Kellogg's Vs Post
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago during the
depression of America
in the late 1920’s there were two main brands of packaged cereal, Post and
Kellogg’s.
When the depression hit no one had any idea what would
happen, as the concept of ready to eat packaged cereals was still a relatively
new market and perhaps more of a luxury item when placed next to the more
traditional cereals of the day such as oatmeal and cream of wheat.
Post went ahead and did what most companies tend to do when
things get tough and predictably reigned their expenses and slashed their
advertising budget.
Interestingly Kellogg’s looked ahead and doubled their
advertising spend, they came up with the Snap Crackle and Pop campaign for Rice
Krispies and aggressively marketed all their brands across the country, by 1933
Kellogg’s became the industry’s leader, a position they have maintained to this
very day.
How to stand out
When everyone is advertising at full throttle it can be very
difficult and expensive to stand out from the crowd. When everyone has reigned
in their advertising, you can get a huge return on investment, and if done
properly with a full service design agency it could be the
safest bet you ever made.
So are you a Post or a Kellogg’s?
Are you ready to rush out, start advertising and marketing
your way out of the recession, well if not, you should be. A study of
advertising during the recession of 1981-1982 revealed those companies who maintained or increased their advertising
budgets grew precipitously over the next 3 years compared to those companies who
had slashed budgets and enjoyed only marginal improvements.
It is true that recessions usually make the strong stronger
and the weak weaker. The weak will focus on surviving, and while money in the
bank certainly helps in these leaner times, its the bold ones who can establish
themselves as market leaders even leap-frogging their way to the top!
So which are you, or should I say which will you be?