Category Captain: Frozen Hot Snacks: General Mills

Through top-tier performance, item launches and best-in-class capabilities, General Mills’ Totino’s brand is driving profitable growth in the $2.3 billion hot snack category. Leveraging strong insights on category segmentation and buyer behavior, General Mills has allowed retailers to better understand how to leverage each segment differently to maximize overall category success.

In an effort to jump-start growth in the sandwich segment, Totino’s launched Totino’s Pizza Stuffers, which combine the taste of pizza with the convenience sought by the typical hot snack consumer. Dedicated TV, digital and sampling events were designed to drive consumers to the category.

Totino’s leveraged a promotional campaign with Redbox, the chain of in-store DVD rental kiosks. An on-pack offer for a free movie rental with the purchase of a Totino’s pizza and hot snack enticed consumers to shop cross-category and make an incremental store visit to pick up their movie.

Having earned the highest hot snack share within the growing Hispanic population, along with its standing as the leader in Hispanic consumer spend within the pizza and hot snack industry, Totino’s has aptly integrated key Hispanic consumer insights into its overall consumer plan.

Through extensive use of consumer segmentation, POS analytics, Willard Bishop ABC Analysis, DemandTec, Nielsen Shelf Audits and correlating Sales Rate Tool, Demand Transfer, Consumer Research and Virtual Stores, General Mills is providing best-in-class category management insights to drive hot snack growth.