The Success Of United Cereal

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”.

This gain value and addresses a key decisive achievement factor in the industry (Grant,2010). As position is important to offer convenience and a deep assortment, An extra unique intangible resource would be their brand representation and customer loyalty, this is vital since it can attract or attract consumers and it could be necessary to build the brand image .

This report examines the UK market for Breakfast Cereals. The market has grown substantially in the last 5 years with a high demand for quick meals in the morning due to busy lifestyles. This has had an advantage to the sales of the 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.

United Cereal is a diversified company established in 1910 by Jed Thomas. The company produces snack foods, dairy products, beverages, frozen foods, baked goods, and cereals. The cereal industry generates one third of United Cereals revenue. United Cereal focuses on “commitment, diligence, and loyalty” which attracted many people to work for the company. Jed expected his Managers to adhere to a strong set of values and wanted committed Managers that would uphold his philosophy of the “The UC Way” to its customers. In addition, the company focused on listening to its customers and spotting current trends to make the market part of their core value. United Cereal was well known as an

In 2000, Unilever decided to reduce 1,600 brands down to 400 and then select a small number of them to serve as “Masterbrands”. One of the reasons to have fewer brands is to decrease control issues. It is harder to manage so many brands, especially when each one has its own particularities. As Deighton pointed, Unilever’s brand portfolio had grown in a relatively laissez-faire manner. In other words, the company’s brands were created without large interference.

giant multinational breakfast foods company United Cereal, portrays the background of a launch decision for a new cereal product, the ‘Healthy Berry Crunch’.

Weakness- A major foreseeable weakness OMG Active Cereal may encounter is that the cereal could be perceived by the public as just another “nutritious cereal”. There are many kinds of nutritious conscious cereals in today’s market produced by several different companies. Each year, a few more of these cereals are created and placed on each and every grocer’s shelves. A weakness for our newly released cereal could be that breakfast-eating consumers will group OMG Active Cereal along with the average nourishing cereals before eating or becoming cognizant of our cereal’s fantastic features other than especially served for the teenagers.

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.

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 RTE cereal industry has been a highly profitable business. The Big Three gained the first mover advantage since the 19th century, and most of the market share. The rivalry among competing firms was low because the industry was highly concentrated. However, as the increasing sales of small private labels grow fast, the degree of rivalry would increase later. The barrier to entry was high because of the Big Three deterred the new entry firms by taking steps to make the industry unprofitable for the new firms. Whereas, the level

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

First of all, a strong brand can be seen as the condition for organisations to expand products, offer more service, and introduce new products (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Secondly, a strong brand can lead to growth marketing communication effectiveness (Keller, 2009). ‘To build a strong brand, the right knowledge structures must exist in the minds of actual or prospective customers so that they respond positively to marketing activities and programs in these different ways.’(Keller, 2003, p. 140) Furthermore, Kay (2005) asserted that the strong brand can be seen as a resource of management, which make brand extension easier and useful to build distribution network. Companies are not treated by the intermediaries (Chernatony and McDonald, 2003). Moreover, companies are comparatively easier to change price if they have strong brands. As Henderson, et al (2003) said, a strong brand can allow for premium pricing even still remain loyalty customers, which help companies to survive in the intensive competitive market.

They wish to gain competitive advantage by providing ‘premium products and services’ with ‘innovative’ food solutions for their customers ‘on time’. UFS carries out below activities to deliver competitive advantage over rivals.

However, this strategy also has some disadvantages that may hurt the company’s development: The first is the fierce competition between these brands. And it is important to note that using this strategy means facing higher risks. Cost control is another big problem. Obviously, the more brands there are to manage, the higher the costs. For this reason, many prudent companies prefer brand extension over multi-brand management.