Striving to keep familiar brands fresh
Kraft Foods, the company that invented pasteurized processed cheese food is losing market share to lower-priced competitors. Kai Ryssdal talks with CEO Irene Rosenfeld about how Kraft is trying to put the bounce back in its cheese business.
Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc. (Courtesy of Kraft Foods Inc.)
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EXECUTIVE PROFILE
Who: Kraft chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld
Education: She holds a bachelor of arts in psychology, a master of science in business administration, and a PhD in marketing and statistics -- all from Cornell University.
What you may not know: She enjoys playing the piano and rollerblading.
Comments
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From Houston, TX, 09/09/2009
I listened to only a little of the interview from the CEO of the Kraft Cheese Product and I have to agree with most comments that as a consumer being health conscious, I am not very impressed with the idea that this product is processed. I heard nothing that would make me want to go out and buy Kraft Cheese Products.
I am a cheese lover and therefore I love the flavor of natural cheese. Having more information on how they would be willing to get back to the basics of processing the product to its natural form would have been more marketable.
I feel that companies are so involved in marketing and sales that they are really not intouch with exactly what the consumer is wanting. They have acquired tremendous amounts of degrees that make them an excellent candidate for marketing and sales. However, they have forgotten that consumers are very concern about the ingredients that have been taken away and added to the product. Todays'consumers are becoming conciencous about there health and what types of ingredients that are ingesting into there bodies and the effects that those ingredients have. I feel that it is the companies responsibility to keep in mind that they have a responsibility to the consumer to make sure that the product has been evaluated by a health professional and that the labels reflect this information.
Because of all the additives that is being placed into the product, I'm sure this affects the market price. Would it not be just as cost effective to use the revenue to produce a product that is health at the same expense? As a consumer, it is difficult to justify the ingredients, the processing and the cost as being beneficial just because it can be used in various ways.
From Loudon, NH, 02/12/2009
Most of the prior comments highlight the main issue - Kraft singles is not real cheese, it's a cheese flavored soybean oil concoction. You continued to contribute to the misrepresentation by constantly referring to grilled cheese sandwiches when you should have referred to them as cheese flavored processed soybean oil sandwiches
From Att, MA, 02/11/2009
Did she know you were coming? (Would she have baked a cake?) Did her pub relations people prompt her (or ask Kai) on what might come up in the conversation? Grilled cheese reheated in a microwave: Has she ever, ya know, used a microwave? Sounds like the company is betting it all on cheese and she is getting grilled. Hmmm. I wonder if Mr Buffet was listening ...
From CA, 02/11/2009
Listening to this interview makes me think Ms. Rosenfeld is out of touch with the marketplace I know, and therefore to short her stock. The alternative is that she is IN touch, which would prompt me to short our culture.
From VA, 02/11/2009
It doesn't take a real PHD (and not marketing thank you very much) to realize that Kraft foods is a major contributor to our very unsustainable way of life. The proof is everywhere in our obesity-ridden population. I challenge Irene Rosenfeld and Kai Ryssdalto take a deeper look into how we can get healthier food on the tables of Americans in more sustainable ways. Kraft can make more money by creating better products: less preservatives, healthier, etc.
Kai, I found this report depressing. narrow. How about a segment about how Kraft brainwashes kids via television commercials into eating unnutritious junk food? I know, because I was one of them. Marketing to children has been restricted in more sane countries.
From New York, NY, 02/11/2009
I would likeMs Rosento explain the difference between "natural cheese" and "cheese." I believe she said that Kraft was working on both. Does she mean "cheese food?" or "cheese product" ? Yuck!
From Chicago, IL, 02/11/2009
I wanted to say that of all the CEOs Kraft has had while I was there Irene was definitely my favorite. She was the first which invoked the "servant leader" philosophy into the corporation. In fact, she reads all emails from employees and responds to them, often taking ideas and forwarding them to her staff. One of the last things I did at Kraft because of her was meet with a VP because of one of the emails I had with her. Taking time out to do things like this, and also encouraging employees to have a more input in the corporate process creates a productive and healthy environment. That means a lot. She is definitely a consciences person and obviously different. I was also laid off just about 1 month after that meeting but still appreciate her good leadership, something that is sorely needed in a company that old. I always ate Kraft sandwiches on my lunch break, and being unemployed, I still do. Although I'll admit I have been guilty of supplementing it a bit with generic products. On top of all these great leadership qualities, she also plays the piano, and is an academic... She is OK in my books!! And now she is on marketplace, my start up page. Irene, if you read this and are looking for a person with a strong IT and marketing focus, please do not hesitate to look me up.
From Chicago, IL, 02/11/2009
I wanted to say that of all the CEOs Kraft has had while I was there Irene was definitely my favorite. She was the first which invoked the "servant leader" philosophy into the corporation. In fact, she reads all emails from employees and responds to them, often taking ideas and forwarding them to her staff. One of the last things I did at Kraft because of her was meet with a VP because of one of the emails I had with her. Taking time out to do things like this, and also encouraging employees to have a more input in the corporate process creates a productive and healthy environment. That means a lot. She is definitely a consciences person and obviously different. I was also laid off just about 1 month after that meeting but still appreciate her good leadership, something that is sorely needed in a company that old. I always ate Kraft sandwiches on my lunch break, and being unemployed, I still do. Although I'll admit I have been guilty of supplementing it a bit with generic products. On top of all these great leadership qualities, she also plays the piano, and is an academic... She is OK in my books!! And now she is on marketplace, my start up page. Irene, if you read this and are looking for a person with a strong IT and marketing focus, please do not hesitate to look me up.
From Sebastopol, CA, 02/10/2009
I wish you had asked her how she plans to reframe twenty plastic-wrapped pieces of cheese wrapped in more plastic in an increasingly environmentally conscious market. Do they plan to change the packaging? Has it even come up? It's always a struggle at the grocery store because nearly everything comes in plastic, but single-serve cheese slices are too much!
02/10/2009
Dear Kai,
Kraft Singles are not Cheese. They are a 'pasteurized process cheese food'. They are hydrogenated soybean and other oils plus whey solids and some salt and acidic compounds for flavor.
Cheese, on the other hand, is milk that has been fermented by real live organisms, who convert it to a more or less solidified compound composed of protein, calcium, fatty acids that vary by the original composition of the milk, and marvelous arrays of flavors that depend on the fermenting organisms.
Read Ingredients! Buyer beware!
Best wishes,
J. Longley
From Middleton, WI, 02/10/2009
Was this free advertizing for Kraft? I consider most of Krafts Products, just that, manufactured products, NOT FOOD. I have never bought individually wrapped slices or unwrapped slices. I suppose it's better than Velveeta, that gooey plastic fake "cheese." I don't want to hear about how to buy food from a CEO with a BA in Psychology and PhD in Marketing Statistics. I expect better from Public Radio. I'll listen to people like Michael Pollen, author of In Defense of Food , and Ann Vileisis author of Kitchen Literacy-How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back.
From New Orleans, LA, 02/10/2009
Daer Kai:
the oscar Meyer song goes "Oh I'd love to be an oscar meyer weiner....that is what I'd truely love to be...." and has 3 verses.......15 yrs ago my friend becky and I were sent a bottle of champagne a5t a wedding in Freeport Maine for knowing all 3 verses.....it's one of my few social graces
From Amherst, MA, 02/10/2009
According to Irene Rosenfeld, a Kraft Singles grilled cheese is a "simple idea that [is] economic." Simple yes... but economic? I appreciate that Kraft is striving to increase its market share, but does Marketplace really want to espouse the notion that highly processed, individually packaged cheese products are cheaper than the real thing? Price per pound comparisons aside--shouldn't we also consider the cost to the environment of all that unnecessary plastic? A sandwich made with Kraft Singles may be iconic for a certain generation of American, but maybe it's an icon who's time is up.
From San Leandro, CA, 02/10/2009
Granted Kraft Foods is a worthy company with many fine products I love but not Kraft American Singles a "pasteurized prepared cheese product"; notice "cheese product", NOT CHEESE!!!
The BEST grilled cheese sandwiches use Tillamook Medium Sliced Cheddar a REAL CHEESE!!
From West Springfield, MA, 02/10/2009
In response to Ms Rosen about packing grilled cheese sandwiches in kids' school lunches: I don't believe that most elementary schools have micro-wave ovens available for students. However, cold grilled cheese sandwiches are passably good.
From New York, NY, 02/10/2009
Well...a classic example of what's wrong with America. She's gotten a PhD...for what? To flog...and not very well with lots of business double talk...KRAFT SINGLES? They taste bad and they're bad for you. Ridiculous.
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