It seems that even some of the world’s most recognized brands need outside marketing help from time to time. Food manufacturer Mars has been submitting marketing plans for its chocolate brands to a UK-based panel known as the Marketing Advisory Group (MAG), to consider whether the marketing efforts are socially responsible. This comes after the company established a global marketing code in 2007. The 13-point plan enshrined the chocolateer’s aims of promoting a healthy lifestyle, avoiding marketing that is aimed at under-12s, and discouraging excessive consumption. Angela Willmott, marketing director of Mars Chocolate (who pioneered the initiative), says the idea behind the MAG is to “make sure the marketing code is living and breathing, and not one of those documents that sits in your drawer gathering dust.”

For the past two years, the MAG panel has met quarterly with Mars’ marketers to review their proposed work. During these meetings, the MAG members have been shown campaign ideas, often at an early stage (such as a script or draft artwork), and asked how they measure up against Mars’ social responsibility code. If a campaign fails to pass muster with the panel, those recommendations are taken into account.

David Lourie, senior consultant at the responsible business consultancy Good Business, commends Mars for linking corporate affairs with its actual marketing practices. “There’s sometimes a disconnect between the corporate teams and the brand managers, but it is the brand teams that can potentially do the biggest damage to the reputation of the company,” he warns.

Lourie cites the example of Cadbury’s ‘Get active’ campaign — a widely criticized promotion that encouraged children to collect chocolate wrappers to exchange for comparatively small amounts of sports equipment for schools — as something that would not have gotten past MAG reviewers.

Source: Marketing Magazine

Posted August 31st, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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