The company had started its own website many years before, offering recipes and cooking tips, and it recently added a Pin-It button so site visitors can link to recipes they’ve posted on Pinterest. But capitalizing on these new opportunities to communicate and engage with customers is not the only way Kraft Foods hopes to stay connected with its millions of customers. 

At the corporate level, the $19 billion company split itself into two business units so each division could focus more carefully on marketing a smaller list of products and building company brands. The two units are (1) the meals and desserts unit, which markets Cool Whip, Jell-O, and Kraft’s iconic mac and cheese mix, and (2) the enhancers and snacks division, handling the Planters brand, A1 steak sauce, and Miracle Whip.

The company’s attention to customers wouldn’t be complete without the addition of new and improved products, of course. Kraft is aware that millennials—those born in the 1980s and 1990s—are starting to move into the kitchen to cook, and they prefer to do things differently than their parents. Millennial men are not afraid or unwilling to cook, for instance; Kraft’s vice president of innovation says that younger men see cooking as an adventure and an opportunity for fun. But that doesn’t mean millennials, male or female, like spending hours on food preparation or cleanup. So Kraft is updating many of its convenience-food products to make them even easier and more appealing to use, by packaging ingredients in pouches to save measuring and blending, and also by updating flavors in recognition of younger consumers’ bolder taste preferences. Consumers can add their own flavor touches and fresh ingredients but without spending the time to cook meals completely from scratch. 

The company is also revamping its innovation processes and plans to invest in fewer but more promising new-product ideas, providing new products with more financial and marketing support.  

Questions

1. Are there more ways Kraft Foods can tailor its structure, its products, or its communication efforts to better satisfy customers? If so, what are they? 

2. How do you think splitting the company into two units will help Kraft meet its customers’ needs? Can you think of any disadvantages to this split?