Blake Howard
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Terry Sieting
Working with an icon like this kind of brand always has a certain weight to it, right? And we have some anecdotal data that says it should resonate. Let's cross our fingers and close our eyes. And we woke up the next day to. Over and over a billion impressions. When, when this launched and that was? A really incredible moment.
Blake Howard
Hey everybody. Welcome. To a change of brand, the show featuring behind the scenes stories of rebrand, glory, drama or disaster. I'm your host Blake Howard. Today we're getting the inside scoop on the Kraft Mac and Cheese 2022 rebrand and packaging update, and I must confess this episode is dripping with puns, some good, some bad. You can be the judge of that. That's because I've been noodling on this episode for a while. It's a good one and I don't want it to get too cheesy or feel too strained, but sometimes I just get a little fussily when I'm excited. I can't only do so much, but my motto is hey, if there's a pun out there, go for it to not do so would be preposterous. OK, now that I've got that out of my system, we can get down to business. For those of us nostalgic about Kraft Mac and cheese, it needs no introduction. But for those of us that aren't, here's a classic 1981 commercial to get you up to speed.
Vintage Ad:
Please pass the Kraft cheese macaroni.
She knows it's Kraft macaroni and cheese. The names are backward. She thinks the cheese should come before the macaroni.
Well, it's the cheese sauce that makes it taste so good.
Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner made with genuine Kraft cheddar. What could taste better?
I called the Kraft company today.
Are they going to change the name?
They said they think about it.
Kraft cheese and macaroni. Hmm.
Blake Howard
And consider a name change. They did just 40 years later. For generations, Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner has filled bowls and warmed hearts as America's comfort food. But many consumers have perceived Kraft's flagship product as unhealthy, mostly for kids or otherwise a guilty pleasure. This had brand managers wondering if it was time for a change. This simple question that they had would lead not just to a name change, but an overhaul in their packaging and visual identity system as well. For more back story on the 2022 refresh and what led up to this change of brand, let's go to brand strategist Tracy Clark for our brief-in.
Tracy Clark
Cheese and pasta is not a revolutionary combo dating back hundreds of years to 13th century Naples, where we have the first known written recipe for macaroni and cheese. From the French version, using thin pastry dough to the English version, resembling more of a casserole, macaroni and cheese evolved considerably over the years, with a more modern form emerging from Elizabeth Raphael's 1769 book “The Experienced English Housekeeper”. However, the invention of processed cheese was the catalyst for the Kraft Mac and Cheese we know and love today.
In 1913, a pair of Swiss food chemists were the first to invent processed cheese by adding sodium citrate to Emmental cheese. Not only did this improve its shelf life, but the chemist noticed it actually melted better too. However, it was James L. Kraft, a Chicago cheese salesman who was awarded the first patent for processed cheese just three years later. But that's not the final version that made its way into boxes. Kraft discovered the same bacteria that helped the cheese age nicely was the same bacteria that caused it to spoil. As a test, he heated up some cheese scraps to kill the bacteria and ground them up into a powder using sodium phosphate as an emulsifier. This new formula could be stored almost indefinitely, thus minimizing waste and became the signature orange powder that is the Kraft process.
Kraft debuted its boxed macaroni and cheese as Kraft dinner in 1937. Marketed as a meal for four and done in 9 minutes, this incredibly affordable main dish substitute was a hit, as meat was often hard to come by during the Great Depression. Kraft dinner didn't get its iconic blue box actually, until 1954. It was also around this time that Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner became the official name, though it would continue being called Kraft dinner in Canada. This affinity might be evidence for why Canada accounts for 1/4 of all Kraft dinner sales. In fact, it's the number one grocery item in the country.
Despite the deviation in name between the US and Canada, several iterations of the logo were released over the first 70 years. Each varied slightly slowly evolving over time. It wasn't until 2010 that the Kraft macaroni and cheese logo changed significantly. This new logo featured that iconic noodle that we all know, specifically called the noodle smile, and it was meant to embody the joy of eating Kraft macaroni and cheese. And I mean, let's face it, it's easy to smile while eating a warm bowl of cheesy pasta. Right? I mean, unless you're lactose intolerant, but hey, maybe it's worth the risk. So, between noodle smiles, subtle logo and design tweaks here and there, being a champion for comfort and comfort food, things were really cooking, right?
Then in 2015, Kraft Foods and HJ Heinz merged to become Kraft Heinz. The 5th largest food and beverage company in the world. By 2021, Kraft Heinz generated $26 billion in annual sales, with Kraft selling over a million boxes of Mac and Cheese, that’s over 1,000,000 boxes per day.
But despite all this success, Kraft wanted to position their signature pasta dish as a timeless comfort food for all people, while also creating a more contemporary look. They also wanted to reflect the way fans organically talk about the brand, but toying with something so nostalgic can be risky. Even if the change of brand is objectively better, is it a welcome change? Let's jump back in to find out if brand fans kept their noodles smiles.
Blake Howard
Let's talk a bit more about the history of the Kraft macaroni and Cheese Dinner brand identity. Visually, it's been pretty boring, some sort of blue box with yellow or orange letters and an endorsement by Kraft as the parent brand. It starts to get more interesting in the late 70s, we see some nice type appear on the pack. Which has sort of cycled back around to being on trend today and in the 80s. It starts to get a Cooper black look with thicker and more rounded letters. And of course, in the 90s it gets a little rad with outlines and inner gradients and all kinds of chaos. Then, in 2010, Landor and Associates introduced what's known as the Blue Plate, a circle container that houses the brand name. That look had essentially stayed the same until 2022. The most recent change, which was led by design firm JKR overall, just simplifies everything and cleans up the pack. The full name was officially shortened to just Kraft Mac and Cheese, losing the more formal Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner. The packaging is more modern, organized, and yet still tasty.
The brand also expanded the visual tools by introducing a new typeface, graphic noodle patterns and food photography. Be sure to see the change of brand for yourself at www.achangeofbrand.com to get the inside scoop on this change.
I had the chance to sit down with a friend and former colleague, Terry Sieting. He's a senior designer at JKR and was the lead for this Kraft Mac and Cheese redesign process. Now Terry is no ordinary guest. In fact, he helped with the initial design direction for a Change of Brand for this podcast.
You have been around since the genesis of the idea of this show. You helped with the branding for the show. It's just like, you know, it's serendipitous. It's like, I don't know, whatever the words are, it's beautiful that you're here.
Terry Sieting
It's full circle for sure. In preparation for this, I was looking back at some of my old inspo boards and, you know, ruminating on the beginnings of the podcast. I mean, what a fun time to be coming back to it in this way, I'm really excited to be here.
Blake Howard
Terry is a Michigan native and a salt of the earth kind of guy and like many who grew up in the 80s or 90s, microwavable comfort meals. It was a household staple.
Terry Sieting
Me and my brother grew up as hockey players, like really active and if there was anything my mom could heat up quickly and we could put back like multiples of, right? So, it was boxes of fish sticks and not to precede this conversation but Mac and Cheese and things like that, things you would find kind of in your everyday grocery store. Those quick meals that was, those were our go TOS.
Blake Howard
Terry was familiar with Kraft Mac and Cheese and when the project came in, he knew it was full of pastabilities. Sorry I can't help it, but if you're keeping track at home, that's like five points for puns right now, so I win. OK, JKR has a history of working with the Kraft Heinz Company and transforming many of their product brands over the years. The Kraft macaroni and Cheese brand was just next up on their radar and the team at Heinz was looking to redefine the product as an icon on the shelf.
Terry Sieting
As we kind of approached this project. Our team went to visit the Kraft Heinz headquarters in Chicago, and they have this bowl of pins sitting on their front desk and it's full of little Pickles, right? Cause that's the origin of the Heinz Company and they have ketchup bottles. And one of the first things our creative director said to us as a team was, the next thing we put in that bowl is a Mac and Cheese noodle. That was the moment we knew that this OK, this is going to be one of the icons of this portfolio.
The problem that we were looking to solve was redefining the product as a staple and an icon on shelf, right? The market had started to open up. COVID made consumers more open to new things, and it was kind of like, it resolidified things for us that on shelf that is the icon that we want. To be fair there were a few other things that we aimed to do and insights that kind of came out of some initial research where we tried to determine what comfort food meant? I think for a lot of consumers, there's maybe a bit of shame or guilt associated with that. And part of this process was like reframing that to an act of self-care, something that you did to comfort yourself not something to be looked down upon. And I think maybe like lastly, this perception that we talked about earlier around age about it being a product for young people. I think we wanted to open the door and say no, this is for everyone. This is for young people and old people and everywhere along your life's journey this is for.
Blake Howard
To try and change the perceptions of such a well-known product wouldn't be easy. Millions of dollars had been poured into their marketing and advertising over decades to position Kraft macaroni and cheese as a product for kids with partnerships with DC Comics, Looney Tunes and many other youth-oriented licensing deals built that brand reputation, and it worked. Scores of kids grew up on this, with hurried parents boiling water and dumping the noodles in for a quick and easy meal that the kids would love. As a parent with young kids right now and a survey of 1 quick and easy wins with anything related to food are hard to ignore.
Terry Sieting
In the beginning, we went really wide. We did our due diligence to explore everything. I think as good stewards of the brand, we knew that there were some primary equities, let's say in pieces of the brand mark, in the color of the box, in the shape of the noodle. Those things all held a certain amount of status that we certainly wanted to leverage and not get rid of, but we looked at every way to Sunday in terms of how we amplify the brand.
Blake Howard
You mentioned some of the insights from the research. What else could you share that was helpful? You know, as you all were doing research, what were some significant insights that were starting to frame up where you could head?
Terry Sieting
We talked a little bit about the reframing of comfort food truly. That was one of the biggest insights that led, I think it led, to our brand purpose statement of the positive power of comfort. Right. Is bringing that bit of delight and happiness that we associate with the product and attaching it to comfort, being redefined by an act of self-care. It's not something that should be viewed shameful, as heavy as something you know that you would eat reclined in a lazy boy. So to speak, it's an act of self-care. It's linked to that. That moment of care from your mom, those kinds of things really led to that insight and drove that forward.
Blake Howard
This is a classic brand strategy. It's not junk food. It's comfort food. Yes, eating too much could be unhealthy, but eating just a bit is mentally healthy. You know, #treatyourself and this will be my mantra next time I go down a carton of Jeni’s peanut butter and jelly ice cream after a long week. I'm not vegging out, I'm comforting myself. With this idea in hand, they continued to explore design directions, focusing heavily on the logo and the front of the package.
Terry Sieting
These packs had lots of noodles, no noodles smiles. You know, there was interactivity suggested at one point we just again went really, really wide. And I think coming out of that meeting, our Creative Director, JB Hartford, had a conversation with the client and he gave us this insight that really led the rest of the project. It became this inflection point that changed everything. Which was just, he said there's some kind of research that suggests when a person looks at another person and smiles, that they smile back. There's that human connection that kind of forces that idea. So, for our pack, for our brand, when it sits on shelf, we want it to smile at our consumers. And we want them to smile. And that idea around making something that smiles at our consumers really led to the insight that that drove the smiling noodle being the forefront of our design, brand identity and pack. That led to our tone of voice. It led to all kinds of implications that came out of that.
Blake Howard
There aren't very many people in the world that say I would like to have some Kraft macaroni and cheese, you know, like no one's that formal. If they are, they're not eating Mac and Cheese, they're too fancy for that. They're doing something else. So, at what point did that start to just truncate and get shortened?
Terry Sieting
I think you'll even note, even before this iteration that we were adapting, it was Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner. If you look really far back, right? So, we went into some of these first presentations with a bit of a narrative iterating on the logo, playing with it in different ways, going through some quick slides. To explore some things, and I think one of those progressions was to say is it macaroni and cheese? Is it Mac and cheese? Is it M + C? What is it? And as we went through that iteration. It was almost just this bit of storytelling to lead up into our POV. And there was this moment of clarity, I think, for everyone in the room, which was like, wait no that is what everyone calls it. Mac and Cheese nobody says macaroni and cheese. And I think there was that collective like aha moment. Let's just call it what consumers already call it. Let's just reflect the zeitgeist and call it Mac and Cheese. I think some of the pivotal moments were deciding is there food packaging or is it just graphic and if there is food packaging is it like it's represented today in like a field of cheesy noodles? Is it a fork? Is it a spoon? Is it a bowl? What is it? And our team actually did some really interesting research where we did kind of this co-creation study with consumers. Where we designed a pack, put it in front of them. They made some suggestions. We went off for a little while, came back with the new pack, and we really came to understand in those moments that food on pack was a necessity. Consumers need to see it, and it ultimately drove us to where we are today, which is to say it's a spoon full of Mac and Cheese.
Blake Howard
In addition to the spoonful of goodness, the JKR team knew through various design tests, they needed to keep that noodle smiling. The blue plate needed to stay, and that blue box needed to be seen on shelves.
Terry Sieting
What we were doing, we all kind of agreed upon was the most basic but strongest essence of the brand. So, in that regard, it was quite smooth in its creative process. We knew we needed to simplify to amplify. There's a lot out there that you'll see on shelf that's doing a lot and saying very little and I think we wanted to do the opposite, be this bold icon showing up on shelf in a very confident manner. And so that led a lot of our decision making coming out of those, those big presentations.
Blake Howard
I love it when the clients that you work directly with must have either been swayed to that idea or already inherently believed some of that to be true, because I know from experience these types of packaging projects some clients, decision makers, stakeholders, they don't see it that way. They want claims they want you know, all sorts of language on the front of pack. They're not really design oriented or designed forward. They're marketing forward or sales forward. So, what drives the decision-making is, hey, we know this claim resonates so we need to put this claim top left, or we know that this has been around forever, so we need this little bubble or burst to be on the bottom, right. And you end up with a pack that's really confusing and really complex and feels pretty dated. But it's clear here that they were on board. They were either swayed by you or they just innately believed in this, the need for simplicity and just sort of where cultural tastes and distaste are.
Terry Sieting
One of the absolute benefits and privileges of working with an icon like Mac and Cheese is that everybody already knows what it is to some degree right? There isn't this heavy lift that is required to say what we are before we say like what we stand for and.
Terry Sieting
That was a big advantage in this project, we didn't have to re-explain ourselves to consumers. It was just about tweaking some perceptions that were based on those insights, and then again like making it what consumers already believe it is, which is to say, it is a comfortable product, it's full of delight. It is a blue box, things like that. Now the previous box for instance, was a gradient of blues. It wasn't one singular blue, but people call it blue box. Part of our process was making it a blue box, a singular blue box, right? Again, another way we're kind of like holding a mirror up to consumers and putting the product back to them in the way that they're already describing it.
Blake Howard
Terry and the team have the majority of the design assembled, but next they will face the biggest test of all, consumers. Will this be the point in which the vision melts away while consumers water down the creamy goodness with their feedback? All that more after the break?
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Tracy Clark
Hey listeners, did you know Blake, our fearless podcast host and Dad joke expert has written a book? Yeah, it's totally true. It covers a range of brand identity topics and solutions to help CMOS and other brand leaders uncover a more radically relevant brand. In fact, that's the name “Radically Relevant”. And since we all love to take quizzes, it comes with an assessment too so you can see how your brand stacks up against the competition. For more on the book or to take the free Radically Relevant assessment, check out www.radicallyrelevantbrand.com. And if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to join the conversation on Instagram. See more about today's episode share with a friend or send us an idea you have for a future episode at @achangeofbrand All right, let's get back to it.
Blake Howard
OK, let's recap where we are. Terry and the team have narrowed the right elements to keep on the package. The blue box, the blue plate, the smiling noodle, etcetera. And then they started to explore a ton of iterations. They've narrowed it down to a few directions and now need to get consumer feedback. This can be like the ultimate design by committee, and it often flies in the face of anything pushing the boundaries or slightly unfamiliar. However, no one at JKR or Kraft Heinz wants to be like the 2009 Tropicana debacle, where the company removed the beloved orange and straw motif on the front of the pack in favor of a more modern, sleek design aesthetic. Which ended up going terribly wrong for the company. So, consumer testing, whether you like it or not, is an insurance policy.
All right, So what about testing? You mentioned this a little bit, but anytime you start changing the front of the pack, you're just going to have to do consumer testing. Was there a gamut you had to run through and dodge and navigate, or did it validate some of the direction of what you were trying to do?
Terry Sieting
I think a really good client takes testing head on and doesn't use it as a go or no go necessarily, but they say what can we learn from this and how do we apply that to make what we're doing already better, right? And that was the case here. It validated what we were doing. Again, I think like I said earlier. The final pack existed in some form in some of those early ideation moments, so it was a moment of validation, a moment that we could say yes, what we all believed to be true about the identity is what consumers believe it to be as well. So, in this case, testing is not always our friend, right, as graphic designers. But in this case, it was a check and move forward with what you're doing kind of moment.
Blake Howard
When you got the e-mail back of check and move on and keep what you're doing or somehow it was communicated to you that the testing was concluded and we are moving forward, did you do a little dance? Like did you fist pump? Did you high five, you spin in your chair, you had to celebrate?
Terry Sieting
You don't get many moments like that in your career, right? So of course, there's the there's the fist pump, the high 5, the slack line of emojis. You know that is the celebration. We had a ton of talented creatives on this project, and I think for everyone it was a bit of a relief. And then also like an energizing moment like great, let's go make this thing real. Put it on the shelf.
Blake Howard
Yeah, I love that. I don't know the exact ratio, but probably in your situation for everyone that is check, let's move on there are probably nine others that that didn't check and move on.
Terry Sieting
I think it's probably more. I mean we; we took you know, more than one concept into testing as we always do with any project we're doing. We had our point of view; we had our lead; we had our favorite. As did the client. And to come out to say like, oh, the favorite here is the concept that is the exciting moment, yeah.
Blake Howard
It's like a Friday night with Netflix and a warm bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese. These survival rate for design projects post consumer testing is slim to none. It's worse odds than Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games. Many large CPG brands experiment with packaging redesigns all the time. But if they don't pass consumer testing well, they get canned. They're just different projects than most corporate rebrands since their appeal and shelf recognition is so critical and change in this category is rare because it's scary. After passing many rounds of consumer testing, it was time to finalize the design system for the packaging and expand it out into the broader visual identity system. And this is where Terry really got to nerd out.
Terry Sieting
Part of some of the other design nuances that you'll see carry through lots of what we do. Circular and round and comfortable and emblematic of the noodle. That the noodles are a delight, and the design idea carries through in the rounded kind of like noodle like figures of the wordmark. Our custom typeface we called Blue Box Sans right it and it has those little E's in it that are just smiling back at you, just like the noodles do.
Blake Howard
Even though Terry is the one we're interviewing for this story, he was quick to point out that the project was a big team effort. They worked with Rob Clark to perfect the new word mark F37 on a custom typeface and additionally they worked with Adam and Robin Voorhees on the food photography, which posed a unique challenge for the Voorhees. Due to Kraft's imagery brand standards.
Terry Sieting
Their point of view on creating fluid photography is to create it using the real product and using the directions you see. In this case on the side of the box. And what you see ultimately in the end is there is no fanciful lie behind that food photography. It is the real product made the real way.
Blake Howard
There's a lot of tricks that food photographers might use or be accustomed to, and I'm blanking on some of them, but it might be like instead of ice cream, it's actually a big scoop of butter, you know. Or like there, there are things that they will do because it just captures on camera better or just lasts longer so they can style it and it's not melting away or whatnot. But in this case, those tricks were removed and it's like, hey, here's 15 cases of blue box Kraft machine get us some great shots, please.
Terry Sieting
And I think they tried to explore some tactics within the creative constraints that we gave them to make sure that, for instance, the cheese wasn't showing up oily and that had a lot to do with lighting rather than how we made the product itself. So, in this case, yeah, no fiction, all facts. The real product.
Blake Howard
You know, in a world of Photoshopped models, ChatGPT and AI deep fakes, it sure is nice to know that the Kraft Mac and Cheese that I see on the front of the box is in fact the real deal. After many bowls of Kraft Mac and cheese, the photography was not too hot nor too cold, but just right. The color type and supporting elements were fine-tuned as well. And then the next thing you know, it was time to launch.
News Spot:
Kraft macaroni and cheese is rebranding its name to simply Kraft Mac and Cheese. It’s the first name change in the product’s 85-year history. The company says this subtle change is meant to reflect the way fans talk about the brand, and the box is getting a makeover too, with a refresh logo, but they are keeping that familiar noodle smile. You see it?
Now I do.
You see it, it's just ever so subtle.
Blake Howard
Obviously, the big headline topper was the name change, but it was properly supported with the new design work as well, and spoiler, both seemed to be universally well received. The only criticism was around the technicalities of the name Mac being shorthand for macaroni noodles. Some variations of Kraft Mac and Cheese don't actually have macaroni noodles at all, but rather they have spirals or mini shells so how can the entire brand be called Mac and? This sparked a raging debate about what even is a macaroni noodle? Is it the general category of pasta or a subcategory like fusilli? And unfortunately, that debate is ongoing and mostly ridiculous and irrelevant feedback for this project. In fact, whoever made those initial comments should go to the Pennetentiary. The launch and the overall creative process for such a big product brand was about as velvety smooth as it gets or so I'm told. Regardless, Terry was still nervous, of course, going into the press release and public debut of the work.
Terry Sieting
Working with an icon like this kind of brand always has a certain weight to it, right? And we have some anecdotal data that says it should resonate. Let's cross our fingers and close our eyes and then we woke up the next day to over a billion impressions when this launched and that was a really incredible moment and a lot of positive response, which was incredible.
Blake Howard
Let's put a lid on this conversation and simmer down some to key takeaways. This one is fun for me because as Terry mentioned, it's not about design for design's sake. There wasn't an objective to be disruptive or to get featured online as the latest trendy design to come out, or even to push the envelope visually. It was more about making Kraft Mac and Cheese even more iconic and in order to do that, they needed to strip away all the unnecessary elements so the blue box, the blue plate and the smiling noodle could shine.
Additionally, the brand managers and the team at Kraft Heinz must have done one heck of a job managing change internally. We didn't get much of that story, so it's unclear how decisions were made and if there was any drama around this new identity. But the consumer testing must have really solidified the case for change. Lastly, I guess it's easy to change a long-dated sounding name like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner, when people are already shortening it. It's actually kind of hard to believe the name didn't change decades before this. There is one more twist to the story that is important to note. How many bowls of Kraft Mac and Cheese did Terry eat himself while working on this year's long project? Were you eating Kraft Mac and Cheese the whole time like, as you're sitting at your computer, you just had bowl after bowl?
Terry Sieting
You know, this is the funniest question. I am lactose intolerant, which is just hilarious. Yeah, so there were days on end of me craving this thing that I loved as a child but couldn't really touch. And my wife, Olivia, you know, passing my screen from time to time would see it on screen and say, “OH, I really want Kraft Mac and Cheese for dinner tonight”. So, I wish I could say I was putting back bowls and bowls of it, but in my mind I was.
Blake Howard
Come on, Kraft. It's time to release your dairy free version of Kraft Mac and cheese.
Terry Sieting
You know, there aren't a lot of good options on the market today. I can tell you that.
Blake Howard
OK, that is a wrap. Special thanks to Terry Sieting and the team at JKR for giving us their take on this change. To see more visuals from today's episode, head on over to www.achangeofbrand.com and if you liked today's show, share it with a friend or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Today's episode was edited by Landon Oseitutu, fact checked by Jill Jeffries, written in part and produced by Brianna Belcher. Special thanks to Tracy Clark for the brief-in and Rachel Jackson for today's artwork. I'm your host, Blake Howard, signing off.