Kraft is yet in another product that would “help parents” make their children eat healthily, and it could be a risk not worth taking. Now, Kraft thinks that by releasing a “salad frosting,” which is essentially just ranch disguised as something fun could help the company recover from a series of unsuccessfully new market offerings.
It can be remembered that the company, Heinz, now part of Kraft Heinz Co. KHC, -0.81%, has released multi-colored catsup back in 2000 and the new product turned out to be a colossal flop. However, experience and the dwindling stocks cannot deter the company and continued in promoting the repackaged salad dressing as a contest and a hashtag campaign #LieLikeAParent. The company, in a release, noted a statistic asserting that 63% of U.S. parents admit to telling lies to get their kids to clean up their plates.
“Innocent lies parents tell their kids help alleviate the pressures of everyday parenting, and if it gets kids to eat their greens, so be it,” said Sergio Eleuterio, Kraft’s marketing head, adding that 75% of American kids eat salad only once a week, according to an NPD Group/National Eating Trends report from late last year.
It is undeniable that the ranch is one of the most popular salad, chicken wings, and food dressing in America. Some 40% of Americans picked Ranch, crushing its nearest competitor, Italian, which came in at 10%, in a 2017 study by industry group, the Association for Dressings and Sauces.
Kraft Heinz shares are down nearly 30% so far this year. The combined Kraft Heinz stock began trading at just under $80 a share in 2015; it’s below $30 now, amid deep cost-cutting and a recent SEC investigation, and catch-up with filing, as well as a mostly packaged-goods product line that analysts say is lagging changing consumer tastes.
