Milk Ads, Genious!!

VERSUS

In September of 2006 Stephanie Thompson reported for the Advertising Age magazine on how General Mills planned on competing with its competitior, Kellogg's.

In this year General Mills decided to try and take a stab at Fruit Loops $142 million franchise by creating their own fruity O's and attaching that to their brand name Cheerios.

Cheerios has been a well respected brand with General Mills for over 50 years and they thought that if they put the trustworthy name of Cheerios with the fruity look they could steal some customers. And how do you think they went about doing that?! They hit Kellogg’s where it hurt, and advertised on the milk cartons.
Since 70% of all decisions on food are made at the store General Mills thought that there could be no better way to advertise than to post their new product with its favorite companion, Milk! The ads had $1 off coupons for the cereal and displayed the new Fruity Cheerios logo.
After this battle began, Fruit Loops dropped in sales 2.2 percent which is a pretty big margin for how much they were making. So, even though General Mills products never reached the same level of income and stature as Fruit Loops, it did show what can be accomplished from smart advertising.
I personally think this is a genius idea. Because honestly the idea of Fruity Cheerios sounds really gross to me but if they were being advertised with milk I would be more likely to change my mind.
The only problem General Mills ran into was wearing the Cheerios brand name to thin.
“Moreover, there's a danger in overextension. Although "Cheerios is their crown jewel, an extraordinary franchise that's almost impenetrable," an executive close to the category said, continually extending the franchise may strip away its equity.”
This article is an interesting look at the inner workings and sort of battles between the companies. It’s interesting to see what they will do to take some of the others profits. So even though General Mills portrays themselves as an innocent and helpful company, we all know that no company really likes its competitor and friendly competition keeps the product quality higher and better for us as the consumer!

Cost, Price, and Sales go UP!

In September of 2007, Matt Mckiney reported for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis Minnesota on the rise in price for cereal costs and the earnings of the company.

When the cost of corn went up, General Mills wasn’t sure how to prevent cost increases so they ended up making the boxes smaller. It was not something they were excited about doing, but with record prices on all of the commodities going up there wasn’t much else they could do without making each box more expensive.

“Earnings for the quarter ended Aug. 26 were up 8 percent to $289 million, with earnings per share of 81 cents, one penny more than consensus analyst estimates. The company reaffirmed its earnings per share guidance of $3.39 to $3.43 per share for the year.”

These numbers show that although they did have to shrink their product in size to accommodate for price, it was most likely the right thing to do since their stocks continued to rise after this all took place.

Although the cereal prices were the ones to take the biggest hit, General Mills also saw small increases in some on their other products such as their yogurts and a few bakeries.

“The yogurt results were "a little bit disappointing," compared with the generally positive numbers elsewhere in the earnings report, said William Frels, who manages mutual funds with 1.6 million General Mills shares at Mairs & Power Inc. in St. Paul.”

These results most likely come from the fact that the yogurts suffered from an actual price increase as opposed to small product reductions and it is clear which is more effective.

This article has helped my research by showing what General Mills in a crisis such as this and it seems that they handled it well. That is encouraging to me since I wasn’t as impressed with the way they handled their last crisis with the Eggo Brand.

L'eggo my Eggo!

In August of 2007 the Star Tribune reported General Mills decision to decide to cut the production of their frozen waffle industry. Sales had plummeted from $63 million to under $23 million in just one year with most of the money coming from Pillsbury’s frozen foods.

“The drop came in a relatively flat industry. Frozen-waffle sales have grown by just $10 million since 2003, but the $521 million in annual sales, for the most recent 52-week period, is dominated by Kellogg, General Mills' archrival and owner of the Eggo brand. Kellogg holds a 71 percent market share in frozen waffles.”

They ended up laying off over 100 employees in the factories and had to take away lots of assets.

The article then goes on to describe other layoffs that had happened in the recent past which added up to a little over 500 employees nationwide.

"It's not a fit with our long-term strategy and our overall portfolio," said Tom Forsythe, a company spokesperson.

This information does not really look the best for my company, however it is something that happens in every company and let their employees go over a longer period of time than most would wait so that they could find another place to work.

This article is definitely another side to my company by showing the downside of what can happen when companies get to competitive with each other and in the process end up becoming too confident to the point where they hire to many people along with promoting and producing a product that is not going to sell as much as it will end up costing.

I think that General Mills took a big risk in pushing a product so much that was already so heavily dominated by its competitor and it ended up in a bad situation for all parties involved.

General Mills takes Care of their Computer Nerds!

“The Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc., which is known for popular brands such as Yoplait and Wheaties, keeps finding new ways to reward its IT workers.”

I’ve always thought through my research that General Mills would most likely be a great place to work when they seem to have such great business ethics along with cares for their consumers. In June of last year “Computerworld” a magazine based for IT workers posted a list of 100 greatest companies to work for, and what do you know! General Mills was on the list!

This would seem surprising since IT workers aren’t exactly the people who would come first in your mind when thinking about General Mills workers. But, after analyzing their website over this semester I think that it makes sense for them to have such a high class IT department.
Their website it extremely easy to navigate with hardly any errors and updated very frequently. For a food company they really see the importance in having up to date information on their webpage so that in case their customers care, they can know as much about what they are eating as possible.

The fact that General Mills is a great place of IT workers says a lot to me that General Mills genuinely cares for everyone under their umbrella of a company and wants all employees to have great benefits and good incentives to stay with them.

This will help in my argument by showing that not only does General Mills look out for their consumers, but also those of all of their employees. Employee treatment is a big deal in today’s society and I’m proud to be able to say that mine has made almost every list published for most ethical, and best companies to work for.
Yay General Mills!

Corporate Social Responsibility

This website is the Corporate Social Responsibility publication for General Mills for this year. It talks about what that means to them and how they are achieving their ethical goals each year. This year it stated that:

“In keeping with the company’s 2007 pledge to not advertise foods containing more than 12 grams of sugar per serving on programming targeted to children, all of our Big G kids’ cereals now meet that requirement”

That is just one of the great ways they have decided to be as ethical as possible and really shows them moving in the right direction.

“Our mission is Nourishing Lives – to help make lives healthier, easier and richer. That mission expresses not only what we do, but why we do it”

That is the type of mission that shows that the company actually cares for its consumers. They are unconcerned with beating their competitors and making high profits because they know that if they meet those standards where they are enriching the customer’s life, they will become loyal.

General Mills has been around for over 100 years and has over 100 different brands. That is such a huge amount to keep up with. But from their publication it is easy to see why they make the list of most ethical companies every year.

This source is really great because it has all sorts of nice facts about what my company is doing. Along with the ones listed above, more than 500 of their products serving sizes are under 100 calories, discusses its great promotions such as Que Rica Vida, and its Box Tops initiative.

As if that wasn’t all great enough to hear, the publication also has sections on the environment, philanthropy, and cancer research. It is easy to see from this that General Mills really has their head in the right place and works hard to not only please their company but everyone worldwide. This is just another great source that will help with proving how amazing they are!

Cheerios Beat the Tiger!

VS.

In June of 2005 Advertising Age showed that Cheerios sales completely dominated the sales of poor Tony the Tiger!
It seems that the reign of “Tiger Power” was pretty much over by the time these statistics were posted. In the end Tiger Power made a small $3.4 million, compared to Cheerios $550 million. That is such a huge huge huge difference that I can’t even get over it. It seems that Cheerios is a sort of staple in the household that can’t be replaced and can’t be changed.

Kellogg’s plan to keep trying to compete with General Mills seems to be one of adding more marketing. But what I think seems to be the problem is that Cheerios is a legend, and frankly I think that Tony goes with Frosted Flakes and that’s where he belongs. If people associated him with too many things then people will start to get confused.

A disappointed Kellogg’s retail exec stated that, "I don't think they've made a case for people to switch from Cheerios," he said. "I'd call it Tiger Pooper." That seems like an extremely bold and disappointed statement to be coming from the producing company! I’m somewhat in shock that they were not more diplomatic in their approach to discussing it.

Below is the chart sales and it is just unbelievable to see the difference. Tiger Power did not even have enough sales to cover their advertising initiative of $7.1 million.

GENERAL MILLS SALES

Cheerios $290 million
Honey Nut Cheerios $246 million


KELLOGG SALES

Tiger Power $3.4 million

This article is important in my argument because it shows that different companies can’t really reinvent each other’s products. General Mills tried the same sort of thing with Fruity Cheerios, and although their success was much bigger than tiger powers, it still could not touch the Fruit Loop giant at Kellogg’s. Companies need to stick to what they make best and not try and confuse their consumers by trying to outdo each other. I think this is the perfect example of this sort of behavior and it seems almost silly to me.

"Que Rica Vida!"

In June of last year, General Mills started a marketing initiative called “Que Rica Vida” which was aimed at a Hispanic women audience and stressed the importance of nutrition. The reasoning behind making Hispanic women the audience is because they are still generally the heads of the household when it comes to food and snacks! This initiative included a website, magazine ads, and nutrition lessons to over 10,000 people at local community centers so that they could help combat the Hispanic health challenges.

In general, people of Hispanic descent suffer more from above-average rate of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular illnesses.

“To help Hispanic families prepare nutritious meals, General Mills developed a curriculum of 10 monthly lessons in both Spanish and English, including recipes developed for the program from the company's Betty Crocker kitchen, and training for the instructors from the community centers at General Mills' headquarters in Minneapolis”

Some of these lessons included, “How to be a Better Grocery Shopper,” and scavenger hunts to the grocery store to pick out better choices for meals. At the end of the lessons coupons and products were distributed to the ladies for money off General Mills products.

This might look to some like a sneaky way to push their brand, but I disagree. General Mills was helping people by also helping themselves. This article will help me by showing all the different sides of America that General Mills targets and genuinely cares for their well being.

Some of the women might not have been able to afford all of the higher quality products without the coupon and if General Mills is sponsoring the events than it ends up being a win-win situation for everyone involved.

I personally love this article also because it plays to a multicultural audience that I think most companies forget about and it is so important in this day and age to realize how diverse America is really becoming. I’m proud of my company for seeing it first!

Cereal Cost Cutters

Fortune Magazine did an inside look into how General Mills company runs and cuts costs in hard times like these. The article Cereal Cost Cutters was published in October of 2008.

This article describes how General Mills kept costs down not by cutting the quality of their products, but instead by taking out unnecessary things such as 13 different kinds of pretzels. By limiting the number of pretzel shapes made they were able to save over $1million. That is a large amount of money that was saved and in return General Mills was able to cut the price on several of their products.

“Now General Mills is going beyond the low-hanging fruit snacks. One group recently looked at the oils, flour, and sugar that its baking division uses. The team found a way to consolidate purchases of such items, giving General Mills more buying power. The changes resulted in $12 million in annual savings.”

That is a huge amount of savings, especially in 2008 with the horrible economy. This article again keeps proving my point that General Mills is always working towards the best products that are still competitive with the bargain brands. They do not want their customers to have to compromise on quality for price. Bargain brands may taste the same and be around 20 cents cheaper, but the nutrition and quality of the product is jeopardized.

This article will again help in proving how ethical General Mills is, not just by keeping products healthy but also keeping peoples pocket books and worries in mind. They don’t want the cost of their products to go up with the economy so instead they cut unnecessary costs to keep their prices competitive. They genuinely care about their consumers and it makes it so easy to write about them with all of these great things they do.

Which is Better?!

LUCKY CHARMS LOW-FAT GRANOLA
147 Calories 345
1.3g Fat 4.5g
29.3g Carbs 73.5g
14.7g Sugars 27g
2.7g Protein 6g
1.3g Fiber 4.5g

This is a published chart from an article comparing General Mills' Lucky Charms to Kellogg's Low-Fat Granola. I was very shocked when I read this article and it was actually one of the reasons I decided to choose General Mills as the company I would use for this whole class.

"Sugary cereal enriched with marshmallows in the shape of rainbows and pots of gold, or crunchy granola cereal with raisins sprinkled throughout?" said Peng, the author. It would sup rise anyone to see these sort of statistics. If I had not read the facts myself I would have definitely doubted the facts but they are clearly proved in the chart.

What this says to me about these two different companies is that one genuinely cares about their customers by watching the nutrition in there cereal, and the other acts like they care by portraying a false image to their consumers.

When someone walked down the aisle at the supermarket they would look at the granola and think to themselves that that is definitely the healthier choice by not picking the Lucky Charms which look completely unhealthy. What is so incredible to think about is that if someone was watching their weight and picked the "low-fat" granola, they would very likely be adding more to their weight than they would if they had picked the supposedly "sugary" cereal.

This will help me in all of my arguments because this again just shows how ethical General Mills is. They know that people like the sugary taste of Lucky Charms but do not want to have to deal with gaining weight or being unhealthy. So they play to those needs by giving it the taste everyone desires and making it healthy enough that their consumers won't have to feel guilty about eating it.

Bad Milk!

http://www.startribune.com/business/39344447.html

In 2007 it was reported that the chemical rGBH was being used with cows to make them produce more milk each day. Although it does not necessarily have any harmful effects on the person or the cow, it has led to enlarged utters which could cause some discomfort.

When consumers found this out they questioned how healthy the milk would be and were even more skeptical when they found out that this chemical had been banned in Canada, Japan, Australia and several other places.

General Mills, being the ethical company it is, decided to take the milk out of their products very fast because their customers expressed that they did not like the sounds of the chemical and they always want to do what’s right for the customers, and in this case, the cows.

"While the safety of milk from cows treated with rBST is not at issue, our consumers were expressing a preference for milk from cows not treated with rBST, and we responded," Becky O'Grady, General Mills' vice president of marketing for the Yoplait brand, wrote in a statement.

This will help me in my papers because it is just another example of how ethical General Mills acts by granting their consumers wishes and keeping everyone’s health in mind. This is not the only instance where General Mills has acted this way but just a great example for all of the other times they have done the right thing.

Since this time lots of other companies have seen the bad reputation this chemical can give and have followed suit. The biggest chain was Starbucks how stopped using that kind of milk only a few months after General Mills did.

General Mills is an extremely well respected company that would not do anything to jeopardize their products or well-being of their customers.

They're Magically Delicious!

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/brand.aspx?catID=69

Lucky Charms is a cereal that has a bad reputation for being sugary and unhealthy. But when looking at the ingredients and facts it is easy to see that that is a common misconception.

The cereal is made with whole grains and fortified with 12 vitamins and minerals. It is also a great source of calcium even before adding the milk!

All of the vitamins it’s fortified with besides two are 10% daily value or over. That is quite a percentage for one serving of a supposedly unhealthy cereal.

This will be beneficial in my papers because it shows that not only does General Mills care about portraying cereal as a fun and exciting breakfast, it sneaks in all of the good things parents like, such as whole grains and the vitamins, that kids on the other hand would not think are cool. This is a great way to make a product because everyone who is affected by it is happy. The kid thinks they are eating a magically delicious and entertaining cereal while the parents know they are getting the nutrients they need.

I remember when I was little I thought only the marshmallows would be the good part until I tasted what I considered the “boring” part of the cereal. I realized that I was shockingly wrong and everything about Lucky Charms was great! The cereal keeps their attention with different designs of marshmallows, sometimes with “treasure hunts” through the milk trying to find the marshmallows.

Lucky Charms is an extremely ethical cereal, produced by an ethical company, General Mills. They keep things interesting by introducing chocolate lucky charms or new marshmallows and they genuinely care about their customers well being and not just their taste buds.
I love General Mills and you should too! (sorta) lol

Think Fast. Have Power. Get Going. Choose Breakfast!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_June_22/ai_n13825988/

This article has more of the logistics of what went into the Choose Breakfast campaign because that is what I am writing me WP4 over!

The General Mills Chief Marketing Officer Mark Addicks. "The new Choose Breakfast advertising campaign is unique in the industry because it is the first nonbranded advertising campaign of this scale. We'll reach more kids with Choose Breakfast than any other child effort we've done before. We have taken our insights on how to communicate health to kids and have developed advertising that will impact children in a very positive way."

Other quotes from children’s advertisers prove the fact that it was not only a good thing for them to do but also extremely respectable. Also the statistics pertaining to breakfast explain that one in four Americans do not eat breakfast which is a huge disappointment and the statistics are predicted to grow. Eating cereal for breakfast has also been proven to help both adults and children keep a healthy body weight which is extremely important because of recent weight issues in America.

Eric Lucas of General Mills stated, "It is low in fat and is nutrient-rich for the number of calories it has per serving. Importantly, if it's any General Mills Big G cereal, it also provides either a good or excellent source of whole grain." All of the cereals are enriched with important nutrients that help get breakfast eaters through the day and get the needed nutrition.
Not only do the advertisements talk about choosing breakfast, but they also promote being active and staying healthy on each cereal box and in every advertisement. This is another area that should not be overlooked with the increasing rate of obesity and it is a wonderful thing that General Mills is focusing on both.

This is another great source in supporting General Mills cause that fits perfectly with my WP4 paper. The facts are clear from several articles and many people all stating that they think General Mills is not in this for themselves, but to benefit Americans and their customers. This portrays them as extremely ethical which is definitely the light I would like to portray them in and they have made that extremely easy for me!

Go General Mills!

Will Cheerios still be called Cheerios in Europe?!

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/01/business/general-mills-nestle-plan-europe-push.html?scp=10&sq=general%20mills&st=cse

General Mills is always looking at the global community. They are interested in not only the affairs here in the US but also make plans to provide the same quality food all over the world! In 1989 they introduced plans to produce their cereals in Europe since the market was small but they thought it had potential to bring in new customers as well as a different style of breakfast in Europe.

Breakfast was the only meal considered at the time “unAmericanized” and General Mills wasn’t trying to Americanize them by doing this, they were trying to introduce new ideas and possibly healthier breakfasts than the normal bread with butter or nuttella. There is not a lot of focus on breakfast at all in Europe and I think a small push to help get them interested in what is considered the most important meal of the day, would be a push in the right direction.

When I went to Europe this last summer I actually remember seeing cereal at probably half of the hotels we stayed at. There was not a huge selection, but they were available and I know a lot of travelers appreciated that along with quite a few Europeans eating the cereal as well. I have no idea if it was General Mills cereal, since apparently Kellogg’s has held that market since 1922, but I do know that it was available and that was something I never would have expected.

This article is helpful because it shows how General Mills is always looking towards the future. Something they envisioned 20 years ago is now a reality that I can attest to. Most companies were probably not considering globalizing their products like they do today and I think have the foresight to recognize an opportunity that long ago says a lot. An ethical company would always be looking at the present along with the coming future and this is definitely a quality that my company exhibits.

Choose Breakfast!!

www.choosebreakfast.com

Choose Breakfast is another campaign started by General Mills that is full of advertisements telling kids to eat breakfast and the importance of not skipping it. The advertisements are kid friendly and never show General Mills brand or any of their products in the commercials.

Also the first page has a section to take a quiz about the importance of breakfast that is definitely directed at kids. It's very interactive and sort of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" style. The answers are very obvious and each comes with a little fact about why breakfast is so important after you receive the answer.

At the end of the quiz their is a section that is called "Take the Pledge". It is basically a little pledge that is supposed to be filled out and put on the fridge that says you will eat breakfast everyday because you know how important it is. This is supposed to be read with a parent so that it can be enforced and a sort of reminder to keep it going!

This initiative is another great example of how General Mills is positively effecting the lives of kids by making them think it's cool and important to eat breakfast. No other company would ever start this same type of advertisements without their brand name all over the commercials and ads. On the website for the product General Mills is only mentioned at the very bottom of the page in small letters under the legal and privacy sections which no one even reads.

Their point is not to advertise themselves and help them beat their competitors, if it was the approach would have been completely different. But instead they help support my case by showing how ethical and moral they really are.

General Mills love the Children!

http://www.boxtops4education.com/

This website is about General Mills' Box Top for Education incentive.
Box Top for education is basically ways for schools to earn funding by having their students buy General Mills cereal products and in turn when the box tops are redeemed, and a percentage of the money, normally 10 cents for every box top, will be given back!

The thing I love about General Mills is that they are always looking for ways to reach new consumers, but at the same time give back or help educate the world on important issues. Since people will already be buying cereal for their kids, why not help out the schools by giving them a fun and simple way for them to earn extra funding for whatever they choose?

Some other great things that have come from this program are that other companies have followed suit and gotten involved. There are now several websites that come from this page that donate a portion of your purchase to your school and have teamed up with Barnes and Noble to put a greater focus on reading and having more books in libraries. General Mills didn't care about getting their name out but instead helped find new ways to help the cause they started! To this day they have earned over $250 million for schools all over the U.S.

This website about one of GM's great incentive programs definitely helps my argument about how ethical they are because it shows what a giving company they are. Their plan is not one like coke rewards or other "buy and possibly win" propaganda games, but instead has a solid method of giving back with no trickery or possibility of losing.

On top of the box top incentive, they also have contests for schools to compete in to gain even more funding without the purchase of any General Mills products being necessary. This program is designed to recognize and reward outstanding schools in the U.S. and is another great way for them to send a positive message through their products.

I always collected box tops when I was in elementary school and had no idea that they came from any specific brand of product. After all of the research I have done on my company it is getting easier and easier for me to like them because every site is just more proof of how ethical and moral they really are!

Go Box Tops!

My Topic!

So I thought I would give a little background on my subject for all of you so you will know what I'm talking about in my later blogs!

My company is General Mills and originally I set out to show the false advertising they produced and show the consumers what it actually is theyre buying. However, what I've found after reaserching is that the company seems to be a very well respected company that is very honest about what it produces and how it sells its products.

I will be looking for more sources to support both sides so that I can have a more well rounded argument and those are what I will probably be posting on my blog from now on!

Thanks for reading!

English 1213!

Hey Guys!

This is my blog! I'm not sure what I'm supposed to put on me here yet but I'm sure we'll find out soon!