Cashing in on comfort

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner accounts for the vast majority of category growth, which likely means more parents, willingly or not, have joined their kids in more bright-orange dinners. There are much smaller but also growing competitors, such as Annie's, which sells itself on taste as well as natural claims, and private label, which is sometimes half the Kraft price.

Now, Kraft wants to bring mac and cheese, launched in the Great Depression, from kids' plates to the center of the family dinner table.

The company had been toying with a homier version of macaroni and cheese for many years, but after watching cheesy, crusty restaurant versions proliferate in recent years, and more people cooking at home to save money, Kraft began work on what is now its Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese Dinner about 18 months ago.

The new mac and cheese comes in a bag and sells at $2.99. It comes with wider, curvier noodles, a packet of gooey orange cheese, breadcrumbs, and a seasoning packet, with which cooks make a base for the cheese sauce.

Kraft is also tapping into a trend of putting personal touches on family dishes by offering an "optional oven finish," involving more cheese and an even-crispier breadcrumb topping, thanks to five minutes in the oven.

Other food-makers have been cashing in on consumers' need for classic comfort foods. Campbell Soup Co. has boasted about increased pasta-sauce sales. Heinz's Ore Ida has pointed to its Steam n' Mash potatoes as one of its most promising launches in years. The spuds steam in a microwaveable bag, because no one likes chopping and peeling. Then cooks mash the potatoes and add butter, milk or some kind of personal touch. Ore Ida's Web site offers recipe suggestions too.

"The consumer, because of the economy, isn't eating out as much as they did in the past," said Dennis Lombardi executive vice president of food service strategies at Columbus-based WD Partners. He said the trend isn't just about more comfort food but "creating something a little extra special that gives you a little bit of a small indulgence for that meal."

It may be the difference between a regular frozen pizza and a California Pizza Kitchen pie, Lombard said. For humble macaroni and cheese, he said, an upgrade to creamier, cheesier sauce and bread crumbs is likely to fit the bill as well.

In an interview with the Tribune this month, Kraft Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld said the company invested in Homestyle "to bring in the adult user." The iconic mac in the blue box, she said, is a kid favorite.

"Now the opportunity is to expand the brand with product lines like Homestyle … that really create a terrific, restaurant-quality meal," she said.

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner sales are up 8 percent over last year, to $645 million, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm. The data exclude Wal-Mart and club stores.

Kraft has increased marketing support behind the product this year, with a new tagline, "You know you love it." Homestyle hit store shelves in June.

Kraft and its competitors understand that after years of casual dining excess, consumers now forced to eat at home to save money aren't interested in sacrificing tastes they've come to love. Meal kits, for example, have become extremely popular. General Mills has sought to create weekly taco nights with its Old El Paso brand and seen sales soar 8 percent over the last fiscal year, according to a company presentation.

Encouraging more regular mac and cheese consumption may require little cajoling. Jeff Landsman, a television editor who lives in Riverwoods, Ill., said he and his family cut back last year on eating out and probably started eating more mac and cheese. Landsman is a fanatic himself, with a podcast called "Mac-Aroni," fusing his love of the dish and an enthusiasm for products made by Apple Inc.

He's turned his daughter, Lilah, 7, and son, Eli, 5, into big fans by developing his own take on the dish: one pot of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and a separate one of Annie's Homegrown Totally Natural Shells & White Cheddar, stirring them together at the last minute and then sprinkling the mixture with more cheese. He makes "Daddy Mac" on request, usually Sunday afternoons, when his wife, Marla, is teaching class. She makes blue-box mac some weeknights.

"We're not the chicken nugget and hot dog family at all," Landsman said, adding that his children will eat vegetables such as squash. However, he said, "When you're budgeting, you go to the grocery store and you're looking for the best way to stretch the dollar, and you try to have a balanced meal."

His upgraded dish costs less than $5 for the two boxed-macaroni products and extra cheese needed. He also serves his macaroni alongside a vegetable.

Kraft's Homestyle seeks to build on the core product's success, with a swipe at the adult market.

"From a Kraft standpoint, it's really very smart," said Lynn Dornblaser director of consumer-products insight at Mintel International. "It doesn't have any overt kid positioning, so you don't have to feel guilty about eating Kraft Macaroni & Cheese."

Dornblaser added that the product seizes on the cooking-at-home trend, but with the knowledge that "many consumers, especially the younger ones, don't have very extensive cooking skills." The idea, she said, is to "take something that's like what they would get in a restaurant, or maybe from mom and dad, but is very easy and foolproof."

In short, Kraft seems to be really taking aim at consumers like Max Crumpley, a 23-year-old student who's "not that big a fan" of boxed mac and cheese.

"I'm going to make it if it's a financial decision, rather than a nutritional one," he said.

He usually buys the house-brand variety, but occasionally springs for Velveeta Shells & Cheese "because it's really cheesy and really good."