PROCESSED CHEESE IS AT ITS DEADLINE ... OR MAYBE....

We're talking about a type of food full of preservatives. It moved, in a range of 150 years, from farm
houses to factories to laboratories.
As an european when I think about American I think about fries, hot dogs and american cheese, all
unhealthy food.
The obesity rate over there is, of course, really high (39,8 % of population, about 93,3 millions of
adults in 2016 standing to cdc.gov). This speaks for itself when wondering how much Americans do
care about healthy eating.
Things are changing.
Nowdays there's an information overload.
Just by having an internet connection you have access to all the informations ever discovered (and
even more).
This makes the so called millennials pretty aware of factors such risks of diseases coming from
unhealthy diet and the pros of an healthy eating and lifestyle in general.
As we said american cheese is basically a processed food. It's depricing and it's getting replaced by
more healthy cheese.
The market is full of option when it comes to cheese. The tendency of the consumers is to buy
product they feel the more natural possible. They're switching from the colorful taste (and maybe
routine) of the american cheese to the more aware choice of cheese that looks less processed
possible.

What could we do as marketers to give American Cheese a new life?

1) If there's the chance we could be launching a new product with a lot of natural ingredients.
Still we're talking about american cheese so the main charateristic is the melting.
So we should still use preservatives (maybe finding more natural looking ones or at least decreasing
them) but replace the other ingredients with overall not unhealthy food.
There will be of course the need of a new packaging, we're trying to make a switch and we have to
justify consumers decision to buy the product with a new design and a label that uses the right
words to make clear our intent.
If the new product goes well the single could also benefit from this, since we're increasing overall
trust through consumers.
2) We should try to associate a particular type of sandwich (or food in general) with the single. This
way when you think about that particular sandwich you don't even think about buying another
cheese. Also making a collaboration with some bread sandwich firm could be useful. They could be
sold toghether and cheese would be irreplaceable.

Overall the strategy to adopt depends on the target we're trying to stimulate.
Millennials might care more about the feeling of eating some food that makes them feel healthy and
pure while adults might be caring more about american tradition.

01/10/2019
Giovanni Giordano