When choosing how to advertise Special K, marketers had two options. They could try to increase trial of the product in order to 'steal' market share & support the ads with a pricing 'pull strategy' (discounting) which tends to be a very short term strategy with short term results. Instead they tried the more difficult direction, expand the market and attract new customers with no existing brand loyalty. This has the potential to form longer lasting and more profitable relationships. The ads also brand the company as a healthy alternative.
The additional benefit of the advertising is the positioning of the product as the 'healthy' alternative. Many breakfast cereals are undermined because of sugar content concerns (amongst other ingredients). Special K are differentiating in the same way Wheat Bix did when they referenced "9 out of 10 nutritionist recommend Wheat Bix", moving into the growing market of health conscious consumers.
Do not make this look like the one and only way to advertise your cereal, there are pitfalls and risks along the way. The ad needs to convert enough consumers to the brand to pay off the production and airing costs, there is every chance that the breakfast skipping segment is either too small or constrained by other reasons (e.g lac of disposable income) to be able to make a purchase.
Josh Strawczynski's Opinion:
I think it is clever and worth a shot at doing, I think the creatives they designed were good and the message was clear. This being said, there is a lot of negative comments being posted on blogs and forums and realize that I am not representative of everyone. Kelloggs need to be careful not to build up negative brand equity, annoying people with your ads is worse than keeping you ad budget in the bank.
Sam Berringer's Opinion:
My only comment on this matter is targeted at the forum banter that thinks this study was made up:
Skipping breakfast has more implications than just mid-morning hunger pains. A new review, published in the Nutrition Bulletin verified that people who eat cereal for breakfast regularly tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI) and are less likely to be overweight than those who do not eat cereal for breakfast regularly.
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3 comments:
Could you not find the Aussie version on You Tube? I haven't looked myself but have seen the Aussie version on TV.
Similar storyline but the ladies at the table actually have a conversation where they ask their friend why she looks so good and she responds that it is because she is eating breakfast. This then moves the conversation to her “losing weight because she eats more”.
I think this is slightly better than the UK(?) version you have posted because it plays on the image conscious females.
I can’t put my finger on it but it just seems weak. I like the idea that they are doing something different but it doesn’t leave me compelled to buy THAT cereal. It just tells me (and I already know anyway) that I need to eat breakfast!
Hey Josh, I think there would be alot of women who would actually be skipping breakfast because of weight concerns, it is nothing to do with being healthy but the image of being slim. I think that there would be alot of gossip out there that Special K is going up againist, aka eating breakfast makes you put on more weight because your metabolism doesnt start till PM, etc. etc.
To Daniel's point I think that Special K would definitely be one of the first choices to woman if they did decide to start eating breakfast.
Yeah you are right Jules, probably a good choice for girls. But how come Special K think they are a cereal only for women?
Are there no overweight men out there?
Maybe they should start positioning it as a healthy "family" cereal that the Mums can buy the whole family - cause it tastes pretty good I recon.
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