Grape Nuts: New Advertising Campaign Targets Men

Wall Street Journal chronicles that finally they figure out that men have some say about the food we eat!

The Wall Street Journal article starts with a subheading that says that the new Post Cereal campaign aimed at men marks a departure for cereal advertising campaigns.

(Now let's make it clear: the type advertising being talked about here is what I call "Teaching Frogs How To Drink Beer." I won't go into the whole topic (you can listen to what I said before on my GetThemOffTheRaftMarketing.com site:

This is NOT the type marketing I suggest for most entrepreneurs, but it is what car companies and even cereal companies use.)

But we're told that to revive the crunchy Post Foods Grape Nuts, marketing geniuses have come up with cheeky commercials aimed at men.

"That Takes Grape Nuts" is the catch phrase as if the cereal were ubiquitous and we'd all know what that meant. We don't. And I wonder how many people will be lured to a magic website where lots of 2-minute videos will show how many circumstances call for "That Takes Grape Nuts" fortitude.

And to butch up the site to be sure that real men will feel comfortable watching videos about and talking about cereal, they pack the website with tips on restoring vintage cars and other macho topics.

And the print campaign will run in Sports Illustrated featuring men fishing and golfing.

HOWEVER… as silly as it all sounds, learning that this is the first time cereal isn't aimed at Mom and her kids made me wonder:

What the heck have they been waiting for?

The article points out that Grape Nuts is mostly eaten by men, but there has never been an advertising campaign reinforcing that – like all the other cereals, advertising has been aimed at women figuring that they do most of the grocery shopping.

What – I can't make up my own mind about what I want to eat and either write it on the grocery list or ask my wife to shop for it when she goes weekly after church (and visiting my folks for lunch at their retirement community) each Sunday?

And if the reason for my eating it were compelling enough, I'd stop myself to get some.

"Men will be entertained by the ad, but is it going to influence their purchase if they aren't the ones doing the shopping" asks Kristi Faulkner, a principal at Womenkind, a specialist New York Marketing firm.

Grape Nuts sales dropped 15% during the year ending February 22, 2009 while for the same time frame All Bran saw sales rise 30%. (But they admit that marketing was way down – estimated at $1.9 million in 2008 vs a projected $5 million in 2009.)

See that's the problem with Teaching Frogs How To Drink Beer marketing – you need millions to get people to remember you.

What strikes me here, other than institutional advertising doesn't work much of the time, is that advertising executives feel (or their "research" has shown them) that men have NO influence over what they eat for breakfast.

Hey – if you want me to eat something, tell me about it, let me taste it, smell it, see how good it makes me feel and I will be the one to decide that I want to eat it.

My wife can decide for herself and I will decide for me.

Wow – A whole article on the front page of the Media & Marketing section of the Wall Street Journal telling us that for years men have eaten breakfast according to what someone else told them to eat.

Hey, it's the 21st Century. Let's respect men, let them eat what THEY want, and let's see if your pleasing them will generate money for you.

We're big boys now – we can decide important things like "what cereal am I going to eat today" by ourselves.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad, succeeding in this economy

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