Kraft Foods No Matter How

Kraft Foods No matter how well-known and successful a company is, marketing the company's products is crucial to continued success. Kraft Foods is no exception. The company is a multi-billion dollar entity which produces many different food brands. Even though Kraft Foods is a household name and has been around since 1914 when it first opened a manufacturing plant and sold cheese, the company still has to stay ahead of the marketing game by being creative in order to stay a favorite among consumers.

Marketing efforts have come a long way since the early 1900's. We now have television, radio, social media and the internet (to name a few) that companies can use to market their brands to consumers. Many of us are familiar with Kraft Foods' commercials, but there is only so much time allotted for commercials limiting what the consumers can hear and view. The internet however is a different story.

A company's website may contain as much or as little information the company feels necessary to get the message across in order for consumers to remain loyal to their products. However, companies must always consider their customer's satisfaction because just as the internet can be used to market a brand, it can also be used by consumers to spread bad word of mouth if they are dissatisfied (Kotler and Keller, 2012). In this day and age, a company's website is practically required as a marketing tool.

It is not the only tool a company can use, but it is a very important one and useful one. When logging on to Kraft Foods' website (www.kraft.com), the user sees that the first page is self-explanatory. There are only two choices to be made: 'Corporate Information' or 'Recipes and Product Information'. With each of these choices, there are areas of the website that work well and other areas that could be done better.

When selecting 'Corporate Information', the consumer is taken to a page where many more options can be viewed. Consumers can learn everything there is to know about the company by selecting one of the choices along the top of the page. The company's history, food brands, investor information, etc. can all be found on this page. Once an item is chosen from the menu bar at the top of the page, everything included within that menu bar is displayed alongside the left of the page in a table of contents.

Each menu bar contains its own table of contents which makes for easy navigation. The glaring issue on this page is when the 'our brands' is selected from the top menu bar. Without any type of warning, every brand logo that belongs to Kraft jumps out at the customer as if the website is being viewed in 3D and then quickly disappears into the background. Dozens of logos are quickly displayed in rapid succession.

Once all logos have disappeared, a paragraph about Kraft's brands is displayed with a cartoonish and very large font. Some of the letters are randomly larger than others which is a bit confusing. The 'our brands' menu page is not uniform and does not blend well with the rest of the website. It is a bit too whimsical and playful, as though it was designed for children. Since consumers are influenced by visual imagery, the environment in which they view things is important (Meyvis et. al, 2012).

If children are the target audience, then this would be fine. but, it is safe to assume that Kraft is targeting an adult audience. After viewing this section, the consumer may decide not to view anything else because they may not take Kraft seriously. The other section of Kraft's website that appears on the main page is the 'Recipes and Product Information' option. When this option is selected, the consumer is taken to a page that also displays a menu bar at the top.

What works in Kraft's favor is that they were conscientious enough to post recipes and other information specifically geared toward the consumer. The marketing message on this page implies that Kraft is grateful for the consumer purchasing their products and to show their gratitude, they are posting helpful suggestions (recipes) on how the products can be used. Even though this section of the website is labeled 'Recipes and Product Information', it is more of a customer appreciation page. Having said this, there are things that could have been done better.

The overall page is too busy. When selecting a choice from the menu bar at the top, the consumer is flooded with too many pictures, different recipes and other visuals. It is information overload. It gives the consumer too many things to try to focus on at once, which can not only be confusing, but frustrating. Kraft should customize this part of their website so that it is more organized.

Since this is probably the section of the website that a large number of consumer's may gravitate to first, it needs to be less confusing and more to the point. Organized information provided by companies to.