LAUNCHING KRISPY NATURAL: CRACKING THE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT CODE

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.

The company is geographically located in most major united states locations. It employs a hierarchal organizational design. One of the contributing factors to its success is the company’s success in providing a dining experience for its customers that excel in choices, price, customer service, and serving size. The company is known world-wide for its delicious cheesecakes with the key factor being the variety.

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

The company is geographically located in most major united states locations. It employs a hierarchal organizational design. One of the contributing factors to its success is the company’s success in providing a dining experience for its customers that excel in choices, price, customer service, and serving size. The company is known world-wide for its delicious cheesecakes with the key factor being the variety.

I prepared an analysis of several marketing strategies that can be used by executives at A.1. Steak Sauce. This case analysis will provide a summary of A.1.

“To give our customers the best food and beverage values that they can find anywhere and to provide them with the information required for informed buying decisions. We provide these with a dedication to the highest quality of customer satisfaction delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, fun, individual pride, and company spirit” (Crafting and Executing Strategy: Concepts and Readings, 2016, p. 24).

The primary reason for the Borden Foods to divert itself from snacks is to emphasis its efforts and resources in the growth of their whole-wheat meal segments. Because of this valuation they had and a growth plan they had they decided to announce sale of Cracker Jack in 1997. The management team of Broaden also recognized that with the increase in competition they have not been able to successfully grow the sales figure in past five years. Also because the Cracker Jack brand has various packaging options and has been maintaining a huge product line of 32 Stock-Keeping Units (SKUs). However, currently Broaden production facility had only 32 percent of space allocated to Cracker Jack Products and has been operating at 32% of its

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).

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.

1. What is Kraft Foods Inc.’s corporate strategy? How has its corporate strategy evolved since its independence in 2007?

Reed Supermarkets started out as a lower-end retailer, but over the past two decades Reed has moved into the high-end in the supermarket business. They have done this with a combination of exceptional customer service, a full assortment of both standard and high-end products, including bakeries, meats and seafood. This niche has been very successful and been the diving force in their growth. Unfortunately, as noted above, customer loyalty to a quality brand has dwindled and been replaced y the need to find the best price. Reed has attempted to combat this by both increasing their high-margin products (private label and prepared foods) and increasing the number and amount of specials they offer. These tactics have done little to change customers’ perception of Reed as a high-end and high-priced retailer. See Appendix A for a full SWOT analysis on HLL.

The following marketing plan forms the basis for the introduction of an innovative new product by Snyder’s-Lance Inc. This analysis allows me to outline the best strategies to follow for the achievement of the company’s strategic goals. “Pretzel Abobodas” will be marketed as a unique flavored pretzel that targets the Hispanic consumer, while striving to reinforce the company’s focus on wanting to penetrate the Hispanic market. The marketing strategies will hopefully enable our company to

b. Instead of producing a large product line, Pamberton and Krispy Natural should use a niche strategy and stick with a few products in the “Crackers with Filling” market. The four products that they should launch in this market are: white cheddar, creamy Swiss, tomato basil and smoked Gouda. These products have the highest positive purchase intent and the highest percent of testers that preferred the taste of Krispy Natural over leading brands. Eliminating some of the product line will enable the Pamberton trucks to continue carrying the line without running out of room, so they can keep the same distribution.

Kellogg’s is a company that produces and sells cereals, fruit flavored snacks, breakfast biscuits, beverage, crackers, toasters pastries,

Special K enabled Kellogg’s to be alert to current consumer trends such as social trends and changes in technology. The research enabled Kellogg’s to identify consumer perceptions of the brand and what developments consumers would favour. Armed with this consumer and market focused knowledge, Kellogg’s was best placed to inject growth into the product life cycle.