This is a short case study of a regional ethnographic project Idealisti did for Mars in 2008 in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.

1. Case study
Hero or couch potato?
Helping Snickers develop real
consumer insight throughout the
CEE region
27.1.2010 www.idealisti.eu 1

2. Helping Snickers become a part of
teen culture
How do the itself as a part of teen culture
Challenge rather than just another, albeit
teens of Prague, SNICKER is the shining star of “American‐quality”, bar?
Budapest, the Mars portfolio. It is believed
Warsaw, and
W d that this came as a result of
h hi l f
Bucharest live? consistent positioning and clear “We need insight which
Is there a role target group focus. Today, the will drive more than
aspiration is to move beyond advertising: it needs to
for a chocolate the functional proposition into
the functional proposition into drive brand relevance.”
d i b d l ”
bar to play the realm of "iconinc" brands
beyond energy like Apple, Adidas or
recharge? How Playstation. The driving force Solution
behind these killer success
behind these killer success
can SNICKERS stories is believed to be the Instead of devising a traditional
become more of consumer insight ‐ i.e. deep and focus‐group centered
an iconic brand unbiased knowledge of qualitative research (which, in
consumers' worlds, needs,
, , our view, often fails to capture
for these the real‐life insight) we
h l lif i i h )
hopes and motivations. What
people? role can Snickers play to designed a nimble
establish ethnographic study of already
Continued on the next page >
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 2

3. “The lives of existing groups of young people
(classmates, neighbors, sports‐
The Result
teenage boys club fans) and watched, filmed, The rich narrative which was
and girls do not
g interviewed and photographed
p g p the result of the few months
them in their natural study became the basis of a
d b h b i f
revolve around computer application which
environment: at home, in
chocolate bars.” school, on the pitch, in the enables marketing executives
pub… We knew their lives and brand managers in Mars to
would not revolve around interact with the huge body of
interact with the huge body of
chocolate bars – and we didn’t data from the research (text,
want to pretend they did. video, audio, photos) in real
Instead, we let Snickers bar – time and to extract the main
metaphorically speaking –
metaphorically speaking conversation themes from the
conversation themes from the
travel through the relevant data.
consumer worlds and map
them as if from the subjective Also, a more conservative
perspective of the brand.
perspective of the brand output in the form of a research
output in the form of a research
report was created. However,
the report came alive during
Continued on the next page >
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 3

4. a co‐creation event with Mars About Idealisti
executives, regional creative Today's ideas will become
agency teams as well as media tomorrow's world
p
planning agency teams where
g g y Not only we (still) have ideals but also we
the most relevant learnings believe that most of what we experience
today and what makes up our world has
were discusses and been here yesterday in a form of an idea.
immediately turned into We believe in the transformative power
branding initiatives. of thoughts (in the form of brands, for
example), in their power to move also
example) in their power to move also
very material and sometimes heavy
things like pianos, buildings, cars, jars of
The data – in the form of an face care lotions or even people.
interactive narrative – help
We help create and steer brands – ideas
Mars to create more than just
j y
which have the ability to animate
branded communication for organizations, infuse consumption with
meaning and bring about good things to
Snickers: it helps them to be a life. We always do it in dialogue with
part of the culture of the teens those in charge of brands (which is just
about anyone who has ever heard of the
in the region of Central and brand) and with the notion that all the
Eastern Europe. ideas­brands will have to compete for
id b d ill h t t f
their existence in the free arena.
16.4.2008 www.idealisti.eu 4