Ask a cat what she thinks about her food and she’ll certainly have something to say! So when our Petcare R&D team set out to improve our WHISKAS® brand wet cat food, they went straight to the expert – cats! Their preferences were clear: Make the food taste better and make it smell better, more nutritious and more affordable.
Keeping our brands relevant and finding new ways to solve consumer challenges is all in a day’s work for many of our R&D Associates around the world. That’s because at Mars, we’re driven by a belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today.
Laetitia Fossaert, our Global Innovation Program Manager for Wet Cat Food led the recent revitalization of our WHISKAS® brand. “It was critical we consulted with those who buy and consume our products – in this case, cat parents and cats – throughout the project,” she says. “I love finding the best way to do something. Our team has a great spirit and culture, and that builds trust. That trust and partnership blossoms…and that’s when we can really make a difference for our consumers.”
Laetitia is one of 4,000 Mars Associates in Research & Development (R&D) – at Mars, we see R&D as “the window to the future,” where R&D Associates have the space and support to influence where the business goes next – from championing sustainable farming methods and developing better packaging to creating innovative new products and services, pioneering safety developments and much, much more.
We love celebrating the amazing contributions of our Associates and one way we do this is through our Mars R&D Award – R&D’s signature, global recognition program that showcases Associate contributions from around the world. Recipients stand out for their outstanding impact on the business and for helping create the world we want tomorrow through their achievements - in 2021 more than 500 nominations were submitted for the prestigious award, a new record! Twelve exceptional Associates were recognized, with eight of them being women. And in honor of The International Day of Women & Girls in Science, we’re celebrating our women who play a central role in generating high-impact solutions — from groundbreaking research and scientific discoveries to finding innovative ways to feed the world.
Allison Faig, Product Experience Innovation Manager for Mars Wrigley and Mars R&D Award recipient, perfectly sums up how R&D improves the lives of people, pets and planet: “Applied research is an opportunity to do a lot of different things – problem solve, innovate, drive action. R&D is one of those fields that starts with an idea but comes to life through the scientific method and becomes this tangible thing. As it applies to something like M&M’S®, it’s about delivering new flavors, new colors and solving how best to do that.”
Watch this video to hear from our amazing R&D Associates who are creating tomorrow!
