Business Case Studies & Business Publications

nibblr: Subscription Snacking in a Digit...

Murray, Meghan

Case

nibblr: Subscription Snacking in a Digital Market

Murray, Meghan

M-0874 | Published August 15, 2014 | 12 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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In November 2013, the 301 Inc. division of General Mills, Inc. jumped into the emerging "subscription economy" with nibblr, a personalized snacking service. Customers utilized online tools to select and rate their deliveries. The nibblr team reached these consumers primarily through interactive marketing. It was a completely a new approach for the company: a small entrepreneurial team learning as it worked, direct response mechanisms of the consumers, technology that enabled product delivery, and lots of experimentation. In the first four months, nibblr wasn't acquiring customers as quickly as it had hoped. The 301 Inc. team was considering a number of other marketing ideas for getting the word out about nibblr, but which ones would succeed? This case has been used in Darden's required marketing course.

? Introduce students to the concept of launching an online-only brand ? Consider what goes into an online subscription service, from pricing to marketing positioning ? Understand the value of real-time performance data made available in the digital media space (e.g., versus the traditional consumer packaged goods [CPG] results models) ? Discuss "intrapreneurialism"