Trix are for kids. What’s for grown-ups?

Kashi, yo.

You may have noticed the 26-year-old, La Jolla-based company’s cereals, waffles, snacks, pizzas and healthy versions of Hot Pockets on the shelves at the grocery store, each with the proprietary blend of seven whole grains and sesame.

Had you asked us a few days ago whether Kashi was a brand or a type of grain, we couldn’t have told you for sure. We just know that the Go Lean Crunch is good stuff — like Cap’n Crunch for adults. Yet good for you.

Kashi, it turns out is more than just a brand. But first, that funny name. According to the website:

After considering names such as “Gold’n Grains” and “Graino,” we decided on Kashi, a synthesis of “kashruth” or kosher/pure food and “Kushi,” the last name of the founders of American Macrobiotics. Later, we discovered that Kashi has international meanings: porridge in Russian, happy in Chinese, and energy in Japanese.

Fortuitous, no? That’s not all you’ll get from the amazing Kashi.com, either. In addition to a very transparent approach to providing a company portrait, the people behind Kashi.com have created a site that’s loaded with good content and is supportive of what appears to be an active community.

Way more than you’d expect from a cereal company, right?

Here are some ways Kashi is earning the trust of its customers and, in doing so, building a real community around its brand.

1. Giving value away from the brand.

The site is loaded with helpful information about healthy living as well as engaging challenges and activities that go way beyond simple interaction with a product. Articles under the Natural Learning section, like the video-enhanced “Get the Most from Your Farmer’s Market” and the helpful “Guide to Better Sleep” don’t mention Kashi at all. They’re useful in and of themselves. It’s a perfect model for a blog.

The same could be said of the Lifestyle Tools section, which is one of several portals into the community. Through a three-layered approach of Challenges, Accomplishments and Community Surveys, the site invites real and practical methods of improving your life and connecting with others interested in doing the same. Again, little to no mention of Kashi.

The Natural Nearby internal application connects users to recommend local organic and healthy vendors near them. It doesn’t seem to have a lot of functionality yet, but what a concept.

2. Promoting the Greater Good

Of course the people at Kashi are passionate about their products. But rather than focus on what they sell, they find common ground with customers in an overarching interest in and passion for self-improvement.

The company learned early on that people weren’t going to come running to some new health-food product just because they like bland flood. Quite the opposite, in fact, especially when Kashi began in the unhealthy old ’80s. The solution? Don’t market to the 55 people who are seeking healthy grain-based foods; market to the millions of people who want to make their lives healthier. That’s way bigger than a bowl of cereal.

3. Knowing not just what its customers want but who they are.

Trix knows what it’s customers want: sugar and fun. And so the flash game on the brand’s website is just as addictive as the cereal. (Seriously, that game is pretty awesome.)

Kashi, on the other hand, knows that its customers are intelligent, conscientious grown-ups who don’t want to waste their time on bells and whistles. They want actionable information they can use.

At the same time, everybody likes to have fun, and that’s what the green-jumpsuited Support Squad is for. Rather than a cute animal pimping the brand, these are actual company employees who appeal by being normal as they demonstrate things you can do if you join the Kashi community. (Hey, Bobby, you’re falling down, man.)

4. Building a lasting community.

Though valuable, Facebook and Twitter are obvious.

Likewise, it’s easy enough to build social networking features into a website. Services like Ning allow anyone to do this for free. But powering the community with activities and challenges that go beyond the simple forum approach elevate it from being a discussion board or Facebook fan page to an accountability group and, even more than that, a culture.

The benefit to Kashi from a marketing perspective is that they get a richer view into customers’ lives. They get to see how they live — or, perhaps more importantly, how they want to live. And then, by providing them with information, support and of course, products, to help customers reach their own meaningful, life-enhancing goals …

In what language does Kashi mean “trust”?