Here’s How General Mills Is Pushing Connected Commerce and Back to School Marketing

Increasingly these days we are seeing brands which once had exclusively marketed in the B2B space, now using their significant resources to reach out to regular customers directly.

This makes perfect sense, of course. When you market purely to other businesses you immediately restrict your potential audiences significantly. Marketing directly to the customers who will eventually use your products is a solution where everyone benefits, however as the retailers which sell your products will enjoy increased business and will therefore require more frequent restocks from your brand.

This has led to a rise in so-called connected commerce, where these brands invest heavily in digital technology and data as part of the strategy to market their products directly to customers.

General Mills

Minneapolis, Minnesota-based multinational manufacturer, and marketer of branded consumer foods, General Mills has sold its products through retail stores for nearly a century. However, after witnessing a surge in ecommerce interest during the COVID-19 crisis, the wholesaler has turned its own focus towards connected commerce.

The company, which owns such household name brands as Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Mexican meal kit producer, Old El Paso, and Green Giant sweetcorn, wants to meet customer demand more effectively through heavy investment in obtaining first-party data, going so far as to dub connected commerce as the future of marketing and not an ephemeral trend or meaningless buzzword.

"Connected commerce is powered by data, digital capabilities, measurement and execution to enable General Mills to be part of the consumer journey, creating strong one-to-one relationships and drive differential growth for our brands," said General Mills Chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Harmening speaking on a Q1 investor call in September 2021.

Examples of this new effort to connect with customers include pet food brand Blue Buffalo, which launched its own niche social media platform called Buddies, and Haagen-Dazs’ omnichannel approach in China which has boosted engagement with younger customers in that market. Both of these efforts have, in turn, provided General Mills with even more data which is empowering the brand to build relationships and develop future innovations.

"The data generated enables us to optimize our personalized marketing efforts and refine our promotions. Connected commerce is an important way we will boldly build our brands in the future," added Harmening. "We’re encouraged by our first steps to creating a differentiated connected commerce capability. And we know there’s much more to do so continue to invest and advance in this space."

Back to School

Perhaps one of the most interesting innovations to come out of this renewed effort by General Mills revolves around a marketing campaign launched in August 2021 to engage with young people returning to school after the summer and drive online orders for retailers selling its products.

The mobile based campaign was designed to offer students and the schools they attend a way to win rewards during the frantic back-to-school season. The marketer of child friendly brands such as Cheerios, Yoplait and Nature Valley launched the Unlock Brighter Futures effort as part of its Box Tops for Education initiative to raise money for schools.

Sensitive to the changes to shopping habits brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, General Mills wanted to make sure the campaign included integration with retailers which offer socially distance grocery shopping options such as curbside pickup or home delivery.

"The path to purchase has really shifted a lot in the last year, so we are capturing that [e-commerce] demand that COVID accelerated," said Commerce Manager for Big-G Cereal and Dairy at General Mills, Stephanie Steidl. "This year, we felt it was totally appropriate to create a promotion for our families that are buying our products that benefit them, but also benefit their schools."

A twist on the collecting box tops promotions of old, participants can scan QR codes inside General Mills box tops promotional packaging. They are then presented with a school locker combination lock and prompted to enter a six-digit code found on the packaging to be entered into a sweepstake.

The sweepstake ran until November and offered a grand prize of $10,000 to the winner and another $10,000 to the winner's choice of eligible schools. Entrants also have chances to win laptops, backpacks, gift cards, and bonus Box Tops for a selected school.

Final Thoughts

Connected commerce is a terrific way for traditionally B2B brands to connect directly with the end users of their products and create new relationships which drive sales and provide data collecting opportunities which can then be transformed into even more sophisticated marketing efforts.

You can hear General Mills Customer Vice President for Ecommerce Pure Play, Raquel Navarrski, speak at Digital Food and Beverage 2022, taking place in July at the Hyatt Regency, Austin.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.