CLIENT STORY
How Mars Wrigley Uses Lux Research to Make Innovation at the Fuzzy Front End Faster, Smarter, and More Empathetic
By embedding Lux into its early-stage innovation workflows, Mars Wrigley accelerates consumer understanding, amplifies insight across teams, and strengthens its ability to identify meaningful opportunities, even in uncertain times.
Client Challenge
At Mars Wrigley, innovation is a long-term growth lever, even at a point in time when many others are pulling back. But early-stage innovation, often referred to as “the fuzzy front end,” brings inherent challenges. The company needed to empower its front-end innovation teams with faster, deeper insights into shifting consumer behaviors, without sacrificing nuance or human empathy. According to Ana Plasencia, who leads global innovation in consumer insights, traditional research approaches often fall short at this stage.
"You’ve helped us bring real consumer nuance backed up with data into our front-end framing — which is usually very hard and comes only in small pockets through traditional qualitative research.”
Mars Wrigley needed a flexible partner capable of combining rich data with human depth. A partner who could help:
Make the fuzzy front end less fuzz
Early-stage innovation lacked structure and clarity. Teams needed help navigating ambiguity.
Scale empathy without face-to-face research
Direct consumer immersion wasn’t practical or feasible, but deep, human-centered insight was still critical.
Balance data speed with consumer nuance
Typical methods were either too slow or too surface-level to support high-quality early-stage work.
Equip teams to make better decisions, faster
Plasencia’s team needed faster, richer inputs to inform direction-setting and hypothesis generation.
About Mars Wrigley
Mars Wrigley is one of the world’s leading confectionery, snack, and food manufacturers, with iconic brands including M&M’S®, Snickers®, Twix®, Skittles®, Extra®, and Orbit®. As part of Mars, Incorporated, the company is committed to long-term innovation, using consumer-centered insights, emerging technologies, and new product development to anticipate evolving consumer needs and drive sustainable growth across global markets.
As Innovation Explorer Global Director, Ana Plasencia leads front-end innovation by helping teams identify emerging consumer opportunities, frame early-stage concepts, and translate deep consumer insights into stronger innovation strategies. Her work focuses on bringing greater speed, empathy, and clarity to the earliest phases of product innovation.
Ana Plasencia
Innovation Explorer Global Director
Pendekatan Kami
Since adopting Lux Research’s tools and services, Mars Wrigley has transformed how its teams discover and validate early innovation opportunities. Lux’s ethnography-at-scale capabilities provide rapid access to real consumer behavior and attitudes, supported by iterative collaboration and expert guidance.
Empowering Empathy at Scale
Lux’s ethnographies based on big data bring deep behavioral insights into the earliest phases of innovation. The team can now access nuanced, data-backed consumer truths — at scale and speed — instead of relying solely on small-sample, time-consuming qualitative studies.
“You’ve helped to make it less fuzzy — to give us direction on the right areas to prioritize and to make informed decisions backed by validated insights”
Flexible Workflows
Instead of rigid reporting cycles, Mars Wrigley works with Lux in a sprint-based, iterative mode, co-creating insights and aligning outputs with business needs.
“We’ve developed a way of working where we do co-creation sessions, brainstorming, and discussions around both inputs and outputs”
Human and Machine Insight Together
Lux’s combination of AI-powered analysis and anthropological interpretation has proven especially valuable. This dual-lens approach ensures consumer empathy is never lost in the data.
“You don’t have to compromise between the quant and the qual. You bring that perfect sauce — the best of both worlds”
The Benefit
Working with Lux Research has helped Mars Wrigley accelerate front-end discovery, broaden access to insights, and equip its teams with the clarity and confidence to act faster.
Insight Amplification
Lux’s tools allow more teams, even those not typically engaged in direct consumer research, to access and use deep insights, improving alignment and decision-making across functions.
A Visionary Partner
According to Plasencia, Lux’s tools are “incredibly useful also incredibly engaging. That’s vision — and we haven’t even seen what you’re going to become.”
Sustained Innovation Momentum
In an environment where many companies de-prioritize long-term bets, Lux has helped Mars Wrigley keep innovation front and center.
“Despite the uncertainty in the marketplace, innovation is still part of Mars’ priorities — and Lux has helped us stay focused on that goal”
Faster Strategic Framing
Instead of spending weeks or months in foundational exploration, Mars Wrigley can quickly surface hypotheses, pressure-test ideas, and iterate, without sacrificing rigor.
“It gives us early signals and food for thought that we can dig deeper into. That’s now a staple in our process”
“Lux brought speed, depth, and empathy to our innovation process — and became a true partner in helping us discover what matters most to consumers.”
