W11020 - Pillsbury Cookie Challenge Case Study - What Are Consumer Insights - Business Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Ivan Guillen sat at his desk in October 2006 and thought about the Pillsbury refrigerated baked goods (RBG) business plans for the upcoming fiscal year. Guillen was the marketing manager on the RBG category at General Mills Canada Corporation (GMCC), and he was faced with the challenge of developing a strategy that would lead to improved business performance in his category. RBG was GMCC’s fourth- largest category, and its performance over the past two years had been less than stellar. Volume growth between 2004 and 2006 had been flat, and household penetration had fallen to a five-year low. Of particular concern to Guillen was the refrigerated-cookie product line, which represented 62 per cent of RBG’s unit sales and over 75 per cent of the category’s profit. Refrigerated cookies had always been the anchor for the RBG business. When cookies performed well, the entire category tended to perform well. The same could be said for those times when cookie performance was suffering. As Guillen looked back at the performance of the cookie segment, he noted that annual volume growth was only one per cent over the past three years, and household penetration had fallen.
Guillen had his work cut out for him. In February 2007, he and his team would have to present RBG’s new business plans to the senior leadership team. Given the importance of this business to GMCC, it was crucial that Guillen worked with his team to understand what could be done to profitably grow the business going forward. Guillen believed the team should focus its efforts on the refrigerated cookie segment since it was the most profitable segment within the category. As he filtered through historical data on the cookie segment, Guillen wondered how the team could improve the segment’s performance. Was there a taste or formula issue? Was the Pillsbury brand message not resonating with consumers? Was the current cookie advertising campaign not targeting the right consumer? As Guillen thought about these questions, he knew that he would have to generate new insights into current and potential consumers.

GENERAL MILLS INC.

General Mills Inc. was headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was the world’s sixth largest food- product manufacturer. The company produced and marketed food products in more than 100 countries This document is authorized for use only by Martuza Kaizar Kagalwala in Marketing Analytics - DAT-6033 - FMDI1 at Hult International Business School, 2021 and possessed a portfolio of iconic brands, including Betty Crocker, Progresso, Pillsbury, Green Giant and Cheerios. General Mills competed in numerous food categories and distributed products across the world through retail stores, such as Safeway, Wal-Mart and Costco, and through food service operators, including restaurants and cafeterias.
General Mills Inc. was composed of three distinct operating segments: U.S. Retail, International, and Food Service. The U.S. Retail segment was the largest of the three, representing 69 per cent of total sales; the International segment followed with 16 per cent of total sales. Total company revenue for fiscal 2006 was $11.6 billion, with earnings of $1 billion (see Exhibit 1).

GENERAL MILLS CANADA CORPORATION
Established in 1954, General Mills Canada (GMCC) was the second largest division within the International segment, with annual sales of US$566 million. GMCC was a leader in the Canadian packaged foods market, holding the No. 1 or No. 2 position in virtually all of the categories in which it competed. Many of the same brands and products that General Mills marketed in the United States could be found in Canada.

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