One of the hot new trends among marketers experimenting with so-called emerging media is to have consumers create ads for them that the companies then run on their Web sites, or even on TV. Now food
marketer Kraft is taking that idea a step further by asking its customers to develop new product and packaging ideas that the company can bring to market. The move is the next phase of a drive
initiated 12 months ago by Kraft CEO Roger Deromedi that is designed to tap into innovation outside the company, and is modeled on a similar one underway at Procter & Gamble. "P&G was gracious with
its time in explaining to us their concept," said a Kraft spokesman. "We decided that we should be more aggressive at going after this ourselves." This week, Kraft launches the first product to emerge
from its broader "open innovation" drive: a block of Parmesan cheese encased in a disposable plastic cheese grater. The idea was copied from a small grocery store in Italy. "We are most interested in
ideas that are more than a concept--in particular new products and packages that are ready to be brought to market, or can be brought to market quickly," Kraft said on its Web site.
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