Great State Wheat Flakes Can’t Be Beat

Great State Wheat Flakes Can’t be Beat Betty, who has been employed for three years as a copywriter for HK&M, a mid-size advertising agency specializing in consumer packaged goods, has been feverishly working for the past week on a new ad campaign for Great State's wheat flakes, a regional breakfast cereal. The account has been with the agency for several years. Although Charlie, the brand manager on this cereal, has been pleased with the agency's work over the years, the old positioning, which stressed taste attributes and fun-filled family breakfasts, has become tired and dated. Marketing research shows a high degree of consumer wearout—people are tired of the campaign, even annoyed with it, and are ready for something fresh. Betty's task was to rejuvenate the brand via repositioning it to take advantage of and tie into the health and well being trends, specifically the interest in eating "good-for-you" food as well as in physical fitness. The brand was to be pitched as an important part of an active, healthy lifestyle. Betty thought she had come up with the perfect theme line: "Great State's wheat flakes will give a great start to your active day," and she had developed what she believed were some clever scenarios for TV and print ads featuring the product being consumed after workouts in health clubs, following a morning jog, after a snowboarding expedition, to power up before rollerblading, and even while zipping along on a scooter (“Look Ma, no hands!”). However, upon reviewing her proposals, Charlie said that while the vignettes were on target because health-conscious customers would relate well to them, the slogan was off base. He wanted something more specific and hard hitting, and so Charlie developed the theme line, "Great
State Wheat flakes can't be beat. No other wheat flake offers you more vitamins and minerals and fewer calories." Betty tried to kindly tell Charlie that this was misleading because it