Directions Case Study - General Mills Warm Delights – Indulgent, Delicious, and Gooey! 1. Read the case on pages 647-649 in your text. 2. Watch the video supplement to the case at link tv/13e/v22-5 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. 3. Respond to the following case question. (Disregard the questions in the text.) You have been asked to consult with the Warm Delight marketing team. They are specifically looking to grow this brand in terms of product line and brand extensions. In your suggestions, specify: 1. The target market you would pursue with your plan 2. The potential opportunities and hindrances of the target market 3. How you would position or re-position Warm Delights in that market place 4. The product changes would you recommend to increase sales of Warm Delights There is no minimum number of references that need to be utilized to support the completion of this assignment; however, it is generally understood that any good case study analysis will incorporate the appropriate quality and quantity of scholarly sources to support any suppositions and recommendations. The submission will not exceed four (4) pages in length, excluding the title and references pages. The document must adhere to the APA writing style. Finally, the document should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document and uploaded to Submit Assignment. connect VIDEO CASE 22 General Mills Warm Delights: Indulgent, Delicious, and Gooey! Vivian Milroy Callaway, vice president for the Center for Learning and Experimentation at General Mills, retells the story for the "indul- Video 22-5 gent, delicious, and gooey" Warm Delights Warm Delights product. She Video Case summarizes, “When you want kerin.tv/13e/v22-5 something that is truly innova- tive, you have to look at the rules you have been assuming in your category and break them all!" When a new business achieves a breakthrough, it looks easy to outsiders. The creators of Betty Crocker Warm Delights stress that if the marketing decisions had been based on the traditions and history of the cake category, a smaller, struggling business would have resulted. The team chose to challenge the as- sumptions and expectations of accumulated cake cat- egory business experience. The team took personal and business risks, and Warm Delights became a roaring success. PLANNING PHASE: INNOVATION, BUT In sum, the small, fast-cake product didn't resonate with a compelling consumer need. But it would be a A SHRINKING MARKET safe bet because the Dessert Bowl positioning fit "In the typical grocery store, the baking mix aisle is a nicely with the family-friendly Betty Crocker brand. quiet place," says Callaway. Shelves sigh with flavors, types, and brands. Prices are low, but there is little IMPLEMENTATION PHASE: LEAVING consumer traffic. Cake continues to be a tradition for BEHIND THE SECURITY OF FAMILY birthdays and social occasions. But, consumer de- mand has declined. The percentage of U.S. house- The consumer insights team really enjoyed the hot, holds that bought at least one baking mix in 2000 was gooey cake product. But they feared it would languish 80 percent. Fifteen years later the percentage was in the cake aisle under the “Dessert Bowl" name since about 62 percent, a very significant decline. this didn't capture the essence of what the food deliv- Today, a promoted price of 89 cents to make a ered. They explored who the indulgent treat custom- 9 x 12 inch cake is common. Many choices, but little ers really are. The data revealed that the heaviest differentiation, gradually falling sales, and low uni- buyers of premium treats are women without children. form prices are the hallmarks of a mature category. This focused the team on a target consumer: "What But it's not that consumers don't buy cake-like treats. does she want?”' They enlisted an ad agency and con- In fact, indulgent treats are growing. The premium sultants to come up with a name that would appeal to prices for ice cream ($3.00 a pint) and chocolate "her.” Several independently suggested the "Warm ($3.00 a bar) are not slowing consumer purchases. Delights” name, which became the brand name. The Betty Crocker marketing team challenged An interesting postscript to the team's brand name the food scientists at General Mills to create a research: A competitor apparently liked not only the great-tasting, easy-to-prepare, single-serve cake idea of a quick, gooey, microwavable dessert but also treat. The goal: Make it indulgent, delicious, and the “Dessert Bowls” name! You may now see its com- gooey. The team focused the scientists on a product petitive product on your supermarket's shelves. that would have: Targeting on-the-go women who want a small, per sonal treat had marketing advantages: • Consistent great taste. Quick preparation. The $2.00 Warm Delights price compared favorab. • A single portion. to the price of many single-serve indulgent treats. • No cleanup. The product food message "warm, convenient, delightful” is compelling. The food scientists delivered the prototype! Now, On-the-go women's meal plans do include the the marketing team began hammering out the four occasional delicious treat. Ps. They started with a descriptive name "Betty Crocker Dessert Bowls” (see photo) and a plan to One significant problem remained: The cake-aisle shelve it in the “quiet” cake aisle. This practical ap- shopper is probably not browsing for an indulgent, single-serve treat. proach would meet the consumer need for a “small, fast, microwave cake” for dessert. Several marketing The marketing team solved this shelving issue by challenges emerged: using advertising and product point-of-purchase dis- plays outside the cake aisle. This would raise wom- • The comparison problem. The easy shelf price en's awareness of Warm Delights. Television comparison to 9 X 12 inch cakes selling for advertising and in-store display programs are costly, 89 cents would make it harder to price Dessert so Warm Delights sales would have to be strong to Bowls at $2.00. pay back the investment. • The communication problem. The product message Vivian Callaway and the team turned to market re- “a small, faster-to-make cake” wasn't compelling. search to fine-tune the plan. The research put Warm For example, after-school snacks should be fast Delights (and Dessert Bowls) on the shelf in real gro- and small, but “dessert" sounds too indulgent. cery stores. A few key findings emerged. First, the • The quiet aisle problem. The cake-aisle shopper is name "Warm Delights” beat “Dessert Bowls." Second, probably not browsing for a cake innovation. the Warm Delights with nuts simply wasn't easy to pre- The dessert problem. Consumers' on-the-go, pare, so nuts were removed. Third, the packaging with calorie-conscious meal plans don't generally a disposable bowl beat the typical cake-mix packaging include a planned dessert. involving using your own bowl. Finally, by putting the The microwave problem. Consumers might not be- actual product on supermarket shelves and in displays lieve it tastes good. in these stores, sales volumes could be analyzed. o 648 Warm Delights EVALUATION PHASE: TURNING THE PLAN INTO ACTION! The marketing plan isn't action. Sales for Warm De- lights required the marketing team to (1) get the retail- ers to stock the product, preferably somewhere other than the cake aisle, and (2) appeal to consumers enough to have them purchase, like, and repurchase the product. The initial acceptance of a product by retailers is important. But each store manager must experience good sales of Warm Delights to be motivated to keep its shelves stocked with the product. Also, the Warm Delights team must monitor the display activity in the store. Are the displays placed in the locations as expected? Do the sales increase when a display is present? Watching distribution and display execution on a new product is very im- portant so that sales shortfalls can be addressed proactively. Did the customer buy one or two Warm Delights? Did the customer return for a second purchase a few days later? The syndicated services that sell house- hold panel purchase data can provide these answers. The Warm Delights team evaluates these reports to see if the number of people who tried the product matches with expectations and how the repeat pur- chases occur. Often, the “80/20 rule” applies. So, in the early months, is there a group of consumers who buy repeatedly and will fill this role? For ongoing feedback, calls by Warm Delights consumers to the toll-free consumer information line are monitored. This is a great source of real-time feedback. If a pattern emerges and these calls are mostly about the same problem, that is bad. However, when consumers call to say "thank you” or “it's great,” that is good. This is an informal quick way to identify if the product is on track or further investiga- tion is warranted. CHAPTER 22 Pulling It All Together The Strategic Marketing Process © Daniel Hundley/Token Media Questions GOOD MARKETING MAKES A DIFFERENCE 1 What is the competitive set of desserts in which Warm Delights is located? 2 (a) Who is the target market? (b) What is the point of difference on the positioning for Warm Delights? (c) What are the potential opportuni- ties and hindrances of the target market and positioning? 3 (a) What marketing research did Vivian Callaway execute? (b) What were the critical questions that 649 led her to conduct research and seek expert advice? (c) How did this affect the product's marketing mix price, promotion, packaging, and distribution decisions? 4 (a) What initial promotional plan directed to consum- ers in the target market did Callaway use? (b) Why did this make sense to Callaway and her team when Warm Delights was launched? 5 If you were a consultant to Vivian Callaway, what product changes would you recommend to increase sales of Warm Delights? The team took personal and business risks by choos- ing the Warm Delights plan over the more conserva- tive Dessert Bowls plan. Today, General Mills has loyal Warm Delights consumers who are open to try- ing new flavors, new sizes, and new forms. If you were a consultant to the Warm Delights team, what would you do to grow this brand in terms of product line and brand extensions?41
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