Just like many of you, my New Year is starting off very busy (I swear, I’m not standing in line for a Stanley Quencher). Therefore, I’m going to slow roll into 2024 with an abbreviated edition this week. However, have no fear, I’ve got lots of ideas (and an email box full of new products) for future newsletters, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, in case you missed it, my wrap up and predictions for 2024 are here and here.
The new spinoff company WK Kellogg has their first launch, a high protein, puffed vegan cereal called Eat Your Mouth Off. Aimed at Millennial and Gen Z consumers (or “Zillennials” as the company calls them), the cereals have 22g protein and zero added sugar per serving. Available in two varieties: Fruity and Chocolate.
Purely Elizabeth has launched Cookie Granola, a 100% whole grain granola with 6g sugar and baked with coconut oil. The granola also contains coconut sugar, and organic oats. Available in three varieties: Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, and Double Chocolate. Available online at Purely Elizabeth or at Whole Foods, Walmart or Publix.
UnWaffle, the chef-owned “superfood waffles” company, has introduced a line of grab-and-go protein waffles. The new offerings combine the brand’s signature waffles with pouches of maple syrup or salted butter. The gluten-free, vegan waffles contain 12g+ plant protein and are excellent sources of omega-3 and fiber. Flavors include Orginal, Cocoa Chip Garden Herb, and Blueberry. Available via the company’s website.
Announced at ChainFest in December, Fortune Cookie Cereal is a collab between Chain and Panda Express. (Chain, for the uninitiated, is a company founded by The Office star B.J. Novak and Chef Tim Hollingsworth that sells food and merch inspired by popular food chains). Available in three varieties: Original, Very Berry, and Choco-Choco Chocolate. It is currently showing SOLD OUT.
So What?
What surprises me most about the new Kellogg’s product is how me-to it is. Magic Spoon, the brand that started the nostalgically fun, low sugar, high protein cereal market was launched five years ago, but this new line feels more like a fast-follow. As a small brand, likely with limited capital, the Magic Spoon’s use of generic puffs and simple flavors is forgivable and understandable. However, Kellogg’s, with over a century of cereal manufacturing and marketing expertise strangely counter punches with even more basic Fruity and Chocolate puffs? I think they are making 3 missteps:
1. Zillennial target: I understand the desire to aim at a young and cool demographic, but there is so much working against Kellogg’s here. At $10 for 7.4 ounces, this product is extremely expensive for a young demographic that has been sensitive to recent grocery costs (although to be fair, it is similar in price to Magic Spoon). However, there is a reason that Magic Spoon and Catalina are starting to lean older Millennial/Gen X in their messaging (e.g., Catalina Crunch is now sponsoring pickleball tournaments!)—these are the age groups that not only can afford these prices, but who are also actively thinking and buying for diet and health. While Gen Z may talk about low sugar and eating healthy, they are like every generation as they passed through their teens and twenties, blessed with the belief that they are immortal.
2. Too healthy: While the existing low carb, high protein cereals deliver 14-20g protein per serving, Kellogg inexplicably went with an amazing 22 grams per serving. While I assume that they made it work in terms of taste, the question is could they have delivered something even more delicious with a little less protein? While keto consumers may strive for something this strict, interest in the keto diet has waned considerably in the last 5 years. Today’s consumer has already moved beyond such strictness toward a more balanced approach to protein and taste.
3. Not considering next-level fun and experience: While the initial challenger here delivered a healthy version of nostalgic cereal in a box, that’s a fairly limited playing field. Other high protein competition is already moving into innovative new flavors verses copying past favorites. Additionally, the fun design that Magic Spoon brought to a healthy adult cereal is already dated, with Three Wishes, Wonderworks and Surreal delivering something similar. Instead, Kellogg should broaden their indulgence + health scope and deliver something much more unique and differentiated. Purely Elizabeth’s Cookie Granola and Chain’s unusual mash-up show how the bar has been raised on both health and experience in the last five years in this category. Simple puffs with a simple claim aren’t likely to make much noise anymore.
Maybe WK Kellogg has much more in the works for this brand and I will need to reverse course on my initial assessment? We shall see.
Installing innovation cultures in companies is one of the most rewarding projects my company takes on. While there are important processes and best practices to teach, one of the most important skills I try to instill is dot-connecting.
While you might have access to petabytes of data, it’s useless unless you can transform it into something useful, something distinct and compelling for your business. So far, AI can’t make the leaps of logic necessary. For that you need people that can see connections that others can’t.
To be a dot connector, you first have access to lots of potential dots. While there is a place for experts with laser-focused knowledge, the best innovators are those individuals that ingest material from far and wide. Innovators are curious about everything and readily see how a disparate piece of information about one topic could connect to another.
To that end, I bring you random dots that I found throughout the year. Is it ‘trivia?’ No. Instead, I think of them as bits of info waiting to be used for innovative thinking.
23 Interesting Things I Learned in 2023
1. Costco sells 50% of the cashews grown in the world (more than $300,000 a week!) (source)
2. Converse shoes are actually slippers. To avoid the ≤37.5% shoe import tax, Converse coats the soles in a thin layer of fuzz to qualify as slippers (which only have an import tax of 3-25%) (source)
3. Individually wrapped cucumbers are better for the environment than unwrapped cucumbers. Unwrapped cucumbers spoil much faster which results in more waste and the need for more production (source)
4. You can use your SodaStream machine to extend the life of your salad greens (source)
5. Sesame allergen labeling laws have actually increased, rather than decreased, the seed’s usage. Major companies (e.g., Olive Garden, Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A) are finding it less expensive and easier to add it to products that previously didn’t contain sesame (source)
6. Processed American cheese was invented in Switzerland (source)
7. Almost every truffle product on the market is fake (source)
8. Cookie Monster’s cookies contain no oil or fat, to prevent staining his fur. Instead they are made (at the home of one staff member) out of pancake mix, puffed rice, instant coffee, Grape-Nuts and water, with colored glue for chocolate chip (source)
9. In the US, only 4% of consumers identify as vegetarian, 1% as vegan (source)
10. The Japanese term “kuchisabishii” refers to the desire to eat even when you aren’t hungry, it literally means ‘lonely mouth.’ (source)
11. China has a 26 story ‘hog hotel’ that houses 1.2 million pigs before slaughter, the largest such structure in the world (source)
12. Tell me where you live and there is a good chance I can tell you what egg yolk color you prefer (source)
13. When thinking of a brand/company as an organism, consumers see most corporations having as much ‘personhood’ as an insect or fish (source)
14. Fondue was originally popularized by a Swiss cheese cartel (source)
15. Amazon loses 1% in revenue for every 1/10th of a second a customer must wait for a page to load (source)
16. The Thai government actively funds Thai restaurants in other countries as a form of ‘gastrodiplomacy.’ Now other countries are starting to do the same to increase goodwill, interest in tourism, and exports. (source)
17. The best predictor that you are in a high-income bracket today is if own an iPhone. In 2004, it was whether you bought Land O’Lakes butter. In 1992, it was whether you bought Grey Poupon mustard. (source)
18. Champagne, and many other luxury goods, are too cheap (source)
19. Chilean sea bass and portobello mushrooms have something in common, their renaming made them popular. Prior to the 1980’s Chilean sea bass was called Patagonian toothfish and Portabellas were just larger versions of standard brown mushrooms (source, source)
20. Buffets put the cheapest food and the largest serving spoons in the first 3 dishes on the line. 66% of all the food buffet consumers eat comes from the first three dishes. (source)
21. Pringles have their iconic shape because P&G makes them so fast that they had to take aerodynamics into account otherwise the crisps literally flew off the line. A secondary benefit is the stackable shape (source)
22. Children’s preference for sweetness is hardwired and there is no upper limit. Until bone growth ceases, kids’ tolerance for sweetness is magnitudes higher than adults. (source)
Cheese is the most shoplifted food in the world (source)