It seems we’ve heard it all our lives – breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet, the consumption of breakfast foods such as cereal has been declining. Some articles even go so far as to state that eating cereal takes too much work and time in the morning (all that pouring of cereal and milk takes time!). Yet, the breakfast food category remains strong even though it is mature.
General Mills has developed a new brand of breakfast cereal called “Tiny Toast.” This is the first new brand from the company in 15 years. The cereal pieces are shaped like toast (of course) and come in flavors including strawberry and blueberry and pieces are covered with sprinkles of real fruit. There are no artificial flavors or colors, and no high-fructose corn syrup. Each serving has 13 grams of whole grains – and 9 grams of sugar.
Breakfast, anyone?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss food habits and breakfast consumption with students.
- Poll students: Who eats breakfast each day? What do they eat? What cereals do they consume?
- Show the Web site for the new product:
http://tinytoastcereal.tumblr.com/thecereals
- Review key aspects of developing a product positioning map, including determining the axis labels for positioning.
- Review the product. What products are competitors?
- Divide students into teams and have each team develop a positioning map for the new product.
- Have each team draw their map on the board.
- Debrief exercise.
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, Brandchannel.com, other news sources
