Nabsico Honey Maid crackers hasn’t run television commercials since the 1990s and has tended to promote itself, if at all, with store displays near the marshmallows and chocolate bars—the other ingredients in S’mores. Now, Kraft Foods is launching a major marketing effort, with new products and an advertising campaign that promotes Honey Maid as a standalone snack for kids.

The company is also launching a new line under the brand of filled crackers called Grahamfuls. The crackers contains peanut butter, banana vanilla crème or a peanut butter and chocolate combination, sandwiched in between. Each serving is individually wrapped to encourage adding them to lunchboxes and soccer bags. Also new are Honey Maid Angry Birds, a version of the graham crackers shaped like the video game’s amusing bird characters.

Katie Butler, senior brand manager for Honey Maid, reports that while the brand had recently promoted graham crackers as ingredients for things like S’mores and pie crusts, most consumers have been eating them without accompaniment. According to Kraft research, 65% of consumers eat graham crackers right from the box, compared with 25% who top them with spreads and 10% who use them in recipes.

“We recognized a bigger opportunity in year-round snacking, and to do that we had to be top-of-mind for moms and kids,” Butler adds. She emphasizes that as the cracker takes on different forms, Kraft also wants to reinforce what Butler calls the brand’s “rich history of being a wholesome snack for kids,” and to promote it as a healthier option than many cookies. In recent years, the brand has both increased its whole grain content and removed corn syrup from its recipe.

Source: www.nytimes.com