MyMuesli.com is a mass-customized service that allows users to create their own organic muesli mixes from 80 ingredients that are delivered to their doorstep within 4 days. It targets "Spend-Shifters" who want authentic, healthy consumption experiences. The business model provides high customer value through vast customization options while efficiently delivering products. It taps into trends of mass-customization and healthy living through technological excellence and an innovative supply chain. However, substitutes remain a vulnerability if economic conditions change consumer preferences.
UiPath Platform: The Backend Engine Powering Your Automation - Session 1
MyMuesli - An Analysis
1. || Aditya Anupkumar /
Andreas Kleinschmidt /
Antonella Squadrito /
Arturo Gutierrez /
Giuseppe Bono /
Guilherme Costa ||!
Information Technology
and Innovation //
Business Model Analysis!
Group A1-C!
Group A1-C!
3. MyMuesli.com is a mass-
customized service letting
users prepare their own
mixes of organic Muesli
from 80 possible organic
ingredient options.!
These mixes are delivered
to consumers’ doorsteps
within four days.!
Group A1-C!
5. We believe that the core user base for
MyMuesli.com is who John Gerzema
calls “Spend-Shifters”: value-oriented, Esteem!
sophisticated consumers. !
Belonging!
Maslow would perhaps have placed
their need-state relationship with
MyMuesli.com in the Belonging and
Esteem blocks of his pyramid.! * Spend Shift, 2010 / Y&R BAV Data!
They crave a new, more ‘authentic’
consumption. They’re technologically
engaged, want their own spin on stuff
they do, and they want to live healthy.!
Group A1-C!
6. What is the customer
value proposition?!
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7. With 80 ingredients (clockwise, types of
flavoring, types of nuts, types of fruits,
types of grains/cereals) to choose from,
you can have 566 quadrillion combinations
of organic Muesli via their service,
allowing every single person to have a
perfectly customized breakfast experience.!
There is also something to be said with
regards to the “signaling” that is inherent
in using certain kinds of products and
services – you can’t deny that, beyond the
‘goodness’ of the product, there is likely a
case of communicating ‘discernment’
inherent in buying it.!
Group A1-C!
8. Another Model we could apply to understand what it
is that MyMuesli.com delivers would be the Tetrad,
which explores the impact of a given medium/
practice on its surroundings. !
Authen1city
Simplicity
The impact is always four-fold – new media/practices
enhance – reverse – retrieve and obsolesce old
media/practices when they come into being.!
MyMuesli.
In the case of MyMuesli.com, we could posit that, in com
the breakfast experience, it enhances ‘Authenticity’,
reverses ‘complexity and ritual’ to ‘Simplicity’,
Ea1ng
Mass
retrieves ‘Eating Healthy’ and obsolesces ‘Mass Healthy
Consump1on
Consumption’ in the form of cereals.!
This is a useful way of understanding the product’s
impact on culture, and where future challenges may
arise from.!
Group A1-C!
10. MyMuesli.com has a two-pronged strategy. !
It’s consumer-facing side is one of Product
Leadership and Customer Intimacy. It delivers
healthy food in beautiful packaging right to your
door. It also develops use-cases. So they have a
kick-start cereal, organic porridge, weight-loss
cereal, cereal designed for kids, Gluten-free, work-
out cereals, biking cereals; all based on what
people have liked/bought/used the product for in
the past.!
And they deliver this through Operational
Excellence, with a technological grounding that
allows them to mix 80 different kinds of ingredients
(566 quadrillion variations, if you recall) and create
and deliver the finished product to the user within
four days, and they do so incredibly cost-
effectively.!
Group A1-C!
12. MyMuesli.com taps into a major emerging cultural trend
– that of mass-customization / bespoke services. It
harnesses the true spirit of Long Tail economics. Where
the Long Tail posits that, no matter how unconventional
or arcane an offering, it will find a buyer; MyMuesli.com
flips this on its head by building their technology and
supply-chain around fulfilling those very tastes, from the
most obvious to the most arcane. !
The graphic you see to the right is basically the
permutations and combinations of the mixes you can
choose, and the size of the circles indicates popularity.
Something for everyone.!
But it’s not just that. As we explored with the Maslow
Hierarchy and the Tetrad, the service also has an
important socio-psychological dimension – it generates
that ring of perfection (YOUR perfect mix) combined with
authenticity and simplicity (healthy living).!
Group A1-C!
13. What is the vulnerability in
this business model?!
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14. To look at potential threats we explored Michael Porter’s Five Forces model. One
assumption we are going to make is that the “Industry” in which MyMuesli.com
operates is “Organic and Healthy products” – so think of Whole Foods, Innocent,
etc as potential competitors.!
When we studied suppliers, we found, for example, that at one point Suppliers! New Entrants!
MyMuesli.com had bought up ALL of the frozen strawberries in Germany to use in
their products. That is strong supply-chain management, and they would have to
ensure they remain in a strong position with suppliers (think about how Apple
keep RAM prices down for themselves, for example – they use 60% of the RAM
produced in the World.)!
We have already discussed customer needs and between Customer Needs and
Industry Competitors we believe that MyMuesli.com is well-placed.! Industry
Competitors!
The market is still very new, but for example we discovered an Australian
competitor (MixMyMuesli.com.au) who started up two years after MyMuesli.com –
so there is the possibility of competition, but in a still growing market, we believe
there is room for more competition.!
Which leaves us with Substitutes. A prolonged recession or other system shocks
could make their broader user-base shrink as people cut back and search for
cheaper alternatives, of which there are many. But when you consider that Substitutes! Customer Needs!
MyMuesli.com has grown exponentially YoY since they were first created in 2007,
they have so far shown themselves to be immune to the current crisis.!
Group A1-C!
16. We feel, based on our analysis, that MyMuesli is a
sustainable enterprise, certainly in the short run. Apart from
developing use-cases for consumers, they have also
expanded their product lines carefully.!
They now sell highly cost effective trial packs featuring an
array of mixes, so you can try out the various flavors and
combinations for the same amount of money. They also sell
mix-and-go insta-packs, to expand where/how consumers
can consume the MyMuesli experience. And in the past year
they have also started developing recipe guides, porridges,
juices and coffee to make MyMuesli a much larger part of
peoples’ food habits.!
Perhaps most importantly, they have begun opening real-life
cafés. This is important because it allows MyMuesli to
transform itself from an online-store-that-delivers-what-you-
like, to a Disney Land of healthy eating.!
Group A1-C!
17. MyMuesli.com made €2million+ in revenues its second year,
and since then has made about €300,000 in profits p.a.
* Spend Shift, 2010 /
consistently, even as its workforce expanded from 3 people Y&R BAV Data!
to 100+, and they expanded from Germany to Netherlands,
the UK and Switzerland in this time.!
We referred to “Spend-Shifters” as the potential consumer
for MyMuesli.com. The report also highlights some of the
percentages of existing populations who exhibit similar
behavior.!
So from the countries MyMuesli.com is not yet present in, we
see that Spend-Shifters constitute 55% in the US, 53% in
France, 51% in Canada, 45% in Australia and Italy, 44% in
Singapore, 41% in Brazil, 38% in Russia and Spain, 34% in
India and Mexico, and 21% in China. !
We acknowledge that not all these groups can afford to buy
MyMuesli.com, and maybe more than just this mindset
consumes it. !
But if this is the mindset MyMuesli.com taps in to, we can
agree they have much room for expansion.!
Group A1-C!
18. We believe that the future for mass-customized
web-to-real-life businesses is strong. We love,
for example, projects like Quarterly.Co and
Kopi; which combine exploring ideas, foods
and so on, with an element of social curation.!
And then there is the organic and natural foods
movement, that has only grown and grown in
the past decade. !
So to close, we believe MyMuesli.com is an
incredibly fascinating project as it harnesses
elements from both these major trends, and
we’re keen to seeing how it develops over the
next few years. (We’re all signed up on the
waiting list for when they launch in Spain. )!
Group A1-C!