This blog has been produced by Lucile, Charlyne, Marine, Manon and Claire. It will give you an insight on Special K and Fitness brands management on the overall cereal market.
Dear Friends, This is where our wonderful journey ends... Thank you very much to all the people that took the time and had the patience to read us. We hope that you learned something from our articles, or at least got entertained! Let's finish our blog on a incongruous note: Kellog's announced that they will be "stamping" the brand kellog's on some of their cereals in order to prevent forgeries. As a matter of fact, 128 Billion of bowls of Kellog's cornflakes are eaten every single day all over the world. As any other very profitable market (bags, shoes), such big numbers are encouraging some people to counterfeit these brands. "We noticed that over the past few years an increasing number of brands have tried to benefit from our notoriety" said Helen Lyons, food engineer for Kellog's. With that strategy, Kellog's is trying to control the counterfeit effect. Kellog's also stated that even if that strategy is feasable, they will not necesseraly implement it. It does seem really complicated and expensive!
Today, we have decided to go directly on the field to see how healthy cereals, more particularly Fitness and Special K are promoted in-store. So, we went to Carrefour Antibes to get real insights of the different touch points. The first thing to notice is that cereals are mainly sold in supermarkets, in large-scale distribution such as Carrefour, Casino or Leclerc. It is quite logical for a food product which is part of the "feeding routine" of a substantial number of French people. The first thing we note when we arrived in the cereals aisle is that around 20% of the total surface of the aisle were displaying "healthy cereals". By "healthy cereals", we mean cereals that are sold as being good for your shape and helping you to keep fit. In the shelves, if we have a look on the "healthy cereals targetting women", we can see clearly the repartition which is made between the different products.
As you can see, 10% are dedicated to the distributor brand: Carrefour Stylesse & Carrefour Form.
Another interesting point is that these two kinds of products are located exactly at the level of the customers' eyes.
In fact, it is not unusual to see that distributors put their own products forward in order to benefit from the best exposition and so to multiply their chances to sell their products rather than Special K or Fitness. According to merchandising rules, the placement at the eye level is the best one: when the customer is stading up, his eyes immediately look at the products put at this place. As we can also notice, the different kinds of cereals are stored according to their brands and then according to their ingredients: red berries, milk chocolate or honey and nuts... Let's have a look at the different packaging.
Firstly, we can easily identify the brand to which each pack belongs to. Fitness and Special K have placed their logo in the middle of the pack while Carrefour has put it on the upper part. Then, there is a common "motto" on these three packagings: the figure of a thin and very deminine woman. However, the three brands have their own way to deal with this common pattern. Fitness and Carrefour are dealing with it quite the same way: we easily recognize the figue of a woman, raising her arms and feeling good. With Special K, it is much more subtle: the "healthy" part of the product is suggested through the movement on the right part of the pack. It evokes the curve drawn by the woman waist. Generally speaking, the packaging which has the largest number of elements on it is the one of the distributor brand. It reflects the positioning of the distributor which is a bit messy compared to Fitness or Special K. You can get the brand logo, the taste, the figure, the size content, the RDA, pictures of ingredients, a spoon with the product, a blue Carrefour label and the name of the range product "Form". In other words, you can find eveything you want. For Special K, things are really different: the overall look is much more refined and elegant.
If we have a look at the reading sense of the visual/wording on the packaging, we note that Special K is delivering this specific message to every customer that looks at it: "Special K is offering you to get a good body shape and keep fit, eating cereals made of wheat and red berries". This virtuous circle is the perfect answer to your need. Even if you are not really aware of this message, it is what your eyes and your brain are recording, watching at this packaging. It is all about subliminal messages...isn't it the point of any effective visual?
We
can define "brand awareness" as the extent to which a brand is
recognized by potential customers, and is correctly associated with a
particular product. Expressed usually as a percentage of target
market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising in the
early months or years of a product's introduction. Concerning "brand
knowledge", Keller defines it as «a
function of awareness, which
relates to consumers’ ability to recognize or recall the brand, and
image, which consists of consumers’ perceptions and of associations
for the brand.»
Thus,
even cereals brands are trying to put in place some associations in
order to be as many times as possible in their customers' mind.
Special
K set up every summer a campaign of co-branding with Nivea. In this
campaign, the two brands are associated to promote both their
products.
So, let's see how it works!
There
is a list of products which have codes on them. When you buy these
products you get codes. You can go on the website
http://www.niveaspecialk.fr/.
You subscribe on it. You enter your codes and according to them, you
can benefit from a special offer.
For
example, if you have bought 2 Special K products (listed for having a
code) plus a Good Bye Cellulite Sérum or Gel or My Silhouette, you
can get one kit « Belle pour l'été » which offers a
vanity and several Special K and Nivea products.
This campaing is a
very clever idea because by this « co-branding », both
Special K and Nivea succeed in appealing women interested in their
health and good shape by promising them gifts. It is a very good tool
to stimulate sales and brand awareness.
Moreover, it could enable
Special K or Nivea to benefit from the customers of the other brand.
For instance, women who didn't buy before Special K product could be
tempted to to do so because of this promotional offer. It could make
them discover the brand and maybe be loyal to it if they appreciate their experience with the brand.
Special
K started also a partnership with Reebok to offer a pre-summer experience
to women in order to help them to feel more comfortable and
confident: Summer Challenge 2011.
Special K decided to be associated with
Reebok because the two brands share
the same target audience and market priorities. Their offer was a 2-week
challenge combining food and exercise.
However,
Fitness seems to be less engaged than Special K through actions of
associations. The website of Fitness https://nestle-fitness.com/fr/
is now «under construction» maybe the brand would have rather happy
marketing surprises...
No cash anymore? Dying for a snack? How
about paying for a bite to eat by the tweet?
Special K opened
in London a pop-up store where you can enter and buy Special K
products thanks to your tweets. The store has been created to mark
the launch of the brand's new savoury crisps range, with customers
asked not for money at the till, but instead a tweet on Twitter about
the new snack bag.
"The value of positive
endorsements on social media sites is beyond compare so we're excited
to be the first company to literally use social currency instead of
financial currency to launch this new product in our bespoke Special
K shop," said Special K's Sarah Case.
This strategy is very interesting in
terms of branding because Special K succeeds in being associated with
a very young and trendy social network: Twitter. It would definitely
convey a modern and young image of the brand.
In a more and more competitive environment it is hard to differentiate
brands from others on the same segment. Marketers have to find a unique
positioning. The most difficult part of the work is to make the consumer trust
the brand and join the family.
In order to differentiate a brand from its competitors it is essential
to use new ways of communication. Street marketing operations, tribal marketing
actions or events dedicated to consumers can be organized. Using these
communication tools, the brand will appear more dynamic and closer from its
consumer.
Another
solution used to differentiate the brand is to create a rupture in its
communication and to become a non conventional brand. The consumer will pay
more attention to the brand and the products presented.
The ultimate goal of a brand is to make the consumer
engage with the brand on a functional and even emotional level. Different tools
can be used to create this relationship.
The tribal marketing is one of them: the consumer has
the feeling that he/she is part of a family. Special K developed a website page
where consumers can exchange advices, experiences or recipes.
Then, the brand also created a website named
MySpecialK in which you can benefit from personalized advices depending on
your weight, age, tastes… Experts can help you through a personalized program
in order to lose weight and feel comfortable in your everyday life.
Moreover,
in order to make consumer loyal the brand also created a co-branding with
Nivea. This way, Special K can benefit from Nivea consumers and awareness. Both
brands are stronger using the positive aspect of the other one.
In this market, the consumer can easily engage with cereals brands
thanks to several tools used by marketers.
First of all, the fact that a gift is given in almost every pack can
encourage the establishment of a relationship between the consumer and the
brand. This tool is more often used in cereals dedicated to children. Indeed,
kids are more likely to be attracted by this kind of argument. As they are purchasing
advisor cereal companies have to seduce them before their parents.
Then, regarding adults cereals, marketers pull other levers such as the
healthy argument. They claim that cereals are composed of whole- wheat,
oatmeal, barley showing cereals image on the pack. In the consumer’s mind the
product is entirely natural and healthy. On the pack the product composition is
often highlighted in order to prove that the product is made of good
components.
Another tool used in order to create a strong relationship between the
product and the consumer is the use of cross promotions. While buying their
cereals pack they will benefit from a voucher to buy another product of the
range such as snack cereals, cereals bar, cereal cookies…
Through several levers, marketers can easily make consumers loyal to
their brand. It is a non stop fight against competitors that have quite the
same tools to promote their brands.
