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.