Quick and Tasty Snack

Understanding the Product

Cookies are one of those foods that act as a quick and tasty snack. They are enjoyed by people of all ages and are especially favorite among younger children. They can be enjoyed at any time of the day, and make a relishable side with the morning and evening teas.

In the age of ready-to-eat packaged food items such as chips, biscuits etc., there stills exists a demand for home-made snacks, which the whole family can sit together and enjoy. Others might just want to enjoy the process of preparing such food items. However, in the hectic everyday life for families with working parents, this may become a tedious and time-consuming chore.

To cater to this demand from people who want to enjoy homemade savories while still adhering to their hectic time schedules, Pillsbury Refrigerated Baked Goods (RBG) offers a one-step solution. Specifically, in the cookies category, Pillsbury offers many flavors while adhering to two basic formats- chub and ready-to-bake. While the chub pack requires the dough to be shaped into cookies before being baked, the ready-to-bake pack simplifies the process even further and can be baked directly for consumption.

The product satisfies the consumers’ need of baking the cookies at home while at the same time offering a good-tasting treat. The customers enjoy the process of baking the cookies with their families, a ritual that is appreciated by both children as well as their mothers, who feel that they have put in some effort to satiate their families’ desire to have something tasty. To add to it, it provides a cheaper alternative as compared to packaged ready-to-eat cookies.

Perceived Customer Value

Perceived Customer Value (PCV) = Perceived customer benefits- Perceived Customer costs

 PCV= (Monetary Benefit + Psychological Benefit) – (Monetary Cost + Psychological Cost)

a) Monetary Benefits

1) Difference between price of ready-to-bake cookies and ready-to-eat packed cookies.

2) Featured prices during festival seasons.

b) Psychological Benefits

1) The enjoyment and fun derived from the process of baking cookies at home with the family.

2) The time effective alternative to baking the cookies by yourself at home.

3) The benefit of maintaining the image of a caring mother who takes out time for her family despite the hectic work schedule.

4) Trial of new recipes mentioned on the packaging of the ready-to-bake cookies.

c) Monetary Cost

1) Difference between the price of the ready-to-bake cookies and preparing from scratch.

d) Psychological Cost

1) The time and effort required to bake the cookies as compared to buying the ready-to-eat packed cookies available in the market.

2) Customers perceived the quality of ready-to-bake cookies to be not as good as home-made cookies.

Competition Analysis

Pillsbury’s ready-to-bake cookies main competition is offered in the form of indirect competition as a result of consumer preferences that are inclined towards baking from scratch at home. 56% customers preferred to bake cookies only from scratch. Thus, Pillsbury’s market was restricted to the other 44% that was open to ready-to-bake cookies. Hence, it was cut-out from a major portion of the market because of the product portfolio they were offering.

Also, another source of competition was the ready-to-eat packed cookies. Some of the lapsed customers might have shifted towards these products as for them, the effort that they put in to bake the cookies was not worth the benefits it offered.

Segmenting

1. Geographic: Since the company operates across 100 nations, it is important to differentiate between various regions on the basis of the needs and demands of the consumers. Advertisements and new products are leveraged from the U.S. to benefit from low development cost and since the top purchase drives are same in both the countries; both seek convenience and taste at the top of their list. However, there is a considerable difference in consumer preferences, purchase patterns and behaviours in US and Canada.

Canada US

Scratch baking is dominant Ready-to-make cookies are preferred

Kids also play an important