General Mills Cereals - A Breakfast Trademark That Kids Love And Can Easily Recognize

By Business Editor

General Mills is a Fortune 500 corporation that markets global brands such as Green Giant vegetables, Old El Paso Mexican food and Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Their U.S. portfolio includes Yoplait yogurt, Cheerios, Wheaties and other Big G cereals ...

A trademark can be distinguished as a name, symbol, design or words which set apart a good or service of one party from another. Trademark is known to be a kind of “industrial property.” Most companies and institutions establish a trademark to be identified as a separate entity from their competitors. Take for instance, General Mills. The company at this time owns several trademarks.

General Mills is a corporation which chiefly does business regarding a variety of food products. The company is also known to be a distributor of many breakfast cereals. If you eat cereal for breakfast, you are probably quite familiar with the cereals owned by General Mills.

The main office of General Mills is located in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. In this business case study article, we'll briefly look at the history of the company and some of its trademarked brands.

History of General Mills

In the mid-18th century, General Mills was first known as the “Minneapolis Milling Company” which chartered rights to operate mills. Years later, the company decided to form a partnership with John Crosby. The Minneapolis Milling Company then became the “Washburn-Crosby Company.” A year later, the "A" mill exploded, killing 17 workers and also demolishing several nearby buildings. The mill was rebuilt and continued to operate for almost 90 years.

In the early 19th century, the company gave birth to General Mills when it merged with other small milling companies. From then on, General Mills continued to expand.

In 1990, General Mills began to merge with Nestle to promote and market cereals as part of people's breakfast menus in an undertaking they referred to as “Cereal Partners Worldwide.” The cereals began to be marketed both in the United States and Europe. Once the merger proved to be successful, the company began thinking of ways to boost the “cereal market” by creating themed-breakfast cereals. The themes mostly revolve around “friendly monsters” such as Boo Berry for blueberry-flavored cereals. Chocolate-flavored cereals are associated with Count Chocula and those who love strawberries will be familiar with Franken Berry.

Some General Mills’ Breakfast Cereals

Cheerios - General Mills created and marketed the first ready-to-eat cereal which is oat-based by the brand name “Cheerios.”

Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC) - This type of cereal is also manufactured by General Mills. CTC is made of small square or rectangular-shaped cereals which are coated with cinnamon and sugar.

Cocoa Puffs - This breakfast cereal is described to be “puff” sphere-like which is cocoa-coated. Later on, General Mills also developed “a cereal Cocoa Puff bar” for its consumers.

Golden Grahams - Tiny-toasted square-shaped pieces of cereal define Golden Grahams. The taste blends a combination of honey and brown sugar. Research show that this type of cereal is found to be one of the saltiest cereals.

Oatmeal Crisp - With this type of cereal, your breakfast will never be dull since you have a choice of flavoring from almond, apple brown sugar, raisins, berry, maple nut or yogurt in vanilla flavor.

Reese’s Puffs - General Mills originally introduced Reese’ Peanut Butter Puffs with combined chocolate and peanut butter flavoring. As time passed by, the two flavors were divided into two separate flavors.

Trix - This type of breakfast cereal is considered to be one of the most popular among consumers. It may be due to its sweet taste complimented by fruity flavoring.

Lucky Charms - In the late 1960s General Mills created Lucky Charms which is a well known breakfast cereal today. This type of cereal is composed of tiny bits of oats which are toasted. You can also find colorful marshmallow in different shapes inside every cereal box.

Total - If you happen to be a lover of wheat, then this type of cereal will be best-suited for you. Total is composed of flakes made from whole grain wheat. There are different selections of Total cereals which you can choose from.

Wheaties - This type of cereal is commonly linked with sports-advocates due to its popular slogan. Wheaties is made from a mix of wheat and bran baked into flakes.

Before the above-mentioned breakfast cereals by General Mills, the company formerly manufactured some other easily recognized cereal brands such as Country Corn Flakes, Frosty Os, Jets, Twinkles, and USA Crunch.

General Mills presently offera a variety of breakfast cereals under different brand names. The company makes it a point that the cereal products they produce and sell are quality-cereals which provides healthy options and optimum satisfaction for their consumers.

Apart from cereals, General Mills also offers a range of different food products from brands such as Betty Crocker, Progresso, Yoplait, Old El Paso, and Pillsbury. Their brand portfolio includes more than 100 leading U.S. brands and numerous category leaders around the world. Their intellectual property portfolio, therefore, is quite significant.

Next article: Should You Register Your Business Name and Business Trademark

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Recommended Trademarking Resources

A Trademark Guide for Entrepreneurs - A Trademark Guide for Entrepreneurs provides the information business executives need to know about protecting their most valuable assets - their trade names, trademarks and service marks. In easy-to-follow language, Robert E. Lee explains how to register trademarks and trade names with both state and federal offices, police the marketplace for possible infringers and successfully exploit the marks through assignments, licenses, franchises and joint ventures. Most importantly, A Trademark Guide for Entrepreneurs teaches the corporate officer, director or manager how to select and use effective trademarks that will stand out in over-crowded market areas, thereby increasing market share and profit potential.

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How to Register Your Own Trademark: With Forms How to Register Your Own Trademark: With Forms

Author: Warda, Mark. Number of Pages: 248. Published On: 2004/05/01. Language: ENGLISH.

While nearly everyone has created some work that deserves copyright protection, few people know the process for registering and protecting their products or ideas. Similarly, a trademark that has been registered accurately is the most valuable asset a company can have.

The information contained in this book makes it easy to register work and business trademarks accurately. Contents include: Addresses and phone numbers for easy registration in each state; Instructions for preparing the necessary forms; Explanations of the different types of registrations available for trademarks; Legal Reference / Law Profession.

How to Register Your Own Trademark: With Forms


For more information about Trademarking-related resources, see our Business resources section, subscribe to our Business Newsletter containing news, updates and insider tips, or go to more articles about Cereal General Mill Trademark.

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