CUSTOMIZED CEREAL AT MYCEREAL.COM-- BUT NOT FOR US
Cereal sales have been slumping, but our friends at General Mills have come up with an idea that may boost them: www.mycereal.com, where consumers will be able to customize cereals according to their own tastes and health needs. From among a million possible combinations of texture, taste, ingredients, etc., you'll be able to create your own custom cereal and have it shipped to your home for around a dollar per serving-- which is way more than most of the 250 or so cereals currently on the market, but worth it if you love the stuff, right?
Customized cereal sounds like fun. Only problem is: if you go to www.mycereal.co, right now, you're greeted by a warm picture of a loving mom and her little daughter, a prompt for an access code or password, plus a message saying that General Mills hopes we understand their need to limit users at this time. Oh, you think, I'm apparently not within the target market that General Mills hopes will respond best to this gimmick, or I would have received my access code in my December issue of Redbook, or something like that. But what the heck, you try to continue anyway, assuming that General Mills must be smart enough to have figured out a way to reward those who arrive at the mycereal site from beyond the target market-- say, as a result of positive word-of-mouth. But no. You get a screen asking if the company may notify you when "we're open to the public"-- meaning that they'll be happy to capture your email address but they won't let you play today. (Unlike the custom Nikes site, where you can play to your heart's content with silhouettes, color ways, and amusing personalized inscriptions-- a game that itself builds brand interest and loyalty.)
It's all done very politely, but at mycereal.com you wind up feeling a little excluded from the customized cereal adventure-- and exiled from the embrace of that loving mom. Oh well, you figure, guess I'll just keep to myself (and to my generation!) the great idea that I have for a new breakfast cereal: Eat The Parents, delicious little apron-clad mom and briefcase-toting dad morsels, formulated with higher protein and lower sugar than any other cereal, so it becomes the downright healthiest choice on America's supermarket shelf....
Customized cereal sounds like fun. Only problem is: if you go to www.mycereal.co, right now, you're greeted by a warm picture of a loving mom and her little daughter, a prompt for an access code or password, plus a message saying that General Mills hopes we understand their need to limit users at this time. Oh, you think, I'm apparently not within the target market that General Mills hopes will respond best to this gimmick, or I would have received my access code in my December issue of Redbook, or something like that. But what the heck, you try to continue anyway, assuming that General Mills must be smart enough to have figured out a way to reward those who arrive at the mycereal site from beyond the target market-- say, as a result of positive word-of-mouth. But no. You get a screen asking if the company may notify you when "we're open to the public"-- meaning that they'll be happy to capture your email address but they won't let you play today. (Unlike the custom Nikes site, where you can play to your heart's content with silhouettes, color ways, and amusing personalized inscriptions-- a game that itself builds brand interest and loyalty.)
It's all done very politely, but at mycereal.com you wind up feeling a little excluded from the customized cereal adventure-- and exiled from the embrace of that loving mom. Oh well, you figure, guess I'll just keep to myself (and to my generation!) the great idea that I have for a new breakfast cereal: Eat The Parents, delicious little apron-clad mom and briefcase-toting dad morsels, formulated with higher protein and lower sugar than any other cereal, so it becomes the downright healthiest choice on America's supermarket shelf....
posted by Lucia Toledo at 9:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home