How Would You Help Lucky Charms?
May 10, 2008 – 11:54 pm | by Daryl Tay
I know there is a percentage of the population who misses Lucky Charms. That cereal with the marshmallows in the shape of four leaf clovers and horseshoes and stuff like that. I know that because when we were in New York over the December holidays, a group of us consumed it like it wasn’t from this earth. I don’t know why, but the cereal mysteriously disappeared years ago, never to be seen again. I don’t know about you, but Froot Loops took the place of my favourite cereal. Guess I just like some colour in my cereal.
Interestingly, my girlfriend e-mailed the major retailers in Singapore and couldn’t find the reason why it was stopped, but confirmed the fact that none of them were bringing it in.
Until two weeks ago.
Jason’s Marketplace at Raffles City is apparently bringing it in, as well as a whole line of cereal from the same brand.
So the question is twofold: What would you do if you were the agency tasked to bring Lucky Charms in and generate some sales? After all, unless you’re looking out for it, it would be just one of the 34,632 other cereal boxes on the shelves.
And from the other side of the coin, what would you do if you were a consumer wanting your sorely-missed Lucky Charms to reach the shores of Singapore again?
Remember, it’s not about whether it would work, it’s about how you’d use social media from either side of the fence. Or maybe… you wouldn’t use social media at all?
Tags: cereal, cereal in singapore, froot loops, lucky charms, marshmallow cereal, Singapore, social media
7 Responses to “How Would You Help Lucky Charms?”
By Derrick Kwa on May 11, 2008 | Reply
Personally, I wouldn’t. I think it’d be a meatball sundae, to use Seth Godin’s term. Breakfast cereals are kind of a commodity, and using social media won’t really help much. Just my personal opinion, of course.
By Daryl Tay on May 11, 2008 | Reply
*Gasp* No way. I think Lucky Charms is the definition of “remarkable”! At least compared to “normal” cereal. For me at least the story is there and the love is there. That’s like saying diapers are a commodity and not bothering to reach out to the very influential mommy bloggers? (Btw could be personal interpretation, but I think Seth’s meatball sundae refers to organistion fit rather than product fit. Like you can’t smash new marketing to a company that believes in old marketing, regardless of how non-commoditised the product is)
By celestephua on May 11, 2008 | Reply
I dunno about the rest… i love these marshmallow cereals… the rainbow colored ones… nice…. *drool*
With regards to whether social media can help, i honestly think it will help in terms of getting the conversation going, but whether or not the retailers will pay attention… that is another question.
By Daryl Tay on May 12, 2008 | Reply
Haha you can tell the difference between each marshmallow colour, Celeste? I’m impressed! I’m in line with your line of thinking, that’s why I qualified by saying it’s not about whether it would work, but what could we do anyway. We could start a Facebook group and collect 1million people and it might still not work if the Lucky Charms brand isn’t even looking, but it would still be an amazing feat! Thanks for dropping by =)
By daphnemaia on May 12, 2008 | Reply
i have never tried these. my fave cereal has got to be quaker’s honey graham o’s. other than that, i only eat boring muesli. but they are delicious!
wrt ur FB grp idea, i think it’s definitely a gd plan, bcos everyone is doing FB marketing these days. whether or not it actually works, is an entirely different matter. but what u cld do after getting like 1 million people to sign up, wld be to send it to several retailers. n what happens thereafter isn’t really within ur control anyway.
OR u cld start a business to import cereal. haha. i love cereal.
*scoots off to look for muesli in the HR department fridge*
By Derrick Kwa on May 12, 2008 | Reply
I dunno. My reasoning for being on the fence is this.
Most people aren’t looking for a new breakfast cereal (imo anyway). To rephrase Seth, most people don’t have a “breakfast cereal” problem. And to most people, I would think that their breakfast cereal is more of a habit than something they think/talk about often. They don’t go searching for new breakfast cereals, they have no reason to.
Of course, there will be an audience of people who like Lucky Charms. And you can start a FB group, etc. But the people that you’ll reach are people who are already your customers. It could help in terms of understanding their current customers, PR, etc. But I have doubts as to whether you can actually reach new customers.
Or maybe it’s just me, because I’m not much of a breakfast person. =P. Haha.
By Daryl Tay on May 12, 2008 | Reply
@Daphne: Yeah exactly. I guess the purpose of the post isn’t about results, but the how. Cos there really is very little control over this stuff! It could be many things. A Facebook group, a Flickr stream, Youtube channel… doesn’t end! Whether people notice, as you’ve rightly pointed out, is an entirely different story all together.
@DerricK: The whole premise about social media is you reach out to the passionate 10% and use them to influence the other 90% right? Actually you’re right, I’d say most people don’t have a cereal problem, but I’m one of those who loves to experiment with cereal and pick up new flavours. It’s all about who the audience is I guess!