Dive Brief:
- Monday, General Mills debuted Tiny Toast, its first new cereal brand since 2001.
- Other cereal launches have been offshoots of other General Mills' brands or licensing agreements.
- Tiny Toast is targeted at families, like Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, according to a news release.
Dive Insight:
This is a curious move for the legacy packaged foods company. It's positioning itself across a variety of different industry sectors, with its 301 Inc. division leading the charge in investing in startups. Its recent cereal efforts have typically been heading toward meals beyond breakfast.
"We're trying to focus on formats that are increasingly snackable," Alan Cunningham, a senior marketing manager for General Mills cereal innovation, told Quartz. "The main aisle category will continue to evolve in a number of different ways with the presence of pouches. Certainly the ones without milk are more interesting to us."
In fact, this month the company will feature cereal products that will come in single-serve pouches and snack bars.
While the company's news release touts its testing with consumers, the real test will be in sales. Is executive confidence inspiring the expansion of General Mills' iconic legacy? This effort, along with other trend pushes, ensures the company has something to fall back on if the brand fails to meet expectations.
General Mills has been working to make its cereal offerings more attractive to heath-conscious consumers through ingredient changes like removing artificial colors and flavors, releasing Cheerios Protein and gluten-free labels for the brand, and making Lucky Charms gluten-free.