Kraft Effectiveness as a Marketing Tool, Essay Example

The effectiveness of a marketing tool depends on how well the marketing tool promotes tactical business action with full alignment of the strategic intent of company’s leadership. The goal of the marketing strategy is to take the limited amount of resources and produce the largest amount of revenue.  The Kraft Foods website takes two angles to provide information to the consumer.  The first approach is the corporate business side and the second is the recipes & product information section.  Each section have two distinct operational plans but both have the same overall link to the strategic goals which is to create a competitive advantage for Kraft Foods and sell more product to the consumer.  Each section will be reviewed for their effectiveness as a marketing tool.

Corporate Information

Under the Corporate Information section it is obvious Kraft Foods is a leader in the consumer goods sector leading the Food-Major Diversified industry.  Even without going out and searching through their financial data Kraft Foods utilizes their corporate information site to show just how good they are at what they do.  In their strategy section they have three goals “Delight global snack consumers”, “Unleash the power of our iconic heritage brands”and “Create a performance-driven, values led organization”(http://www.kraft.com/default.aspx).  Their strategy is to provide their foods worldwide, with a trusted and time tested product, with honest and hardworking people.  By gathering this information from their website they are setting themselves apart from their competitors in regard to experience, quality and choice.

Another objective of any corporate is to provide corporate details to their consumers, investors and potential investors.  This was systematically accomplished by dividing the information into consumable and digestible portions relating to corporate and financial information, trending news as well as providing a downloadable investor kit. Having instantaneous access to this data reflects their data is available just as their snack foods are, any time and any place.

The website is well executed and maintained in the majority of the site experience.  One section that seemed to lack continuity and execution was the Brand section.  Each brand is represented by either stating it is a featured brand part of their largest brands.  When researching their largest brands section the walk-through of the site becomes less interesting.  The visual appeal of the alphabetic listing is lackluster due to the vacant white background and failed attempt to incorporate lettering from their brands into the represented letter of the alphabet.  Although functionally and technically the concept does work, it is not as polished or refined as the rest of the site.  The gapping difference between the webpages representing the alphabetized product lists and the rest of the site only emphasize the substandard craftsmanship which would tend to lead consumers in the wrong direction.

Recipes & Product Information

Initial layout is draws the user to the as it rotates different meal or snack ideas.  The recipe section is easy to navigate and breaks down by category, lunch, dinner, breakfast as well as targeting budget and healthy ideas to draw in the budget and health conscious consumer.  The site entices the consumer by not only providing meal ideas but also provides their food options for entertainment planning for events such as a holiday party or sporting event.  They are taking the consumer mentally to their particular event and associating the food choice to the enjoyable event they have planned.  Once a selection is made Kraft Foods provides a printable recipe, a place to store the recipe for future use or the opportunity to share the recipe with friends and family.  Instructions, recipes, videos, nutritional information, serving size and consumer reviews provide an all-encompassing meal selection.The recipes & product information section plays a different role in driving consumer choices.  This site is used two fold.  One as a tool for making the consumer aware of their product and how to use it and two, it provides the consumer with a tool for making informed and correct food purchases at the point of sale.  It does this by taking you from start to finish in the creation of a meal.  From idea generation to printing a shopping list, Kraft Foods recipe site makes its presence known the entire way.  From idea product preparation, the website provides the guidance and accessibility needed by the consumer.

Although the Kraft Foods recipe site provides everything needed to prepare a snack, meal or banquet for friends or family there is always room for improvement.  Some of the functionality does not necessarily provide the anticipated desired results.  There is an extreme amount of information provided on the site.  This could be daunting to the casual browser but on the other hand all information is completely useful in nature.  Once the initial information overload has passed browsing the site is swift and aesthetically ergonomic.

Kraft Foods hit the mark with their marketing tool.  The goal is to drive consumers to purchase Kraft foods products.  Kraft Foods utilized their websites to provide information on who they were, what they provided, how long they have been providing quality products and why they were the choice among many competitors.  The corporate website’s position involved creating a vision of a global power house in the food industry in which it not only stated in their strategic vision statements but also authenticated with financial results, community involvement and customer satisfaction.  The Kraft Foods recipe section hit the mark by utilizing a cradle to grave approach to their food selection and consumption as well as becoming part of the consumer’s daily life by utilizing social media outlets to enhance their brand saturation into the consumer’s product selection.