Are American consumers doomed to eat off QSR breakfast menus dominated by biscuits, eggs, bagels, muffins and sausage? Or, is the American public open to innovative new breakfast QSR concepts and menu items?

Apparently Cereality (www.cereality.com) and its parent company Kahala Corporation believe they can create innovative new breakfast concepts. Cereality represents the first company to bring innovation to the predominately “cold breakfast” category.

It serves dozens of brand-name cereals (both hot and cold), just waiting to be combined. And ordering at Cereality is easy. Pick two cereals and a topping. Be creative. They will mix the ingredients together, and then you add as much milk as you like (including soy and lactose-free).

It’s a concept that appeals to the young and old alike, and is wrapped in a fun, high energy restaurant atmosphere.

Since innovation can be compared to the many layers of an onion, let’s peel a few of Cereality’s innovation layers. Some of the many layers of include:

• Concept Innovation
• Menu Innovation
• Marketing Innovation
• Customer Experience Innovation.

Menu Innovation

The menu is comprised of four categories: cold cereal, hot oatmeal, parfaits and beverages. The customer is given a choice of 14 cold cereals to create the breakfast of their choice from almost 25 different toppings. In reality, Cereality has brought an atmosphere of innovation that allows the customer to apply their own innovation to the final meal. It becomes a shared atmosphere of innovation with the customer.

Providing a “milk bar” adds another layer of menu innovation that allows customers a choice of natural, organic and flavored milk products customized to their personal tastes. And, of course, the toppings add another layer of creative innovation for the customers. In the big picture, the customers participate in the innovation experience unlike many other technology innovations where the customer buys the product to take home and attempt to learn.

Concept Innovation

Cereality has driven concept innovation by daring to go where no other QSR concept has traveled. By offering a cold cereal menu, they have created a new breakfast category long dominated by McDonald's and other similar chains that focus mainly on hot breakfast items.

Marketing Innovation

Cereality’s marketing innovation not only is designed to grow the cold cereal category, but to widen the consumer base by appealing to older parents of younger children through their own nostalgic experiences.

Customer Experience Innovation

Cereality’s customer experience innovation results in creating an upbeat, enjoyable experience eating “cereal comfort foods” with their children.

Other Concept Positives

A few additional positive benefits to the concept are operational in nature because dry cereal has a long shelf-life and does not perish quickly like other breakfast products. Milk also has a relatively long shelf-life, and the equipment investment remains low.

On the negative side, there will always be the critics who warn of sugar and calorie intakes by children, and the affect that it has on school learning performance – but let’s allow the parents to make the choices they want for their children. 

Please contact me at dsuderman@foodbevbiz.com or follow the Food Innovation Institute website (www.foodbevbiz.com) for more information on our 2011 Food Innovation Workshops.