The Homa Files

Punch line: Kraft plans to increase marketing to lift lagging sales

Kraft’s U.S. sales are lagging the company plans to boost marketing on targeted brands.

The foodmaker plans to fight rising ingredient costs, the aftereffects of the recession and a stagnant packaged-food market by spending more on its biggest and most profitable brands.

Specifically, Kraft will hike marketing spending by 10% on the 20 brands that make up two-thirds of its revenue and income.

“Under the theme of fewer, bigger and faster, we have 12 big bets in North America this year …  In total, our innovations represent over $2 billion of sales in new products.”

Among the new products is Mio, a “flavor pod” for water that Kraft calls its biggest brand launch in a decade. “Mio is the ultimate way to personalize your beverage.”

Other “big bets” include Trident Vitality and Stride Spark vitamin-enriched chewing gums; Planters NUTrition; Oreo Fudge Creams: Philadelphia Cooking Cream: Oscar Mayer Carving Board and Lunchables with fruit.

The company will ramp up its 7,000-person salesforce.

“We intend to win every account, every store, every household, even yours and mom’s.”

Thanks to Diana M. for feeding the lead

This entry was posted on March 4, 2011 at 5:51 am and is filed under Mktg - Product & Innovation, Mktg - Sales Force. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.