Kellogs Case Study

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.