Kraft
ene Rosenfeld's restructuring strategy decentralized decision making and empowering the local managers she praises for the Oreo bicycle campaign. I agree that by allowing the people who are closer to the front lines and the consumers to get creative with their ideas, Kraft will benefit. These people are more aware of what consumers are looking for and how to get their attention. However, I think that it takes a village to make the turnaround that Kraft saw in its Oreo re-branding. There was a series of events that had to come first in order to be successful, and it all began with Kraft acquiring Groupe Danone's global biscuit business. After this, some serious market research needed to be done in order to understand why the Oreo was not selling as expected in international markets. As a result of these focus groups and surveys, Kraft came away with three things: 1) the Chinese were not big "cookie" eaters to begin with, 2) the American version of the Oreo was too sweet for them, and 3) People found them too expensive to be a snack food. Once they had this knowledge, Kraft could then successfully begin its re-branding process. After changing its image, the grassroots style of marketing that took place by the local management staff was key. They reached out to university students to help them get the word out about Oreos and how they were meant to be eaten. Without changing their price, image, and taste though, I do not know that the campaign would have been much of a success. Product developers at Kraft were not afraid to make informed changes to traditional attributes of their branded product - even though it was the most successful