Market Failure: Kelloggs Cereal-Mates Essay Example

since Americans liked to pour their milk over cereal. This caused much confusion, however, because most individuals wouldn’t be searching for breakfast cereals in the dairy case.

I feel that there were 5 main factors that actually led to this marketing and product failure. The first problem I feel was the fact that Kellogg’s believed that providing a “aseptically packaging”. This meant that the product would require no refrigeration for the milk. Consumers were revolted by the idea of warm milk. The second issue was when Kellogg’s tried to market in a different fashion and use cool milk as the basis by putting the product in the refrigerator section. This actually caused more confusion because the product was not in a location that you would expect cereal at.

They company spent too much of what profit money they had received in trying to re-educate consumers into looking in the dairy aisle for cereal. The third factor that led to the products unsuccessful stint into the marketplace was their advertising campaign. In these ads Kelloggs chose to market the product to young kids so they could prepare meals for themselves without their parents’ help. This would have been fine, but the packaging was not child-friendly. Taste was also a serious problem for the Kellogg’s convenience line. Reportedly (according to personal experience), the milk was usually consumed at work or away from home.

The warm milk tasted absolutely terrible. Finally, the biggest nail in the coffin for this product was that the price. The cereal was selling for over one dollar per serving, which was considered too expensive by most consumers for a 4

oz cereal. The product survived two years on the market before Kelloggs’ pulled the plug. According to the February 2000 article in the Newsweek on the food, they stated that the product simply wasn’t convenient enough. This is because with increased commute times and busy schedules people wanted a product they could eat on the go.

With cereal mates they were required to still pour a liquid milk over the cereal which was not possible to do safely while commuting to work. Most customers also were adults, so the small spoon that was supplied with the cereal was too hard to use. I feel that this was a good product in concept, but the complexity of the concept made this product non-attractive to those who not only were needing a convenient and healthy food, but also one they could consume in a hurry. This idea later evolved to the milk and cereal bars they would later introduce around 2004 – which have been wildly more successful than the original cereal mates ever were.