Natural Cereals Case Analysis

Natural Cereals Case

Problem Statement :

BFI’s Natural Cereals Division plans to improve market share in the adult cereal market through advertising and labelling strategies. Sally, newly appointed as one of the assistant branch manager gets an opportunity to work in this project under the supervision of best marketing professionals ,Tom Miller and Joe Bradely, where she has to suggest a new or modified marketing campaign for the Division. After studying the past compilations, Sally is able to understand the reason of existence of high level of competition and therefore decides to advertise and raise the brand value of the cereals. Similar to the other companies’ strategy of linking the product’s usefulness with the health claims approved by NCI (National Cancer Institute), Sally indirectly plans to adopt the strategy of connecting the consumption of high fiber cereals with the reduction of cancer. Moreover as other companies prospered and sustained making such claims, she decides to propose the strategy before Joe and Tom. However she faces a conflict of opinions where her idea is fully supported by Joe but partially disagreed by Tom as he believes in being completely genuine with the claims and that lands her in confusion regarding the decision to be taken.

Sally proposed a plan before Tom that lays emphasis on the health claims being published with advertisements and packaging makes Tom hesitant regarding the decision to be taken. Being a fairman full of integrity , Tom wants the marketing and advertising campaign to be truthful. Therefore in their first meeting, he lays emphasis on the FDA regulations that clearly states the information on labels to be truthful and consistent with valid, reliable and scientific evidence and some other specifications as well. Joe is in support of Sally’s idea to go for publishing health claims. But Tom’s opinion made her think again regarding the extent to which these regulations are to be taken seriously so that she can come up with specific options that would allow her to coordinate packaging and advertising as per the FDA proposal and give consumers a consistent message as well. So there are basically two types of problems being faced by Sally such as moral/ethical and legal. The ethical system of values as observed and followed by Tom in the company should be respected and taken care of while planning the campaign. Also, the legal framework that includes the rules and regulations of FDA needs to be observed even though they seems to be liberal because the consequences of breach are unknown and in-case of violation, it can be detrimental to the interests of the company in the long run.

Analysis of Alternatives :

1. As per the BFI’s research department report that indicated the product to be high in 13 essential vitamins , Sally could also make