Question: International Marketing Kellogg's Corn Flakes Packaging Analysis

There are several goals to this assignment.

1) To understand the importance of packaging in global marketing

2) To gain insights into global branding decisions

3) To make inferences about the decisions that influenced package design and decisions

Specifically, this assignment asks you to minutely analyze the Kellogg's Corn Flakes packages from two different countries. Think of your primary analysis as that similar to an autopsy. An autopsy is a detailed medical examination in which a physician looks at everything within a person to determine a cause of death. While we are not dealing with something so life shattering, we are attempting to look carefully and thoughtfully about all the details what Kellogg's has designed into its corn flakes packaging. A foundational assumption is that everything, and I do mean everything, has a reason for being included on each corn flakes box. After all, marketing is intentional. Your primary goal to analyze why everything is there and to determine similarities and differences between your two corn flakes boxes.

In every country, food products are regulated, although the degree of regulation can differ substantially. An important part of this analysis is to understand country regulations that pertain to packaged foods. To the degree possible, research this. Regulation may pertain to consumer information, the kinds of statements one can make on the packaging, the materials, sizes, etc. This helps us understand one of the constraints to which packaging must respond.

This analysis also goes to the very heart of global marketing and branding decisions: There must be some continuity elements across markets if the brand is to a coherent, global meaning. Yet every market/country is different and may require some adaptation. This is the perfect place to reflect on our readings related to consumer-brand relationships and the standardization-localization dilemma. Consider similarities as well as differences in the pictures, wording, and placement of information on the two packages.

After you have completed your detailed analysis, please make some marketing inferences about what global marketing management decisions stood behind or shaped these decisions. Of course, you cannot know with absolute certainty why Kellogg's made the decisions they did. This is proprietary information. You can, however, use your research skills and your intelligence to make some well-informed inferences about why they did what they did. Informed inferences should be guided by some research.

Some things you might want to consider are:

• Role the of cereal in the eating habits of each country

• Demographics of target market(s)

• Target market income levels

• Kellogg's marketing strategy: gain market share; maintain market share; introductory state of PLC

• Target market(s) shopping habits

• Kellogg's Corn Flakes position strategy relative to competing cereals or substitute products

You can also gain contextual information from looking at Kellogg's Corn Flakes advertisements online. You can also gain insight by looking at Kellogg's Annual Reports and Kellogg's filings with the SEC.

Please make sure you have translated your corn flakes box. Creativity in finding native speakers may be needed.

Paper: 1) Describe in detail the similarities and differences between your two packages

2) Relate these similarities and differences to global branding. What is Kellogg's global branding strategy as you see expressed in your packages? This may link with point 3 below.

3) Describe the copy strategy for each box. Are the product benefits the same? Are there subtle or some not so subtle differences between the copy?

4) Place both of your corn flakes boxes in some wider context: perhaps a cultural context; perhaps a competitive context; perhaps a target market strategy.

5) What "ahas" or insights did you gain through your analysis?