Case Solution Pillsbury

To : Senior Leadership Team

From : Ivans Guillen , Marketing Manager , RBG

Re : RBG Marketing Strategy Recommendations

Date : Feb , 2007

RBG's performance has grown stale over the past tow years. Volume growth is flat and the household penetration has fallen by a considerable number . The refrigerated-cookie product line is the cornerstone for the business due to it having the highest share in sales and accounting for the majority of profits . However , the product has not been performing adequately .

After conducting extensive market research on consumer behavior and analyzing the results , I propose the following recommendations :-

Recommendation 1: Marketing campaign should be focused on heavier market penetration

• Difference in frequency of purchase in Canadian cookie market as compared to US cookie market is negligible . As such focusing on increasing purchase frequency is unlikely to have much effect .
• The cookie house penetration is 54% in US as compared to the 24% in Canada . As such there is scope for increased penetration of the product with the help of other recommendations . ( Exhibit 1)

Recommendation 2 : Adapt the US based advertising for Canadian markets with heavier focus on kid driven factors instead of being product focused

• The Usage and Attitude Study conducted by MarketTools showed that the biggest differences in purchase drivers were in the kid driven factor and product quality factor . Kids drive purchases more in Canada and consumers do not care as much for the cookie quality as in US . ( Exhibit 2 )
• The 'Kisses' advertisement was focused more on the product quality and taste . If it was instead adapted for increasing attractiveness to kids , then it would have had a greater impact .

Recommendation 3 : The Mom's with little kids section should be targeted heavily by the marketing campaign by showcasing the cookies as being practical and easy to make