Kellogg’s Product Lifecycle

The cereal industry is very adamant on using a differentiation strategy to make one’s brand stand out in the minds of certain people. The companies break down the public into different target markets; and then make products that will be attractive to their target markets. Companies make different brands for young kids, teenagers, adults, and people who are health conscience. Currently, there are 387 different brands of cereal sold in the United States and each family is estimated to purchase 17 different brands per year. (O’Connor, Amy) Companies continue to brainstorm for new product ideas to attract the various market segmentations.

Special K is a successful brand, with a good level of innovation and communication. It has reached many consumers; especially women aged 20 to 40 yearsold, focusing on key elements such as beauty, shape, and weight loss. People are ready to pay more for Special K cereals, positioned as high quality products, with higher prices as competitors’. As the

Kentucky Fried Chicken has recently gone through a branding remodel. Through this remodel, KFC learned that 76.5 percent of their customers were unaware that KFC offered an Extra Crispy Fried Chicken Recipe. Customers only associated KFC with their Original Recipe meaning that if they were looking for a crispier fried chicken option then they may go to another restaurant. KFC saw this lack of knowledge as an opportunity to educate their customers and other people that KFC does in fact offer an extra crispy recipe. KFC found that millennials were not typically engaged with their brand, so they also wanted to develop a campaign that reached the millennial audience. With Labor Day weekend approaching, KFC saw it has their opportunity to leverage the last summer holiday.

Marketing research is important for all companies. A company must research the areas they hope to expand and know if they can be successful in that area before they ever decide to open up a new store. Marketing research will inform a company what will sell and what will not sell in an area and the main focus of a company should be researching the customers in the area and knowing competitive intelligence. If a company uses great marketing research it will give them the best chance to put together a great marketing plan and be successful. Kudler Fine Foods is a company that has been around since 1998 and currently has three different stores in the San

Kellogg’s seeks to concentrate on nutrition and physical fitness through product donation for the hungry, as well as programs that educate families about nutrition that nourishing families so they can have a healthy living’(Kelloggcompany, 2011).

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.

Mission: Kellogg is a worldwide business dedicated to construct Long-Term expansion in their bottom-line and to ornament its universal Leadership Position by supplying healthful Food Products of better-quality worth.

Brand building, consumer health and wellness, and advertising and promotions were all critical to success in the industry. Kraft’s ability to compete with lower priced snacks showed its ability to differentiate itself from other lower priced competitors.

The company constrained itself within the already available marketing budget that significantly cut down the cost that could have used to advertise the new company plans, that in turn increased the revenues. The company also succeeds due to the unique flavor that it offered in the yoghurt, which was organic and naturally made unlike the competitors who at time incorporated artificial flavors. Finally the company focused on the target consumer group that comprised of women and children. This helped the company to increase its sales that contributed to its success.

According to Pamberton’s President, the company should be focused on leveraging resources and expertise to develop products with sustainable competitive advantage. The flat crackers that Krispy Natural have produced do are not outstanding compared to competitors. There is more potential growth in the “Crackers with Filling” (annual growth expected to be 10-14%) market than there is in the “All Other” market (6-7% annual growth). The top companies that are holding the most market share in the “Crackers with Filling” are losing more market share than in the other market (Kraft went from 34.7 to 32.7 and Lance went from 31.5 to 29.9). Overall there is more potential to make the Krispy Natural brand stand out in the “Crackers with Filling” market.

Sales of private label cereal grew 50% from 1991-1994 in the Ready-to-Eat breakfast cereal industry. Some of the factors that contributed to the entry of private label cereal manufacturers and their subsequent growth include - lower costs related to manufacturing, packaging, marketing, R&D compared to the Big 3 cereal companies, product quality approaching that of branded products, higher margins for grocers, lower priced products. Some observers blamed higher prices and elaborate expenditure on coupon printing, distribution, redemption and reimbursement of grocer's handling fee for market share gains made by private label cereal products. The policy of "price up and spend back" seemed to hurt the Big 3 firms.

Kellogg’s Special K with strawberries is the only competitor in the market currently offering healthy cereal to the consumers.

Subway Sandwich, as presented in the Case Study presented in the Marketing Management MGT 551 class, is an undisputed market leader in a segment that is “firmly established as a nationwide food item for which there is plenty of room in all areas” (University of Phoenix, 2008). However, with a growing competition, changing consumer trends and increased product specialization, Subway’s real strategic marketing challenge is to be able to develop and maintain a differential advantage while sustaining sales growths and profitability.

They can implement the aggressive pricing strategy to strike the new entrants at anytime as they’ve got the large share of the market. Therefore, the threat of new entrants is low. For Threat of Substitutes, Kellogg is the largest cereal producer in this market and it has the long history and strong brand in the market. So they’ve had a large base of loyal customers who are hardly shift to other substitutes. But on the other hands, Kellogg’s cereal product is mainly to serve for breakfast. So, anything that is popular at breakfast time such as fruits, sandwiches, congee, or other healthy foods may be the potential threat of Kellogg. Therefore, the Treat of substitutes is Medium. For Suppliers power, the raw materials of Kellogg products include sugar, flour, food grain, which the market has many suppliers for providing it. Kellogg can switch to other suppliers easily and Kellogg has better control on the cost and has more bargaining power to deal with the supplier as Kellogg has a large market share of the market. Therefore, the bargaining power of supplier is low. For Buyers Power, Kellogg has done a series of marketing activities to educate the consumers and create product awareness in order to capture customers. Due to the consumer awareness, Kellogg can provide pressure to their

During 1985 the Coca-Cola Company instituted a transformation of their flagship brand, thereby altering a formula principally contributing to a remarkable success story approximately one hundred years in the making. Conspicuous erosion of market share to rival Pepsi gravely concerned company executives on account of potential backlashes associated with exclusivity agreements coming out of the restaurant and vending industries. Now those contracts hung in the balance and were becoming particularly ominous. Moreover, losing out to their rival might mean imperiling en masse renewals of agreements going forward. A change in Coke's recipe would inevitably jettison an indomitable formula remaining unchanged for a century and had spawned a global enterprise. Could this create additional concerns for Coca-Cola Company's marketing and sales executives? In other respects and considering Coke the preeminent brand on the planet, could management have overlooked valuable intangible assets such as brand loyalty and goodwill cultivated over the decades? Be that as it may, development of a contemporary formula demonstrating an empirical preference over both present-day Coke and Pepsi began in earnest.