Kraft Foods Plans `Umbrella' Campaign
The tactic didn't do much for Beatrice or Borden, but now North America's biggest food company is trying to get more bang for its advertising buck by packing a variety of its grocery products into a single commercial pitch.</br></br>Kraft Foods this fall will launch an unusual, new $50 million "umbrella campaign," stuffing an array of food items such as Kool-Aid, Philadelphia cream cheese, Post cereal and Tombstone frozen pizza into a single television spot or Sunday circular. The idea is for Kraft to create an image that transcends its products, rather like Nike and Disney, says Robert A. Eckert, a former Oscar Mayer president who became Kraft's president and chief executive officer last October. "No matter what you see from Disney, you know it will be family entertainment," he says.</br></br>It might work for mice, but what about cheese? "Do people care whether Miracle Whip and Crystal Light are connected? I am not so sure," says Kevin Keller, author of a textbook on building brand loyalty. He thinks such campaigns can help keep shoppers loyal if they already favor Kraft but might fail to draw new consumers.</br></br>The ads, still under development at J. Walter Thompson in Chicago, will show a real Mom with a real Gramps and Lil' Sis, gabbing about how food helps them relate to one another. The touchy-feely message: Kraft gets the importance of family values, and makes the kind of food that families with values eat.</br></br>Kraft spent about $800 million last year to advertise its 50-plus major individual brands, from Jell-O ("Smile more") to Oscar Mayer ("Just Whistle"). This year, it plans to increase that figure by about 5%. And "all of our brands will contribute" to the new umbrella campaign, Mr. Eckert says.