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Extends diet credentials of $500M business into protein bars and waters
IN HOT PURSUIT of the next megabrand, Special K is slapping its scarlet letter on everything from water to watches.
In the five years since Kellogg Co. and its agency, Leo Burnett Worldwide, devised the Special K Challenge diet plan, it's blossomed into the company's No. 1 brand, with an estimated $500 million in global sales. Now Kellogg is poised to push its diet credentials even further.
It plans this month to nationally roll out a line of protein waters and protein bars for the diet section already on the shelf at Wal-Mart. It will also launch Special K Chocolatey Delight to help assuage dieters' cravings come diet season this January (see sidebar). Special K Personal Trainer watches which calculate calories burned and are already sold in the U.K., could also find their way across the ocean.
To mastermind this aggressive expansion, Kellogg named Alan Gravely, a former marketing executive in its frozen-foods division, to the new position of VP-marketing of health and wellness. As one executive close to Kellogg noted, Mr. Gravely's position was created "in recognition of the largess of the brand, to put a more coordinated effort against it."
As Special K has expanded in recent years to include new flavors, such as the 2001 hit Special K Red Berries, and new forms, including bars, snack bites and waffles, spending has also increased. Kellogg...