Case Study
What would you do with this business?
We just published a case study about an advertising copywriter, Chris Pouy, who was tired of buffing the brands of others and started his own company, Cow Wow, to sell fun, cereal-flavored milks to children ages 5 to 12. In late 2012, Mr. Pouy introduced Fruity Trudy and Chocolate Chip Cathy near the company’s Los Angeles offices.
A distributor got Cow Wow into convenience stores and gas stations. Mr. Pouy landed Legoland and the Los Angeles Zoo. And then, months before he would sign a deal to place his product in 900 Kroger supermarkets, a funny thing happened. The late-night host Jimmy Kimmel riffed on Cow Wow in his monologue. The free nationwide publicity continued with glowing mentions in Cosmopolitan magazine and on BuzzFeed.
But the unexpected product endorsements and praise were directed at millennials, whereas Mr. Pouy had branded and packaged his organic, 1-percent, naturally flavored milks for elementary and middle school children. He couldn’t help but wonder: Had he picked the wrong audience? Later, when sales in Kroger fell short of expectations while 15 cases of Cow Wow sold out quickly at a college food court, Mr. Pouy felt compelled to rethink his business plan. He came up with three possible courses of action:
Stay the course and stick with the original target audience. Change course, follow the buzz and the sales, and rebrand the product for millennials. Or adopt a hybrid strategy and try to market to both age groups simultaneously by creating two distinct marketing campaigns.
Below, you’ll see the recommendations provided by three company founders with relevant food industry experience and insights. Please read the case study and use the comment section below to offer your advice. Next week, we will reveal in a follow-up post what Mr. Pouy decided to do.
Seth Goldman, co-founder and chief executive of Honest Tea: “At 150 calories per 8.5 ounces — roughly 50 percent more calories than low-fat milk — this isn’t a product that should be marketed to kids. Mr. Pouy is better off promoting his drink toward the millennials that are already gravitating toward his drinks. He should invest in field marketing efforts on campuses where students can enjoy the drinks as an occasional chance to reconnect with their childhood.”
Kara Goldin, founder and chief executive of Hint, a brand of flavored water: “I recommend focusing on a single target market. A cereal-flavored milk for the college market? I doubt it. But if that is your market, move out of the Tetra boxes and into a wide-mouth resealable bottle. And millennials young and old do care about ingredients, not just calories. And don’t settle for just any space in the stores you get into. If moms are your market, be where moms will look in the store. In the milk section is O.K., but how about in the cereal isle? Or in the baby/kid food section?”
Doug Hall, founder and chief executive of Eureka Ranch, a consulting firm that helps companies create innovative products: “My advice is to stop being greedy. You have found a group of people who love Cow Wow. Focus 100 percent of your energy on millennials. Our research has found that presweetened cereals would have a hard time being introduced today. They exist only because they are ‘grandfathered in’ through the memories of older people. Let millennials adopt and own it. Then let diffusion of the innovation pull the product to the mass market.”
What do you think?