mymandms
®
My M&M’S
An Internal Corporate Venture
MY M&M’S® is a customizable version of the familiar M&M’S® product found at almost every supermarket checkout counter and convenience store. It emerged from innovations in process technology that enabled the printing of personalized images or expressions on every tiny candy piece. These customized candies are now a popular item at birthday parties, weddings, and other special occasions. The case underscores the challenges faced by managers innovating within companies whose success has been built on a very different business model.
Hackettstown, New Jersey. USA. June, 2003.
When Neil Willcocks moved from Britain to the United States to work as director of Mars, Inc.’s
Advanced Development Group, he was fascinated by the success of the company’s M&M’S® candies. “It had become part of Americana—like Coca Cola.” He found it on store shelves and display racks wherever he went. And when the company experimented with selling individual orders of the tiny candy pieces in a customer’s choice of color, the market response was enthusiastic. People ordered pounds of orange and black candies for Halloween, green ones for
St. Patrick’s Day parties, and red, white, and blue mixes for July 4, U.S. Independence Day.
Wondering about other possibilities, Willcocks engaged an artist to create images that might be printed on each candy piece. Mars had been printing the letter “m” on M&M’S® candies for years using a 1950s engraved rolling drum technology (offset rotogravure). Why not print something else and sell it as a special occasion, customizable product?
The process development group Willcocks directed was behind the idea and began thinking broadly about how more effective printing technology could be developed and applied. But when Willcocks shared the artist’s images and the new business idea with other managers, the response was lukewarm. He was told, in effect, not to waste too much time on personalization.
My M&M’S
An Internal Corporate Venture
MY M&M’S® is a customizable version of the familiar M&M’S® product found at almost every supermarket checkout counter and convenience store. It emerged from innovations in process technology that enabled the printing of personalized images or expressions on every tiny candy piece. These customized candies are now a popular item at birthday parties, weddings, and other special occasions. The case underscores the challenges faced by managers innovating within companies whose success has been built on a very different business model.
Hackettstown, New Jersey. USA. June, 2003.
When Neil Willcocks moved from Britain to the United States to work as director of Mars, Inc.’s
Advanced Development Group, he was fascinated by the success of the company’s M&M’S® candies. “It had become part of Americana—like Coca Cola.” He found it on store shelves and display racks wherever he went. And when the company experimented with selling individual orders of the tiny candy pieces in a customer’s choice of color, the market response was enthusiastic. People ordered pounds of orange and black candies for Halloween, green ones for
St. Patrick’s Day parties, and red, white, and blue mixes for July 4, U.S. Independence Day.
Wondering about other possibilities, Willcocks engaged an artist to create images that might be printed on each candy piece. Mars had been printing the letter “m” on M&M’S® candies for years using a 1950s engraved rolling drum technology (offset rotogravure). Why not print something else and sell it as a special occasion, customizable product?
The process development group Willcocks directed was behind the idea and began thinking broadly about how more effective printing technology could be developed and applied. But when Willcocks shared the artist’s images and the new business idea with other managers, the response was lukewarm. He was told, in effect, not to waste too much time on personalization.