United Cereal Company in Europe

profitability, slowing demand growth and a surge in private label sales threatened to undermine the

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

The ready-to-eat (RTE) sector has increased sales and therefore have given the Breakfast cereals market an advantage to have a higher market share of 4.2% in 2013. The emphasis is more to the value and the convenience of cereals rather than the quality. However people are starting to be more heath conscious and are going to the higher nutritional brands which tend to be the well-known ones such as Kellogg 's, Weetabix and Nestle.

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 threat of customers finding substitute products from other manufacturers in the food industry is high. In the ready-to-eat breakfast cereals segment, General Mills’ primary business focus, there are a variety of similar products being

In 2006, Kellogg’s launches Special K forest berries and Special K honey almond. A year later, Special K Advantage (fibre) appears in Australia. The last flavor is Special K chocolatey flakes, launched in 2009. The packaging has barely changed since its creation: white background, to represent the purity of the product, and the milk, the big symbol in the middle for the product identity, and some flakes on the right side, for the product representation. There has been an evolution of the nutritional information: now the main compositions are on the front side of the package (sugar, fat, calories). It is part of the strategy to position the product as a partner in weight loss. Te product is considered as a good quality, thanks to its characteristics (benefits for the consumer), and the “Our guarantee to you”, a little section on the left side of the box, explaining that Kellogg has a quality system that assures the highest quality standards to deliver the best product to the consumer. The target of Special K is women, from 20 to 40 years old. Women who try to look and feel good, who are working or raising their children, who want to conciliate their activities with their femininity. Women are represented next to the mention “99% fat free”, and on the back side of the box. Usually they are slim, active and happy. The strategy of Special K is to accompany women all day long, with different products, and to propose them to eat cereals not only for

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.

Tasty Foods Corporation was founded in 1995 by Henry Abercrombie. The corporation is a food conglomerate that has major product lines including cereals, frozen dinners, canned sodas and fruit juices. Abercrombie founded the company with a small inheritance and with the idea of producing instant hot cereal. The firm’s hot cereal proved to be a success and was well accepted by the consumers. Over the years it grew by its acquisitions and product innovation ideas, expanding considerably over the last 40 years. In addition, Abercrombie proved to be an excellence business person that had a lot of vision and was very business-savvy. When Abercrombie’s health started deteriorating, he decided to hire his

As marketing manager of the RBG business, Ivan Guillen must propose a solution to repair Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RGB)’s business performance. Since the refrigerated-cookie product line consisted of 62% of RBG’s unit sales and over 75% of the company’s profits, Guillen found it appropriate to alter this segment in the market. Proposing this idea to GMCC would require Guillen to consider all the challenges he faces. Guillen will have to discover a strategy to increase household penetration since it has fallen to 24% in the past few years. The lack in market penetration has

Today Unilever is one of the world’s largest consumer products companies. Becel Margarine was launched in 1978 as a premium priced product, positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice. Previously, the Becel brand had been positioned as the heart healthy margarine of choice in Europe for twenty years prior to Canadian introduction. Despite unique positioning Becel struggled for many years gaining only 8.1 percent market share by 1991. Unilever considered several options for growing the Becel brand, such as, price decreases, repositioning the product, and dramatic increases in advertising support. In 1991 Lipton devised the strategy “living a life that is young at heart”. This strategy was very successful with its current target market, 65 and above. In the butter and margarine category, butter holds fifty percent of the market. The Dairy Bureau of Canada positions butter as tasty and natural, which is conveying that margarine is processed and does not taste as good. However, that is not true, margarine is better for you than butter and does suit consumers’ tastes. In addition, the health focus of the butter and margarine market is growing. More and more competitors are positioning their product as healthy for the consumer. For example, Parmalat is a brand of butter that has just entered the margarine market to compete with Becel with the brand Lactantia.

Chobani is a greatly successful company based in New York, where their Founder Hamdi Ulukaya moved to when he came to the states from Turkey (Chobani History 2016). Chobani is a company known for having the best Greek yogurt in the United States. Chobani prides themselves on having a high quality yogurt that is incomparable with any other brand of yogurt out on the market. This dedication the quality is what sets Chobani above everybody else is directly causing their positive business growth. By the end of 2015 Chobani’s revenue was at “$1.5 billion where their competitors were at $250 million” (Giammona 2015). What differentiates Chobani between its competitors is its dedication to the quality and the fact that the Chobani Greek yogurt is healthier than that of Dannon and in any other competitors brings as they use all natural ingredients on where others may have antibiotics and other unhealthy byproducts in their yogurt which can be poorer for health of the consumer. With Chobani’s small staff of 2000 employees and their solo headquarters and different type of product manufacturing, Chobani makes a huge difference in less mechanical and robotic form of creating the yogurt that those of the competitor’s process to creating quality within the product. Companies such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi Co would want to buy a Chobani there has been no offers them product differentiation such as the purchases the Coca-Cola has made with Vitaminwater (Martin, Sorkin

* Some of the objectives of creating this union is to create a better flow on the circulation of goods, capital, people and services within the union. Once a good or service is accepted within the union it is protected from customs, taxes and import quotas as long as they remain within the union.

Portland Drake Beverages (PDB) had acquired Crescent Pure, a non-alcoholic, all natural energy enhancing and hydrating functional beverage. Having organic ingredients as the bases of Crescent Pure beverages made the perfect acquisition for extending the PDB organic brand to more markets. These multiple attributes made the drink an attractive product for the consumer, but the necessity to position it, sparked a debate. Some people wanted to market it as an energy drink, while others wanted to market it as a hydrating drink. The VP of marketing, Sarah Ryan, thought that although Crescent Pure fit both of these categories, there was an alternative option. The third option would be to position the new beverages as healthy drinks, this would be a broader market positioning strategy, one that a transcendent product like Crescent Pure, could fulfill. The concern was to simultaneously position the drink in the most lucrative market, while also ensuring that the drinks attributes aligned with the market consumers’ needs.

The case focuses on Kellogg’s Special K brand and considers how the marketing of this has changed over time. Marketing is not static – it must be developed as market conditions and customer expectations change.

PepsiCo’s corporate strategy had diversified, in 2008, the company into salty and sweet snacks, soft drinks, orange juice, bottled water, and ready-to-eat drink teas and coffees, purified and functional waters, isotonic beverages, hot and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, grain-based products, and breakfast condiments. Strategies that kept their brands at the top were tied to new product innovation, close relationships with distribution allies, international expansion, and strategic acquisitions. A new element of PepsiCo’s corporate strategy was product reformulations to make snack