General Mills and the benefits of brand "purpose"

This event report discusses how General Mills is pursuing the idea of purpose-driven branding. As it began working on this project, the company called on specialist help from Joey Reiman, an academic and author on the subject of brand purpose, to help formulate its strategy.

General Mills and the benefits of brand "purpose"

Stephen WhitesideWarc

Eating a bowl of Cheerios breakfast cereal, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, or Progresso soup might give consumers a few moments of pleasure. But General Mills – the owner of these and many other category-leading food brands – is now aiming to connect with shoppers on a far deeper level.

"About a year ago, we sat down with all our brand teams and we pushed this idea of purpose," Mark Addicks, svp/cmo at General Mills, told delegates at the Advertising AgeDigital Conference 2014. "We asked our teams to say:...

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