...Steven Masetti Professor Guo 11/29/13 BU201 General Mills General Mills is a company engaged in the marketing and manufacturing of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. The company operates about 50 facilities for the production of the wide range of food products. General Mills operates through three business divisions, U.S. retail, international services, and bakeries and food service. Its consumer brands include Cheerios, Fiber One, Haagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, and Wanchai Ferry. Its main headquarter is in Minneapolis and the company operates in more then 100 countries. General Mills’ International operations have been growing rapidly in recent years. Fiscal 2012 international segment net sales are expected to exceed US$4 billion. including sales from the Yoplait international yogurt business acquired July 1,2011. International sales are growing 22%, although earnings will be flat with last year, capped by one-time charges in 2012 for acquisitions of brands in Canada, Brazil and the U.S. General Mills product line is very well increasing in revenue and one main product that has been a huge seller is the Greek 100. Greek 100 is General Mills’ biggest-selling new Yoplait product in at least 20 years. It’s expected to do $140 million in sales in its first full year. Only about 2 percent of new consumer product launches do over $50 million in their first year so that’s really a big move. Greek...
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...KENT NYANDIEKA GENERAL MILLS SWOT ANALYSIS MGMT303 GENERAL MILLS HISTORY Critics criticized Cadwallader C. Washburn idea of starting a milling company. They said demand for flour from Midwestern spring wheat would never match what Washburn’s company could supplies. He didn’t see it that way. Washburn formed the Minneapolis Milling Company in 1856 to lease power rights to mill operators, and 10 years later he built his first flour mill near the falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Despite continued criticism, he built a second, even larger facility in 1874. (General Mills) Within five years Washburn’s mill was destroyed in a floor dust explosion. Undeterred, Washburn immediately began building a better mill containing evolutionary new machinery to enhance both the safety of the operation and the quality of the flour. In 1880, Washburn and Crosby entered their finest flours in competition at the first International Millers’ Exhibition in Cincinnati, Ohio, winning the gold, silver and bronze medals, and establishing the Washburn Crosby Company’s flour as the best in the world. (General Mills). Soon after, the company changed the name of its finest flour to Gold Medal flour, which is still the No. 1 flour brand in America today. MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to nourishing lives- making life healthier, easier and richer. (Company, 2012) GENERAL MILLS STRENGTHS One of the major strengths of General Mills is that they have established food brands...
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...GENERAL MILLS, INCORPORATED A Cost Accounting Analysis COMPANY BACKGROUND General Mills (GSI) is the sixth largest food company in the world. The company currently operates in more than 100 foreign countries and employs over 35,000 people. . GSI manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide and supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. The company manufactures cereals, yogurt, ready-to-serve soup, dry dinners, frozen vegetables, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza, flour, fruit and snacks; and organic products, including soup, granola bars, and cereals; and ice cream and frozen desserts, and high fiber snacks. Its best knows product brands are Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Cheerios and Haagen-Dazs. It markets its products through its direct sales, broker and distribution a to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, and convenience stores. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. GSI’s businesses are organized into three operating segments: U.S. Retail, International, and Bakeries and Foodservice. The U.S. Retail segment includes sales to grocery stores, mass merchandising, and membership stores such as BJ’s, Sam’s and Costco, natural food chains, drug...
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...GENERAL MILLS, INCORPORATED A Cost Accounting Analysis COMPANY BACKGROUND General Mills (GSI) is the sixth largest food company in the world. The company currently operates in more than 100 foreign countries and employs over 35,000 people. . GSI manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide and supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. The company manufactures cereals, yogurt, ready-to-serve soup, dry dinners, frozen vegetables, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza, flour, fruit and snacks; and organic products, including soup, granola bars, and cereals; and ice cream and frozen desserts, and high fiber snacks. Its best knows product brands are Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Cheerios and Haagen-Dazs. It markets its products through its direct sales, broker and distribution a to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, and convenience stores. The company was founded in 1928 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. GSI’s businesses are organized into three operating segments: U.S. Retail, International, and Bakeries and Foodservice. The U.S. Retail segment includes sales to grocery stores, mass merchandising, and membership stores such as BJ’s, Sam’s and Costco, natural food chains, drug,...
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...Summary General Mills first began as a flour Mill in the 1860’s and since the beginning they have been a successful, innovative company. Throughout the years they have grown to becoming the third largest food company in North America. General mills is committed to diversity, innovation and the relationships they have built. They believe their stakeholders are as important to the company as their customers, keeping them in mind for every business decision made. They have 6 key stakeholders; consumers, customers, partners, teams, shareholders and communities. General Mills believes the success of their stakeholders is a success for the company, every decision they make must add value to for their stakeholders. In 2001 General Mills completed a merger with their long-time competitor, Pillsbury. Both sides of the merger felt this was the best decision for each company involved, General Mills felt it would add value to shareholders, while Pillsbury was just happy the business would stay local. The merger was complete with a $10.5 billion price tag and would total $13 billion in annual sales. The only problem was Pillsbury’s weak performance, causing layoffs for General Mills. The best solution to remedy this problem is for General Mills to get its thinking caps on and come up with a new innovative product line for Pillsbury. It will take time and a lot of effort, but in the end the benefits will improve the new company and get Pillsbury performing at the same level as General Mills...
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...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...
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...Case Study Gauging the Impact of Display and Brand Messaging on the Cereal Category in-store behavior monitoring system Disclaimer: This test was conducted by CART (Center For Advance Retail Technology), in association with ShopperGauge®. Neither General Mills nor any other cereal company provided data or participated in any way with the research. © 2010 BVI Networks, Inc. and Rock-Tenn Shared Services, LLC. RETAILNEXT is a trademark of BVI Networks, Inc. SHOPPERGAUGE is a trademark of RockTenn Shared Services, LLC. CENTER FOR ADVANCE RETAIL TECHNOLOGY and RETAIL 3.0 are trademarks of Hawkins Strategic, LLC. Other marks are the property of their respective owners. Gauging the Impact of Display and Brand Messaging on the Cereal Category Background The goal of this project was to determine whether or not in-line display xturing and messaging increases brand and category sales and drives acceptable ROI. We further sought an understanding of how the unit and messaging would impact shopper behavior, in terms of tra c pattern shifts, dwell times, purchase and interaction with product. The Cereal aisle was chosen for this study. Speci cally, General Mills branded products were designated to be featured in a new xture, accompanied by a meaningful, educational, healthy choice message: “Whole Grain Goodness”. The assortment included products that were currently being positioned very di erently. For example, some are targeted for children using the lure of sweet and familiar...
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...BA 3103: 11/15/2015 Critical Analysis # 3- General Mills Over time, changes occur and one of those changes are consumer demands in the food industry. More people are becoming health conscious and are interested in what they're consuming down to the ingredients used. A health trend that is occurring and taking over in all aspects in health and our not only food related. Companies are becoming aware and are taking note of these changes to this “self-care” health market. In order to appeal to the consumers these companies are going to have to shift the products their manufacturing and choose healthier products or correct how their current products are be being processed. Consumers are less interested in processed products and are appealing to fresh and organic products. One company trying to improve and advance on these changes is General Mills, Inc. General is a well-known multiple manufacturer of numerous products ranging from cereals to yogurt and many more. “It’s brand portfolio includes more than 89 other leading U.S. brands and numerous category leaders around the world” (Wikipedia). General Mills is reaching many consumers and has hit the top 500 list on Forbes list of largest corporations. Last month, General Mills had a recall on Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios on its cereals because of the presence of wheat in supposedly gluten-free products. “Jim Murphy, senior vice president of the company's cereal division, said he was "embarrassed and truly sorry" by an...
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...Main Title: Evaluation of Marketing Strategies at General Mills Matthew Swygart Indiana Wesleyan University Instructor: Scot Squires 31 May 2015 To recognize when a product may be transitioning to another stage, “The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with and therefore which brands should be the focus of competitive analysis. The range of a company’s actual and potential competitors can be much broader than the obvious. For a brand to grow by entering new markets, a broader or maybe more aspirational competitive frame may be necessary to reflect possible future competitors. In fact, a firm is more likely to be hurt by emerging competitors or new technologies than by current competitors” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 130). Business and growth strategies for food categories that General Mills, Inc. partakes in are highly competitive; “their main competitors have substantial financials along with a large marketing budget and other resources. Not only are they competing with the competitors in the market but also having to divide their market share with generic products produced by grocery wholesalers. To grow in the market segment General Mills, Inc. plans to increase their media spending in order to have stronger brand recognition with their products. They also plan to grow through the multiple joint ventures they participate in. they have a 50 percent equity interest in CPW, which manufactures ready-to-eat cereal products in more...
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...CSR Analysis Mallory Griffith September 14, 2014 Introduction to Marketing Strategy: Section 2 It is 7:53 a.m., and your first class of the day begins at 8:30 a.m. You still have a little bit of time left to eat breakfast before you have to walk to class. For breakfast you choose to have a bowl of General Mills Cheerios with Anderson Erickson 1% milk. As you munch on your cereal, you begin to look at the side of the box. What ingredients are in Cheerios? How are they processed and made? Who makes them? What does the factory look like? How are Cheerios packaged? What happens to the packaging when you throw the box away? How does General Mills do it all? How do they maintain customer loyalty? How do they manage their products? What is added to the product to satisfy the customer? General Mills’ brands are best known for quality and value added to their products. General Mills not only creates economic value, but it creates social and environmental value in the way it operates. General Mills is one of the largest companies in the world. Cheerios being one, General Mills manages 32 brands that offer various products. Yoplait offers many yogurt products focusing on the “goodness of taste” while supporting digestive health. Progresso offers a variety of soups and beans, as well as pasta dishes. Don’t forget about the Pillsbury crescent rolls at Thanksgiving or the chocolate chip cookies from Grandma’s house. These brands are all run by the company General Mills. As consumers, we sometimes...
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...Performance Evaluation 2. – Part 1 The owner of General Mills was Cadwallader C. Washburn. He created the Minneapolis Milling Company back in the year 1856 for leasing the rights to the operators, and 10 years later, the first flourmill was built under his instruction close to the falls of St. Anthony, which is by the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Back in the 1860’s General Mills had only two flour grinders using better quality ingredients, which led the way for other competitors to follow. Dating back closer to our age, during the 1960’s General Mills came out with such products as Play-Doe, Easy Bake Ovens, and Nerf balls just for kids. The company was founded by Illinois Congressman Robert Smith, who leased power rights to mills operating along the west side of the Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River. Cadwallader C. Washburn acquired the company shortly after its founding and hired his brother, William D. Washburn to assist in the company's development. General Mills operates in three different business categories. The three include U.S. retail, international, and convenience stores and foodservice. The industry that General Mills is a part of is the “food consumer products” as it’s shown on fortune 500. General Mills Inc. is a manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. They supply branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. As for their revenues, GM managed to reach a net sales...
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...Harvard Business School 9-795-191 Rev. February 14, 1997 The Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry in 1994 (A) All is not well in the land of Tony the Tiger.1 In early 1994, the ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast cereal industry had reached a critical turning point in its evolution. In an industry historically characterized by stability and above average profitability, slowing demand growth and a surge in private label sales threatened to undermine the dominant positions of the Big Three: Kellogg, General Mills, and Philip Morris. The 1993 year-end statistics showed that industry sales growth had slowed to under 2%, while private labels had topped 5% market share by sales and 9% by volume for the first time. Price increases by the Big Three had widened the gap between branded and private label products. The competitors had traditionally avoided destructive head-to-head competition, but this mutual restraint appeared to be crumbling. Each of the firms faced major decisions going forward about whether to break with the industry’s lock-step moves and how to deal with the threat of private labels. History of the RTE Breakfast Cereal Industry2 The ready-to-eat breakfast cereal industry got its start in 1894, when Dr. John Kellogg and his brother W.K. Kellogg invented wheat cereal flakes in an attempt to make whole grains appealing to the vegetarian clients of the Seventh-Day Adventist sanitarium Dr. Kellogg ran in Battle Creek, Michigan. 3 W.K. went on to invent the corn flake...
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...behavior started changing. The price promotion strategy had the unintended consequence of widening the price gap between the branded cereals and private labels. In addition, it was during this time that the private labels increased in technological competence which led to improvement in quality that rivals branded ones and still able to maintain the lower manufacturing cost of 10-20% compared to branded ones. Because of this lower price and higher quality offer by the private labels, consumers started to switch to the private labels. This was evidenced by the increase in market share of private labels from 5.6% to 9.2% from 1990 to 1993, a growth rate of 64% compared to the Big Three with a negative 0.4% in the same period. What should General Mills do...
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...B will take a thorough look at the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant chain. Team B has decided that a new appetizer item should be added to the restaurant menu. The appetizer item being considered is cheese filled breadsticks served with Marinara sauce. The team will begin this marketing plan by giving an overview of the Olive Garden Restaurant, along with a detailed description of the new menu item being considered. They will also explain why marketing plays an important role in the restaurants success. A SWOTT analysis will be given to introduce all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends that should be considered prior to introducing this new appetizer to their menu. Finally, a marketing research approach will be decided upon and used to develop the marketing strategy and tactics for this new appetizer item. Olive Garden Restaurant General Mills originally created the Olive Garden restaurants in 1982. In June of 1995, General Mills moved the Olive Garden division to its newly developed Darden Restaurants, Inc. Olive Garden has quickly become the largest casual dining restaurant company in the world. Olive Garden uses Italy as its basis of inspiration and attempts to focus on hospitality and a pleasing dining experience. In 1999, Darden Restaurants, Inc. established its cooking school in the Tuscany region of Italy known as the Olive Garden’s Culinary Institute of Tuscany. Olive Garden creates all of its principles from two specific ideas:...
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...largest full service seafood dining company in the world serving nearly three million people a week. In 1982, George McKerrow opened the first Longhorn Steakhouse in Atlanta, Georgia. The restaurant became famous when it remained opened during a very severe and infamous snowstorm offering $1.00 beers and food specials. Travelers who unfortunately got stuck and couldn’t make it home sought refuge in Longhorn. They were won over by great steaks, and hospitality leading Longhorn to become a huge success. By 2007, Darden celebrated the addition of the Longhorn Steakhouse brand to the company. Also in 1982, the first Olive Garden opened in Orlando, Florida. It was originally part of the General Mills Company and offered Italian-American cuisine. In 1995, however, Darden split from the General Mills Company. It became its own publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, and was named after the company’s founder to become as it is known today Darden Restaurants Inc. That same year the Darden Restaurant Inc. Foundation was founded and gives millions of dollars to organizations each...
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