The Kraft Heinz Company eliminated all artificial flavors and preservatives from its macaroni and cheese products in December 2015. Then the company proceeded to sell its products to consumers without announcing the change. Surprisingly, consumers didn’t notice, and Kraft succeeded in performing the largest blind taste test ever. Take a look at what happened and how consumers responded.
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Situation: Kraft Changes Recipe for Macaroni and Cheese
In April 2015, Kraft Heinz announced it would work on removing preservatives, artificial flavors, and dyes from its popular macaroni and cheese. The goal was to find a recipe that altered neither the flavor nor the texture of its product. The company revealed no additional details as it got to work testing recipes.
Kraft Heinz made the final recipe switch in December 2015, and the new recipe will extend to Easy Mac products in late 2016. The biggest change involved replacing yellow food dye in the dried cheese powder with a combination of paprika, annatto, and turmeric. The company also removed preservatives from the recipe. Kraft Heinz didn’t make any public statements about the switch and instead decided to see if any consumers noticed. Vice President of Meal Solutions for Kraft Heinz, Greg Guidotti, said, “We wanted our fans to experience the new recipe themselves, without being prompted.”
Approach: Kraft Launches a Marketing Campaign
Hardly any consumers noticed that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese had changed. Finally, in March 2016, Kraft Heinz decided to tell the public about the new recipe with the campaign slogan, “It’s changed but it hasn’t.”
Kraft Heinz developed two commercials promoting the new macaroni and cheese recipe, a 15-second and a 30-second version. The commercials depict a mother, child, dog, and others eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese without noticing that it has changed. In the commercial, Craig Kilborn calls out the new ingredients, announcing that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese still has the same great taste and that the ingredient switch largely went unnoticed. Kraft Heinz increased its marketing budget by $50 million in 2016 to promote the new macaroni and cheese recipe.
Impact and Advantage
Creating this large-scale blind food test proved to be a smart move on behalf of Kraft Heinz. Consumers often resist change, but Kraft Heinz essentially eliminated this problem. The new Kraft Macaroni and Cheese tastes virtually identical, and most people can’t tell the difference between the new and old recipes. As a result, many consumers took to social media to congratulate Kraft Heinz on its success.
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese has annual sales in excess of $500 million. Kraft Heinz sells numerous other products at grocery stores across the United States, and the macaroni and cheese recipe change is only the company’s first step in removing artificial flavors, colors, and dyes from its products. Kraft Heinz expects to make many more recipe changes in the near future. The company will likely perform the same blind taste test stunt on consumers again, especially after its initial success with revising the recipe for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.[/show]
