It’s Election Day and although we’ve written plenty of tips in the past about the business of politics, we thought today we would give readers something lighter to think about while waiting for the election results. So here are a couple of stories where businesses are finally giving the people what they want.
Long live your Cheerios
General Mills Cereals made headlines last week for partnering with Ziploc and finally answering customers’ requests for resealable packaging. The company noted that it receives “hundreds of thousands of requests, comments and reactions annually” from customers who hate taking the extra step of folding, clipping, or repackaging cereal in another container in order to preserve the freshness of their morning meal.
The new packaging with “Ziploc PantrySeal” creates a resealable closure on about half the top of the bag that also acts as a pour spout when opened to help prevent spilling. This innovation is one way that General Mills is attempting to make cereal once more a staple of American breakfast after decades of declining sales. The introduction of breakfast bars that make it easier for busy consumers to grab breakfast on the go, as well as concerns of food processing and sugar intake, have made cereal manufacturers rethink their products to appeal to the new market.
For now, the new packaging is only “available for Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios on Walmart’s e-commerce platform,” but is expected to debut at other retailers in the coming months. Customers who received the news have already noted that this innovation needs no fanfare on the part of General Mills. As one TikTok creator put it: “Literally this needs zero marketing. Seeing this in the store, I would immediately choose the brand that ziplocks.”
A touching new addition to your MacBook
Also last week, Apple unveiled its first touchscreen laptop, a product customers have been asking for, but the company has refused to provide until now. Despite making touchscreen tablets and phones, Apple has not been eager to combine the technology with its personal computers. For example, in 2010, Steve Jobs called touchscreen laptops “ergonomically terrible”, and ever since, Apple’s leaders, including the new CEO, John Ternus, have previously dismissed the idea. Tim Cook even compared touchscreen laptops to merging a toaster and refrigerator – it didn’t make sense. Of course, as a Bloomberg reporter pointed out, Apple “benefits when customers buy both a Mac and an iPad. Keeping a touch interface off the Mac… helped preserve the distinction between the two product lines.”
That thinking has since changed, as the release has described the new laptop as the natural next evolution of the MacBook line. In his announcement, Ternus said, “As we like to do around here, we asked ourselves: How do we make the MacBook Pro even better?” The company has emphasized that this isn’t merging two products together, but rather adding an additional feature that can be used when it makes the most sense. After all, it’s still not the most ergonomic to continuously touch a laptop screen. However, this new feature allows the company to justify a higher price point that they hope customers will be willing to pay.
Apple and General Mills are just two of the businesses betting that by giving people what they want, it will pay off down the road. Maybe politicians should try it next?
