The naming of a brand is almost as important as the product itself. In the food industry, there are many companies that have achieved success thanks to a powerful, catchy or attention-grabbing name. There are also others that are very basic and a few whose name has no origin related to the product itself. This is the case of the Snickers brand name.
If you thought that behind the well-known chocolate bars there was a name related to chocolate, caramel or peanuts -the main ingredients of the product-, you were totally wrong.
Owned by Mars Inc., the first Snickers bars were invented by Frank Mars in 1930 and he decided to name them after his favorite horse: Snickers. The candy was a great success and they considered launching it internationally. Since the name was very similar to knickers (which, especially in the UK, refers to underwear), the owners decided to change it to Marathon Bar.
Finally, after a short time, they decided to recover their original name, which has survived to this day. Snickers bars, which began selling for 5 cents in Chicago, have ended up becoming the most consumed chocolate bar of all time (in 2013, the brand surpassed one billion dollars in sales in the United States alone).