Revolutionising cheese
This submission shows how Philadelphia revolutionised the cheese aisle with a brand extension that not only built on Philadelphia’s credentials and broadened its appeal, but also created an entirely new sub-category.
Philadelphia has been a great success in recent times. In the last six years sales have almost doubled. (Nielsen, 2012). Repositioning Philadelphia as an ingredient in cooking, rather than just for spreading, has contributed to this growth along with a host of new flavour variants.
Only savoury flavour variants had been launched in the UK, until Kraft/Mondelez identified an opportunity to introduce a new unique sweet flavour. They saw an opportunity to bring together two of the UK’s best-loved brands, Philadelphia and Cadbury, to create a unique, if a little ludicrous, flavour combination – a chocolate flavoured cream cheese!
Despite having two power brands on the pack and a taste we knew they’d definitely love, consumers were still unsure of the chocolate and cheese combination.
Not so silly
So after optimising the product and packaging for the UK, the Philadelphia team set about launching this crazy new product. By confronting consumers’ initial negative preconceptions towards the product, Philadelphia dared them to make up their own minds by trying Philadelphia with Cadbury.
The results were overwhelmingly positive. Philadelphia with Cadbury has driven all time high results for NPD in the Soft White Cheese category. Contributing £9.26m in sales (£6.2m incremental) with low cannibalisation from the existing core brand. Philadelphia with Cadbury achieved outstanding penetration and repeat purchase rates and generated significant incremental category growth.
What may have begun as a peculiar new product launch in consumers’ eyes has driven serious sales results. We haven’t just launched a brand extension; we have created an entirely new sub-category of sweet cream cheese. Proving that Choccy Philly is not so silly after all.
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