Foundation Issues

Trader Joe’s has launched Neapolitan Puffs, a chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavored cereal made with beans and brown rice. Wegman’s, the American east coast supermarket chain, has launched Vanilla O’s and Chocolate O’s cereals made from a mix of garbanzo beans, navy beans and red lentils.

So What?
Legumes in cereal are not new. A number of small companies, most notably Love Grown Foods, have been producing breakfast cereals made of garbanzo, lentil and navy bean for several years now. However, with a few minor acceptations, the big 3 (Kellogg’s, General Mills and Post) haven’t shifted away from grains as their main carbohydrate. That’s what makes this move by two retailer brands so interesting.

While historically retailers have used their own brands to copy big manufacturers, those days are ending. Today, retailers are innovating, creating new to the world offerings based on their own consumer insights. For that reason, big cereal companies should be alarmed because, when faced with creating a new breakfast cereal (without the need to utilize existing capital), these brands choose beans over grains. What should that tell us?

Since its inception, cereal has been seen as healthy. Oats, wheat and corn were hearty, wholesome grains that were made easier to eat by breakfast cereal processing. Prior to the 1950’s, most breakfast cereal was just that, cereal grains. However, in the 1950’s pre-sweetened cereal (and its accompanying mascots and bright colors) bifurcated the breakfast cereal landscape into two camps: healthy and fun.

As mainstream grain has become stigmatized and even demonized by recent diet trends, the once noble carbohydrates that make up the base of cereals is now suddenly circumspect. While many cereal manufacturers have responded to this by incorporating ‘ancient grains,’ seeds and nuts into their product, this latest move by private label has got me thinking: can breakfast cereal ever regain its ‘health’ side without jettisoning its stigmatized base?

As cereal sales slip and consumers gravitate toward either indulgence or health, I wonder if breakfast cereal can continue to play ‘both sides of the fence’ by just changing its over-the-top add-ins? If Frosted Flakes (i.e. Frosties) has basically the same ingredients as Corn Flakes, is that sustainably credible? I would contend that major cereal manufacturers need to work harder to drive a serious wedge in their portfolios, separating their healthy and fun sides at the base ingredient level. Legumes, full of trendy protein and nutrients, seems like a smart place to start.

If retailer brands are going to win against big name brands, its on battlefields like this. Unable to upend decades (or centuries) of investment into brand meaning or machinery, big brands might be stuck playing perpetual catch-up to more nimble store brands. However, through bolder, faster innovation, and the development of technological insulation, I believe brand names still have a chance of winning the war.