UNITED CEREAL:
LORA BRILL’S EUROBRAND CHALLENGE
Introduction.
The “United Cereal” case is focusing on European division of a giant multinational
breakfast food company, which describes a launch decision for a new cereal product. As
the case evolves, the decision has major strategic and organizational implications for Lora
Brill, European VP. Lora Brill has been concerned with the decision of whether to make
some major changes to a company with 100-year success history in order to push growth
of the company’s potential to a completely new level. Lora Brill has been presented much
of the information she needs to make a decision, but due to mixed results in past trials of a
similar nature, Lora is not sure what to do. United Cereal is a pioneer in the use of research
and focus groups. The company puts a very high value on extensive market testing prior to
launching a new product. As the initial testing of the blueberry based cereal was not
successful, Healthy Berry Crunch was not put through the normal testing to ensure
complete customer acceptance.
Problem Identification.
United Cereal is an organization embodied with a strong set of core values. Throughout its
100-year history starting back in 1910 the company’s management believed in
commitment, diligence and loyalty; attracted people to work for the company and
promoted managers from within. Their managers are committed to “The UC Way” and
certain deeply rooted beliefs like:
• “Listen to the customer”- that led the company to pioneer the use of research and focus
groups.
• “Spot the trend, make the market”- led the company to place high value on extensive
market testing prior to launching new products.
• “Honoring the past and embracing the future”-gave UC a high regard for product
development and innovation in marketing.
To be able to answer whether the Eurobrand cereal is truly viable it is necessary at first to
make clear what the cereal market in Europe looks like. The $7 billion cereal market is
very diverse. The per capita consumption varies from 8kg in the United Kingdom to 0.5 kg
a year in Italy due to differences in national tastes and breakfast traditions. Channels also
vary a lot by country.
United Cereal is pretty centralized in its organizational policies and practices as the
Country Managers confirm to United Cereals embedded values, policies and procedures.
But; it is pretty de-centralized concerning its market strategy and product strategy as each
Country Manager makes his/her own marketing and product decision to maximize local
