PILLSBURY COOKIE

CHALLENGE

BY: GROUP-
17P087-KESHAV GUPTA
17064-ADITYA CHANDARAYAN
 General Mills General Mills Canada Corporation

Market leader in
Established in the 1954; Market leader in the
the Canadian
6th largest food Canadian Market
Market with with
annual
second largest division of
product manufacturer annual
General Mills salessales of US$
of US$ 566566
Mn
Mn

Brands: Betty Crocker, Split into 4 units:

Progresso, Pillsbury, breakfast, baked goods, Had autonomy in its
Green Giant and meals and snacks and operations
Cheerios further sub divided into
12 other categories

Developed unique
Operating segments: U.S Often leveraged new
products for the Canadian
Retail (69%), products and market like Oatmeal crisp
International (16%) & advertising from the maple nut cereal and
Food Service United States pizza pop snacks
 Chilled dough-based products; Packaging: Category was dominated
can go straight from the fridge to pressurized cans, by Pillsbury with an 85%
the oven chubs or sealed trays market share

1 2 3 4 5

Included Convenient as they were

cookies, pre-mixed and required
breads and minimal preparation
sweet goods
 Performance of
Volume growth Household
RBG in Canada
between 2004 and penetration had
branch were not
2006 had remained fallen to 24% from
satisfactory over
nearly flat at 1% previous years
the past two years

Increase frequency of Increase household

Combination of both
purchase penetration
 • Available in multiple flavours
• Available in 2 formats: chub and ready to bake
PRODUCT • Seasonal cookie products were also offered

• Varied as per the cookie format, type of retailer and region

• Seasonal cookies were sold for premium
PRICE

• Groceries stores and food services

PLACE

• Launched the ‘kisses’ commercial

• Targeted household mother aged 30s-40s with busy lifestyle
PROMOTION who wanted a simple product
 QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE

• Based on measurements and • More in-depth understanding of

analysis of the relationships of the behavior
variables • Conducted with a smaller sample size
Eg: Questionnaires and Surveys Eg: Focus groups and Ethnographies

 Group of people engage in a round table discussion on a particular topic of interest and give
Focus opinions
Groups  Focus groups help with a wide range of business decisions, such as new product development,
brand messaging and promotional campaigns

▪ This concept includes an image of the product, along with pricing information, preparation
Concept instructions and a summary of key benefits
Test ▪ Presented to consumers in verbal or visual form, and then quantitatively evaluated by consumers
by indicating their degree of purchase intent. Range from $2,000 to $4,000

▪ Participants are sent actual samples of the product and are asked a series of questions based on
Evaluators specific pricing, promotion and consumer spending parameters
▪ Evaluators are the best predictors of product performance with a whopping cost of $100,000

▪ Multiple versions of an ad will be developed and tested to see which one resonates most with
Creative consumers
Testing
▪ Ads are tested based on their purchase intent, relevance and brand linkage scores.
▪ The goal of this test is to optimize advertising and packaging so that more consumers purchase it