From Skinner’s Raisin-BRAN to Kellogg’s own box.

Raisin bran is a kind of cereal before it is a brand. English Wikipedia describes it as a breakfast cereal of raisins and bran flakes, sold as sultana bran in some countries, and made by several companies under their own names, including Kellogg’s, General Mills and Post. The same article says the Skinner Manufacturing Company introduced Skinner’s Raisin-BRAN in the United States in 1926, and that Skinner held on to the name for years until Kellogg’s and Post began selling raisin brans of their own.

Kellogg’s puts the start of its own version in the early 1940s. On the brand page run by WK Kellogg Co, a question-and-answer panel voiced by the cereal’s character says that Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Original “has been around since 1942”. The company describes the cereal as whole grain wheat and bran flakes with raisins, and the same page carries the line “Two Scoops of Delicious”, marked as a trademark; Wikipedia refers to the product as Kellogg’s Two Scoops Raisin Bran.

Who could use the words “raisin bran” was settled in court during the war. Court records published by CourtListener show that the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided Skinner Mfg. Co. v. Kellogg Sales Co. on 4 August 1944, alongside a parallel case against General Foods Sales Co.; English Wikipedia, quoting the opinion, says the court held that “Raisin-BRAN” merely described the product’s ingredients and so could not be appropriated as a trademark. The practical result, as Wikipedia puts it, is that any maker may sell a raisin bran and call it just that, which is why the Kellogg’s name, the box and the character on it carry so much of the identity.

The cereal also travels under another name. Kellogg’s Australia has listed a Kellogg’s Sultana Bran on its own site, an archived copy of which Wikipedia cites, and Wikipedia gives sultana bran as the cereal’s alternative name in markets where dried grapes are sold as sultanas.

One cereal, two owners: Ferrero in North America, Mars elsewhere.

Until 2023 Kellogg’s Raisin Bran was simply a product of the Kellogg Company of Battle Creek, Michigan. That changed on 2 October 2023, when Kellogg split in two. English Wikipedia says the company’s North American cereal business was spun off that day as WK Kellogg Co, named after the founder Will Keith Kellogg, headquartered in Battle Creek and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, while the remaining company renamed itself Kellanova and kept the snack brands together with the international cereal business. Wikipedia’s raisin bran article records the consequence: WK Kellogg Co sells the cereal in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, and Kellanova continues to make and sell raisin bran outside North America.

Both halves have since been sold. The deal for WK Kellogg Co was announced on 10 July 2025 and approved by its shareholders on 19 September 2025, according to EFA News, the European Food Agency, which on 29 September 2025 reported that the Italian confectioner Ferrero, based in Alba, had completed the acquisition. EFA News quoted Ferrero’s statement that WK Kellogg Co was now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ferrero, that its shares had ceased trading and would no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and that Ferrero intended to invest in the company’s brands in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Ferrero has owned WK Kellogg Co, and with it Kellogg’s Raisin Bran in North America, since 2025.

The international side followed a few months later. In a press release dated 11 December 2025, issued from McLean, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois, Mars, Incorporated announced the completion of its acquisition of Kellanova, describing a portfolio that includes Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, RXBAR and “Kellogg’s international cereal brands”. Mars has owned Kellanova since 2025, so the Kellogg’s raisin bran eaten outside North America now sits with a different parent from the one sold in Battle Creek’s home market — the same regional split that applies to Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and the other cereals that left Kellogg in 2023.

Design and documentation.

The brands in this group are all breakfast cereals that sit inside much larger food companies. A cereal of this kind usually carries two names at once: the master brand of the company that makes it, and the name of the cereal itself, often with a character, a slogan or a box colour of its own. On a single shelf, the two can work together or pull in different directions.

Ownership adds another layer. A food group can split, sell or merge, and the same cereal name can end up with different owners in different parts of the world, so the company behind a box in one country is not always the company behind it in another. A cereal can also outlast several parents while keeping its name, its pieces and its advertising lines.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — when the cereal appeared, who has owned it and where, how its advertising and characters developed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A sun character, a trademarked line and a Super Bowl debut.

The face of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is a sun. WK Kellogg Co’s brand page opens with an invitation to “wake up with Sunny” and lets the character answer the questions on its frequently-asked-questions panel in the first person, so Sunny speaks for the brand as well as appearing beside it. The line that goes with the character is “Two Scoops of Delicious”, which the company marks as a trademark; Wikipedia’s use of the name Kellogg’s Two Scoops Raisin Bran shows how closely the phrase has become attached to the product itself.

Since the 1944 ruling left the words “raisin bran” open to every maker, the Kellogg’s house name, the Sunny character and the “Two Scoops” line are the parts of the identity that belong to this cereal alone; the words in between describe the food.

In 2026 the cereal moved onto a larger stage. Adweek reported on 5 January 2026 that Kellogg’s Raisin Bran would make its Super Bowl advertising debut that year, ending what Adweek called a fifteen-year Kellogg’s absence from Super Bowl advertising. Adweek said the spot would run nationally on streaming platforms just before halftime, with regional placements in six markets — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in the first half, and Grand Rapids, Cincinnati and Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the third quarter — and quoted Doug VanDeVelde, WK Kellogg Co’s chief growth officer. English Wikipedia, citing People magazine of 30 January 2026, says the advertisement starred William Shatner as the captain of a spaceship, a nod to his role as James T. Kirk, and WK Kellogg Co’s brand page now hosts the finished “Big Game” film.

The Raisin Bran story is also a story about labels across borders. The sun, the slogan and the Kellogg’s name appear on boxes in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under Ferrero’s ownership, while the Kellogg’s cereals sold elsewhere, including the sultana-bran versions, belong to Mars through Kellanova.

For a design guide, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran shows how a product with a name anyone may use builds its identity on a character, a slogan and a house mark instead. Compare it with Frosted Flakes, whose tiger does similar work, and Froot Loops, another Kellogg’s cereal now split by region. For this guide we use raisin purple and deep plum with sunny yellow and a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Kellogg’s Raisin Bran’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.