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
Unique-Frequency 
May 11, 2008 at 12:00 am |
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.
May 11, 2008 at 12:08 am |
*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)
May 11, 2008 at 12:13 am |
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.
May 12, 2008 at 12:52 am |
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 =)
May 12, 2008 at 1:12 pm |
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*
May 12, 2008 at 4:23 pm |
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.
May 12, 2008 at 11:17 pm |
@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!
August 9, 2008 at 3:33 pm |
i was at jason’s at raffles city just yesterday, and even though i saw some general mills cereal like cheerios and capt crunch (at super inflated prices of 9-12 bucks a pop),
i couldn’t find Lucky Charms!
*WAILS* its gone.. gone forever..
August 15, 2008 at 3:25 pm |
i went jason’s at raffles city yesterday, it’s not there anymore. i check with the sales people there said they don’t remember having lucky charms on their shelves.
HAI
August 15, 2008 at 3:42 pm |
@Alexis and @May: I can’t believe this post is still getting comments 3 months later! Did you guys run a search for lucky charms or something? lol! and they DID have it! At least for awhile! Cos I had two boxes!
August 15, 2008 at 5:14 pm |
haha. ya man. did a search for it and is doing it right now too. just cannot give up. haha. Aniwae when was the last time u manage to get your hands on those?
August 15, 2008 at 5:21 pm |
@May: Haha interesting! I’ve moved my blog to http://uniquefrequency.com btw, if you’re interested 😉 I got them at about the same time I blogged this entry, which was in May. They didn’t last very long 😉