Pillsbury Case Solutions

Case Decision Memo - Pillsbury

TO:​Ivan Guillen FROM:​Team Leftovers

RE:​Marketing Decision for the Canadian Pillsbury Ready Baked Goods (RBG) Cookie Line.

Overall Recommendations:

Team Leftovers has evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the existing marketing decision for the Canadian Pillsbury ready baked goods (RBG) cookie line. After consideration from the SWOT Analysis, and the consumer insights, we noticed that scratch baking was the primary method of baking cookies in Canada. The greatest opportunities lie in showing consumers that the RBG cookie line is as authentic as baking cookies from scratch. We believe that working mothers and children should be our main targets, as they consist of some of the largest purchase drivers.

Our specific recommendations and the basis for those recommendations are detailed below. We have included attached exhibits providing further clarification as to why we are making these recommendations.

Recommendation 1: Heighten advertising in the scratch baking method by

strategically aligning with food network television shows.

Support for this recommendation includes:

• Significant increase in emotional baking: In-home immersion visits and discovery workshops gave insight on how much baking had an emotional impact on the moms and children. The discovery workshop stated, “The baking experience fed the senses and fuelled memories of happy moments.”

• Consistency in the dominant method of baking: The dominant method of baking in Canada is scratch baking, as “56% bake from scratch.” Of the 56 % Canadian

scratch baking users, 33% bake from scratch every month, which is substantially larger than the 26% U.S. household that bakes from scratch every month (see exhibit 1, attached).

• Promote growth in the lapsed users category: The lapsed users agreed with brand champions that convenience was a key component of RBG cookies, however they were, “somewhat less secure about decisions and products that took them away from their commitment to scratch baking.” Aligning with food networking shows would put at ease some of the concerns that lapsed users have, as they would be able to follow along with the show to create a great cookie.

Recommendation 2: Gear advertisement towards working mothers and children

for communication improvement.

Support for recommendation includes:

• Sense of accomplishment shown through the kitchen: The baking experience for mothers is something they feel prideful about as they said baking, “made the moms feel good when they sensed they had made a difference.” Working mothers have less time with their children than stay-at-home mothers do, so being able to spend some quality time with their children is very important to them. We believe that we should shift the brand message to reflect the changing demographic. The brand message should be, “Busy mom’s, busy lives, busy kids. When time isn’t enough, choose Pillsbury for quick moments of happiness.”

• Purchase drivers attest to consumer wants: The top four purchase drivers were surprisingly the same for Canadian users as they were for U.S. users. 79% of users surveyed said that RBG cookies were “easy and quick to make.” Interestingly, the quality of the cookie dough was not valued as highly as the kid’s role in driving purchases in Canada (see Exhibit 2 and Exhibit 3, attached). We are going to communicate to our users that we are fulfilling their desires.

In closing, Team Leftovers believes that shifting focus in the Canadian market to scratch bakers, working mothers and children will lead to an increase in the performance of the RBG cookie line. Mr. Guillen, we look forward to discussing these recommendations in more detail and are eager to start working with you to help communicate and reach out to your new customer base.