Boo hoo for Fruitabu

The second of your "miss" predictions from our Hit 'n Miss survey has come true with the news that Kellogg's have withdrawn their Fruitabu brand of fruit snacks.

I first raised doubts about the added value of this brand back in January 2008. I proposed an radical alternative that was "1/3 of the price of Fruitabu…only 25p per pack…just as convenient to transport..even more natural…100% natural in fact…. even more tasty….. nicer texture… even healthier." My radical innovation? An apple!

The comments comments of Kellogg's UK sales director Mike Taylor about Fruitabu bring to life our recommendations about Recession-Proof branding:

1. Follow the money: long-overdue need for a more practical, bottom-line focused approach. Mike Taylor "claimed the decision to ditch the range was
indicative of the company's new, get-tough approach."

2.Kill the dwarves: "The metrics didn't stack up for us so we decided to pull out
of FruitaBü"

3. Grow the core: Taylor said there were "much bigger opportunities" in Kellogg's core
cereal business

Also, its a good example of the need to focus on business-model issues, not just brand issues. A key one is how strong your presence is in the area of the store you need to launch in. For Fruitabu, Taylor recongizes "The footfall and the visibility of the fruit snack category from a
shopper perspective is difficult to bring scale to."