Kellogg's History and Kellogg's Collectibles
Kellogg Company, also called Kellogg's is the namesake of W.K. Kellogg(April 7, 1860 – October 6, 1951) a Seventh-day Adventist businessman who, with his doctor brother, invented corn flakes. W.K. Kellogg took this invention and others like Rice Krispies and commercialized them into the modern ready to eat breakfast cereal industry. 
Today Kelloggs is the world leader in ready to eat cereals, selling its products in 180 countries. In addition to cereal, the company manufactures convenience foods such as cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and a range of vegetarian foods under brands that includeCorn Flakes, Keebler, Special K,Famous Amos, All-Bran, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Pop-Tarts, Eggo, Cheez-It, Nutri-Grain, Rice Krispies, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Club Crackers, Gardenburger, Pringles,and Kashi. Some brands vary by country.
The 2012 acquisition of Pringles from Procter & Gamble for $2.7 Billion cash made Kellogg's the second largest snack food company after Pepsico.
Who Was W.K. Kellogg?
WK Kellogg was a vegetarian, in line with the dietary principles of his church and the search for easy to prepare whole grain foods was how he stumbled into corn flakes. He later started the Kellogg Foundation in 1934 with $66 million in Kellogg company stock and investments, a donation that would be worth over a billion dollars in today's economy. The Kellogg foundation Kellogg continued to be a major philanthropist throughout his life.
Not only is WK behind Kellogg's success, but a patient at the hospital the Kelloggs' ran, a certain C.W. Post was exposed to the idea and went on to found the Postum (now Post brand and part of Kraft) food company in 1895. In addition to Post's startup, Kellogg's business inspired a lot of competition - over 100 companies started up in and around Battle Creek to manufacture cereal.Kellogg's beat them all with effective advertising, innovation and aggressive expansion.
As part of his marketing efforts, WK Kellogg invented the cereal box prize. The first prize was a flip book given away in store with the purchase of 2 boxes. He converted it to a mail in deal that required a dime to redeem. The prizes promoted brand loyalty.
Kellogg Gifts
The Kellogg Store sells many small branded and collectible Kellogg items online. Many of these items are also available in the gift shop at the Kellogg factory tour in Battle Creek.
If you are looking for something cooler than a Kellogg's T-shirt, than a piece of Kellogg's itself might be the answer. Single framed shares of the cereal maker are available unfolded in a archive quality matted, framed presentation. The stock comes with voting rights, rights to dividends when declared, and the right to receive annual reports. Each share has the holder's name inscribed and a unique certificate number. As companies move to exclusively electronic registration, the chance to get physical certificates will disappear forever. Here is an example Kellogg Company share certiicate created by OneShare. The company charges for the actual share, a processing fee, and for optional framing and custom plaque.
Other Company Collectible Articles of Interest (Click the Image)
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Comments
We used to have to fight to see which of us got the box (there were wild animal heads on the rear of the Kelloggs box which you had to cut out and assemble). Nice article, great history reference.
Good memories. Cereal box premiums seem to be less common now. I like the $5 in coupons Kelloggs is putting on some boxes though - kind of a high value premium.
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