Analysis of Buyer Behaviour and Brand Performance for Mars Inc.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of buyer and consumer behavior within the context of Mars Inc.'s chocolate bar products, including Mars Bar, Snickers, and Twix. The report begins by exploring the theoretical underpinnings of consumer behavior, contrasting cognitivism and behaviorism to understand how consumers process information and make purchasing decisions. It then evaluates brand performance, examining market share, penetration rates, purchase frequency, and customer loyalty across the different chocolate bar brands, identifying patterns and insights to inform marketing strategies. The report also delves into the concept of mental availability, discussing marketing strategies to build brand recall and recognition among consumers, with a focus on category entry points for Snickers. Finally, the report conducts a demographic segmentation analysis to identify the ideal consumer profile for Mars Inc. products, providing recommendations for targeted marketing efforts. The report concludes with actionable insights and recommendations to enhance brand performance and consumer engagement for Mars Inc.

Buyer and Consumer Behaviour

Executive Summary
The mars Inc produces chocolate bar with a certain length of product line as well as SKUs. It can
be deducted that Cognitivism is the right method of studying the mind of the consumers. The
consumer mind is complex it learns through interaction with information. Thus while developing
marketing plan it is important to take this in mind.
The brand performance measure shows that it is effective for the company to adopt a marketing
strategy to promote snickers as a chief brand product as this is going to increase the brand loyalty
towards the product. The 3 per cent brand loyalty towards snicker is going to increase
considerably in case marketing strategy in adopted to promote snickers.
It is also important for the company to develop mental availability of the product. The mental
availability of the product is of high importance as availability increases sale of the product
invariably. There is various method of increasing mental availability of the product. One of the
most prominent methods of increasing mental availability is to develop entry points for the
product.
It is important to determine the idea of consumer before marketing a product. The consumer
profile can be developed by studying the demography of the consumers. The demographic
studies conducted regarding the product it can be noticed that the age group of 26 to 35 females
with yearly income of $ 70,000 per year is the ideal profile for being a consumer for the product.

Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Section-1: Understanding Buyer Behaviour....................................................................................4
1. A discussion on Cognitivism or Behaviourism theories..........................................................4
Section-2: Brand Performance.........................................................................................................5
2. Identification of Pattern with respect to brand performance measure.....................................5
3. Judging the idea for encouraging all the existing buyers to buy snickers:..............................7
Section -3: Mental Availability.......................................................................................................7
4. A discussion on appropriate marketing strategy for building mental availability...................7
Category entry points to be included in the advertisement for Snickers.........................................8
Section-4: Demographics and Segmentation.................................................................................10
5. Segmentation of the target customers through demographic analysis...................................10
6. Conclusion & recommendation on the basis of demographic analysis.................................11
Reference:......................................................................................................................................12

Introduction:
This report discusses the various marketing aspects taking the example of the company mars inc.
producing chocolate bars. It is discusses details of the consumer behaviour regarding the buying
of chocolate. It studies the theories of learning to understand the mind of the customers. This
report addresses brand performance, mental availability and also studies in detail the various
factors like demographic segmentation on the basis of age gender and household income. The
brand performance is also measured taking into consideration factors like market share,
penetration etc. The category entry point of snickers is also suggested in this report.
Section-1: Understanding Buyer Behaviour
1. A discussion on Cognitivism or Behaviourism theories
Cognitivism theory: Cognitivism is a study of psychology often conducted for studying the
consumer behaviour in marketing. Cognitivism studies the process which draws the attention of a
person rather a consumer. The various process of that are involved in drawing attention involves
the method of perception, the way an incidence remains in the memory of the consumer, the
learning process of the consumers and the method used for solving problem (Wenger, 2009).
These factors together decide the impact of the stimulus in drawing attention of the consumer.
This theory propagates that the information processing system of people are very technical in
nature. There are certain rules that are followed by the mind of the people in generating
cognition of the product. The minds of the people are considered to be processor of information.
The concept underlying Cognitivism is the process that helps to gain knowledge (Jonassen and
Land 2012). There are further divisions in the cognitive theory that is the social cognitive theory
and the cognitive behavioural theory.
Behaviourism theory: The behaviourism is in contrast with the Cognitivism theory. Behaviour
lists studies the behaviour of the people that is observable and thus forms the opinion regarding
the method of conceptualising of the environment by the people. The behaviouralists believe that
the learning of the mind happens as a gradual process through interaction with the environment.

The environment provides regular stimulus these stimulations are processed the mind without
being conscious resulting in learning (Pritchard, 2013). There are certain assumptions that are
made by the behaviouralist’s theory. According to the behaviouralists theory the brain is passive
it is assumed that there is no active role that is taken by the mind in the process of learning. The
second assumption is that the mind of the learner is assumed to be a clean slate that is there is no
previous information that is stored in the brain (Magee et al. 2007). It believes that recurrent
enforcement of any incidence results in its occurrence similarly if there is recurrent punishment
given for a particular incidence the chances are high that the repetition of the incidence stops.
The Cognitivism can be considered as a more appropriate theory regarding the functioning of the
learning activity of the human mind (French, 2010). The behaviourism has been the earlier
concept which was replaced by the Cognitivism theory because the assumptions that are made in
the behaviouralists theory that is considering the mind as a clean slate cannot be justified as there
are information that are stored in the mind which cannot be absolutely nullified as a factor that
contributes in the assimilation of new information.
Section-2: Brand Performance
2. Identification of Pattern with respect to brand performance measure

The company Mars Inc is manufacturing the three different kind of chocolate bars, namely Mars
Bar, Snickers and Twix.
Mars Bar: The chocolate bar brand “Mars Bar” is having the maximum market share of 37%
along with highest market penetration rate of 75% among all the other chocolate bar brands. The
parameters like purchase frequency (2.2), share of sole loyal customers (22) and category
requirements (43) for this brand are also highest for this brand in comparison to that of other
chocolate bar brands. However the category buying rate (5.2) for this brand is lowest with
respect to the other brands.
Kit Kat: The market share and the market penetration rate of kit-kat chocolate brands are 27 and
55 respectively. The purchase frequency, category buying rate and the sole loyal customers for
this brand are 2.2, 5.4 & 7 respectively.
Thus from the picture of the table-1 the pattern of brand performance that can be identified is
that a brand that is having large market share is also having a strong market penetration capacity
along with a good purchase frequency rate and substantial number of sole loyal customers.
Besides, the table also describes that if the brand is having large market share then the brand also
poses a good share of “category requirements”. In other words the parameter “Market
Share” is positively related with the parameters “Penetration”, “Average Purchase Frequency”,
“Share of Category Requirements”, “Sole Loyalty” and is negatively related with “Category
Buying Rate”.
Higher “market share” for a brand indicates that the market penetration power of that brand is
quite high and a sufficiently good number of customers are loyal to that brand. The average
purchase frequency with respect to the brand is also quiet high. However the “buying rate”
[average amount of product bought by the buyer household for a given time period] for that
category of chocolate brand is quiet low as the buyers frequently bought the product, therefore
they are not buying a huge amount during each time of purchase as the buyers do not want to
store that perishable food product.
Again if the market shares of a chocolate brand Nestle Gold (4) is very low. Then it indicates low
market penetration (8) power for that brand and there is no loyal customer for that brand and the

buyers are mainly purchasing the product on the basis of ad hock decision. However the category
buying rate for the product is 9.5 which is the highest value with respect to that of other brands.
The brand “Snickers” is having a moderate market share of 20% with a market penetration rate
of 45% and the brand is only having 3% loyal customers. Thus it can be seen that as the brand
has failed to sufficiently penetrate the market, very little number of customers have got the
chance to know the brand and to be loyal to the brand.
3. Judging the idea for encouraging all the existing buyers to buy snickers:
If the number of sole buyers with respect to the brand “Snickers” has to be increased then the
market share of that brand has to be increased. The increased market share with respect to the
brand “Snickers” will provide greater penetration power to that brand. Therefore a marketing
strategy has to be developed so that the buyers who are addicted to the other brands can be
diverted towards the brand “Snickers”. So if large numbers of buyers are getting attracted
towards that brand through the application of the new marketing strategy, then definitely the
market share of that brand as well as market penetration power of that brand will increase. The
increased penetration power will help the brand to reach in the hands of larger number of
customers and it is expected that this intern will pull up the number of sole buyers (from a mere
3%) for the brand “Snickers”. That is why in my opinion this strategy is a good strategy to take
for establishing the brand “Snickers” in to the market.
Section -3: Mental Availability
4. A discussion on appropriate marketing strategy for building mental availability
Mental availability is the chances that a certain buyer is going to recall a particular brand in a
buying situation. It is important for brand success to have mental availability of the brand. The
chief competition among the brands is to create that mental availability in the mind of its
customers. The mental availability can be achieved if the product is etched in the memory of the
consumer (Sharp et al. 2010). To remain in the memory of the buyers it is important to create
links with the memory of the consumers.

The various factors that are capable of creating brand mental availability can be categorised in
these five factors:
 The product should be distinctive in nature: the product should be distinct because similar
products often do not give any special stimulus that can help create a distinct memory.
Thus it is important to have a certain difference with the other products in the category
(Wright, 2006).
 Noticeable: the product should be noticeable in the eyes of the customer. It is important
that the products are noticeable in the eyes of its customers.
 Reach to the potential buyer: to create mental availability it is important that the products
are available to its potential buyers at all times. This helps in creating an impression in
the mind as a result it has a higher possibility of mental availability (Robinson, 2010).
 Continuous refreshment of memory: it is important for the brands to continuously refresh
the memories of the customers this can be done through advertisement. Advertisement
works as a continuous refreshment of the memories of the consumers (Mitchell, 2007).
 Consistency: it is important that each of the companies to be consistent. The company
should continuously provide advertisements various other method of reminding the target
customers regarding the product thus making the process of reminding the customers and
consistent approach (Sharp, 2010).
Category entry points to be included in the advertisement for Snickers
Category entry points are conditions when the consumers plan to buy the products. There are 5
Ws with which the category entry point is associated with. These include why the products
should be bought? When is the right time to buy the product? Where this product should be

consumed? With whom does this product suit? With what other product this product should be
consumed with?
These associations can be used as an advertisement technique to promote the product. It has been
observed that such association often increase the sale of these products. Hereby there are 10
entry points mentioned where snicker can be introduced:
 Snickers can be consumed as an energising breakfast
 Snicker can be consumed during gym time or sports for getting instant energy
 The product should be taken in the morning time as it is a good breakfast
 The product should be taken in the evening during exercise
 It is required in the bed side
 It is required in the sports field
 Hanging out with friends
 When nobody is there to take care of the needs snicker supplies for the nutrition
 With milk
 When there is nothing else and hunger pinches

Section-4: Demographics and Segmentation
5. Segmentation of the target customers through demographic analysis
As per the Table-4 of the demographics it can be seen that on an average 60% of the female
buyers are interested for the chocolate bars and only 40% of the male buyers are interested in
chocolate bars. This indicates that the female buyers should be targeted for selling the products
rather than the male buyers so far as buyers’ segmentation has to be done on the basis of gender.
The table-5 describes that among the four age groups of (16-25) years, (26-35) years, (36-45)
years, (56-65) years, the age group (26-35) years contains the maximum number of buyers with
respect to all kind of the chocolate bars under consideration. The table also demonstrates that this
age-group mostly prefers the brand “MARS BAR” followed by “KITKAT” & “SNICKERS”.
Thus the analysis highlights the fact that company “Mars Inc” should look for their target
customers within the age group of (26-35) years

The table-6 defines that the households who are earning more than $70,000 are having the
biggest purchase share with respect to the entire different kind of chocolate brands. In addition,
the table describes that these households who are earning more than $70,000 hold 40% of the
purchasing share with respect to the brand “Snickers”, 43% share with respect to the brand “KIT-
KAT”, and 31% share with respect to the brand “Mars BAR”. Thus it can be seen that
“Snickers”, is the most proffered brand for the buyers group earning more than $70,000.
From the above analysis it can be said that to establish the brand “Snickers”, in to the market the
company Mars Inc should target the female customers who are within the age group of (26-35)
years and are earning more than $70,000 should be considered.
6. Conclusion & recommendation on the basis of demographic analysis
On the basis of the above discussion it can be said that in order to establish the chocolate brand
“Snickers” in to the market, the marketing strategies will be developed with a focus towards the
target group of customers [females within the age group of 26-35 years and are earning more
than $70,000]
 Detailed research will be held to identify the factors that are mainly responsible for
attracting the target group towards a chocolate brand
 Research should also be done regarding the staple products that can be offered as a
package with the chocolate bar brand to make them more attractive.

Reference:
French, J. ed., 2010. Social marketing and public health: Theory and practice. Oxford University
Press.
Jonassen, D. and Land, S. eds., 2012. Theoretical foundations of learning environments.
Routledge.
Magee, J.F., Copacino, W.C. and Rosenfield, D.B., 2007. Modern logistics management:
Integrating marketing, manufacturing and physical distribution (Vol. 22). John Wiley & Sons.
Mitchell, V.W., 2007. Understanding consumers’ behaviour: can perceived risk theory
help?. Management Decision, 30(3).
Pritchard, A., 2013. Ways of learning: Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom.
Routledge.
Robinson, W.T., 2010. Marketing mix reactions to entry. Marketing Science, 7(4), pp.368-385.
Sharp, B., 2010. How brands grow. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar.
Sharp, B., Dawes, J.G., Romaniuk, J.T. and Scriven, J., 2010. How brands grow: What marketers
don't know.
Wenger, E., 2009. A social theory of learning. Contemporary theories of learning: learning
theorists–in their own words. Routledge, New York, NY, pp.209-218.
Wright, R., 2006. Consumer behaviour. Cengage learning EMEA.