A very popular brand of breakfast cereal, Lucky Charms is manufactured by General Mills, in the United States.

The secret for their success comes from the main cereal components: multicolor marshmallow pieces and bits of toasted oats cut in a great variety of shapes. Every Lucky Charms shape gets children's curiosity and increases the breakfast appetite. The happy colors and the regular change of the marbits composition also have a great influence in keeping a high sales level. Moreover, market surveys are conducted periodically to test the public response to the concept idea of the Lucky Charms.

Due to the nationalist Irish green symbolism, the green clover marshmallow was the only Lucky Charms shape that was not present in the packages produced for the UK. Otherwise, the very first boxes of cereal manufactured by General Mills contained lots of yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers and pink hearts. Afterwards, the Lucky Charms shape variety greatly increased with the adding of the pots of gold and hourglasses, the blue diamonds, the purple horseshoes and the red balloons. In time some shapes get obsolete, which is why the manufacturer keeps re-inventing the Lucky Charms shape periodically.

Thus, the yellow moons and the blue diamonds underwent modifications, as the moons turned blue and the diamonds were eliminated. Most of time, the change of one Lucky Charms shape passes without too much fuss, and only on special occasions it serves for advertising purposes. The present-day form of the cereal include pink, blue and yellow rainbows, orange and white shooting stars, purple horseshoes, pink hearts, green leprechauns complemented by five points stars and whale shapes. The Lucky Charms shape stay actual in the packages from the very first production series is the pink heart that remains present with the brand even today.

The Lucky Charms shape is part of the theme content of the advertising song used to promote the cereal in commercials.

You will hear the rhymes in TV commercials or even listen it on the radio: children are the main targets as the rhyme is very easy to learn and sing. In recent years more changes occurred with the appearance of the yellow and orange hourglasses in 2008 that reinforced the former 2007 introduction of the berry and chocolate variants besides the classic marshmallows.

Therefore, the Lucky Charms shape really works as a market strategy on which most of the advertising campaigns rely.