5 Secret Principles Behind the Success of M&M's, Snickers, and Mars

Have you ever heard that the company behind the M&M’s chocolate in your hand or the Snickers bar you reach for when hungry is a private empire more secretive than the CIA and makes more money than Coca-Cola? This is not a conspiracy theory. This is the story of the most secretive giant in the corporate world, the Mars family.

This story is not an ordinary business analysis. It is a 100-year epic of a family bound by ambition, conflict, and veiled genius. We will explore how this vast tribe built their own kingdom and maintained their identity through unique beliefs and rules. Their headquarters are near the CIA, and due to strict secrecy, they have earned the nickname ‘The Kremlin’. The answer lies hidden in over a century of intense and bitter conflict between a father and son.

The Light and Shadow of a Founding Myth: Father and Son Conflict

Like all great tribes, Mars’s history began not with glory but with hardship. Born in 1883, Frank C. Mars learned chocolate-making in his mother’s kitchen instead of attending school due to polio. Though a diligent craftsman, his early ventures were a series of failures.

The winds of change came from his son, Forrest Mars Sr., a completely different type of man who studied industrial engineering at Yale. In 1923, the father and son briefly joined forces and created the innovative “malted milk in a candy bar” called Milky Way, which became a huge success.

But success bred conflict. The father wanted to settle for small wins, while the son had ambitions to conquer the world. The clash was inevitable. Eventually, Frank expelled his son by giving him some funds and overseas brand rights.

Paradoxically, this bitter split became the most important ‘founding trauma’ that completed the Mars empire. Reacting against his father’s complacency and inefficiency, Forrest adopted ‘ruthless efficiency’ and ‘global expansion’ as his creed. His obsession with control led to the core principle of ‘freedom’, maintaining a private, family-owned business structure that rejects outside interference.

Born on the Battlefield: The Secret Birth of M&M’s

In the late 1930s, wandering Europe after being cast out by his father, Forrest witnessed a pivotal moment during the Spanish Civil War. Soldiers ate sugar-coated chocolates that didn’t melt in their hands—a perfect snack for hot climates and war.

Back in the U.S., he partnered with Bruce Murrie, son of the president of Hershey’s, his father’s biggest rival. Their unusual partnership produced M&M’s, named after the first letters of Mars and Murrie.

With the brilliant slogan “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand,” M&M’s were exclusively supplied to the military during the war. By war’s end, M&M’s had become a beloved ’national snack’ etched in the memories of countless veterans.

The Genius Marketing of Snickers: The Hunger-Defeating Chocolate Bar

Another pillar of the Mars empire is Snickers, launched in 1930 and named after a horse owned by the Mars family. The secret to its global conquest was marketing that tapped into humanity’s most basic need.

Mars positioned Snickers not as a mere dessert but as a meal replacement to satisfy hunger. The combination of peanuts, caramel, nougat, and chocolate provided high calories and satiety, perfectly fitting the busy modern lifestyle.

The global campaign “You’re not you when you’re hungry” was the pinnacle of this strategy. It resonated across cultures worldwide, establishing Snickers as the immediate solution to the universal problem of hunger.

The Constitution Governing the Empire: Mars’s ‘Five Principles’

In 1964, Forrest finally merged his company with his father’s, becoming the undisputed ruler of the empire. He then implanted his powerful governance philosophy throughout the company—the living constitution that still drives Mars today, the ‘Five Principles’.

These are not mere slogans but the operating system controlling every action and decision of the Mars tribe.

Quality

The consumer is our boss. Forrest’s obsession with quality was fanatical.

Responsibility

All employees are called ‘associates’ regardless of rank and are expected to act with ownership.

Mutuality

Only mutual benefit is sustainable. The belief is to grow together with suppliers, employees, and communities.

Efficiency

Maximize resource use and treat waste as a sin.

Freedom

The power to decide the future independently. This is why Mars refuses to go public and remains a secretive family business, its strongest competitive advantage.

Not Just M&M’s: Mars’s True Face as a Petcare Giant

Contrary to popular belief, Mars is not primarily a candy company but a massive petcare corporation that also sells candy. Remarkably, the Mars Petcare division accounts for more than half of Mars’s annual revenue.

This major shift was the result of a meticulous long-term strategy based on the Five Principles. In 2002, Mars acquired the French premium pet food company Royal Canin and aggressively bought thousands of veterinary clinics and diagnostic labs.

This perfectly embodies the principle of ‘Mutuality.’ Mars built a fully vertically integrated ecosystem where veterinarians in their own clinics diagnose and prescribe the specialized diets they manufacture. This is a far stronger and more sustainable business model than the impulse-driven confectionery business.

The Invisible Empire Today

Forrest Mars Sr. retired in 1973, but his spirit lives on forever in the company’s Five Principles. Today, the Mars family is in its fifth generation and still owns 100% of the company.

Ultimately, the reason this chocolate company is bigger than Coca-Cola is that it was never just a chocolate company. Mars was built on the intense conflict between father and son, a man’s obsessive commitment to quality and efficiency, and completed through a quiet, grand transition into the petcare industry. They remain today a silent giant—visible yet unseen before our eyes.