How Mars Is Using Generative AI to Accelerate Product Development and Personalization
Mars is using an in-house developed generative AI tool that’s helping develop as many as 50 product concepts a day.
The proprietary tool, built by the company’s One Demand Data & Analytics team and known internally as “Brahma,” uses data from consumer insights studies the CPG conducted last year involving 80,000 consumers and 800,000 consumption moments across 11 countries.
A recent workshop in North America using Brahma resulted in product innovation ideas that were shared with consumers at speeds that would have previously taken months, Gulen Bengi, chief growth officer of Mars Snacking, told CGT during a tour of their new R&D facility in Chicago.
Generative AI is also helping Mars evolve its marketing structure to more effectively connect non-linear consumer journeys. This includes dynamically optimizing media assets and spend to serve shoppers with more relevant advertising.
Consumers spend on average 6.5 hours online today, and their journeys are very impulse-driven, noted Bengi. Using artificial intelligence, Mars can better understand consumer interest areas at the right moment in time to stitch together relevant advertising.
These efforts have doubled click-through rates and improved sales lifts close to 70% better than promotion, she said.
“We see this dynamic content optimization as a huge improvement [in] relevance — consumers do expect meaningful and tailored, personalized communication.”
Community Experiences
Sixty percent of Gen Z-ers and millennials want Mars to deliver experiences beyond products, according to research conducted by the company. “So we say that brands should know what they stand for — their purpose or meaning — and co-create their brand worlds with their fans and communities and provide experiences that have no dead ends, personalized at scale,” said Bengi.
As part of this, Mars is leaning into its relationships with the gaming community to grow its Respawn product line and tap into the 3 billion gamers around the world, per Bengi.
At a Mars Innovation Lab, R&D scientists test potential products with gamers while they’re playing. (Fun fact: some gamers prefer to use chopsticks as part of their desire for non-messy snacks.)
The company has had 30,000 gaming interactions that have helped develop a collaborative product innovation pipeline.
“Of course, because this is a community, they talk about these experiences. They have a very close relationship with the brand, and this is how you build with your fans and communities for your communities.”
The company also envisions a very near future in which consumers can interact with M&M characters using texting to develop closer relationships with the brand — also part of their “no dead ends” consumer engagement strategy.
