Tyler Mallison

According to the Grocer, Kraft Foods is about to unveil its latest innovation in spreadable cheese to the UK market. It’s an indulgent mash-up of two key tasty ingredients (soft spreadable cheese and chocolate) as well as, more importantly, two of its key power brands in their respective categories: Philadelphia and Cadbury.

As an indulgent spread targeted towards ‘guilty snackers’ — women aged 25-40 who want to eat healthily but also want an indulgent snack— it will be interesting to see what share of the market it can steal from the leading chocolate spread, Nutella.

When consumers vote with their baskets, will they impulsively choose the child-like chocolatey option marketed as “healthy” due to its ingredients — or make a conscious choice to cut the calories by nearly 50% and opt for the new Philadelphia spread?

But perhaps more fundamentally, without a rich tradition of cheesecake, and chocolate cheesecake in particular, as in the US, this may be a big ‘leap’ for British consumers. Regardless, given that so much of the nation wholeheartedly embraces such oddities as Marmite, there’s definitely hope.

As for me, I think it sounds quite nice— especially on a digestive biscuit.