Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

THE FOOD INDUSTRY ADAPTS 147
• In 2009 Yoplait stopped sourcing dairy products from cows
exposed to a controversial hormone.
• Bisquick Heart Smart reduced sharply the amount of saturated
fat and trans fat in Bisquick.
• In 2007, General Mills introduced 100 - calorie portion sizes
for products including Chex snacks.
One initiative that created a subcategory was the introduction
of Betty Crocker Gluten Free desert mixes in 2009, made
possible by the arrival of newly developed gluten - free ingredients.
The effort was so promising that General Mills either
changed, recognized, or promoted other products as gluten free.
Some, such as the Chex cereal family, got a subsequent sharp
boost in sales. It turns out that the incidence of concern for gluten
is much larger than originally assumed, and it is very hard
for those with a gluten - sensitive condition to determine whether
a product is gluten - free not. Launched in 2010, the General
Mills gluten - free informational Web site, which lists some 250
General Mills gluten - free products along with recipes from the
Betty Crocker kitchen, thus had the potential to become a
go - to source for information. Further, this success shows that
niche health markets, previously considered too small, have
now become accessible because of the power of digital media.
The General Mills strategy involved developing a series of
brand platforms with the power and fl exibility to adapt to health
trends. The major brands with such subbrands as Cheerios
Multigrain, Wheaties Fuel, and General Mills Gluten-Free
provided platforms to support product refi nements that created
or participated in new subcategories. The Betty Crocker brand
platform had permission to be a partner in healthy cooking.
Further, General Mills invested in products and brands such
as Fiber One, Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, and Nature Valley
not central to its business but relevant to niche markets. They
stuck with those niche products and in the process built strong
brand platforms. As the general category of healthy eating in