Little J
onny is about to eat his Trix cereal and realizes that it looks different. Actually, a lot different. No more vibrant neon blue, green, and red colors.
“What happened!” he cries in shock and disbelief. His regular routine for the past few has changed, and he is not happy about it.
In the beginning of 2016, Trix changed the formula of their product by taking out artificial colors and flavor. There was so much negative feedback that they re-introduced the original formula in September of 2017.
Kudos to General Mills for providing a healthier alternative to their product
Artificial colors are one of the top ingredients that manufacturers are removing from their formulas. You can see in my free report which hopefully you have received.
Artificial colors have been tested to have carcinogenic risks and can cause other health/behavioral issues. Artificial flavors also have been thought to have health risks. But I do not believe that the backlash was a flavor issue and was more the appearance of the product. It, quite frankly, looks very different than the original.
So, what caused General Mills to back-track?
First, General Mills pledged all of its products were to be free of artificial colors and flavors. This just won’t work with certain products, like Trix. There are different value propositions and target customers for each brand.
Quite frankly, the typical Trix customer does not care about having the healthier alternatives. From my experience, the less ‘healthy’ the product is, the less the consumer or shopper cares about the health aspects of it.
Also, the Trix demographic is lower income. This is another group that historically does not care about the health benefits of removing artificial colors and flavors.
I’m sure that there was research completed to validate the need for taking out artificial flavors and colors for Trix. All of us need to be careful about research results. Specifically, on things that consumers say via survey/qualitative study versus what actually happens when product is chosen off the shelf and placed in front of kids.
I like that General Mills introduced the new healthier product. From my point of view, having a healthier
alternative to what they have is better than not having one at all.
The Right Approach
The mistake they made was when they introduced the healthier option and removed the original. Having products for different health preferences is a trend that is here to stay. They have the right approach in having both options available for consumers.
Little Johnny can now go back to his Trix cereal with a smile on his face. As he gets older, he might care less of the look of the cereal and go to the healthier Trix.
I give the long-term trend for the original Trix to be a 3 out of 10. The new formula, a 4 out of 10.
If you want to get further thoughts from me, and if you haven’t already done so, please: