Nearly a century after turning the sound of Rice Krispies into a brand asset, Kellogg’s commissioned a cereal bowl designed to amp it up.

This is so gloriously unnecessary.

Kellogg’s commissioned British designer Dominic Wilcox to create a Snap, Crackle and Pop amplification cereal bowl.

It looks a little like a gramophone attached to your breakfast.

Pour in Rice Krispies and milk, switch it on, and a microphone picks up the familiar crackling from the cereal. A speaker inside the large red horn amplifies it.

There’s even a volume knob so you can crank your breakfast way up. 

As a product, it’s ridiculous.

As a piece of brand thinking, I love it.

Because Kellogg’s is taking one of the most distinctive things about Rice Krispies and making it something to think about.

When I was a kid, I genuinely thought there was something magical about that sound in my bowl.

Snap. Crackle. Pop.

Kellogg’s had given those noises characters in its advertising, and I completely bought into the idea that something special was happening in my cereal.

The interesting part is how the sound wasn’t invented by an ad agency.

The cereal just happened to do it naturally.

Rice Krispies launched in 1928, and consumers noticed the distinctive noises it made when milk hit the cereal.

Kellogg’s began using “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” in advertising soon afterward, then eventually turned those sounds into the three characters generations of kids came to know.

That may be the more useful story behind this strange new bowl.

Kellogg’s noticed an incidental product characteristic and decided it belonged to the brand.

Then it reinforced that association for decades.

Now somebody has literally built a machine to make it louder.

The amplification bowl was commissioned as part of a Kellogg’s challenge to make breakfast more interesting. Wilcox could have invented almost anything.

Instead, he amplified something Rice Krispies always had going for it. 

Pretty smart.

Companies spend enormous amounts of time asking how to differentiate a product.

Could be the better question is:

What’s already distinctive that we haven’t fully exploited?

Like a sound.

Maybe a texture?

Possibly the way the package opens up.

Or a ritual customers have developed around the product.

One of the ideas I explore in I Need That is that product marketing begins with close observation. Customers will often show you what is interesting.

Rice Krispies made subtle, unique and consistent sounds.

Kellogg’s listened up.

And 98 years later, it’s still finding new ways to pump up the volume.

If you’d like help creating and marketing products people feel compelled to buy, the product marketing consultants at Graphos Product can help.