To: Instructor Paula Zobisch
From: Kylee Clamp
10/12/2015
Subject: Cereal Analysis

Information gathered from a Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch survey concluded that seventy-two percent of thirty to thirty-five year-old Americans say great taste is the most important factor when choosing a breakfast cereal while the other twenty percent valued nutrition. More data was collected from a cereal aisle analysis conducted at the Meijer grocery store in Mansfield, Ohio on October 4th, 2015 at 7pm and ending at 8pm. The cereal aisle was very long consisting of a handful of different brands ranging from very sugary to very healthy and located on the right side of the store in the middle of all the food aisles. This business memo includes the exchange functions of the different brands of cereals, the competitive environment, the demographics as well as the shopping patterns of customers.
To begin with, the exchange functions of the cereals in the Meijer cereal aisle included a common pricing strategy with nothing below two dollars and nothing above five. Their packaging included famous people on the cover along with slim people to target customers that want to be healthy along with famous movie characters on the cover including Star Wars and Minions along with animals and bright colors on the front of the boxes to target small children. The sales that were being promoted included a, “Get a free personalized fitness program” and “Earn up to $200 toward your next vacation” on the front of the cereal boxes. In the promotion strategies, there did not appear to be any puffery or exaggerated claims.
Furthermore, there were six different brands of cereal at Meijer including Kellogg’s, Meijer, General Mills, Quaker, Post and Weight Watchers. The different brands were blended together with the top shelf reserved for the small boxes and the bottom shelf cluttered with family sized boxes. The competitive environment in the cereal industry seems to be enough competition for some companies to offer free fitness programs and coupons on a regular basis. There were missing Mini Wheats, Cheerios, Honey-Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. All of which were family-sized. This pattern seemed to be related to the fact that there were coupons circulating from Meijer stating that people could save $1.50 on any three General Mills Big G cereals.
Moreover, the demographics in the cereal aisle of Meijer differed with Caucasians and Mexican-Americans on that particular day. There were couples and families of three along with single shoppers from their twenties to about their seventies. It did not take the shoppers long to make a decision on what kind of cereal they wanted to buy. It was a matter of seconds to just a few minutes for their decision to be made. The consumer decision-making process for cereal seemed to fall under the “approach” category which consists of products that consumers gain enjoyment from using (Levens, 2012).
Likewise, the shoppers that consisted of either families or couples tended to have the woman make the decisions on which cereal to purchase. There was one case where the mother asked the child which cereal he wanted. He ended up choosing Cocoa Puffs. The older couples got a couple boxes and they consisted of Special K, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran and Captain Crunch. All of which tend to be more on the healthier side compared to the families shopping for their children.
In conclusion, it was observed that on this particular day at Meijer, the exchange functions were geared towards people from about two years old and up while trying to add an emotional benefit for the customers by showing cartoon characters targeted at kids and slim bodies on the cover to target healthy customers. The competitive environment that relates to the nature, quantity, and potential actions of current and potential competitors, included coupons that wiped out the General Mills Big G cereals. It was also observed that the shopping patterns seemed to be guided by the women in the families accompanied by low-involvement decision making (Levens, 2012).

References
Levens, M. (2012). Marketing: Defined, explained, applied (2nd ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.