No Room for Breakfast

No Room for Breakfast

Did you eat breakfast this morning ? If you're like many busy consumers today, you probably answered no.' Or even if you ate breakfast, it's less and less likely that you sat down at the dining table and ate a leisurely bowl of cereal, or your favourite hot breakfast freshly prepared

at home. About half of the working executives across the world' ,"now either skip the day's first meal' or eat it while on the move, opting for sandwiches, yogurt or a nutrition bar consumed on the way to work.

Nutritrtionist  may cringe , but it is the  cereal  manufacturers; who are really worried. The $100 billion market worldwide for cereals is in a state of near stagnation, and the efforts to revive the category have to overcome' not just a simple preference for plain or 'frosted flakes but an enormous shift in lifestyles and eating habits of 'busy" professionals that seems to have passed this mature food category by.

Cereal'' makers have ' already' tried ,price cuts, price promotions and even ,price wars. They have 'introduced new products and new flavours, added fruit, promoted cereal as a weight loss option, and launched huge ad campaigns. They have crealed partnerships with diverse partners like sports goods manuf acturers, cosmetics companies and fitness centres. Still, majority of the cereal brands are losing money and overall sales growth has stagnated for the last five years. There is no question, that for the busy professionals market, quicker and more convenient substitutes are growing faster than the once fashionable dry cereals

Many industry experts offer ideas for reviving interest in a bowl of cereal and milk. They suggest promoting

cereal as a healthy meal or snack for any time of the do , not just breakfast (that might even include a vegetable based product to serve with soup, or tomato juice instead of milk, for a daytime snack or substitute for lunch) but perhaps the most interesting suggestion is to simply reinvent the whole concept of cereal by repackaging it.

Suggestions for thinking outside the cereal box package, range from putting individual servings in

separate plastic bags to using metallized bag linings, like potato chip makers have long done, to make cereal more suitable to the needs of people , on the move. Other packaging options include packing cereal in the kind of pouch packing ,used for crackers or chocolate sticks, or creating vacuum sealed containers or using transparent easy-to-pour containers like the ones used by some fruit juice manufacturers.

Of course, healthy options like cereal bars, fruits, nuts based supplements and fortified milk products are growing in popularity as breakfast alternatives for the growing segment of the extremely busy consumers, who seem to be constantly on the move . These present an active

competition for breakfast cereal in the non-cooked category of breakfast food. Realistically, says one Kellogg's executive, there is no "single silver bullet that will solve the issues we face to, say". So, what are you having for breakfast tomorrow ?

Questions ,

 (a) Some industry consultants suggest that cereal companies should be focusing on new product

innovations instead of finding ways to repackage the same old product, because the lifestyles of their target segment have undergone a change. Do you agree ? Justify your answer.

(b) How can cereal manufacturers reposition their brands in light of hectic lifestyles and even changes in eating habits of the highly profitable segment of busy professionals

(c ) What would it take a young busy professional, with little time for a sit-down breakfast, to perceive cereals as a convenient and healthy food ? How can this information be utilized by cereal marketers ?