What happens when millennials turn away from traditional breakfast foods? Brands adopt all the millennial trappings they can think of to win them back.
Later this year, General Mills is going to release a limited edition pumpkin spice flavor for the 75-year-old Cheerios line in a bid to infuse a staid breakfast item with a little youthful pep, Bloomberg reported. Responding to claims that millennials in particular have come to view the act of pouring both cereal and milk into a separate bowl as too taxing for breakfast meal preparation, Jim Murphy, head of General Mills’ cereal division, believes that a shot of pumpkin spice is all that’s needed to bring young eaters back into the fold.
“There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with cereal,” Murphy said. “We just have to keep it relevant.”
The limited edition pumpkin spice offering is one of two special editions that General Mills is putting its hopes for millennial sales behind. Strawberry Cheerios are already on shelves, and with the pumpkin spice variety slated to hit the market near Labor Day, General Mills is looking to ride the predictable seasonal craze for the flavor toward a continuous recovery in sales.
While it might seem a bit gimmicky, betting on the pumpkin spice sales boost has not been a bad idea historically. Since Starbucks introduced the pumpkin spice latte in the early 2000s, it’s grown into a veritable seasonal fad, and Nielsen calculated that pumpkin spice-flavored product sales have increased 73 percent since 2011 alone to reach a grand total of $361 million.
Cereal makers have cause to hope, as those sales were far from limited to coffee drinks alone. Yogurt, milk, desserts, cream, baked bread and even dog food accounted for between $5 million and $24 million in sales in 2014, so why shouldn’t pumpkin spice Cheerios tap into that same trend?
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