PILLSBURY COOKIE CHALLENGE WAC By Abdul Rauf Jamro
PILLSBURY COOKIE CHALLENGE
Statement of the Problem:
Ivan Guillen, the marketing manager, at Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RBG) at General Mills Canada Corporation has to formulate and ee!ute a marketing strategy "ith a vie" to improve the performan!e of this !ategory# Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RBG) is fa!ing the stagnation of sales !oupled "ith numerous problems# $ome of the ma%or problems are mentioned as under#
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Poor performan!e of the !ategory sin!e last t"o years# $ales have turned stagnant sin!e last t"o years (bet"een &'' and &'')# *nnual gro"th volume has remained lo" at appro + for past three years -ousehold penetration has signifi!antly de!lined# .espite being the most profitable segment in the past, !ontributing to & of RBG/s unit sales and 01 of the !ategories profits, its deteriorating performan!e !urrently, "orries Guillen the most#
Objective:
Given the importan!e of !ategory for General Mills Canada Corporation (GMCC), Guillen needs to understand the issues fa!ing that !ategory and he further needs to outline the "ay for"ard to gain the same position# Research Methodology used to identify the causes of the problems:
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2arious types of !onsumer resear!h "as !ondu!ted by the GMCC aimed at identifying the basi! differen!es bet"een the 3$ and Canada markets and to obtain the !onsumer insights of both the markets# .emographi!s, *ttitudes, preferen!es 4he resear!h types are mentioned belo"5 +# 7# # 1# #
Produ!t trials "ith employees 6o!us group Con!ept tests 8valuators Creative testing Pa!kaging tests
Causes of the Problem:
4he findings of the resear!h suggested that resear!h findings lead to !ertain !onsumer insights "hi!h a!!ording to him are the basi! !auses of the problems that GMCC is eperien!ing# Findings:
4he different resear!h methods ee!uted by the GMCC as mentioned above lead to follo"ing findings# 4hese findings and the !onsumer insights "ill be used by the top management for de!ision making pro!ess to arrive at some logi!al !on!lusions keeping in vie" the Marketing and management resear!h problem# Key leanings:
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.espite being the most profitable segment in the past, !ontributing to & of RBG/s unit sales and 01 of the !ategories profits, its !urrent sales have turned stagnant and gro"th rate remained %ust + for last three years# 3
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$!rat!h baking is dominant in Canada "hile refrigerated dough is dominant is 3$# Convenien!e and taste are valued in both the 3$ 9 Canada# Canadian :ids have greater say in making pur!hase de!isions#
mplications:
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Marketing program "as not effe!tive mainly be!ause it "as not aligned "ith the
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!onsumer insights# 4he RBG produ!t line "as fo!using mainly on busy mothers ho"ever their insight may
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have !hanged by no"# 3$ mothers prefer more ;uality than Canadians do #
!ctions:
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Marketing mi need to revisit keeping in vie" the importan!e of !onsumer preferen!es# Marketing program should be designed after doing etensive resear!h# RBG should improve the !onvenien!e and taste of the produ!ts#
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from resear!h# Produ!t visibility, distribution, and display should be improved#
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