Kraft Foods, Inc.

Kraft Foods, Inc.

Marketing Management

Kraft Foods, Inc.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary....................................................2

Customer and Market Focus..........................................5

Human Resource Focus...............................................8

Management of the Marketing Mix................................10

Business Results......................................................13

Appendices

References

Executive Summary

Kraft Foods, Inc. (Kraft) is the largest branded food and beverage company in the United States and the second largest in the world (behind Nestle) (Datamonitor). It was spun off by Philip Morris (now Altria Group) in June 2001 in the U.S.'s second largest IPO ever (behind AT&T Wireless). Altria Group owns approximately 84% of Kraft (Hoover's). Kraft operates through two main subsidiaries, Kraft Foods North America and Kraft Foods International (Datamonitor).

Kraft's business spans five core sectors: snacks, beverages, cheese, grocery and convenient meals and includes some of the country's most familiar brands, including Kraft cheese, Maxwell House coffee, and Oscar Mayer meats (Wahlgren).

One of Kraft's most important strengths is the power of its brands (Altria) and few things in the food business are as bankable as Kraft extending one of those powerful brands (Gogoi 82).

Lietuvių: Kraft Foods

English: The Kraft Factory A familiar site on the ...

A container of Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts

For Kraft, determining how to effectively and efficiently develop and introduce new products is important to retaining a profitable bottom line (Dahm 18). Prioritizing new product development while retaining emphasis upon core brands is a balance that can be hard to achieve. However, it appears as though Kraft has been able to walk that tightrope well (Dahm and Malovany 22). The company has an aggressive attitude toward new product development, but also aggressively pursues improvements in core brands and existing products (Dahm 18).

According to John Ruff, senior vice president R&D and quality at Kraft, Kraft focuses on growth through new product development in three ways. "First, we look to reinvent and reinvigorate our existing products, whether that be through improvements in quality, packaging innovation or new benefits. Second, we look...