Kraft Breathes Cheesy

Forget flowers, Kraft wants consumer homes to be filled with the scent of a freshly-made grilled cheese sandwich this spring.

For National Grilled Cheese Sandwcih Day (April 12), the food company released the first-ever incense that smells, well, like a grilled cheese sandwich. The brand leaves nothing to the imagination with the name of its creation, Kraft Singles Grilled Cheese-cense, which is meant to evoke the warmy, comfy, and ever-so-melty aroma of the iconic comfort food. The incense sticks come with a wooden branded holder and can be lit in any environment. Those interested in injecting the scent of hot cheese into their homes entered a contest on Twitter to win one of 1,000 Kraft Singles Grilled Cheese-cense units through April 15 by tweeting with the hashtags #BreatheCheesy and #Sweepstakes, and winners were notified via direct message April 16. To promote the unusual item, Kraft served up teasers that asked viewers, “What’s that in the air?” in an ode to the springtime adage “Love is in the air.”, paired with a particularly enticing visual of a grilled cheese sandwich.

If the whole thing sounds a bit too cheesy to you, you’re not wrong. However, as the pandemic penetrated every aspect of normal life, consumers actually craved comfort wherever they could find it. As such, many brands tracked in Gartner’s Digital IQ Index: Food & Beverages turned to repurposing existing products or content to cater to the more scrappy consumer. Honing in on classic, fan-favorite foods and flavors was just one way that brands including Eggo Waffles, Pepsi, and Tostitos tapped into the evolved preferences of their respective audiences. Now, as the pandemic comes to a close and consumers are beginning to grow more concerned about their health and appearance, Kraft’s quirky new initiative could allow them to indulge in the experience of a grilled cheese sandwich—minus the calories—especially as cheese continues to take center stage as a hot ingredient on social media. Kraft isn’t the first brand betting on scent to tempt consumers. Meat maker Oscar Mayer objectified the scent of its signature hardwood smoked bacon into 1,500 pairs of limited-edition shoelaces earlier this month.

Just because summer is around the corner doesn’t mean the content of season’s past should be tossed aside. Brands should consider repackaging both their content and products to captivate the post-pandemic consumer, similar to when they did so at the start of the crisis over a year ago.