In
October 2012 Kellogg’s launched its ‘Help
give a child a breakfast’ campaign. It devised a communication plan which
outlined the way the company wanted to gets its message across to the public.
Kellogg’s has been a leader in health and nutrition for more than 100 years so
their interest in setting up this campaign for children was a very logical
step.
They
wanted to set this up as a way of helping children to have a good breakfast
before they went to school every day as research showed that the normal food
that children eat going to school is junk such as crisps and fizzy drinks.
Kellogg’s
supports breakfast clubs in schools for many years. Since 1998, they have set
up 500 breakfast clubs in schools across the UK. They give training to staff
and also offer a start-up grant to help with costs. Many schools have had to
stop breakfast clubs in schools because of budget cuts to schools in the UK.
Kellogg’s wanted to show the public how important breakfast is to children and
how much these breakfast clubs help them so Kellogg’s came up with a
communication plan.
The key
steps in the communication process are the (1) sender (2) encoding (3)
message/media (4) decoding (5) receiver (6) response and (7) feedback. It is
important to identify the message that you want to send and decide on the type
of media that you want to portray your message over .i.e. Television, leaflets
and adverts. You must try and eliminate the communication "noise"
that could hinder your message being received correctly by the target audience.
The noise that Kellogg’s faced were the other companies who also support
breakfast clubs could dilute their campaign and message. At the time of the
launch of the campaign the government spending review was high profile in the
news which could have meant their message being overlooked as not important.
Two
benefits of the strategy the Kellogg’s used by using a multi-platform campaign
was that the message of awareness about the benefits of children have a goof
breakfast was seen my more people. The media that they used appealed to
different people in different jobs and situations across the country. Kellogg’s
used formal and informal communication to target specific people, in their
formal communication Kellogg’s contacted MP’s and send out a press release. The
informal communication tactics that they used were more of a spontaneous
nature. It was more face to face communication, employees talking over coffee
and then going to breakfast clubs around schools. There is a downside to
informal communication as messages can be passed around incorrectly which can
lead to rumours which can cause the message to be mistrusted or disregarded.
Kellogg's
launched a viral advertisement on television of
the benefits of breakfast. You can watch it here: http://youtu.be/7BpASuPgEUQ
Kellogg's
campaign reached many people the two audiences that I have identified are
schools and parents.
Kellogg's used
its campaign to encourage schools to hold Breakfast clubs in its schools. They
highlighted that there was grant funding available to help with costs. The
campaign showed schools how important having a breakfast was for children as it
improved their concentration and behaviour in class. This in turn
made it easier for teachers to get more work done as there was less disruption
in class.
The
second audience were the parents of the children. The campaign
demonstrated
Kellogg's
socially responsible stance and informed them how the Breakfast clubs could
support their children. It highlighted the need that their children required a
balanced breakfast every day before they went to school and that giving them
"junk" food such as crisps and fizzy drinks as
a substitute only hindered their concentration and performance in
schools. The media I think would best portray this would be a leaflet
given out to each parent highlighting the message of the campaign and
information on the benefits of a balanced breakfast for their children.
I think
the campaign will go a long way in changing the press and public opinion about
breakfast and breakfast clubs as they have had a very solid communication plan
from the beginning. Kellogg’s has used so many different media platforms such
as television, internet and social media and different written communications
to communicate their message of healthy breakfasts for children and their
support of Breakfast clubs across the Country.
