Kellogg’s Company: Swot Analysis

SWOT analysis is an analysis that evaluates the internal and external factors in an organization’s environment. The internal factors include strength and weakness whereas the external factors are opportunities and threats.

Strength

1. Worldwide Presence: - Kellogg’s is a renowned cereals company that is being manufactured in almost 18 countries and marketed over 180 countries. The company is the most successful and leading producer of cereals that is keeping its pace with global manufacturing and marketing capabilities and has become a prominent company after it acquired Pringles to expand its market share in international snacks. Besides cereals, the company is also a manufacturer of convenience products foods, such as fruit flavored snacks, toaster pastries, cereal bars, cookies, crackers and frozen waffles. The products of Kellogg’s company are available in different outlets of Qatar and it is seen to be fairly consumed by the population.
2. Multiple Variants: - Kellogg’s researches in their production of cereals and decides to improve the nutrition of their foods by adding multiple variants to their list. Some of the variants are Honey loops, Choco, Frosted Flakes, Happy Inside, Frosted Mini Wheats, Krave, Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Pop tarts, Eggo, Special K and so on. They have also added Kellogg’s oats or All Bran as a popular breakfast option for the consumers. According to Bhasin (2018), Kellogg’s have studied the consumer habits for breakfast including what they add to their bowl of cornflakes to upgrade its taste and this has brought about them thinking of variations. These variants are not available in abundance in Qatar. However, with cereals like cornflakes and Choco the consumer meets with different breakfast needs.
3. Brand Values: - Kellogg’s is a very competitive company. Providing ready to eat cereals, the company holds number of values such as balanced nutrition, low fat, tasty and high carb which is advertised as the ideal breakfast for health-conscious consumers. According to Rooney (2012), the world’s largest cereal maker which spends more than $1 billion on brand marketing and advertising is fighting for major brand overhaul by bringing innovative ideas to their product and purchasing Pringles for expanding its global footprint in the category of snacks. With its brand value, the company keeps high-presence in Qatar.

Opportunities

1. Changing Lifestyle: - The lifestyle of people is changing with the growth of urban population. According to Bhasin (2018), People tend to look for a quick easy made meal in their fast-paced movement of life. Kellogg’s is a company that offers a meal prepared in advance, with no further preparation or cooking required before being eaten. It makes life much easier and saves time. In Qatar, most of the families are shifting from their traditional breakfast preferences to Western breakfasts like cereals. Change of the preferences in the lifestyle of Qatari citizens is the force that results in an increase in the marker share of cornflakes and cereals.
2. Targeting Hotels & Restaurants: -The company is taking one step in generating their profit in market share and growth by planning to have joint contract with cafes and restaurants. In Qatar, this segment for growth will boost the business of the company.

Weakness

1. Marketing campaigns: Kellogg’s has always been an appealing company to the consumers for their clear messages of the quality cereals through advertisement. Besides all the praises of the company’s breakfast meal-list, the company also faced criticisms and was questioned by the press for adding high amount of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and salt in and boasting the nutrition value. According to Bainbridge (2013), “Cereal giant Kellogg's has again been told to withdraw two television advertisements because they are deemed to be marketing unhealthy food to children” (para. 1).
2. Slow innovation: - Kellogg’s is known to have an extent of competition in the market with its competitors. Despite the fact of competition, the company is slow in diversification and innovation of the contents of the cereals which is one of its weaknesses in the growth.
3. Lack of Sensitivity to culture: Kellogg’s had cases of neglecting the sensitivity of various cultures while manufacturing their product. Low sensitivity accounts for low acceptance in many cultures. Kellogg’s had to rename their popular Bran buds cereal launched in Sweden because it somehow translated to “Burned Farmer”. They also designed Corn pops cereal box that had insensitive racial connotation and confirmed to change it after a person complained.

Threats

1. Government Regulation: Kellogg’s had to give in on government regulations when found the use of excess amount of sugar in the cereals. According to Doha news (2013), “The Ministry of Business and Trade has urged Qatar’s supermarkets to remove Kellogg’s Cornflakes from store shelves, saying it is unfit for human consumption” (para. 2).
2. Competition: Kellogg’s have some notable competitors in Qatari market. Those are Nestle, Quaker Oats Company, Kraft Heinz and so on. The number of cafes in Qatar are increasing and hence people tend to shift to consuming breakfast in café and other food joints.
3. Customer awareness: Customers are very smart and aware of the products they purchase. With the advancement of technology and urbanization in Qatar, people can easily recognize the pros and cons of any product and how it affects one’s personal lifestyle. Kellogg’s cornflakes were taken out of the shelves in the supermarkets of Qatar when the ministry directives found unhealthy signs unfit for human consumption. Kellogg’s had to face criticisms for adding sugar and was told to take out two of their advertisements. It is because the customers recognized the disparity between the advertisement and product message which resulted into negative word of mouth and had negative impact on the lives of their children.

Promotion

The company of Kellogg’s use effective promotional plans under its marketing mix to keep hold of its prospective buyers. Among the five elements of promotional mix, advertising and sales promotion are the key aspects of the company’s marketing mix. Beside the two elements, packaging is also maintained that must provide a representation of the brand identity and appeal to the target market. Kellogg’s focuses on building a strong brand compared to other brands in the market in order to increase sales. The packages are designed with cartoon characters that makes children more likely to buy the product. It introduces some gift items, some solving games like sudoku, crossword, jigsaw puzzles and some prizes in the boxes of cereal boxes as a promotional tool to target children.

Advertisement: Kellogg’s use repetitive advertising message to reinforce the knowledge of cereals to the customers using whole range of media such as posters, radio, cinema, in the press and most recently on the internet. Its cereals are products are considered low involvement hence they try maintaining the quality, keep the shelves full in any market worldwide and consumers can find them in every supermarket which shows that Kellogg’s is trying to make customers involve in the product and makes them feel that they must purchase. Television is used as the main channel for advertising for an individual brand aimed at a target audience. For instance, the special K edition of Kellogg’s cereal is specifically aimed towards women empowering them and helping them to reduce their weight whereas Coco pops, Frosties are aimed at children and Corn Flakes are aimed at the whole family. The content of the advertisement is depended on the target audience. For Kellogg’s marketing campaigns social media is a great tool where the company shares brand messaging of their innovative cereal meals for different special occasions.

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Sales promotion: In order to stimulate interest in buying Kellogg’s cereals, the company uses short-term inducement that results in stimulating sales for that period of time. For example, in Qatar, Kelloggs puts discout on the cereals which makes the customers buy their products. This covers the entire Kellogg’s marketing mix.

The promotional objectives of a company in marketing is basically based on the strategies, aims and goals of its project. The current promotional objective of Kellogg’s originals cereal is customer focus. According to Kellogg’s statement, “It is the company's objective to grow by using customer focused marketing strategy to serve the needs of their target customers, 'potential cereals consumers'.” The company is also being recognized with an objective to provide valuable quality products to customers, to grow and to stand out as a leader in cereals market.

A good communication is an essential element for the company to send out the message they want. The leading cereal company Kellogg’s acts as an encoder who strives to devise communication and plans to convey message of the importance of breakfast to their selected target audience i.e. children through multi-platform campaign. For instance, the company has been involved actively in supporting breakfast clubs in schools for many years in the UK. According to Fernandez (2014), Kellogg’s mentioned that they set up a campaign in UK with the message “Wake up to breakfast” with an aim to get back the families in British into the habit of eating the breakfast by primarily targeting parents and families. The goal of the campaign was to reach out directly to the skippers of breakfast and show them how beneficial it is to start a day with breakfast. Kellogg’s through their promotional message wanted to give message to the people that healthy meal is the best option for maintaining good health. Advertisement of the campaign through television as a medium of broadcast in addition to public relation to get messages to the press was an efficient way to reach out the target audience.

1. References
2. Bainbridge, A. (2013, July 04). Kellogg's ordered to withdraw more TV ads. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-04/kelloggs-ordered-to-withdraw-more-television-ads/4799270
3. Bhasin, H. (2018, March 10). SWOT analysis of Kelloggs - Kelloggs SWOT analysis & internal analysis. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-kelloggs-kelloggs-swot-analysis/
4. Bhasin, H. (2018, March 20). SWOT analysis of Kellogg's Corn Flakes - Kellogg's SWOT analysis. Retrieved from https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-kelloggs-corn-flakes/
5. Dohanews. (2013, April 25). Qatar supermarkets remove Kellogg's Cornflakes from shelves after ministry directive. Retrieved from http://dohanews.tumblr.com/post/48842506715/qatar-supermarkets-remove-kelloggs-cornflakes
6. Fernandez, J. (2014, October 17). Kellogg's encourages consumers to 'Wake Up To Breakfast' – Marketing Week. Retrieved from https://www.marketingweek.com/2010/07/20/kelloggs-encourages-consumers-to-wake-up-to-breakfast/
7. Rooney, J. (2012, May 10). Kellogg's Completes Major Brand Overhaul. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferrooney/2012/05/10/kelloggs-embarks-on-major-brand-overhaul/