Meridian Success Story: 6

Kellogg’s Cereals

Kellogg’s Successfully Implemented Consulting Team’s Detailed Recommendation to Begin a New Focus on the Nutritional Value Benefits of Selected Cereals, a Theme Previously Rejected but Now Accepted as Clearly in Line with Target Consumer Concerns

• Client Issue:
  Lagging Interest in Cereal Consumption: To address a slowly- growing consumer disinterest in breakfast cereal, the Kellogg’s company initiated an on-going search for ways to reignite interest in cereal consumption
• Consulting Team’s Contributions:

1. Design and Implementation of Consumer Research, Including:
   1. Study #1:
      Product and Brand Choice Criteria for Breakfast Cereals
   2. Study #2:
      Consumer Perceptions of Foods with High Nutritional Value
2. Recommendation that Kellogg’s Pursue:
   1. A Stronger Nutritional Positioning for Selected Cereals
   2. Development of Wholly New Cereal Sub-Brands with a Nutritional Focus

• Results:

1. Kellogg’s Management Initially Hesitant to Pursue Consulting Team’s Recommendations: The view was that, while consumers may readily indicate in surveys an interest in the nutritional value of all foods purchased for the family, that expression of interest has not shown up in sales of nutritionally-positioned products
2. Nutritional Focus Pursued First on a Pilot Basis: While positive results were initially slow to show up, Kellogg’s Management stayed with this pilot testing, making on-going enhancements to increase relevance to target consumers
3. Over Time, Cereals with a Nutritional Positioning Have Become a Critical Profit Contributor in the Stable of Kellogg’s Brands: These cereals are now viewed to have played an important role in reigniting interest in consumption of breakfast cereal