When re-branding or coming up with a new marketing strategy, some companies may come up with more abstract ways to promote their product or brand. However, re-branding can turn out to hurt your company or product more than help. Some products have an identity so deeply ingrained that when they re-brand, they can lose their entire identity or people will negatively react to the new identity.
For example, look at the marketing efforts made in the photographs below. What is your reaction to the billboards and sculpture? Do you recognize the company or product?
These advertisements are for… Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.
According to an article from the New York Times, Kraft is looking to marketing their macaroni and cheese as enjoyable for adults as well as kids. Along with “You know you love it” and “The most fun you can have with your stove on,” other billboards include messages that say “Outgrow outgrowing it,” “Imported from your childhood” and “Parents need warm cheesy hugs.”
The total marketing campaign includes TV commercials, print ads, billboards, online ads, the website youknowyouloveit.com, a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, and the “noodle art” found in various cities.
The question is whether this re-branding will work. Will adults positively respond to this new marketing campaign? Are people going to be intrigued by these billboards and sculptures enough to want to find out about the product and company? Or has Kraft Macaroni & Cheese so strongly identified itself as a “child’s meal” that it won’t be able to break out?
All text and design are the property of