General Mills Case Study

General Mills is the maker of Wheaties, a breakfast cereal that uses the most popular athletes to endorse their brand. General Mills also makes numerous other breakfast cereals.

The brand in today's market

General Mills wants you to "Jump start your metabolism" in the morning by starting your day with a bowl of Wheaties. They claim to help your muscles replenish energy with their 100% whole wheat flake cereal (Wheaties, 2011). Wheaties uses star athletes on the box for advertisement. Currently, for 2012, they have boxes with Muhammad Ali, Mary Lou Retton, Bruce Jenner, and Aaron Rodgers on their boxes. These athletes cover a variety of sports from gymnastics, football, track and boxing.

The brand's evolution

According to GeneralMills.com, Wheaties began as an accident. While making a gruel for some patients, the clinician accidentally spilled some on his hot stove, where the gruel became like a flake ("General mills," ). In 1933, Same Gale, a General Mills "marketing maverick" was walking thought some neighborhoods noticed that the families were inside listening to the World Series on the radio, and decided that was how they would market Wheaties to the public. The would use the radio and the sponsorship of baseball broadcasts ("General Mills," ). General Mills created "Jack Armstrong- All American Boy".

Later that same year, one of the most popular slogans was penned. Knox Reeves, an account rep for Wheaties in Minneapolis, sketched a Wheaties box and wrote "Wheaties- The Breakfast of Champions" ("General Mills," ). Since baseball was so popular in the 1930's it was only fitting that baseball's biggest stars endorse the product. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench were featured on the Wheaties box through the years ("General Mills," ).

The brand's target market: today and yesterday

The target market in the beginning was the general public, but in the early 1950's they began to target children, with Mickey Mouse and the Lone Ranger on the Box. This increased their sales some, but not enough to make up for the large decrease in adult consumption. In 1956, they changed focus again targeting sports and physical fitness again. Wheaties has always been the "Breakfast of Champions", and they celebrated that during their 75th anniversary, when they asked consumers to vote on their favorite champions of all time. The American public voted for their favorites, who appeared on the 75th anniversary box ("General Mills," ).

Positioning of competitors

General Mills has plenty of competition in the cereal world but not so many that focus on sports figures. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes are competitive