General Mills Canadian Corporation

I. Executive Summary II. Situation Analysis o Market Summary  Target Market Demographics  Geographic  Demographics  Behavior Factors Market Needs Market Trends Market Growth o SWOT Analysis  Strengths  Weaknesses  Opportunities  Threats o Competition o Product Offering o Keys to Success o Critical Issues III. Marketing Strategy o Mission o Marketing Objectives o Financial Objectives o Target Markets o Positioning o Strategies o Marketing Mix o Marketing Research o Action Plan IV. Financials o o o V. Controls o o o VI. Summary Implementation Marketing Organization Contingency Planning Breakeven Analysis Sales Forecast Expense Forecast

General Mills, Inc. has three segments. U.S. Retail sells ready-to-eat cereals, meals, yogurt, organic foods, etc. The International segment includes retail business in Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Asia/Pacific region. Bakeries and Foodservice sells to retail and wholesale bakeries, and convenience stores. The company makes money through producing various food and products and distributing them all over the world.

Doughnut Time’s domestic target audience is consumers between the ages of 15-24 who live in urban locations where Doughnut Time is accessible (Stone, 2016). This segment is comprised of high school students, university students and new practitioners (Tonkin, 2016). According to Tonkin (2016), consumers in this demographic are a key market for the fast food industry and provide stability and revenue growth. This target audience is suitable for Doughnut Time as these consumers are less health-conscious than older counterparts and are strongly affected by technology and economics (Tonkin, 2016).

Consumers are increasingly skipping breakfast and morning food sales are on the decline. Yogurt tastes are changing as well, with many consumers opting for Greek yogurt as opposed to regular yogurt. GIS was greatly impacted by these changes in consumer preferences and saw US cereal sales drop 3% from 2017 to 2016 while US yogurt sales dropped 18% year-over-year. In July of 2017, GIS introduced a new French Style yogurt brand to appeal to changing consumer tastes and increase yogurt sales. One positive for the industry is that consumers are snacking more often. Consumers want convenient filling foods that fit in with their busy lifestyles. The packaged food industry can take advantage of this growth capitalize on the growing popularity of quick meals and nutritious snacks. Snacks comprise 21% of GIS’s total net sales and this is expected to continue to grow as GIS introduces more healthy options. Another concern is aging populations in the developed world. As consumers age, their dietary needs change. Older populations move away from many foods products with high levels of sugar and fat in favor of more nutritional products. There is slow population growth with birth rates below the replacement level in many developed nations. This decline in new consumers is a problem for the industry as they can no longer rely on consumer growth

They have focused on building brand recognition and profitability by growing the business gaining assets to grow the company and products for greater customer satisfaction (About GMCR, 2004-2009). GMCR’s strategy to incorporate current large brands, such as Tully’s, Diedrich, and Keurig has helped to expand their customer base and satisfaction as well as the markets for their products (Phillips, 2011). Their focus on increasing their market shares in other companies will facilitate their expansion into new geographical markets and promote the brand. GMCR’s partnership with Keurig creates a larger consumer choice and the addition of agreements to create portion packs for the Keurig with companies such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and Newman’s Own helps set them apart from the competition (Invest in the Markets, 2011).

The Pillsbury Cookie Challenge is a case study written by Natalie Mauro under the supervision of Professor Allison Johnson. The case study creates an open discussion about what the marketing manager of the refrigerated baked goods category for Canada General Mills should do to revive his products. Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, was faced with tough challenges. He was initially “…faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance on his category” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). To clarify, Guillen’s category is refrigerated baked goods (RBG), which means, this category is his marketing responsibility. The issue here is that “RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar” (Johnson and Mauro, p.1, 2011). It is important to note that GMCC stands for General Mills Canada Corporation. Pillsbury has enjoyed majority market share in the RBG category in Canada, however, recently, the market was experiencing only moderate growth. Guillen was disappointed that their goal of 5%-7% market growth was not being achieved mainly in the refrigerated cookie dough segment. To be exact, their volume growth for two years was flat and they were having difficulty reaching new households. There was a shift among consumer’s purchases, which Guillen was challenged to figure out why.

| Propose a marketing strategy that addresses the quality of the cookie or targets children. Since children have a stronger influence in Canadian markets than US markets, reaching out to them could increase brand recognition and sales.

According to the financial report given, General Mills is an insolvent business. This is because even after making sum purchases and general expenses; it is still able to settle for them through its everyday operation. The various sources of money are also evidenced from the financial report.

When analyzing the DuPont model, we determined that GIS has a higher profit margin, low asset turnover ratio, and low financial leverage versus the industry average, leading GIS not to perform with the same efficiency as the Industry Composite. GIS’s return on equity (ROE) was 28.25% in 2011, dipped to 24.41% in 2012, and then rose to 27.80% in 2013. GIS three-year average ROE of 26.82% is below the industry three-year median of 30.78%. This is largely attributable to a decrease on Equity due to the acquisitions that began on 2011. GIS asset turnover ratio remained steady for the past three years with a median of 0.79; however, competitors achieved a higher asset turnover ratio, of 1.07. The three-year average equity multiplier of 3.21 shows that their financial leverage is slightly lower compared to the industry median of 3.33, which indicates that the company relies less on debt rather than equity to finance its assets.

General Nutrition Companies, INC. was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by David Shakarian in 1935 as a single, specialized, general health retail store (Histories, 2011). Since

Situation analysis: Ivan Guillen was asked to develop a marketing strategy in Canada to improve the business portion of the Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods category of General Mills (pg 1).

Prior to the arrival of David Homer, General Mills Canada had been a successful subsidiary of the General Mills brand. Although employees at General Mills Canada have generated positive sales growth every year before his tenure, Homer notices a lack of initiative, drive, and desire to embrace fundamental changes by his employees, a sign of progress hindered by risk aversion. He notices that data is pouring into the company and employees are using this data to analyze potential opportunities for growth, yet they are reluctant to take any actions. Thus, his ultimate challenge is to integrate innovative thinking into the General Mills Canada culture, and determine what “processes and tools” to use to achieve this goal, since employees are

There are a couple different themes that become very important when analyzing the Nestle Crunch Bar case. During the case, many research channels were used to find various themes and feelings residing within the consumer, conscious and subconscious. Between pages twelve and fourteen, multiple feelings/themes are presented. A couple of these have stuck out in comparison to the others, emotional comfort and enjoyment. These two themes seem to be present in the mind of the consumer through all of the consumer testing studies and also within the consumer throughout the entire purchasing experience.

In 1935, GNC was a vision that David Shakarian (founder) could not have possibly imagined in his wildest dreams. At that time, David was following his dream of owning a small health food store, despite the perception that health food was a passing fad at the time. The very first store, which all GNC’s owe their credit to, was called Lackzoom and was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although specializing in a food that his father helped introduce in the United States (yogurt), Lackzoom also sold foods such as grains, honey, and “healthy sandwiches” (Company, 2014). After many hardships and disasters that seem insurmountable, by the 1960’s people began to embrace better nutrition as part of their lifestyle, which meant a growing demand for David’s health food

IntroductionMy name is Kevin Chen and I am a senior consultant of the Boston Consulting firm. Per the request of the A/S Dansk Minox, a food products manufacturer, I am preparing this analysis to identify the existing problems within the business of A/S Dansk Minox and provide possible recommendations. As a consultant, I will present the analysis without bias and for the best benefits of A/S Dansk Minox. In the following analysis, I am going to answer the following question: Should A/S Dansk Minox bring the new product, complete meal, to the market?Company backgroundThis case is set in Denmark in 1967 when the "boom" in consumer food products was just beginning more working mothers, more disposable income, more choices in convenience food