n As exclusively revealed in The Grocer this week, Masterfoods has ambitious plans to reposition its iconic Mars bar, including a new slogan and logo. But will the move claw back sales? Simon Mowbray reports Few things in this life are certain but there are some constants ­ night will follow day, politician bashing will remain a national sport and, last but not least, there will always be a place in consumers' hearts, and pockets, for the Mars bar. Or will there? Bosses at Masterfoods appear so unsure of the latter that they are about to take the unprecedented step of moving their flagship brand away from its 70-year-old image of a good hearty feed and into the realms of an indulgent treat which consumers will call upon to celebrate the finer things in life. Out go age-old slogans like A Mars a Day Helps You Work, Rest and Play' and the 1970s-style If I don't fill you, nothing will' packaging. And in come a new catchphrase, Pleasure you can't measure', a floaty light wrapper design to denote the brand's new positioning and a multi-million pound marketing push to bring the brand into the 21st century. That's not to say that the Mars bar was necessarily lagging behind its competitors in the image stakes, of course, merely that in an ever increasingly competitive sector those in the know at Masterfoods felt something had to be done to reverse the brand's fortunes following a torrid year for the sector as a whole. Figures from Information Resources show that in the year to January 27, total chocolate confectionery sales plummeted by more than £150m to fall below the £2bn level for the first time in years. Across all grocery and impulse outlets, Mars saw its value fall by more than 11% to rest at just under £115m. Nestlé's Kit Kat (excluding the two-finger version which Information Resources now places in biscuits') dropped in value by just over 12% to £105m, while best seller Cadbury's Dairy Milk saw its sales dip to £187.5m over the same period, down by 7%. It was against this background, admits Mars UK brand manager Sophia Nadur, that Masterfoods felt it had to react. "We have to bring the brand back to life and what we are doing is the culmination of at least a year's work," says Nadur, a former marketing guru for Coca-Cola in Latin America. "Mars is an enduring classic which people have grown up with, but that doesn't mean to say that it doesn't need a fresh approach." There was also a need to consciously take Mars away from its traditional, hefty image, says Nadur, and the jingles with which it is still so strongly associated. "It seems people can't say Mars without saying work, rest and play', even though we stopped using that slogan five years ago. Nothing we have done since has managed to take it out of people's minds." That, she insists, must now change if the company is to take the brand forward. "It is the sort of slogan that symbolised what the brand was about in the post war years, when people wanted sustenance products, one of the enduring attributes of Mars. But people's needs have changed. We no longer want or need so many calories. Instead, eating chocolate bars is now more about enjoyment, although the balance we are trying to achieve for the brand is evolution rather than revolution." So what's in store? Well, apart from the new wrapper and slogan hitting stores from the end of this month, the product is also changing. A technical process change in the way Mars is now being made at Masterfoods' manufacturing and administrative HQ at Slough, Berkshire, is aimed at reducing the bar's heaviness, with the trademark nougat being whipped more to produce a lighter filling. The weights of all offerings are also being taken down, meaning the standard offering will now weigh in at a modest 62.5g compared with the current 65g offering, although there will be no change in the 29p price point. Mars Big One dips from 100g to 85g and will have a new rsp of 39p, 4p less than before, and multipacks will contain six 54g bars instead of five of 65g, with the pack price dropping 3p to £1.42. A new blacker background and lighter-looking lettering will adorn all packs, as well as the rest of Mars range, including ice cream. The whole revamp will also see the brand's new slogan beamed onto TV screens, thrown onto hoardings and printed in press ads as part of a £7.5m relaunch for Mars. The campaign, the brainchild of ad agency Grey Worldwide, which won the pitch to propel Mars' new image into the public arena by coming up with the Pleasure you can't measure' slogan, will kick off in earnest on April 21 after consumers have been given the chance to get acquainted with the revamped brand. Another plan is to throw the new products onto shelves with an all-singing, all-dancing below the line push which will see in-store theatre taken to extremes. One idea is to target exhausted young parents at the nappy fixture with floor ads such as "A full night's sleep ­ pleasure you can't measure". Deals have already been struck with both Tesco and Sainsbury with the former staging a Mars Brand Week' nationwide. But will the overall gameplan for the new Mars work? Not everyone's convinced. One senior buyer told us: "What this sector is really missing is innovation. Kinder recently brought a little magic into the market with Bueno but that has been about it. "I'm pleased to hear that Mars is at least addressing the issue of falling sales but I think the best it can hope for is to stop the rot." Nadur is, unsurprisingly, more upbeat. "Mars is currently not as visible throughout the year as it should be and this will address that. We are trying to make it more accessible to a new market as well as keeping our existing customers, and we are confident we will see an upswing in volume sales by between 5%-10% which will counterbalance the drop in rsp. The challenge is to make sure people are virtually falling over the brand when they get into store." But will the revamp add long term value to the brand? Nadur is less keen to make predictions but insists: " This is not about finding a short term fix but about introducing a profound change which will give us a platform to build upon in future. "If you put a message in front of someone's face then you can make them try it. I, for one, do not believe that this market will stay in decline." {{FEATURES }}

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