It isn’t something you hear about everyday and in my opinion (you shouldn’t), but Kraft has announced the name of its new product.

iSnack2.0

Vegemite's next generation product - iSnack2.0

The new product from Kraft did engage the community by asking them questions about the old classic Vegemite. In fact over 300,000 people engaged in an online survey to come up with the new product (How Do You Like Your Vegemite Census – 2008). Further on from the survey they opened up a forum to the public where you can share how you eat your Vegemite. I’ve copied a few responses that caught my eye below!

• Vegemite with Spaghetti Bolognaise
• Vegemite with Pancakes
• Vegemite with Tomoatoe Sauce (Toast)
• Vegemite in Mashed Potatoe
• Vegemite with Bananas
• Vegemite Gravy

So getting back to the survey and the new name. Over 48,000 names for the new product were suggested from Australia and New Zealand combined and a Web Designer from Western Australia won it. Now I think engaging the community is great, but perhaps this is an example where there also needed to be a voting system in place as I don’t think this is a good title. I’ve mentioned before that “web 2.0″ (by the way that is where his inspiration was from) is a buzz word and is a trend that is dropping. The lower case i follow by an upper case letter and the rest of the word is also a fad to going on at the moment (think of all the Apple products).

More to the point, where do you draw the line between technology / food / consumer engagement / common sense / control and how will the success of the product be monitored (sales naturally I imagine as money wins?

The new label and product will hit our shelves October 5th which I’m sure will have a take up as people will be keen to taste the new product, I just feel that product such as Vegemite which has become an Australian icon has taken the wrong move with its product name. On the other side, it is a great example how a company has engaged its consumers to come up with a new product and meet the needs, the survey itself was a good idea.

Anyway let me know what you think about the new name and if you are keen to try the product!