9a testing the hypotheses 2

I interviewed 5 more people all from a group of friends at dinner tonight. Of the 5 only one could an identify a person outside of the previously stated boundary. My friend Dj is the one who identified the person outside of the boundary, probably because he is a cashier at a grocery store and can identify groups of people that buy certain products. He explained that working and checking customers out all day long he sees many older, larger people buy organic products, which are generally healthy compared to the nonorganic types of the same things. I believe the group of older larger people could potentially be identified as a group with diabetes which generally requires a diet of having less sugar in their body.

So, let’s use a group of people with diabetes as our “outsiders.”

This need is different from the people inside the boundaries because it is actually needed for them to stay alive. A high sugar diet could potentially kill one of the “outsiders.” The need to have a low sugar diet is different from wanting to live a healthier.

The underlying cause of the outsider’s need is different than the other needs because the outsiders are almost required to have the organic or healthier alternative as to where the others that are discussed in the prior assignment just want a healthier alternative.

INSIDE	OUTSIDE
People on a health kick wanting healthier food	People with diabetes or other health concerns that need healthy alternatives
A alternative organic type of food that is healthier than normal	A alternative to cereal and yogurt that has less sugar and will keep them healthy
People want a healthy alternative that is better for them and the environment.	They need a healthy alternative that has less sugar to help them regulate their insulin.

8a Solving the problem

My proposed problem is General Mills sales in cereal and yogurt sales decreasing. Many people are leaving general mills behind because they are on healthy kicks, or no longer enjoy cereal and yogurt for breakfast as a staple. The solution I have thought about to fix this problem is to combat fast food breakfasts by developing cereals and yogurts that are healthy and organic to draw attention from the younger and millennial crowds. I think the products would still have to be well flavored because of how good warm fast food breakfast and how good a homemade egg and bacon breakfast is. To combat the dropping yogurt sells I believe the same thing should happen, according to the article an implementation has been set that is comparative to Greek yogurt but sales are still lacking. I believe further editing of this product by adding better flavors and finding marketing strategies that will get people interested in the new product will help General Mills increase sales and overall revenue and profit in the company. I believe administering these two products would help General Mills younger market tremendously.

7a Testing the hypotheses

1.     The opportunity I chose to further in learning about is one from my 6A assignment. The article from the 6A assignment was one of economic change and was titled “General Mills hit by slumping yogurt, cereal sales.”

2.     The opportunity I identified off of this article was for the General Mills company along with many others to change over to a more organic and sustainable source of ingredients. The reason for a slump in cereal sales is many people have turned away from cereal at breakfast and started to eat healthier foods such as eggs, bacon, spinach, etc. all of these things have turned into a new breakfast staple for a healthier lifestyle. Yogurt on the other hand, is slumping because people are turning to organic “Greek” yogurts. According to the article General Mills “Yoplait Greek yogurt” failed to compete with other brands.

·      Who: General Mills and customers who have healthy lifestyles and want organic, and healthy foods for themselves and their families.

·      What: Change products over to healthier, organic sources that people that genuinely care about their health will conform too.

·      Why: General Mills sales have reduced drastically since healthy living movements have started in the United States. A growing amount of people old and young are changing their lifestyles to promote healthier living.

3.                

·      On top of General Mills, I am sure other companies that have not adapted their products to meet consumers “healthy” needs are not experiencing major growth and sales within their product lines.

·      I think mainly the what just includes the cereal and the yogurt that general mills produces because those are the two that are mentioned. I am sure that other things are declining to due to health kicks that everyone has went on, just not as drastically as cereal and yogurt products.

·      The need for healthy and sustainable resources come from people wanting to better their lives, and better the world. Most people will believe this to be true while some others say that cereal and yogurt is declining because people would rather not eat breakfast in most cases, and if they do not waste time eating a bowl of cereal over a fast food breakfast sandwich.

4.     So, I started by telling my 5 subjects some background about the case and what all entails the case. So, then I asked who they thought needed to change. 3 out of 5 said that the company is responsible for their actions and should change to suit the consumers need. All 3 of these were college age students, 2 from a class I am in and my high school best friend. The other 2 people I interviewed were my parents, and they both said that if the company didn’t want to change products then they shouldn’t because they are probably still making loads of profit and stick by what they think is ethical and what they traditionally value. So, they believed that the consumers had a responsibility to either like the products they were selling, or to find another company that produces what their taste requires.                                                                               The 3 that believed general mills was who needed to change, I asked whether or not they thought other corporations could benefit from changing products to fit consumers healthy living needs and they all said that they believed in some way, shape, or form that any company that started developing healthier products that it would create a larger market share for them. The other two both believed that General mills as an corporation could potentially affect other corporations because General Mills is such a large company.                                                                                                                                 Out of the 5 people I interviewed they believed the “why” that cereal and yogurt made by general mills was declining because of 3 different reasons the first which was chosen by mom and one of my classmates was saying that the reason they needed to change was to promote healthy living of people. The second was by my dad and high school best friend and they both said changes needed to occur because there needed to be a more sustainable approach at food products to keep the environment healthy. The third was proposed by another class mate that basically said that the company needed to change just to maintain profits not to help people or the environment.

5.     Basically, what I learned from the interviewers was that older people believed less in the fact that the company needed to conform but the actual consumers needed to conform. Younger people tended to side with the people. I learned that consumers as a whole seemed like they are less likely to switch to a different food company because of there being a health issue they are concerned about. I think these interviews really helped me understand how customers see certain companies and develop relationships to the products.