The final verdict on Kraft and Vegemite

Okay, so I was off by a letter. The new (again) name of the Vegemite concoction at the heart of the naming storm over the past couple of weeks is… Cheesybite. I guess wrangling the Cheesymite name from its owners was too much trouble (with thanks to people in the comments section who alerted me to its lack of availability!).

I am pretty much sick to death of the whole sorry saga really, and I am sure you are too. So to finish it off once and for all let’s see what the net gain to Kraft has been.

Using the naming competition as a clever tactic to get people to buy the “no name” product before it has launched. Check.

Parlay a moderately non-event one story product launch into a story covered in traditional and social media for a solid week by choosing a stupid name sure to be derided far and wide. Check.

Send out stock of iSnack jars to retailers so public can snap them up as future collector items. Check.

Get a couple of extra news cycyles out of the new vote and relaunch of the product with the new (again) name. Check.

All in all I would say it has been a pretty good day at the office for the marketing boys and girls at Kraft.

What remains to be seen is once the hoo ha dies down if anyone will actually buy a second jar of the stuff. And if they do, will they still buy the original Vegemite as well? Or will the new product cannibalise the original leading to no real increase in sales (which I am guessing was the point of the whole exercise in the first place)…

I guess only time will tell.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognise who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.