Cereal Wars - Trix of the Trade | 5

Business Wars

Audible

History, David Brown, Business, Management

4.6 • 13.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the 1980s and General Mills is making waves with a new cereal based on the world’s hottest video game: Pac-Man.

But Kellogg’s is hoping to cash in on a different trend: the growing clamour among adults for healthier breakfasts.

So it’s plotting a taboo-busting ad campaign that will rewrite the rules of cereal promotion and spark an all-out battle among the cereal makers to win over the health conscious.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	It's a Monday morning in the summer of 1983, and in Battle Creek, Michigan, Kellogg's
0:18.4	top executives are sitting around a long conference table, eating rice crispies.
0:24.3	They're doing a taste test, comparing the quality of rice crispies produced by the company's
0:28.5	various factories.
0:30.4	Since William Lemoth became CEO four years ago, these taste test breakfasts have become
0:35.8	a weekly ritual.
0:37.8	But today he is also here to give these execs a reality check.
0:42.8	General Mills has been grabbing market share with a serial based on the video game sensation
0:47.3	Pac-Man.
0:48.3	Now, the competition is preparing to flood the supermarkets with cereals based on popular
0:53.4	movies, toys, TV shows, and video games.
0:57.5	Up against ET, Donkey Kong, and Mr. T, Tony the Tiger seems like yesterday's hero.
1:04.5	Look, there's no denying the appeal of these tie-in cereals.
1:08.2	So I want us to make a cereal based on a popular character too.
1:12.2	The executive's exchange worried looks.
1:14.9	Kellogg's is a conservative company.
1:16.8	It prefers to stick with what it knows, and it's never put other people's characters
1:21.3	on its cereal boxes before.
1:23.8	But in this case, Lemoth's willing to break with tradition within limits.
1:29.6	We need a character with a wholesome image.
	...

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