Tuesday 8 July 2014

Introduction: How the hunger for Snickers began

You're Not You When You're Hungry!

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.

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