pillsbury cookie challenge

1. PILLSBURY COOKIE
CHALLENGE
Group 4
• Maneck Debara
• Prasanth Ramdas
• Rachit Verma
• Shubham Bharadwaj
• Umesh Nair

2. General Mills
• Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 6th largest food product manufacturer
• Various Brands that General Mills have are : Betty Crocker,
Progresso, Pillsbury, Green Giant and Cheerios
• It was composed of three distinct operating segments :
• U.S Retail (69%)
• International (16%)
• Food Service
• Some of the major distributors were Safeway,Wal- Mart and
Costco

4. General Mills Canada Corporation
• Established in the year 1954 and was the second largest
division of General Mills
• GMCC was the market leader in the Canadian Market
with annual sales of US$ 566 Million .
• The Canadian division was split into 4 units which are ,
breakfast, baked goods, meals and snacks which was
further sub divided into 12 other categories.
• Unique products developed for the Canadian market were
Oatmeal crisp maple nut cereal and pizza pop snacks .

5. The Canadian Baked goods Category
• RBG’s were chilled dough-based products that could go
straight from the fridge to the oven
• Ready baked goods included cookies , breads , and
sweet goods .
• Packaging for all these products were pressurized cans ,
chubs and sealed trays .
• The RBG category was dominated by Pillsbury with an
85% market share .

6. Pillsbury RBG
• RBG was GMCC’s fourth largest in Canada
• The Pillsbury Doughboy was a hit in the advertising sector
which had a major role in brand advertising and
messaging
• Pillsbury was known for their convenience and family
appeal .
• The brand was targeting the mother in their 30’s to 40’s
who are busy with an active and busy lifestyle .

7. Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookies
• Cookies were most profitable in the RBG category
• Represented 62 % of total category
• Two formats – Chub , Ready to bake
• Guillens ideas on Improvement of cookie Performance
• Increase frequency of purchase
• Increase household penetration
• Combination of both

8. Advertising
• TV advertising, Print advertising
• US and Canadian market
• Similar demographics
• Slight Modifications
• Rudy Perz: Dough Boy
• Doughboy Doll- 1972

9. ‘Kisses” Campaign: Successful?
• Appealed the mothers and the kids
• Product focused ad
• Highlights the taste benefits
• Milward-Brown assessment measures:
Likely to buy
Brand recognition
Relevance

10. Consumer Insights Team
• Provide a better understanding of the preferences,
attitudes and behaviors of consumers.
• CI team work closely with internal marketing teams
and 3rd party research firms to conduct consumer
research.
• Once research is conducted, results are analyzed and
recommendations are provided to the brand team.

11. Types of research used
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Based on measurements
and analysis of the
relationships of the
variables.
Eg: Questionnaires and
Surveys.
More in-depth
understanding of
behavior, conducted with
a smaller sample size
Eg: Focus groups and
Ethnographies.

12. • Concept Test
• This concept includes an image of the product, along with pricing
information, preparation instructions and a summary of key
benefits.
• 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
Methods used at GMCC
• Focus Groups
• Group of people engage in a round table discussion on a
particular topic of interest
• Obtain groups opinions or reactions to specific products/ issues
• Focus groups can help with a wide range of business decisions,
such as new product development, brand messaging and
promotional campaigns.

13. Methods used at GMCC
• Evaluators
• The goal of an evaluator is to determine the expected volume, and
therefore success, of a new product.
• Participants are sent actual samples of the product and are asked
a series of questions based on specific pricing, promotion and
consumer spending parameters.
• Evaluators are the best predictors of product performance with a
whopping cost of $100,000 .
• Creative Testing
• GMCC conducts a test to study the effectiveness of the ads.
• Multiple versions of an ad will be developed and tested to see
which one resonates most with consumers.
• 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 the product.

14. • Company: Market Tools
• Objective: Understand the difference between US
and Canada markets
• Duration: 4 Weeks
• Study Details
• Screeners
• Classification
• Users: purchased in past 12 months
• Lapsed users: purchased over 12 months ago
• Non Users: never purchased (scratch, mix or ready to eat
users)
Cookies usage and attitude study

15. Results
• Consumer demographics and family structure similar in us
and Canada
• Impulse purchase
• Increasing use of refrigerated cookie dough particularly the
households with kids
• Frequency of RBG Cookie baking was similar in US and
Canada

16. 49%
54%
32%
US
Scratch Users
Refrigerated Users
Baking Mix Users
Cookie Method usage
61%
24%
16%
Canada
n=3381n=4180
• Scratch baking is the dominant method of baking cookies
• Both Users and lapsed users perceive refrigerated cookie
dough as convenient

17. Purchase Drivers
79
79
69
68
59
83
83
67
68
66
They are easy to make
They are quick to make
They taste good
Can make them at the
spur of themoment
Easier than baking
cookies from scratch
Canada US
• Top 5 Purchase drivers • Significant Differences
42
42
41
47
29
29
30
28
37
17
Fun thing to bake with the
kids
The kids like to make
them
Fun activity with the kids
Kids like to eat them
Is a high quality cookie
dough

18. Qualitative Research on Consumer
Perceptions
• Company: Terranova Market Strategies
• Two types of ethnography studies were carried out
 In Home Immersions
• Develop a real life dynamic view on consumer brand relationship
• 4 two hour in home visits (2 lapsed and 2 brand champion
users)
 Discovery Workshops
• Community based (18-27 consumers)
• Aim was to creatively explore issues and new avenues of
opportunity
• Different techniques like customer experience mapping and role
playing were used to examine consumer relationship and
behavior

19. Results
• Baking experience fed the senses and fuelled memories
of happy moments
• Cookies were particularly special because they were
made for sharing and giving
• There were no concerns with nutritional value
• Pillsbury had an integral sense of magic and was
considered to be a shared secret
• Brand champions and lapsed users were similar but not in
all ways (Pragmatic, get it done types & Committed to
scratch baking)

20. • The consumers in Canada like to do their baking from
scratch and hence it makes the target market a bit
different compared to that of the United states.
• After a brief discussion we concluded that the target
market for the Canadian market should be as follows :-
• Mothers who are working, it helps save a lot of time
and also personalize the cookies till a point.
• The kids, they play a major role in purchase decision
in Canada. Hence they should be one of our main
targets
What consumers should the team target ?

21. What should their brand messaging be?
• Brand messaging is about capturing the right language
that embodies your brand and makes it stand out from the
rest.
• Every brand needs a voice and brand message helps the
consumers capture and understand the values of the firm.
• So for Pillsbury the appropriate brand message that could
make a change was :-
• “ When time isn't on your side, Pillsbury can help, while
also giving you that homemade experience “

22. How could they communicate this message in a
relevant way to the consumers in a way that would
translate into increased sales?
• The various methods by which they could communicate
the message to the consumers are :-
• One way was to change the packaging and make it more
appealing to the kids.
• Provide a way in which the mothers could personalize the
could a bit in order to give it an emotional touch.
• Have an add campaign showing the mothers how easy it
was to bake and less time consuming it was.

23. Thank you