Ocean Spray's brilliant foray into raisin territory by Hal Brown
4/19/00 On the front of the Oatmeal Crisp Raisin cereal from General Mills is a coupon offer to buy one 6 oz. bag of Craisins for up to $2.09 and get one free. The copy is located smack dab in the middle of a tiny cup of cereal (look at the size of the spoon). This makes the raisins appear much larger than they really are. Okay, a little "poetic license." But the point is that the Craisins offer obscures nearly a third of the cereal. If you think the front of the box is giving an advantage to cranberries, turn the box over. The entire reverse side is devoted to cranberries. The copy reads: "If you enjoy the delicious flavor of these General Mills cereals, you'll love discovering Craisins® sweetened dried cranberries from Ocean Spray.® Just like your favorite General Mills cereal, Craisins® sweetened dried cranberries taste great anytime. They're delicious by the handful, or great in your favorite recipes." Unsaid in words, but suggested visually, is that you can also add Craisins to cereal. Notice that four small boxes of General Mills cereals are surrounded by tasty looking cranberries. One is Raisin Nut Bran. A consumer can easily buy Craisins and add them to a raisin cereal. From an economic and taste viewpoint, it makes sense for consumers to buy their raisins and Craisins separately to add to cereal. The more consumers that do this, the better for both the cranberry and raisin industry. But there is still a huge market for cereals with added dried fruit. People think nothing of slicing a fresh banana into a bowl of cereal, but for some reason seem less likely to add dried fruit. For years the number one fruit in cereal has been raisins. Now, with the advent of sweetened dried cranberries, the cranberry industry has a chance to change this. The Ocean Spray promotion and advertising of Craisins on a raisin cereal box is nothing short of brilliant. How they pulled this off with General Mills may be one for the history of advertising. I doubt that the raisin folks are pleased with this. There are seven, count them, seven raisins, pictured on the box. There are well over a hundred fresh cranberries and three Craisin packages*. The word raisin appears three times, the word Craisins appears six times as does the word cranberries. *a fourth Craisin package is picture on one of the ends of the box but I'm not counting that in the totals.
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