Pillsbury Cookie Challenge
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PILLSBURY COOKIE CHALLENGE
COMPANY BACKGROUND
General Mills is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and is the 6th largest food products manufacturer
Footprints in more than 100 countries
Big brands: Betty Crocker, Progresso, Pillsbury etc.
Marketed through retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco etc.
Three operating segments: 1) U.S. Retail 2) International 3) Food Service Operators
General Mills Canada is the second largest division under International ($566 mn annual sales)
GMCC has 4 BUs: 1) Breakfast 2) Baked Goods 3) Meals 4) Snacks
Baked Goods has: 1) RGB 2) Pizza Snacks 4) Mixes 5) Breakfast Foods
PILLSBURY REFRIGERATED BAKED GOODS
Brand of RBG category in GMCC
Iconic Pillsbury Doughboy
Known for convenience and family appeal
Cookies are most valuable SKU in this category
Cookies in multiple flavours and in two formats (chub and ready to bake)
TV ads are the biggest promoter
Promotions were slightly tweaked versions of US advertisings
Targeted mothers in mid-30s to mid-40s who led an active busy life
Success rate was poor
Company unable to meet 5-7% growth target
Performance of RGB over last 2 years have been poor
Poor household penetration of less than 24%
Annual volume growth was only 1% over the past 3 years
PROBLEM STATEMENT
In what ways can Ivan Guillen and his team at GMCC improve the sales of the RGB category (especially Pillsbury Cookies), in the Canada market.
Market Study Undertaken
Usage and attitude studies of the Canadian market was done by a research company MarketTools on for the RBG team of General Mills. Objective was to understand the differences between US and Canadian markets that could be leveraged to unlock the growth in Canada. Participants were screened using âscreenerâ questionnaire and later categorised into 3 groups:
Users: They purchased the refrigerated cookie dough in past 12 months.
Lapsed Users: They purchased refrigerated cookie dough 12 months ago.
Non-users: They have never purchased refrigerated cookie dough.
Scratch baking is dominant in case of cookies in Canada (56% in Canada versus 22% in US)
Top 4 purchase drivers are same in US and Canada
Both Users and lapsed users perceived RGB cookies as convenient while non-users donât
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