Social Listening: Cheerios🥣🍯

For my social listening assignment, I chose to use the brand Cheerios(or General Mills, but Cheerios specifically). I realize that it's a really strange brand to do a whole project on, but I figured it might be fun to look on social media to see what people really think and how they really feel about the famous breakfast cereal.

Cheerios´ Value Proposition is based on how healthy their cereal is, while still appealing to children. Cheerios message is simply ¨Eat Cheerios and live longer!¨. They are careful to appeal to parents in the health aspect, while still delighting children with the taste.

Some common comments left on the Cheerios Instagram page are simple things such as ¨You guys have made my mornings something different, you don't understand¨ or To say were obsessed would be an understatement.¨, but some other comments seemed more thoughtful and original.

Ariannna.marie commented, ¨I cried when I found out Cheerios were going to be gluten free, I used to eat them like it was nobody's business before I was diagnosed with Celiac¨. There were many other comments very similar to this where people shared how much it meant to them that Cheerios developed a new product.

Although there weren't many horrible things to be said about Cheerios, several people have asked questions that are a bit concerning. Nostalgic.moon commented, ¨Is it true that your cereal contains something found in detergent? I keep seeing it everywhere and I love Cheerios so idk how to feel¨.

Most of the negative things said about Cheerios are just written by people who have nothing better to do than to post some hate on Cheerios Instagram page, mostly talking about deadly ingredients that Cheerios uses and how many people have died from them.

In December of last year, General Mills came up with an idea to move past their brands iconic O-shaped cereal. To promote heart health, shelves in most stores were stocked with the new heart-shaped Cheerios. The limited-edition cereal came to stores in January of this year, including Honey Nut Cheerios, as well as the Original Cheerios flavors. Cheerios wanted to remind its customers that keeping your heart healthy can be tasty and delightful as well.

I think Cheerios biggest challenge they face is their competition. Parents try to get their kids to eat the healthy cereal, but why would a kid want something as simple as cheerios when there are so many more tempting options. When I was a kid, Cheerios was like a punishment. My mom wanted us to be healthy, so we weren't allowed to eat sugary cereals such as Lucky Charms or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Or at least, we couldn't eat them by themselves. She made us do half and half. That's right. We had to mix cheerios with our sweet cereal. Disgusting, right? But that's how kids view cheerios. Cheerios is the healthy cereal, and kids want something to relieve their aching sweet tooth. I feel like this could potentially cripple General Mills in the future.

Cheerios has consistently responded to each and every one of the comments or questions posted to their Instagram.

Whether the comment is positive or negative, Cheerios always replies with something polite so as not to offend the customer. By responding to their customers frequently, Cheerios has put themselves forth as a brand that cares about their customers, and it shows how much they really want to deliver exactly what their consumers expect and demand.

If I had been the brand manager, I would have made sure that I wasn't just responding to my customers with words, but rather with results. Cheerios is very convincing in the manner of responding to comments, but actually taking action on these suggestions is completely different. I do believe it is important to reassure your customers, but taking action to prove your loyalty to them is so much more important, and I would make sure they could see that I was aware of that, as well as doing my best to prove it.

I learned a lot more from this assignment than I originally expected. I learned a lot more about a brand that I originally had no interest in. I now realize that Cheerios is more than just that yucky cereal that mom used as a ¨punishment¨, and that it really is just a brand with a solid value proposition that's trying to satisfy those customers who are looking for a tasty solution for everyday heart health.

https://www.derbymanagement.com/blog/bid/105532/Cheerios-not-Wheaties-has-the-best-Sales-Value-Proposition

https://www.startribune.com/out-with-the-o-in-with-the-heart-for-cheerios/566079571/