Chapter 10, Question 6.1:

Chapter 10, Question 6.1: Visit Cheerios.com. What is Cheerios doing to compete successfully in its maturity stage?

In their maturity stage, Cheerios has done a great deal to try and attract new customers and retain old ones. Normally, cereal is considered a kid’s meal in the morning but the company is obviously communicating the health benefits for adults on its site to attract or bring back adults to its product line. On their site, they have three of their six images specifically directed at adult consumers (not necessarily adults with children). One is for adults and two are directly related to the heart health benefits that eating cheerios can have. Although many parents are concerned with their children’s heart health, that is not a marketing tactic that would appeal to younger consumers and would not have much of an impact on sales to children.

For parents, cheerios is definitely aiming to communicate that they have a product in their line that kids love and is good for them too. It is obvious that the company is trying to market to kids as much as they are to parents, as ultimately the children will end up driving the consumer decision made by the parents. As a new parent myself, I noticed how cheerios is talking to me about my infant’s health and when she can start sampling cheerios!

In reality, visitors to this site will unlikely be children so it is perfectly understandable that cheerios will market towards parents and adult consumers on their site.