Mars boss defends purpose | WARC | The Feed

Mars boss defends purpose

Mars’ chief executive has defended the notion of purpose as being important to “responsible” growth and attracting talent. 

Why it matters

Mars’ confectionery brand M&Ms has been involved in a couple of manufactured “woke” controversies around its long-running cartoon “spokescandies” – one centring around their footwear, another on the alleged sexuality of one character – that led to the brand deciding to take an indefinite pause from the mascots’ use in its marketing (although they did make a cameo appearance in a Super Bowl ad).

While small-minded culture warriors might be celebrating a dubious victory in this particular battle, Mars isn’t walking away from addressing social and environmental issues in order to achieve what CEO Poul Weihrauch describes as “responsible” growth. He also believes this can help recruit new generations of employees. 

The CEO's view 

• That M&Ms Super Bowl ad campaign generated 25 billion online impressions, Weihrauch reports. “There’s lots of sales and it’s difficult to keep up with the orders.” 
• He believes that “quality companies are deeply invested in this [social and environmental commitments] and that younger employees, especially, want to see that happen.
• “[Associates] won’t stay with us if we don’t care about ESG or purpose or whatever we call it,” he said. 
• Mars will more than double its spending on its sustainability agenda over the next three years.
• Mars is looking to double sales over the next decade via organic growth and acquisitions.

Key quote

“It’s a nonsense conversation. We don’t believe that purpose and profit are enemies” – Poul Weihrauch, CEO at Mars Inc.

Sourced from Financial Times, Time, YouTube

[Image: Mars, Inc]