Left vs. Right Twix

I’m out of the loop on Twix. You know that chocolate/caramel/cookie candy? I was in the store recently and noticed “Left” and “Right” written on some Twix packages. Curious, I went home to look them and sure enough it’s a marketing concept.

It’s a clever one at that.

First, it made me look up Twix, a candy bar I haven’t purchased in years. Making your customers or audience who have drifted away take a look at you again is good marketing.

Second, it creates a buzz in those who already like Twix. One version has more chocolate and less caramel. The other the opposite. Each person may enjoy the different concentrations of each scrumptious component. When someone sees another eating one, they may ask, “Left or right?”.

While controversy has always been a tactic for publicity, something that Twix, actually the company that makes them, Mars, Inc., has done here is truly fantastic with their marketing. creating controversy among those who already like Twix in a way that is fun, playful and all around engaging. Much different to the typical cries for attention we are seeing through grittier, societal dividing topics.

Something to think about here is that Mars didn’t do anything all that difficult marketing-wise. They came up with “left” and “right”. They had to make two new packages. Not difficult from a marketing perspective. From an operations perspective it’s more difficult. They now have to manage creating two different formulations of their product. Separate demands for each. Twice as taxing than making one. That is often what makes the different in great marketing. The ability to make changes to the product itself to better serve the customer. It’s easy to think that it ends at the brochure, the wrapper, or the website because those are easy to make changes to, but imagine what changes took place: changing the shape of the cookie changing the settings for how thick to put the chocolate on each one, possibly creating new machinery depending on flexible the old ones were for this type of change.

It’s definitely doing more than the minimum in an attempt to serve the customer. I’ve been turned off to big conglomerates, but that doesn’t mean I can’t admire something they do well. Nice job on this one Mars Inc.