Mars growing business with B2B CX

Mars Wrigley is the world’s leading manufacturer of chocolate, chewing gum, mints and fruity confections. The company believes that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today, and so their associates work hard to improve the way the company sources, makes and markets products, so consumers can enjoy them even more.

Mars recognizes that the needs of business customers have evolved. They took a customer-centric design approach and invested additional time to meet with customers. Using direct feedback they created a future-proof, perfect ordering and order management experience. So Mars took the time to understand what their customers wanted when they ordered products from Mars.

Jason Thomstatter, Director Digital Demand Omnichannel, Mars, explains: “We originally started off our B2B program with a challenge that we experienced from one of our businesses. The customer effectively said, ‘I love your products, love your brands, hate your ordering experience.’ Hearing that feedback even once was one time too many for Mars. They became laser-focused on redesigning the ordering process, improving both the consistency and the caliber of the customer experience.

Mars then worked with Fujitsu to help drive change. Together, the two companies built an order management system and then layered e-commerce capabilities over it to create the optimal experience. As Praveen Moturu, Vice President, Chief Enterprise Architect at Mars says: “Customers are looking for more personalization, a frictionless experience, and for us to be easy to do business with. Most important, was having a consistent, omnichannel experience with full visibility regarding customer interactions with us here at Mars.”

Customers are thrilled with the increased automation and efficiency. They are especially excited to have full visibility into the order and distribution process, allowing them to manage their business more effectively. And Mars is still listening. As Jason Thomstatter says: “Our customers gave us feedback that we’re now one of the best ordering experiences. Now that’s the kind of feedback everyone wants to hear!”

Mars solved a big problem for their customers and the teams are using this momentum for continued innovation. One thing being worked on right now is a “buy now, pay later” capability. For B2B customers, leveraging third party mid-tech companies to offer lines of credit to customers, is also an area of interest. As Jason Thomstatter explains: “Fujitsu has a portfolio of additional capabilities that we probably haven’t unlocked within Mars yet, but we truly feel that there’s opportunity to partner more in the future.”

Praveen Moturu concludes: “At Mars we are learning about our customer experiences, learning about their wants and needs on a continual basis… we are listening to them constantly... these platforms allow us to take it to the next level, to drive more personalization and more value-add to customers throughout their journey.”