Pillsbury Cookie Challenge Wac Case Study
Essay by Danial Shahid • March 18, 2018 • Case Study • 1,635 Words (7 Pages) • 1,568 Views
Student Name: Danial Shahid Jan
Student ID: 13927
Course Section: Section 1
Due Date: 13th February, 2018
Pillsbury Cookie Challenge WAC
1. What are the challenges that Ivan Gullien faces?
The refrigerated baked goods (RBG) category growth has become stagnant. The refrigerated cookie product line has 62% of these sales so the success of the cookie line means success for RGB. The cookie products have been experiencing a small growth of 1%. This low growth rate has the same effect on the whole RBG category. In addition to this, the household penetration of RGB has also fallen. The challenge Gullien faces is to find ways to improve the performance of the RBG category. Guillen would need to look at various areas including consumer insights and advertising. An increased volume growth of the category and higher household penetration would be considered as an improvement.
2. What are consumer insights? What types of business challenges can benefit from consumer insights? How are consumer insights obtained?
Consumer insights are pieces of information that give us a look into the consumer’s behavior, attitude, and preferences. An example of a consumer insight for Pillsbury could be that its consumers prefer using the cookie dough SKU since it gives them the feeling associated with baking something and being part of the process.
Any business challenge that is linked with the consumer can benefit from consumer insights. For example, if Pillsbury had an issue of deciding the price of their product, then consumer insights related to the product would give them an idea of the consumer’s perceived price level. This insight could then be used to make a pricing decision. Another example is if Pillsbury had the challenge of launching its cookie range in another country. The consumer insights gathered from that country would give the company an idea of what marketing strategy to use in order to ensure a successful launch.
Consumer insights are obtained through qualitative research. These include research methods such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. From this qualitative research, the researcher can enter the mind of the consumer and extract vital information. The research will answer various questions that the company wants answered. For example, after conducting a focus group, the discussion between the participants lead to the researcher discovering that house-wives prefer baking from scratch because it feels better and is more meaningful.
3. Given the key learnings from usage and attitude study, what are the corresponding implications for what actions the team should take (write in tabular form, as discussed in previous case)?
Key Learnings | Implications | Actions |
Scratch baking is the dominant method of baking cookies in Canada | Sales of RBG in Canada will be lower than in the US due to this insight. The RBG products are completely opposite to scratch baking as RBG products remove the hassle of scratch baking. | The reason that consumers enjoy scratch baking is because of the experience of making something. The RBG product line marketing can highlight the experience of making the RBG cookies. They can focus on the cookie dough as that is closer to scratch baking. |
Kids play a bigger role in driving purchases in the US market | Kids are the key for RBG success. They care more about the product rather that the convenience aspect. | Highlight brand features that appeal to kids. RBG cookies will be appealing to kids if the marketing strategy is to highlight the taste of the product. Research should be done to see how kids respond to the doughboy as well. |
Lapsed users and users perceive cookie dough as convenient | Users who have stopped using the cookie dough still know it is convenient to use. This means that the convenience feature of the product isn’t enough to retain some consumers. | Research must be conducted into the reasons that lapsed users stopped using the cookie dough. If consumers prioritize other features in the cookie dough products, then they need to be focused on by the marketing team. |
Cookie dough purchases are impulsive | Impulsive purchases are driven by good packaging and in-store placement. Both these factors must be improved upon to increase the impulse buying. | The marketing team should incorporate in-store marketing strategies in their overall plan. This could include promotions within the store. The marketing team must also research on what kind of packaging would catch the eye of the consumer and lead to impulse buying. |
Use of refrigerated cookie dough was increasing especially in households with kids | Kids are the driving factor behind the cookie dough purchases. They are the ones that encourage the parents to purchase the product. | The marketing strategy should target kids. This insight shows that kids are the factor that is increasing refrigerated cookie dough usage. |
4. Why did Guillen and his team conduct the in-home and discovery workshops?
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