In the world of pancakes the leading brand in the industry was Quaker Oats brand Aunt Jeminma Pancakes. In 1956 this well-known company decided to introduce a new product call Aunt Jemima’s New Deluxe Buttermilk Pancakes and expanded its flavors to include cornbread, coffee, and buckwheat. To promote the regular and buckwheat mixes, and to entice peoples demand for pancakes, they also developed a national advertising campaign themed, “Perfect Pancakes in 10 Shakes.” With this campaign they offered a free shaker upon the return of three box tops, one from each flavor of pancakes. However, this campaign produced unsuccessful results. The problem was that in order to get the free shaker, people had to buy all three mixes. This was entirely to many pancakes for families to eat and they couldn’t just rip off the box tops because the mix would then go bad. Also, once you had the shaker you didn’t need another one; therefore it was a very short-term incentive. The campaign was just not practical. In response to the poor success rate, Quaker Oats introduced a new campaign which allowed a free shaker when you sent in one box top from the New Deluxe Buttermilk Pancakes. With this change sales jumped from $9000 to $80,000 in the yeas 1956 to 1958. Another direction they could have turned would have been to create variety packs, like you find with cereal. Then they could have turned in all 3 tops but not had an overwhelming amount of pancake mix. This also, would have gotten people to taste all three kinds. To continue this success in the long run, Quaker Oats need to promote a new Campaign. After the consumers have the shaker the new incentive to Quaker Oats should offer is “buy two get one free” deal. However, some people may not already have the shaker, so it should be sold on shelve stores. This way Quaker Oats gain financially from the sales of the shakers, the consumers benefit from a free mix, and Quaker maintains the competitive edge over other companies. In additional to the campaign, “Buy 2 get 1 free,” Quaker Oats needs to continue with new and original advertising and marketing techniques. They need to differentiate their product. This is key during the summer months because sales drop during the summer and increase in the winter, partly due to the fact that pancakes are associated with cold weather and warm food. For example, they could offer free Christmas cookie cutter designs in every box. They could make coupons for free bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup with a purchase of the New Deluxe Buttermilk Pancake Mix. They should focus their advertising to mothers and grandmothers because they are the ones buying the product. They could do this by advertisements in woman’s magazines and television commercials during soap operas. In addition they could put advertisements in Saturday morning cartoons to create interest in the children who will beg their mothers to buy the pancakes. In conclusion, after they worked out the kinks, the “Perfect Pancakes in 10 Shakes,” campaign was a huge success. Quaker needs to continue to improve their campaign ideas. I feel the introduction of, “but two get one free,” would be successful as well as selling he shaker in stores would add revenue. Creating these new advertising techniques will allow Quaker Oats to have a competitive advantage and increase revenues. Patrick Flaherty
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