Kraft goes after men, millennial generation
A chicken pot pie kit featuring Velveeta and Oscar Mayer’s take on pulled pork are two ways Kraft is attracting new customers: millennials and men.
The recession disproportionately affected men, who are now doing about 40 percent of the cooking, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Kraft Foods Group has found that both groups are cooking more and looking for flexible recipes, ways to customize their food and have fun in the kitchen. So Kraft is updating its stable of mature brands in ways that appeal to them.
Millennials, age 18 to early 30s, are beginning to cook and don’t want to do things like their parents did. So Kraft is offering more products that require some effort. Just not too much effort. A Kraft study showed younger men cooking even more than their older counterparts — 42 percent of millennial men do all the cooking in the household, while 76 percent do at least some cooking. They also like to experiment with their dishes.
“Now they’ll talk about cooking like guys would talk about a hobby 20 years ago,” said Barry Calpino, vice president of breakthrough innovation at Kraft. “It’s an adventure, it’s an experience, it’s fun, they talk about ‘their signature.’ ”
Men feel they have more latitude as cooks, according to Robin Ross, associate director of culinary at Kraft. “Women want to please their families and for everyone to like what they make,” she said. Men, she said, tend not to feel the same pressure. “Men have more of a free hand.”
Kraft Foods, a $19 billion a year packaged North American grocery business, was spun off in October from another suburban Chicago company, Mondelez International. Kraft CEO Tony Vernon promised mid-single-digit operating income growth rates for the company, and acknowledged it needs to develop new, more modern products for its brands.
Phil Lempert, a supermarket industry expert, said the millennial generation poses challenges for big food companies, which are not known for rapid change.
Lempert said a lot of millennials’ tastes are “being driven by food trucks,” serving products like tacos with a few different meats with high quality and bold flavors. That has raised millennials’ expectations on everything from a restaurant meal to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.
Lynn Dornblaser, director of innovation and insight at Mintel International, said the fact that Kraft offers some of its new products with easy-to-use, three-pack sauce packets should be a hit because millennials love to cook, but hate to clean.
“Cleaning is a barrier to cooking from scratch,” she said. Even making a white sauce for pasta, Dornblaser said, “you’ve got dishes to wash, measuring to do, steps to follow.”