Remember eating flavored cereal as a little kid? Did you drink the left-over milk? I did! And, I bet many of us probably still do this today. It’s just too bad that in order to get that sugary milk, we have to eat the cereal part first. Sigh.
But don’t worry. A new company has a solution for this problem – Cow Wow Cereal Milk. Cow Wow makes milk in breakfast cereal flavors such as Fruity Trudy, Chocolate Chip Cathy, Cinny Minny, and Peanut Butter Bessie. The low-fat, organic milk contains nine essential minerals and vitamins with only six grams of added sugar.
While Cow Wow did not obtain investors from an appearance on TV show Shark Tank, the product has taken off around the nation, gaining widespread distribution through grocery and convenience stores. The products are targeted to the 5-12 year old market, but has had surprising success on college campuses and with high school students.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Show the Shark Tank video: http://youtu.be/b0k-06kBHok
(Go to 2:20 mark). Also show the company Web site: www.cowwownow.com.
- Poll students about their own breakfast and snack habits. Is this a product that they would buy?
- Divide students into teams. Have each team select a target market for the product.
- For the target market, identify the groups that influence the purchase process and determine three products that compete with Cow Wow.
- Each team should prepare the following items for discussion about consumer behavior: (1) problem recognition elements, (2) information search, (3) alternative evaluation and selection criteria, (4) outlet selection and purchase process, (5) post-purchase process.
- Debrief and compare the buying process for the various target markets.
Source: New York Times
