Monthly Archives: October 2022

by | Monday, October 31, 2022 · 8:35 am

Peloton Now Available on Amazon

Like many other direct-to-consumer companies, Peloton did great during the pandemic. Its sales were at an all-time high and the company couldn’t keep up with demand. Peloton sold only through its own retail stores and online – no other distribution channel. This model allowed Peloton to keep a larger portion of the sales price, but the narrow distribution hampered sales and delivery. It just couldn’t keep up with demand.

But now things have changed in retail, and changed for Peloton in particular. In a move designed to expand its customer base and sell more product, its fitness equipment and apparel will now be available from Amazon. This is the first such partnership for Peloton’s distribution channel.

The Peloton bike retails for $1,445 – a pretty large sum for a product on Amazon. Also on Amazon, Peloton will sell its strength product, the Peloton Guide, for $295 plus branded cycling shorts, weights, yoga blocks, and other apparel. (At this time, the more expensive Bike+ and Tread treadmill are not available on Amazon.) Bike customers can now select a self-assembly option instead of having Peloton staff assemble and install the Bike.

Peloton is not the only company expanding its sales from DTC to brick-and-mortar stores. Consider Warby Parker and Allbirds; both companies started by selling products online only, but have now expanded to their own stores and other retailers.

Where will you purchase?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. In order to be successful, companies must be able to physically get a product into the hands of the customers. Discuss how a distribution channel works.
  2. For Peloton Bike, what distribution channels are used now?
  3. How can the channel be expanded? What approach could be used?
  4. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a flow chart for the distribution of the product.
  5. View Peloton’s store on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Peloton/page/08F7A78F-F893-478F-975C-27223FD08B5F?ref_=ast_bln&pd_rd_w=W3EIN&content-id=amzn1.sym.73ac3f51-c1c2-4951-89eb-8ee3c7bb7bd8&pf_rd_p=73ac3f51-c1c2-4951-89eb-8ee3c7bb7bd8&pf_rd_r=3E7328ME1FKNQGD6VTW8&pd_rd_wg=vNHwA&pd_rd_r=b66f4f9e-6c64-45f2-b2b7-29299228d75c
  6. View video: https://youtu.be/J1pKZts_K3s
  7. View Peloton’s website: https://www.onepeloton.com/

Sources:  Ovide, S. (25 August 2022). Why Peloton is selling on Amazon. New York Times.; Thomas, L. (24 August 2022). Peloton strikes a deal to sell fitness equipment and apparel on Amazon.

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by | Saturday, October 29, 2022 · 9:02 am

Grape-Nuts Cereal Stands the Test of Time

This article is a bit of a reversal – instead of writing about cutting-edge technology products, or autonomous cars, or drones, or another exciting technology, we’re writing about what may be one of the oldest products still on the market. Any guesses?

It’s Grape-Nuts cereal. At 125-years on grocery shelves, Grape-Nuts is one of the oldest ready-to-eat cereals. The other two cereals that are still being sold today after their introduction to the marketplace in the 19th century are Shredded Wheat and Corn Flakes.

And, even at its advanced age, Grape-Nuts is still the same product that it was 125-years ago (although manufacturing has been modernized). And to be clear, the cereal has never contained either grapes or nuts. The name was derived from the manufacturing process that resulted in a ‘grape sugar with a nutty texture’.

Why has the product endured over all these years? Perhaps because it is a healthy food that still has a low-sugar nature-based appeal for consumers. It didn’t depend on trends, color, and lots of sugar.

During the pandemic, Grape-Nuts had production issues resulting in low inventory. The core audience asked “where’s my Grape-Nuts?” and that led to social media and a new, younger group of consumers gaining interest in the brands.

What foods will future generations still be eating?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. View Grape-Nuts website: https://www.grapenuts.com/
  2. Show a commercial from the 1970s: featuring naturalist Euell Gibbons: https://youtu.be/QffEYYotXIk
  3. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle.
  4. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
  5. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place different cereals and other foods into the PLC.
  6. Why has Grape-Nuts sustained over the decades?
  7. What are the lessons that other discontinued cereals could learn from Grape-Nuts?
  8. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle.

Sources:  Johnson, B. (13 August 2022). Grape-Nuts: It is your grandma’s cereal. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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