How A Mother Inspired A Child
What comes to mind when you think of chocolate? Mars, Snickers, M&M’S, 3 Musketeers, Bounty, Twix. All are owned by Mars incorporated. It is hard to imagine, a person who did not attend school due to his inability to walk, started something that has an effect on everyone’s life around the world.
The story of Mars starts on September 23, 1883, with the birth of Frank C. Mars in Glenwood, Minnesota. As a young boy, he contracted polio, which prevented him from walking to school. Frank’s mother Elva had a huge influence on Frank. Becaue he was unable to walk to school he would stay home where Elva would teach him recipes on their kitchen table, she taught him how to hand-dip chocolate. And this was the start of Frank’s journey towards building the most popular candy company.
Remembering his mother’s teachings, Frank started to make & sell buttercream candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington. However in the 1900s competition was fierce, with Brown & Haley, also operating from Tacoma, the nation was overwhelmed with chocolate. Frank couldn’t keep up with the rivals as they had factories set up with employees.
Frank, however, did not allow one failed attempt to stop him from making chocolate. In 1920, Frank moved back to Minneapolis with $400 and started a basket candy business, The Nougat House. He would make candies at nights, the Frank and his wife Ethel Kissack would sell them in the mornings. The candy was called MAR-O-BAR. The company was bringing in a little shot from $100,000 annually, but unfortunately, MAR-O-BAR couldn’t continue as it proved to be delicate during transportation.
Frank did not lose hope, and came with a new business plan, with the thought of the name being too long, he decided to change the name to Mars. In 1923, father and son, Forrest Edward Mars sat at a table and discussed chocolate ideas. Who knew this discussion would change the future of Mars. It is unknown who came up with the idea, but their discussion lead to a product know as the Milky Way. Through word of mouth, Milky way soon became the best selling candy, and its success lead the company to more employees.
In 1928, Frank finds out that Chicago, not only had the best deals for a full production house but also had railway access for nationwide transportation. Mars, moved to Chicago, close to 200 associates moved with Mars. Seeing the idea come to play, Forrest also joined the business. Reports are that Mars was making, $20 million in gross revenue.
The success of the Milky way allowed Mars to come up with new ideas, and two years later they came up with Snickers. Forrest E. Mars wanted the business to go global, and in 1932 he made a decision to move to the UK. Moving to UK is possibly the reason for Mars global domination. In the same year, Mars introduced the Three Musketeers in the US with great success. As the name goes, the bar initially came in three flavors, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. But because of economic depression, the cost of production was going up, and a decision was made to discontinue vanilla and strawberry.
For Forrest moving to the UK meant introducing Mars to the world, but more importantly with his research from Switzerland’s Nestle chocolate company, he developed a better chocolate bar. Forrest rented a factory with a staff of twelve people and began to manufacture a chocolate bar consisting of nougat and caramel. He called it the “Mars Bar.” Factories in the US decided to make their own version of Mars which was discontinued later.
Sadly, on April 8, 1934, Frank C. Mars passed away. The company’s ownership was eventually given to Forrest. Forrest, who had his own vision for Mars, wanted Mars to be much more than a chocolate company.
Under his leadership, in 1939 Mars entered the market for pet food. Their first product was Cat Food. Forrest then returned to the US and established M&M’s Limited in New Jersey; M&M’s grows to become a $1 billion global brand.
He worked with a Texas salesman to create ready-to-make rice, which became Uncle Ben’s Rice. According to Mars, Uncle Ben was an African-American rice grower known for the quality of his rice, the name was chosen to create a personal connection between the consumers and the farmer. Creating this connection worked, as Uncle Ben’s rice was the top-selling rice in the United States from 1950 till the 1990s.
Forrest wanted perfection for everything, from their product and their advising campaign. In 1960 Mars used the slogan, “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play”. A new marketing strategy with Clemenger Group, allowed them to change their slogan to “work, rest and play”.
Sadly on July 1, 1999, Forrest Mars passed away. He grew the company to new heights and left it with his children. Today, the company is distributed among his three kids: John, Forrest Jr., and Jacqueline.
Mars currently employs over 75,000 people and is valued at $90 billion. If it wasn’t for Frank C. Mars’s inability to walk, that gave him a chance to sit with his mother at their kitchen table, Mars wouldn’t have existed. The chocolate that brings joy to many around the world was possible because a man decided to apply teachings from his mother.
