Natural Cereals Case Questions

Question 1:

After strongly reviewing this situation over and over again, I have realized how difficult and important this decision really is to our company. I believe my co-workers Sally Thompson and Joe Bradley have done an exceptional job so far, and have definitely pointed our marketing department in the right direction. After our company implemented Sally’s proposal, our market share increased three points, which she definitely deserves credit for. However, her proposal has led to some active criticism from the public which has left our group manager Tom Miller displeased because of how valuable this proposal is to our Natural Cereals division.
Sally’s proposal included a limited health message to the high fiber content in our bran cereals. She indicated in a very cautious way that food high in fiber has been associated with studies to lower rates of some forms of cancer; however, she did not go about saying that our bran cereals had more bran than other competing bran cereals. She also went about featuring our new “Re-sealable Pack,” which allows the inside bag to be resealed for freshness, and included a 35 cent coupon toward the next purchase of a product of Natural Cereal. Although she believed her proposal avoided deception to our consumers, one key criticism we have received for Sally’s efforts is that we jumped on the company bandwagon that makes often misleading or incomplete health claims. Tom believes we cannot afford criticism, so he asked me to step in and provide my own proposal.
I support many of the ideas Sally and Joe have proposed, however, I feel there are still a few mishaps and missing pieces in the proposal. I believe these mistakes and missing pieces ultimately led to the difference in whether the public would have supported Sally’s proposal or not. For my proposal, I truly feel that if we