Apple Jacks

Case Study

By: Scott Butler, Sierra Dungan, Josh Jacobs, Mauricio Mora, Mike Moran

Table of Contents

History

History......................................................................................................................................2

In the mid 1960s MIT student William Thilly invented a kids cereal that was flavored by apples,
cinnamon, and refined sugars. The cereal, even though it didnt taste like apples, was sold
by Kelloggs as Apple Os in 1965. In 1971 the name was changed to Apple Jacks a multigrained cereal with apple and cinnamon. Over the years the Os have become brighter
orange and had several promotional shapes. However, in 1988 green Os were added to
the box and currently remain as part of the cereal. The formula for the cereal has changed
slightly over the years with the most significant change being the addition of more fiber.
Apple Jacks has spawned one spinoff called Cinnamon jacks introduced in 2013.

Mission, Goals, Objectives ....................................................................................................2

Past IMC..................................................................................................................................3
Present IMC ............................................................................................................................5
Target Audience....................................................................................................................6
Copy .......................................................................................................................................7
Financial Details.....................................................................................................................7
Competitors............................................................................................................................8
Effects of Sales........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion / Creative Brief....................................................................................................9
Sources .................................................................................................................................10

Mission, Goals, Objectives

Kelloggs has a vision and purpose to promote ideas through foods and to create a positive
message. Through integrity, accountability, passion, humility, simplicity and a focus on success,
Kelloggs have created a vibrant company culture where ideas can blossom, people can
thrive and success can flourish.
Kelloggs vision and purpose, as stated on their website:
Our Vision: To enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter.
Our Purpose: Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive.
We are a company of promise and possibilities. Each day represents a fresh opportunity to
share Our Vision, live Our Purpose.
By being mindful and committed to these ideals, we uphold our founders dedication to
people and their well-being. And we promote an environment where we can push beyond
boundaries and across borders to create foods and brands that help to fuel the best in
everyone everywhere.
It is this belief that brings us together and sets us apart.

Past IMC
The first Apple Jacks mascot in the 1960s was Apple Guy, an apple with a brimmed hat, a
smile cut into the side, and a couple pieces of cereal for eyes.

Around 1971, the official mascots became The Apple Jacks Kids, a simplistically drawn
animated boy and girl duo. The commercials featured the children singing and tumbling
around. Their reign lasted for twenty-one years, making them the most well-known Apple
Jacks mascots. During this time, the Apple Jacks jingle became an integral part of the ad
campaign: A is for apple, J is for Jacks, Cinnamon-toasty Apple Jacks! The Apple Jacks
kids campaign finally retired in the late 1980s.

Starting in 1992, there was an advertising campaign that featured children expressing their
enjoyment of Apple Jacks, regardless of its lack of apple flavor. The slogan for this campaign
became We eat what we like. The shift toward marketing cereals directly at children
signaled the growing recognition of childrens influence on family purchases. After each
commercial, the group of children would pose for a group Polaroid.

This photo comes from one of the first Apple Jacks commercials and depicts a young boy that
has been picked on by bullies. The Apply Guy suggests that the boy eat some Apple Jacks
to gain energy. After the boy eats the Apple Jacks, he has enough energy and courage to
stand up to the bullies. The Apply Guy then sings a jingle with the lyrics a bowl a day keeps
the bullies away. A concurrent tagline stated that Apple Jacks will not be sold to bullies,
but how or whether that platform was ever put into practice is subject to debate.

Present IMC

Target Audience

As of 2004, the marketing mascots are a care-free Jamaican cinnamon stick named CinnaMon
and an accident-prone apple named Bad Apple. Labeled as Apple Jacks Adventures in
print advertising, the commercials focus on CinnaMon upstaging Bad Apple by reaching
a bowl of Apple Jacks before he can, in spite of the apples attempts to stop him. Due to
legal troubles, Bad Apples antagonistic nature was dropped; Apple and CinnaMon were
then portrayed as highly competitive friends. The campaign was slated to be retired in 2007,
and replaced by a retread of the 1990s campaign focused on children, but fan response to
Apple and CinnaMon helped them remain as the mascots.

Apple Jacks is clearly targeted toward the non-adult demographic. Its official website is full
of games geared toward children. The ads feature children and teens and characters that
appeal to them. Kelloggs has implied that this brand is for kids, but research statistics paint
an even more detailed picture.
Statistics are provided by MRI-Plus which help give a more fleshed-out view of how Apple
Jacks are purchased and consumed. While details specifically pertaining to the Apple Jacks
brand are scanty, the details on the consumption of cold breakfast cereals in general are
telling. Women are by far the main purchasers of childrens cereals such as Apple Jacks
(with an index number of 108 versus 84 for men). This would imply that children are what is
termed as an influencer, or in other words, the primary target that influences a secondary
target to buy. In this case, children have little or no buying power, so Apple Jacks hopes to
convince children to persuade their mothers to buy the product on their behalf.
This is further illustrated by the fact that these women are mostly mothers of young adult to
middle-aged status. The demographic of women 18-49 is by far the highest of both genders
and all age groups (index number of 120). Women in this age group are often mothers of
young children and adolescents. This will be further illustrated by the statistic showing that
these women mostly have children aged six years to seventeen years (index number of
125 for six to eleven and 124 for twelve to seventeen). These children, aged six through
seventeen are, therefore, the primary target audience of Apple Jacks.
Other interesting facts provided by the data are that most women with purchasing power are
married mothers of white or other race and of middle to upper middle class socioeconomic
status.

Kellogg introduced the first food company child-targeted advergame app for mobile
phones and tablets: Apple Jacks Race to the Bowl Rally.

Copy

Competitors

Apple Jacks copy in their advertisements is kept relatively simple. Both print and TV ads
revolve around the portrayal of the delicious blend between apple and cinnamon, and
targeted young children and early teenagers. From the late 1960s to the late 1970s the
cereals slogan implied that a bowl a day keeps the bullies away, and that Apple Jacks
will not be sold to bullies, but has since changed its stance. From 1971 1992 the ads were
focused on solely promoting the brand name.

Since apple Jacks is a brand of cereal produced by Kelloggs mainly targeted at children.
Their main competitors are other Kelloggs cereals targeted towards children, and other
ceral brands like General Mills and Post.

In 1992 Apple Jacks shifted its focus again to young teenagers eating Apple Jacks, We eat
what we like and We just do were the answers to questions relating to why they ate that
kind of cereal. In 2004, the focus shifted once more, targeting young children. These ads
featured an animated cinnamon stick with a Jamaican accent and laid-back attitude and
an apple with a crabby attitude. In each TV ad the cinnamon stick and apple race toward
a bowl full of Apple Jacks while arguing about which flavor is the best.

Kelloggs

$14,580,000

$14,792,000$

$14,197,000

$13,198,000

General Mills

$17,909,600

$17,774,100

$16,657,900

$14,880,200

Post

$2,411,100

$1,034,100

$958,900

$968,200

The current print ads rely heavily on the Apple Jacks logo and product photography, body
copy is kept to a minimum. The color scheme plays off of the brown color of cinnamon, and
the green and red of the apple. Recently, the animated apple and cinnamon stick, along
with their arguments, have become a familiar part of the copy.

Financial Details
Apple Jacks cereal has been a part of the publically share owned Kelloggs Co. since its
inception in 1965. Kelloggs is very private when it comes to its financial matters and will
not give out that kind of information easily. However Kelloggs does publish a press release
and an annual quarterly report of their overall financial status and dealings. As of May 2014,
Kelloggs has 30,277 employees worldwide with an annual revenue of $14.8 Billion, and was
placed by Forbes Magazine as the 65th most valued brand in the world.

Looking at the income statement of each company:

Total Revenue
1/3/2015 12/28/2013 12/29/2012 12/31/2011

Effects of Sales
Kelloggs sales continue to decline. Sales are declining because of the views on health and
wellness rather than economic pressure. Sales at Kelloggs most important business, U.S.
Morning Foods, fell 4.8% to $841 million, while U.S. snacks sales fell 4.2% to $849 million. The
company is looking for ways to improve their products and launch more healthy products.
The company said it was hiring 150 additional salespeople to work on improved store displays
for its cereals.
The company also is cutting back on production capacity, closing some factories and
eliminating up to 7% of its global workforce over the next few years.

In addition to the companys commitment to enrich and delight the world through foods
and brands that matter by nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive, Kelloggs also
believes in providing everyone with equal opportunities and has been heavily involved with,
and a major contributor in, multiple campaigns for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
(LGBT) equality, human and equal rights, and ethical policies.

Conclusion/ Creative Brief

Sources

Apple Jacks is a brand with room to grow. Over the years, its strength has waxed and waned,
but it has stayed near the forefront of Kelloggs product line. Apple Jacks has been around for
50 years and still appeals to children and teenagers, its primary target audience. The brand
has a diverse history in terms of advertising strategy, especially where it relates to copywriting.
Financially, Kelloggs remains strong enough to maintain the brand and continue promoting
it. Apple Jacks is often controversial because it is the cereal that is said not to taste like its
namesake, the apple. Kelloggs never seems to know quite what to do with the brand for
that reason, and has experimented with names and advertising based on that conundrum.
Either way, Apple Jacks has held onto its popularity with children and adolescents, and signs
indicate it will continue to do so.

http://www.appato.com/kellogg-north-america/apple-jacks-race-to-the-bowl-rally/
http://www.cerealfacts.org/media/cereal_facts_report_summary_2012_7.12.pdf
http://www.cerealfacts.org/media/FACTS-Sheets-pdfs/AppleJacksFACTS.pdf
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Jacks
http://www.exit1a.us/2013/01/21/the-jack-on-apple-jacks/
http://www.forbes.com/companies/kellogg/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/best-cereals-in-order_n_4618762.html
http://www.investor.kelloggs.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
http://www.kelloggcompany.com/en_US/awards-and-recognition.html
http://www.kelloggcompany.com/en_US/our-values.html
http://www.kelloggcompany.com/en_US/our-vision-purpose.html
http://www.kellogghistory.com/history.html
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/cereal_detail.asp?id=13
http://www.retroland.com/apple-jacks/
http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/kellogg.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2jLv6_0Fz8

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