mistake, with the voice-over saying "Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers!".
In 2010, a new advertising campaign "You're Not You When You're Hungry" was launched. It was based around men turning into nagging women.
In 2012, keeping Indian sensibilities in mind, Snickers launched a vegetarian variant of the chocolate in India. The Indian advertisement of Snickers showed men turning into divas with tantrums played by the famous Bollywood actors Rekha and Urmila Matondkar.
In May 2014, it went a step ahead and tied up with the movie Godzilla. A commercial was released in which Godzilla is shown hanging out with humans on the beach, riding dirt bikes, and water skiing; he only begins rampaging once he's hungry. After being fed a snickers bar, he resumes having fun with the humans. Needless to say, the ad was a huge hit.
Global retail sales are estimated at almost $3.6bn, up from $3.3bn in 2011. Sales in the US alone account for just over $2.0bn in 2012. The product comes in several sizes, as well as in the form of impulse ice cream bars and cones, and scoop ice cream. It is the #1 impulse snack bar in the US, and among the top five take-home brands.
