On borrowed interest: “It’s a big concern for [vp-marketing] Paul Norman, my counterpart on the marketing side. He has characters on his boxes that have huge equity. At times, we’ll borrow equities from outside and ride those, and other times we’ll use our own characters.”
On the intimacy of a cereal box: “It sits on the table and gets read. There’s great power there to do promotions.”
But: “Cereal is a big category. No one thing is going to work. If I say [in-pack] inserts is the sole thing we’ll ride for 10 years, that’s not the answer. There are too many things necessary: advertising, sampling, new products, promotion, trade support – all operating at the same time.
On price competition: “When [strategy is] based on price alone, that’s an easy strategy for competitors to meet or beat. It only takes a second for someone to change the price tag.”
On premiums: “We’re competing every day with things like fast food, which has upscaled its premiums over the years. There are times when we want to be upscale and have something significant, and there are times when a change-color spoon will be just fine.”
On segmenting without alienating: “Sesame Street toys won’t turn on boys, especially boys six and older. But it works with [girls and] women all the way up the scale. Boys would drop out a bit. But alienated? I don’t think so.”
On consumers: “They’re more sophisticated [than 10 years ago], but not that different. A lot of the things that have been done in the past still work. We just have to put a modern twist on them.”
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