‘Lucky Charms’ Shape: Is Appearance Important for Market Promotion Strategies?

A very popular brand of breakfast cereal, Lucky Charms is manufactured by General Mills, in the United States. The explanation for their astounding success lies in the ingredients: toasted pieces of oats and colorful marshmallow bits cut in a wonderful variety of shapes. It is often the Lucky Charms shape that attracts children’s attention and stimulates them to have a healthy appetite every morning. The bright colors and the periodical modification of the marbits composition also have a great influence in keeping a high sales level. Moreover, periodical market surveys tell the company management team how well a certain Lucky Charms shape is received.

The only Lucky Charms shape that was not present in the UK variant of the cereal sold by Nestle is the green clover marshmallow mainly because of the association with Ireland and the conflicts specific to the 90s. Otherwise, the very first boxes of cereal manufactured by General Mills contained lots of yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers and pink hearts. Afterwards, the Lucky Charms shape variety greatly increased with the adding of the pots of gold and hourglasses, the blue diamonds, the purple horseshoes and the red balloons. In time some shapes get obsolete, which is why the manufacturer performs a reinvention of the Lucky Charms shape periodically.

Thus, the yellow moons and the blue diamonds underwent modifications, as the moons turned blue and the diamonds were eliminated. Most of time, the change of one Lucky Charms shape passes without too much fuss, and only on various occasions it becomes a basis for various promotional commercials. The present-day form of the cereal include pink, blue and yellow rainbows, orange and white shooting stars, purple horseshoes, pink hearts, green leprechauns complemented by five points stars and whale shapes. The Lucky Charms shape to have resisted in the packages from the very first production series is the pink heart that is still a part of the brand.

The Lucky Charms shape represents the theme of the song or jingle describing the cereal box content. You will hear the rhymes in TV commercials or even listen it on the radio: the thing is that the song sticks to the mind and gets children’s attention. In recent years more changes occurred with the appearance of the yellow and orange hourglasses in 2008 complementing the former 2007 introduction of the berry and chocolate flavors in addition to the classic marbits. Therefore, the Lucky Charms shape remains a major element in the market promotion strategies, since it is part of the product specificity.