Kraft Cooks Up a Conversation

Kraft Foods Inc. is using a series of e-mail newsletters to create a dialogue with customers and get them thinking about cooking.

The packaged goods conglomerate has a diverse stable of brands, including Grey Poupon, Philadelphia cream cheese, Jell-O, Oscar Mayer, Kool-Aid and DiGiorno. Still, engaging consumers wasn’t easy, said David Ceolin, director of New York-based Digital Cement, which helped Kraft develop its online marketing program.

“How do you have a personal relationship about peanut butter or mayonnaise?” said Ceolin. “How do you begin that dialogue? What the heck do you talk about?”

The company decided the best tactic was to create a conversation around Kraft itself rather than the sub-brands.

Even though times have changed, Kraft’s main target audience is still busy moms who are the female head of household. Kraft needed to target homemakers who aren’t cooking as much as they used to, but still want to get a meal on the table quickly.

“It was a massive undertaking,” said Ceolin, noting that in 1995, a company like Kraft could reach the majority of American households with just three network television spots. Now, because of the proliferation of cable stations, it would take 95. “The cost of media is going up, not down.”

Kraft set out to create a solution for households that would be relevant not only to diverse ethnic groups but different cooking skill levels and different age demographics, from singles to new moms to seniors.

Consumers who visit one of the company’s sites (Kraftfoods.com in the United States, Kraft Canada.com, or the Spanish language ComidaKraft.com in Latin America) are invited to register and opt in to the e-mail program depending on the types of recipes they want for their skill level or time constraints.

One big bonus of permission marketing is that people want — and expect — to hear from firms they have registered with. Kraft doesn’t necessarily need to direct consumers to their Web site with each e-mail contact, noted Ceolin, because they know they’ll get to speak with those customers again the following week.

Kraft lets consumers choose their frequency of contact, said Ceolin, noting that contact can’t be too infrequent or people will forget they opted in to the program.

Ceolin discussed Kraft’s online marketing initiatives last month at the Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference in Orlando, FL.