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General Mills Goes Ceriously Retro Target is running a 1-month exclusive with General Mills showcasing retro packaging around Cocoa Puffs, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix, Kix and other brands within their cereal portfolio. A collectable t-shirt is promoted on the new retro-themed packaging, offering consumers the chance to get a vintage-styled tee of their favorite morning munch. Overall, its a smart play. Target gains exclusivity, consumers feel rewarded with a limited piece of throwback merch, and wearing the fashion creates conversations around the cereal brands and must-have appeal for young-ins.
A website has been built to offer up a chance to win the tees. This isn’t the first time General Mills or others have tapped the retro look. Junk Food was wildly popular with teens a few years back via licensed t-shirts using iconic General Mills logos and characters such as Lucky Charms, Trix and others 70’s and 80’s characters. Mountain Dew and Pepsi recently announched retro packaging and product formulated with real sugar in their Throwback LTO. Dew has also used their past icons successful in recent campaigns such as Green Label Art showcasing their legenday Hillbilly character.
General Mills is likely reaching a younger consumer, a savvy trend follower that will still rock the retro tee, which will likely fare well when it’s time for parents to write their grocery lists. This type of straightforward offer often favors well in a value-focused economic environment where there is a lot of pressure on established name brands to keep generic from brands taking market share. Hell, even I’d consider rocking a Boo Berry t-shirt to the gym for anyone looking to pick me up a gift on my b-day (which is a only a month away)!
General Mills to make all its cereals from healthier ingredients By Bob Faw NBC News updated 12:37 p. m. ET, Thurs. , Sept. 30, 2004 Each year the average American downs 160 bowls of cereal. Thursday will see a tremor in this $9-billion-a-year industry as General Mills announces that all of its cereals ??? not just Wheaties and Cheerios, but Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms ??? will be made with whole grains. “Emerging science continues to support the benefits of whole grains in people’s diets whether t be heart health or maintaining a healthy body weight, and we are trying to make it easy,” says John Haugen, vice president of marketing at General Mills. “When the … consumer trend of being more health conscious came out, we lost sales to competitors who were already in that space,” says Tony Alvaraez, CEO of Interstate Brands. While General Mills says it’s spending millions on the switch to whole grains, the amount of sugar in its cereals ??? 13 grams, for example, in just one cup of Trix ??? won’t change. So some industry observers are accusing General Mills of gimmickry. “Certainly it’s a marketing ploy.
This is about marketing. It’s not really about nutrition,” says Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University. Still, many mothers are applauding General Mills. “If it’s to better the health of kids and whoever eats it, it’s about time they started getting it done,” says Kris Simonson. Die-hard consumers like her daughter Kali Simonson could care less. As long as the cereal tastes good, she doesn’t care what’s in it. ?? 2008 msnbc. com_ Reprints_ *General Mills Thrives on Increased Marketing Spending: *Boosting TV Ads Hiked Cereal Sales, But Digital ROI Even Higher BOCA RATON, Fla. AdAge. com) — General Mills, one of the package-food industry’s top performers, laid out a number of recent marketing successes at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York conference this morning, and offered a preview of the rest of its fiscal year. The company has staunchly supported consumer-marketing spending increases — 19% in the first half of fiscal 2009, which began in June — while competitors, including Kellogg and Kraft, have begun to scale back on the heady marketing outlays of 2008, instead preaching bundling and greater return on investment.
General Mills estimates that its consumer-marketing spending will be up by “double digits” for the full fiscal year. CEO Ken Powell has repeatedly said that it’s particularly important to support well-known brands during the current economy. “We’re meeting here in Florida at a time of great economic uncertainty around the world,” Mr. Powell said. “General Mills has weathered the storm due in large part to the strength of our product categories and the strength of our brands. ” He underscored that the company has a number of well-known 50-year-old brands, such as Cheerios and
Pillsbury, as well as 30-year-old brands such as Yoplait and Nature Valley, that consumers trust. Positive response General Mills’ sales have responded well to increased marketing support as consumers are eating more at home. Sales grew 11% in the first half of fiscal 2009, to $7. 5 billion. The company has raised guidance with each of the first two quarters. General Mills is doing so well that analysts had been expecting the company to raise its earnings guidance again this morning. For the balance of 2009, the company said it is planning a broadcast blitz for its cereal brands.
Ian Friendly, chief operating officer of U. S. retail operations, said he expects the ad program to generate the biggest bump in sales. The company’s Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios and Lucky Charms have been faring particularly well. General Mills is launching Banana Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Chex, and Fiber One Frosted Shredded Wheat cereals in the coming months. Some of these products are likely to be advertised to baby boomers, who Mr. Friendly noted will make up about half of the U. S. population by 2010. When I started here in 1983, we didn’t do much advertising to baby boomers,” he said, adding that boomers are eating more cereal as they age. “We’re targeting them directly now. ” The company is also working harder to target Hispanics, with Progresso products such as Menudo being tested in Texas. Mr. Friendly said the company credits Hispanic-targeted advertising for Honey Nut Cheerios with a 35% increase in year-to-date sales with those consumers. Bromley Communications is General Mills’ Hispanic agency. Online growth But while the bulk of the company’s spend remains on TV, Mr.
Friendly said in a conference with reporters that it has begun to see significantly higher return on digital investment. General Mills has been diverting funds online, driving traffic to recipe sites such as BettyCrocker. com. The company’s cooking sites had about 8 million visitors last month. General Mills also recently launched a free Betty Crocker iPhone application, which offers meal suggestions based on what’s in a consumer’s pantry. “We are seeing very high returns from digital than broadcast,” Mr. Friendly said, declining to give the percentage of spending that’s moved online. “It’s ot that our TV ads don’t work, but when you’re watching TV you’re doing it for a different reason. When you go to a website you have a very specific purpose. ” General Mills Thanks Its Lucky Charms, Melinda Peer, 06. 18. 08, 5:45 PM ET http://www. forbes. com/2008/06/18/general-mills-guidance-markets-equity-cx_mp_markets38_print. html With higher ingredient costs eating into food companies’ profits, General Mills surprised investors with news that full-year results would be better than expected. That’s because they’ve been serving up extra costs to consumers. Shares of General Mills, Inc. gained $1. 1, or 3. 2%, to close at $62. 64 on Wednesday after the company said year-end results would top guidance thanks to a 13. 0% sales increase in the fourth-quarter. The food company, which boasts popular brands like Cheerios, Yoplait, Green Giant and Haagen-Daz, now expects 2008 earnings of $3. 71 a share and sales of $13. 7 billion. Earnings, adjusted to exclude a favorable tax ruling and gains from valuations of commodity holdings, are expected to be $3. 52 a share–an 11. 0% increase from last year’s earnings of $3. 18 a share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $3. 48 and sales of $13. 4 billion.
The company’s previous guidance had been for adjusted earnings between $3. 45 and $3. 47 a share. But with commodity prices showing no signs of falling, it’s unclear how long the General Mills can expect consumers to foot the bill. Cocoa U. S. futures soared to a 28-year high at $3,122 a tonne as investors responded to reports of pressured supply in the Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa grower. Corn for delivery in July 2009 matched Monday’s high of $8. 07 a bushel before settling ahead by 6 cents at about $8. 01 a bushel. General Mills, however, expects growth to meet or exceed expectations through 2009.
It guided for adjusted earnings in the range of $3. 78 to $3. 83 a share. Analysts have been expecting earnings of $3. 81 a share in 2009. Rival company Kellogg’s, raised prices in January to offset expensive raw material costs. Rather than hiking prices again, the company said it would shrink the size of cereal boxes instead and sell them for the same price (See: Kellogg’s Crumbling Profits). Kellogg’s skimmed an average of 2. 4 ounces from boxes that will be used for 14 products under brands like Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks. The boxes shipped to U. S. stores earlier this month.