Global Strategy : Competitive Advantage

We have another 20 competitor cereal company cross Canada as well. Such as: Weetabix of Canada,

The cereal market is a booming industry. It has been around for over one hundred years and continues to attract millions of customers’ everyday. The market structure of the cereal industry is an Oligopoly. This is because there are four large firms, Kellogg, General Mills, Post, and Quaker Oats, which dominate the industry.

1) The Big Three firms, Kellogg, General Mills, and Philip Morris, formed practically an oligopoly in the RTE cereal market. Their price and cost levels moved in lockstep, following signals sent mostly by the biggest player, Kellogg, while their tactics could be used against outside competition, as suggested in the scenario below. Although RTE cereal is a basic food item and production technology stabilized for about half century, the industry had effective barriers to entry. The competition between incumbents was friendly while most of the inputs came from a perfectly competitive market, agriculture. Major customers, the food stores, were coopted in perpetuating barriers to entry in the form of shelf space “slotting”.

Due to globalization and increased competition in the fast food industry, a very complex environment is created for McDonald’s. There are various internal and external environmental factors affecting the functions of McDonald’s corporation and demands for new innovations. The factors are as follows:

Kellogg’s is highly a profile company which is hugely known not only in the UK but in the world at large. It is one of the largest breakfast companies in the word, not only that but it is also financially it is a stably and well organised company. Kellogg’s profits have been stable if not increasing for the better from what it was 5 years ago.

General Mills competes in a dynamic environment. Some of their competitors are Kellogg’s in the cereal segment. Cereal was a product that used to be the number one election for breakfast in American. As time and new knowledge evolved, consciousness about products with less sugar or gluten free arose making the cereal industry tumble. Products like protein bars, Greek yogurts, and even fast food are the new options to start the date, gaining market share over the cereal industry.

1. Brief description of the context and of the decision which has to be made.

With 2008 sales of nearly $13 billion, Kellogg Company is the world's leading producer of cereal and a leading producer of convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, frozen waffles and meat alternatives. Kellogg products are manufactured in 19 countries and marketed in more than 180 countries around the world.

The global recession in 2008/2009 did not just lead to a change in consumption towards an increasing demand for cheaper products in the product range but it was also responsible for a decrease in market growth that resulted in a growth rate less than 1% annually. However UC faces the threat of strong competitors. The largest competitors is Kellogg which is the market leader with a share of 26%. Kellogg has the advantage to lower operating costs due to its volume. Along with this increased market competition in Europe, UC was also threatened by a price and promotion pressure outgoing from its major rivals Kellogg and United Cereal. An ongoing fight for market share, and high costs and investment of time in order to develop new brands are just two more factors that UC and its competitors face in daily business. Another market condition that can be identified as an external threat (and opportunity) is the great variation in consumption. Consumers´ cereal consumption varies greatly throughout Europe. While approximately 8/kg year were consumed by UK citizen, Italians only ate 0.5 kg/year. Throughout Europe the point of sale also

Answer: Based on the case study, Kellogg’s main competitors in the ready-to-eat cereals market are General Mills and Kraft Foods and PepsiCo. In the convenience foods market, the main competitors are Frito-Lay unit of PepsiCo which is the largest maker of salty snacks while the Nabisco unit of Kraft Foods which is the largest maker of cookies and crackers. Except from these competitors, Kellogg also has been facing competition with the new entrants or the improved store brand products which intent to get some shares of these two markets. Also, Kellogg’s brand

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

The second force that acts on the industry is the threat of new entrants. Fortunately for McDonald’s and it’s over 30,000 restaurants world-wide, the corporation has set itself in a position of dominance. Using a growth strategy, “McDonald’s is continuously expanding its reach which makes it increasingly difficult for new fast food restaurants to enter the industry, through franchising, McDonald’s is able to reach nearly every corner of the globe” (Shell, Ellen Ruppel).

Since McDonald’s is the most well know fast food chain in the world with a market cap of 69.35 billion, brand recognition is their biggest strength. The secret of McDonald’s success is its willingness to innovate and maintain consistency in the operation of its many outlets. In recent years McDonald’s has introduced Premium Salads, Snack Wraps, fresh Apple Dippers in the United States, and Corn Cups in China. Also, McDonald 's products are priced so low that economic conditions are almost insignificant.

General Mills, as one of the Big Three companies that focused on diversification of consumer goods on cereal division, restaurant chains and packaged consumer foods. In 1994, the cereal industry was profitable and had been one of the most concentrated industries overall historically, and the big Three company had a dominant position in this industry. However, the problem was although the high profitability attracted fewer entry company due to the high entry barrier restrained by joint monopoly of the Big Three, they were facing the threat of private label companies which grew fast in market share by sales and volume. Therefore, what is General Mills strategy to increase revenue while dealing with the threat of private labels. This is a critical issue because General Mills need measure the trade-offs among strategies, and this determines whether General Mills would still be one of the top players in terms of market shares in the industry.

McDonald’s is a global chain of Quick Serve Restaurant as well as with other fast food restaurant such as KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut and other, however we can conclude that McDonald’s is much more popular than others. All these global brands are completely a strong brand which is hard for other new entrants to give threat. Although all the global brands are strong enough in fast food industries, they cannot feel so comfortably because new entrants can appear with new phenomena. Therefore, to keep this away McDonald’s has to develop strategies as what been said before.