Kellogg's looking at new cereal boxes

Posted Jan 31st 2009 9:30AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Marketing and Advertising, Kellogg Co (K)

Looking back at the first month of the new year, I realize that the wife and I did quite a bit of "uncluttering": bags of old clothes donated to the local Goodwill, a complete makeover of the toy storage in the kids' room, a new home office, and a total restructuring of closets. Sound like fun to you? I know, it wasn't a blast, but the new space is nice.

Seems like cereal producer Kellogg (NYSE: K) is looking to help unclutter grocery store shelves and your cabinets by producing what is called a space-saving cereal box. Think about it, where do you store your cereal boxes? We have an older house with smaller cabinets, so the cereal boxes have found their way to the top of the refrigerator; however, Kellogg's new offering certainly seems as if it would work with our storage space. The shorter and fatter (which is how many people compare me to this guy) box will hold the same amount of your corn flakes or mini wheats, but with a smaller carbon footprint (Al Gore will certainly thank the company).

According to AdvertisingAge.com, Kellogg is testing the improved cereal box in Detroit. This tinkering is the first major change to Kellogg's packaging since the 1950s. The food firm is proposing the change because it believes that both consumers and retailers want to save room. Kellogg's Kim Miller (vice president of morning foods marketing) stated, "The test of this new space-saving packaging is part of our ongoing commitment to identify solutions that help us meet the needs of our retail partners and consumers."

Don't look for the space-friendly packaging at your local grocery anytime soon; the Detroit test is expected to last six months. After the test, Kellogg will gather comments from retailers and consumers in hopes of putting together a national rollout. It will be interesting to see what Detroit thinks of the new boxes. God knows they can't be any worse than the Lions.

Tags: cereal box, cereals, K, kellogg, kelloggs

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-31-2009 @ 1:06PM

dmsm95363 said...

This may allegedly change the 'carbon footprint', BUT not necessarily; it only changes the shape, not the volume. Making the box partially out of recycled material may do that, but then again the natural resources used in recycling are more wasteful the use of trees farmed for paper product use.

1-31-2009 @ 1:35PM

joan said...

Sounds more like a gimmick than a consumer issue. It is none of Kellogg's concern what is placed "on top of the refrigerator". Just a ploy to increase cereal prices.