Lucky Charms - History

History

Lucky Charms was created in 1962 by John Holahan. General Mills had challenged a team of new product developers to use the available manufacturing capacity from either of General Mills' two principal cereal products—Wheaties or Cheerios—and do something unique to them. Holahan came up with the idea after a visit to the grocery store in which he decided to mix Cheerios with bits of Brach's Circus Peanuts.

An advertising company employed by General Mills and Company suggested revolving the marketing of the new cereal around the idea of charm bracelets. Thus, the charms of Lucky Charms were born. The mascot of Lucky Charms is Lucky the Leprechaun AKA Sir Charms, and originally called L.C. Leprechaun., created in 1963, is a cartoon character whose voice was supplied by Arthur Anderson until 1992. The oat cereal originally was not sugar coated. After initial sales failed to meet expectations, the oats became sugar coated, and the cereal's success grew. Following the product launch, the General Mills marketing department found that sales performed dramatically better if the composition of the marbits changed periodically. Various other features of the marbits were also modified to maximize their appeal to the cereal's target market, young consumers. In focus groups and market research, more brightly colored charms resulted in better sales than did dull or pastel colors. Holahan called Lucky Charms a "lesson in creative marketing." Currently, General Mills conducts frequent "concept-ideation" studies on Lucky Charms.

Lucky Charms were sold in the United Kingdom during the mid 1990s. Today, people from Britain can still get the cereal, from TK Maxx, eBay, Amazon, Selfridges, Jumbo (Chile), or through specialist importers, though these boxes retail for up to £8 (US $12) each.