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Our team has decided to focus our attention on the Kashi brand. We are going to
reposition Kashi breakfast cereal and target it towards children since they are mostly for
adults who are really into fitness and being healthy. We are going to form an image of the
healthy cereal and focus it towards children by showing them that it is more then just
healthy nuts and oats.
Situation Analysis
According to Kashi’s marketing plan, Kashi Cereal is currently positioned
towards adults over 25 years old with at least a high school education. Theses individuals
tend to eat healthier then the average American and be more conscious of what they eat.
This product is very healthy and is very good at targeting this group of consumers. A
weakness Kashi has is that many children do not perceive the cereal as “fun” to eat.
Kashi’s target market does not include kids. The major unique selling point of the cereal
is its healthy reputation.
As of now Kashi’s primary buyers are adults who eat healthy foods with a lot of
fiber and a variety of whole grains who exercise on a regular basis. The whole grain
brand already has a healthy reputation however the excitement of the brand is lacking.
There is very little advertising towards kids and with childhood obesity on the rise we felt
that presenting a healthy cereal would contribute a little to decreasing those rates.
One key competitor of Kashi is Natures Path, which is very similar to Kashi but
focuses on the organic side of food. Other competitors include Generals Mills and
Kellogs, which mainly focuses on the price, taste and appearances with little focus on the
whole grains and nutrients of the brand. If we can reposition Kashi in a healthy way to
children by using similar techniques that Kellogs and General Mills use, Kashi will have
a larger target market and as a result, increase profit (McMath, 1993).
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External Factors
Customer Analysis
Usually it is the adults who want to buy the product and they are influenced by
desire to eat healthy. Since breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day,
Kashi has seven whole grains and it makes the consumer aware that they are eating
something good for them. Now-a-days that is a big factor when people are making
purchasing decisions at the grocery store. To buy the product the customer must be
satisfied with taste, texture and price. Anyone can buy Kashi products in almost all
grocery stores such as Food Lion, Kroger, and Wal-Mart in a variety of aisles because
they make cereals, frozen dinners, granola and trail mix bars and snacks. The customer’s
lifestyle influences their decisions because if they lead an active lifestyle and desire to be
healthy then they tend to eat healthy.
Competitive Analysis
Some competitors in their cereal division are Cheerios, Honey Bunches of Oats,
Wheaties, and Special K. Competitors such as General Mills, Post, and Nabisco use
mainstream forms of marketing communication where their product can be shown on
television, in-store cardboard cut outs, advertisements in magazines, etc. Over a decade
ago Cheerios was the leader in cold cereal brand; they also are good for your heart and
have whole grains in the ingredients. We want Kashi to gain the same popularity as
Cheerios had (McMath, 1993). Kelloggs is also another major competitor of Kashi. As of
2007, Kelloggs spent about $420 million dollars on media including about $138 million
on magazines, and over $300 million on network television, cable, spot and syndicated
television (Advertising Age, 2008).
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Media spending by megabrand
2007
2006 % chg
Kellogg's
419,748 367,594
14.2
Kashi
33,707 31,423
7.3
Sunshine Cheez-It
32,789 23,983
36.7
Eggo
28,929 17,857
62.0
Keebler
26,395 25,795
2.3
(Source: http://adage.com/marketertrees08/index.php?marketer=62#62)
Target Market Analysis
To target our market and potential buyers, we plan on using psychographic,
demographic, and benefit segmentation. By using these we believe we will be able to
effectively narrow down the market and focus in on certain customers. We chose
psychographic as one of our factors to segment the market because Kashi would appeal to
people who are conscious about their diet, and their body, or strive for a healthy lifestyle.
Demographic segmentation would be beneficial to us because, we would be able to focus
in on the age, and income of potential consumers. Finally benefit segmentation would be
helpful because it shows us the population of people that would like to get healthy, or
maintain their already healthy lifestyle.
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According to The Lifestyle Market Analyst 2008 people between the ages 35-64
are the ones that are most concerned with their health.
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Makes on average >$53,947 a year.
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Concentrate on dieting/weight control, self-improvement, etc.
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And are typically located on the west coast, more specifically: Bend, OR.,
Denver, CO., Palm Springs, CA., and Honolulu, HI.
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Positioning Strategy
To determine the process of our positioning strategy we are going to look through
the Lifestyle Market Analyst reference book to see what type of people are eating
healthy, where they live, and what other activities they are interested in. If we can
determine this, we will have a good idea of who our target market will be, because these
people will most likely want their children to eat healthy also. Since Kashi tends to have
more expensive products we can look at the income levels, and lifestyles of those people
who may possibly be purchasing our product. Our strategy is to position the brand
towards, what kids like, what kids are interested in, and things they do on a daily basis.
Some examples of these are; taste, cartoon characters or action heroes and activities such
as school or athletics. By using these techniques we hope to get the Kashi name more
frequently recognized by kids across the US.
Message Strategy
Our message strategy will be to run advertisements in both print and television
sources. Television commercials will appear during specific times throughout the day.
Commercials targeted at kids will be run after school from 2pm to 4pm and during
Saturday morning cartoons. These commercials will feature “Kashi Dude” in order will
help give the brand personality by showing kids a character they can identify the brand
with. “Kashi Dude” will be a defender of healthy breakfasts everywhere giving kids
someone to look up to and associate our Kashi cereal with.
Commercials targeted at parents will run during primetime. These commercials
will use the slice of life message strategy in order to help situate the brand in parent’s
minds. In showing parents an activity or situation they can relate to we hope to draw their
attention to our brand.
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Print advertisement will be placed in a variety of magazines in order effectively
target kids and their parents. Advertisements will use a combination of slice of life and
our “Kashi Dude” mascot depending on the audience. In order to catch the attention of
kids print advertisements will have “Kashi Dude”, who will be shown saving kids from
boring unhealthy breakfasts everywhere.
Print advertisements for parents will be slice of life heartwarming images in
order to strike an emotional appeal towards our cereal brand. These slice of life images
will feature kids and their parents in relatable breakfast situations. The advertisements
will list more health related facts about the product then kids advertisements because
parents will want to know more details about the health benefits of the product then kids
do.
IMC Objective
During our promotional activities we plan to communicate a message to two
major groups, children and parents. The main objective we will achieve is to promote
Kashi as a fun and exciting cereal to kids. We want kids to see Kashi and want to eat it,
not only because it’s healthy but also because it’s fun. If we can portray this message to
kids, parents will be happy that their kids want to eat something healthy and buy the
cereal. The message we will portray to the parents is that Kashi is healthy not only for
adults but also for their kids. We need to communicate these messages in order to sell our
product effectively. Communication is key, if we can’t communicate the “new” Kashi our
campaign will have limited effects. Our lead marketing tool will be the “Kashi Dude”
which will be directed towards kids attempting to achieve the image of a fun and exciting
cereal. The Kashi Dude will appear on promotional ads such as print media and television
commercials.
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IMC Budget
Currently Kashi has an advertising budget of $33,707 million up 7.3% from the
year before. Kellogg (which Kashi is currently owned by) has a total operating budget of
$871,512 million. Kashi’s advertising budget is about 6% of the total (Kellogg) brand
budget. Their competitor (Natures Valley, which is owned by General Mills) has a budget
of 34,541 million up 66.4% from the previous year. This indicates that in order for Kashi
to compete with Natures Valley they will have to start increasing advertising spending in
order to match that of Natures Valley. The majority of their spending comes from cable
television channels. In order to increase the visibility of Kashi we plan to increase their
advertising by 15% to $38,736. This is necessary to keep pace with competitors and
launch our new “Kashi for kids” campaign.
Advertising
We plan to advertise through television networks, the internet, magazines and
campaigns. We have come up with two campaigns. The first is a soccer tournament
campaign that we call “Kicks for Kashi”. During this we will be partial sponsors to
certain soccer tournaments for kids between 4 and 15 years old. We plan to have tents set
up at the tournaments where kids and parents can try free samples of various Kashi
cereals and play games to win free stuff. The second is a lunch/breakfast line campaign
called “Eat your way to a healthy day”. We plan to have to have a display with mini
cereal boxes of Kashi for the kids to choose from. The display will have bright but
natural looking colors on it with the saying at the top and a picture of “Kashi Dude”. We
also plan to incorporate sweepstakes into the website so customers can enter to win Kashi
dollars, Kashi merchandise or trips that involve a lot of exercise like mountain trips,
camping, fishing, snorkeling and many more funs activities that involve the whole
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family. To get the kids interested in even trying Kashi cereal we are going to use
celebrities like Zac Efron and Hannah Montana to promote our brand on commercials
and on the cereal boxes. The Kashi T.V. commercial that was shown in class will also be
apart of our IMC plan. The script of the commercial is as follows:
Mom: (calls from the bottom of the stairs) Susie time for breakfast!
Susie: I don’t want to go to school. (walking down the stairs and whining)
Susie slowly walks down the stairs dragging herself to the breakfast table, plops
down and mom serves her boring breakfast cereal.
Mom: I wish there was something healthy that would wake up my daughter up a d
be ready and energized for school!
Kashi Dude: (Opens the door) I have something to save you! Try Kashi cereal for
kids!! A healthy alternative to those sugary brands.
Susie: takes a bite, jumps up, sprints out the door
Mom: Bye honey have a good day at school. (Mom turns to Kashi dude and gives
him a huge hug) Thank you Kashi Dude you saved the day!
During the commercial some nutrition facts will pop up in the screen: Excellent
Source of Iron and Zinc, 25% Daily Value of Vitamin C, Good Source of Fiber
and Calcium 5g Protein and 100 % Vitamin B
Other advertisements include a press release, more commercials, magazine insert, and
promotions on the cereal boxes which will be mentioned later.
Media Strategy
Our media objective is to utilize what kids and parents use the most which is
television and magazines to expand our target market. We will buy television slots before
school/work hours between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m., then after school hours for kids between
2:30 and 4:30 p.m., then again between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. for after work hours for
parents. The commercials will be 30 seconds long and run every third or fourth
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commercial break using the pulsing method so we do not take over. Networks we are
planning to use are FOX, ABC & ABC Family, NBC, Disney Channel and Cartoon
Network.
Sales Promotion
The sales promotion for the new Kashi image will follow some of the regular
patterns. For example, coupons for Kashi products will be sent out in the Sunday paper
and will also be available at the free sample stands in grocery stores and Valpak’s. There
will be redeemable coupon offers on the boxes of certain Kashi products offering prizes
for collecting a certain amount of proofs of purchase. Kashi will also make an effort to
support charities by donating some of the proceeds towards charities in need. The most
effective might be donating to breast cancer and for the National Breast Cancer
Awareness Month the boxes could be changed to pink to show support.
Public Relations
The objective of our public relations plan is to promote Kashi cereal as a healthy
breakfast alternative for Kids. We want to inform both parents and kids of the health
benefits of eating Kashi through a variety of ways. First we will plan to sponsor soccer
tournaments called “Kicks for Kashi”. Tournaments will be hosted by “Kashi Dude” who
will give out free samples of his favorite all natural cereals to families in attendance.
Tournaments will have a variety of activities both parents and their kid’s can participate
in. Activities for kids will include a variety of prizes they can win and will aim at
encouraging kid’s to get out and be active. Parents attending will have the opportunity to
learn about the benefits of healthy eating from health experts and Kashi representatives.
One family will also have the chance of winning free Kashi brand food for one year.
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In order to get the word out about the tournament and the health benefits of Kashi
for kids we plan to use a variety of print releases. In the Kashi Company newsletter we
will announce our plan to reposition Kashi cereal to kids, and we will unveil images of
“Kashi Dude” who will help us spread the message. Press releases will be posted on our
website announcing our “Kicks for Kashi” soccer tournaments. The press releases will
describe what is going on at these events, along with who to contact if interested in
signing up for a tournament near them. Next, a new release will be sent out to a variety of
family magazines such as Working Mother, Parents and Good Housekeeping. The new
release will describe our plan to reposition Kashi cereal to kids as a healthy breakfast
alternative and will also announce the “Kicks for Kashi” soccer tournaments. By sending
out a news release to specific magazines we hope that readers who are parents will see
our article and become interested in purchasing Kashi for their family.
Personal Selling
Personal selling will be used to get the new Kashi image out to the average
consumer. We are aiming to promote the brand and new image more by giving out
samples at the grocery store and handing out samples at sporting events. This will
hopefully help the message spread by word of mouth of help the sales campaign gain
momentum across a wider demographic than before. The Kashi dude could attend these
sporting events as well and give out sample to really amplify the message that Kashi is
moving in a more family and kid-friendly direction and not just playing to the health
conscious types. Kashi representatives could go around doing taste tests against leading
cereal brands as well as having kiosks in grocery stores. If the results are what we expect,
which is that people can’t taste the difference, then we market that into a campaign.
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Internet Advertising and E-Commerce
In our goal of repositioning Kashi healthy cereal to kids, we will use Internet
Advertising and magazine ads in our IMC plan to complete our overall objective. The
internet is a rapidly growing medium for companies to easily get information about their
company, and products to the general public. With a larger number of families owning a
computer, and having access to the internet, we decided that internet marketing would be
an extremely important tool in our goal of repositioning Kashi cereal for kids. According
to www.nielson-online.com and a study taken on March 18, 2004, “204.3 million
Americans have access to the Internet from home”. With surprisingly high numbers of
computer users, we decided we would create an informative website based around the
needs and wants of parents. This website would be extremely interactive, allowing the
parents to log on and ask any questions they may have about Kashi the company,
nutrition, or ingredients. The site would also show nutritional facts of Kashi Kids cereals,
and compare them to the other popular brands currently on the market to show the health
benefits of eating Kashi. Despite the growing number of adults using the internet parents
aren’t the only ones that are spending increased amounts of time on the online. According
to www.nap.edu, figures show that, “more than 76 percent of kids say they have used the
internet in the [last] week…and 26% of kids spen[t] one or two hours online on a typical
day”. Through this research, we also decided that we would create a Kashi website just
for kids. The kid’s website would have fun games, interesting facts, and would be
extremely interactive allowing them to not only learn about the cereal, but have a good
time while doing it. They would be introduced, and become familiar, with the Kashi for
Kids mascot, “Kashi Dude”. Through this promotion of our product, we would hope to
familiarize kids, and show them that Kashi is fun to eat.
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Direct Marketing: Magazines
We also plan to place advertisements in specific magazines that we believe
children and parents read on a regular basis. Just like the websites, we plan to create
advertisements both for parents, and for kids, and place them into respective U.S.
magazines. The children’s advertisement will be similar to the website, in the sense that it
is bright colored, flashy, funny, and involves our Kashi mascot, “Kashi Dude”. We will
place these ads in specific magazines which kids read on a regular basis. These
magazines include, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Highlights, Boys Life, Girls Life, and
National Geographic for Kids. By associating Kashi with things in these magazines, we
hope to show kids that Kashi Cereal is cool and they should eat Kashi. The advertisement
that will run for the parents will be slightly different than their children’s. The parent’s ad
will talk more about the health benefits of Kashi, will show the nutritional facts, and give
reasons why their children should eat Kashi cereal. We will run these ads in more adult
magazines that middle and upper class families tend to read. These magazines will
include, Newsweek, Time, and Working Mother. With this constant flow of information
and exposure, we believe we will win the parents over with the positive nutritional
benefits, and the children with our fun advertisements and great taste.
Evaluation of IMC Plan
Our overall goal is to promote Kashi cereal as a healthy and fun breakfast cereal
for kids and encourage their parents to buy it as well. Through sponsorship of
tournaments, various advertisements, and other promotions we will be able to effectively
target kids and parents to consume Kashi cereal.
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Works Cited
"How do kids use the internet?" Net Safe Kids. The National Academies. 10 Dec. 2008
<http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/inter_kids.html>.
"Our History". Kashi. November 20, 2008 <http://www.kashi.com/meet_us/mission>.
Kashi. "Kashi Company Add Two Now Family Friendly Choices to Its Line of Good-ForYou Foods Made with Whole Grains." Press release. 14 July 2008. 20 Nov. 2008
<http://kashi.com/meet_us/media_relations/tlc_honey_sunshinepressrelease.pdf>.
Kim, Grace. "Three Out of Four Americans Have Access to the Internet." Nielsen//Net
Ratings. 10 Dec. 2008 <http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_040318.pdf>.
Kelloggs. "Kashi® Company Announces New Line of All-Natural." Press release. 21 June
2006. 20 Nov. 2008
<http://kelloggs.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=112>.
Long, Jessica. "Kashi Takes Its Roots on the Road. " San Diego Business Journal
1 May 2006: 1. ABI/INFORM Dateline. ProQuest. Radford University Library. 14 Dec.
2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>
McMath, Robert. "Playing with Breakfast Cereal is the Whole Marketing Idea. " Brandweek
8 Nov. 1993: 58. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. Radford University Library. 14 Dec.
2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>
Slattery, Ellen. "Like Kashi cereals? Try them in your next recipe." Slashfood. 7 May 2008.
25 Nov. 2008 <http://www.slashfood.com/2008/03/07/like-kashi-cereals-try-them-inyour-next-recipe/>.
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