The Homa Files

Excerpted from WSJ, “Grape Nuts Takes Aim at Men” By Suzanne Vranica, Mar 26, 2009

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Seeking to revive a crunchy stalwart, cereal maker Post Foods is launching a new ad campaign for Grape Nuts that is aimed at men.

The cheeky campaign includes a special Web site on MSN with dozens of two-minute videos … which tout the cereal’s quality and offer advice, such as how to ask for a raise in a recession … The site also offers “The Guy’s Manual,” with tips on topics like restoring vintage cars. The campaign’s print ads, which will run in Sports Illustrated, feature men fishing and golfing and include the new slogan “That Takes Grape Nuts” … 

The campaign is a departure for cereal advertising, which has been dominated by wholesome images of mom and the family breakfast table. Even Grape Nuts, which is eaten mainly by men, has run ads targeting women …

While men are increasingly sharing grocery-shopping duties, the task is still handled largely by women, ad experts say. “Men will be entertained” by the ad, “but is it going to influence their purchase if they aren’t the ones doing the shopping?” asks Kristi Faulkner, a principal at Womenkind, a marketing firm.

“When you do something that is different, there is always some uncertainly,” says Steve Van Tassel, Post’s president. He says Post plans to step up its in-store marketing efforts to make sure that whoever does the shopping is aware of Grape Nuts.

Post is trying to stand out in the $6.6 billion ready-to-eat cereal category, where the Grape Nuts brand has been hurt by a host of competitors in the healthy-cereal category … Grape Nuts sales slipped 15% to $54.2 million during the 12 months ended Feb. 22 from a year earlier …  All Bran saw sales rise 30%.

Wall Street and the packaged-goods industry will be watching the campaign closely. Ralcorp’s (Ralston Purina) accquisition of Post, whose brands include Honey Bunches of Oats, Shredded Wheat and Pebbles, raised questions about how a company known for shunning advertising to keep prices low would handle brands that were largely built through marketing.  Ralcorp spent just $97, 837 on ads last year …

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Full Article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123801803460241457.html

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This entry was posted on March 31, 2009 at 7:20 am and is filed under Mktg - Promotion, Mktg - Segmentation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.