Last year, Kraft Foods was in the process of developing a new product idea: Philadelphia Cooking Creme, a delicious easy-to-blend spoonable creme that would make everyday cooking easier. With one of the largest campaigns in the history of Philadelphia Cream Cheese planned, the company wanted to make sure that this new product resonated powerfully with their consumers. Kraft Foods turned to their Communispace private online consumer communities for guidance, ideation and developmental support.

Over the course of the last seven years, Kraft Foods has leveraged their private online consumer communities — which include both general and Hispanic markets, one of their most important targets — to elicit valuable and actionable insights from their most important customers. Each community is built around 300–500 consumers (or members) and is password-protected, highly branded and expertly moderated. Activities and projects are facilitated on a regular basis to keep these communities engaged and ensure that Kraft Foods maintains a continuous pipeline to these key consumers.

Passionate, engaged consumers help speed and inform new product development  

In February of 2010, Kraft Foods introduced Cooking Creme concepts to the communities, specifically seeking to know how the members felt about the consistency of the product and whether or not it should be in traditional brick form (like existing Philadelphia cream cheese) or a new spoonable creme form. Overall, members responded to the spoonable version as a better option, as it would make cooking meals faster and easier. In addition, the brick form was something that members already associated with traditional cream cheese, which would go on bagels, toast and other foods. Armed with this invaluable information, Kraft Foods felt that the new product, which would enhance home-cooked meals while also making them easier, was ready to be further evaluated in their communities.

In May of 2010, Kraft Foods moved forward with spoonable Cooking Creme and began ideating flavors among community members. They presented a variety of flavor ideas and looked to gauge their preferences and any rationales behind their likes and dislikes, as well as expected uses in recipes. Feedback from the members informed Kraft Foods’ decision to move forward with the following: Original, Savory Garlic, Italian Cheese & Herb and Santa Fe Blend.

Community members were also tasked with testing and identifying recipes that would be featured on product packaging and branded websites — an important aspect of how the creme would be introduced to the market. Through member feedback to Kraft Foods and member-to-member discussion, the brand team was able to understand which recipes were most appealing and most likely to stimulate product trial, as well refine consumer language and recipe components.

One of the most powerful aspects of the communities’ testing of cooking creme was the opportunity for Hispanic consumers to cook with the product at home before it hit store shelves. Kraft Foods gathered member feedback from real-life cooking experiences to fuel development for Philly’s Hispanic advertising. The communities armed Kraft Foods with consumer-defined descriptions and evaluations and opened the company’s ears to how consumers really felt about the cooking creme. Within the context of the communities, actively engaged members provided candid feedback, shared ideas and recipes with each other as well as Kraft Foods, and uploaded photos and videos of personal product “creations.”

Community members help cook up big results 

Kraft Foods launched Philadelphia Cooking Creme — the first of its kind — in early fall 2010 with much fanfare and one of the largest campaigns in company history. The product is currently thriving and performing above trial forecasts and expectations. Feedback from community members guides form and packaging decisions, recipes, flavors and marketing communications for the product line today. The Kraft Foods website showcasing the product line features member-approved recipes. Lastly, Kraft Foods still taps into these communities to continue the ideation of new flavors, advertisements and product variations for future line extensions.