Marshmallow Mateys

Cereal Name: Marshmallow Mateys

Type of Cereal: Dessert Cereal

Primary Grain: Oat

Nutrition Information (based on 1-cup serving):
        Calories: 120
        Total Fat: 1g
        Sugar: 13g
        Fiber: 1g
        Protein: 2g

Top Five Ingredients: Whole grain oat flour (includes oat bran), Marshmallows (sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, dextrose, gelatin, artificial flavor, yellows 5 & 6, red 40, blue 1), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Wheat Starch

Review: I have a special place in my heart for Malt-O-Meal cereals  as I went to college in the same town in which the Malt-O-Meal plant is located. We always had Malt-O-Meal cereals in our cafeteria and the sweet scent of baking cereal wafted through campus on a regular basis.

Marshmallow Mateys are sweet and crunchy with a slight slimy undertone (due to the marshmallows). The marshmallows are very colorful, nothing like the pastel mallows in Mallow Oats and they are also in very distinctive but not identifiable shapes. While Mallow Oats were regarded as ALL NATURAL, Marshmallow Mateys are not. Please let me compare and contrast their first five ingredients.

1) THE SAME
2) Sugar vs. Evaporated Milled Sugar, Artificial Flavors/Colors vs. Blueberry, Pumpkin, and Carrot Concentrates
3) Sugar vs. Evaporated Milled Sugar
4) THE SAME
5) THE SAME

Nutrition Information? Also the same.

I still like Mallow Oats better, but maybe that's just because they are marketed to me specifically.

mmmm, doesn't that red 40 look delicious?

Additionally, this raises an interesting point in that the branding and marketing intents of cereal are aligned more vertically (specific to the type of cereal) than horizontally (to the brand itself). The goal of the cereal is to make it taste like all of the other cereals that are essentially the same (Corn Flakes, Crisp Rice, Marshmallow/Oat, etc.) because that is what the consumer is expecting. Once that pre-requisite is met, the brand can then try to hook the consumer with bargain prices, pro-environment branding, places of distribution, bright colors, etc. But the primary requirement is that the cereal taste how it is supposed to taste. This is very different from many other types of non-consumable brand marketing (ie clothing, shoes, cars, etc.) where the independence and uniqueness of the brand are of utmost importance. I mean, the function is still important (if it's a running shoe, it had better hold up to running), but I think my point still holds true as cereals do not only hold the same purpose and function, they are essentially identical.