Kraft Foods went back to the drawing board after the public indicated a dislike for the name of its new Vegemite product. Photo / Getty Images
Vegemite Cheesybite has been chosen as the name for a new Kraft Foods spread combining Vegemite with cream cheese.
The name replaces the original moniker for the product, iSnack2.0, which was scrapped after protests from consumers.
Kraft's Australia/New Zealand head of corporate affairs, Simon Talbot, said the company had been
"overwhelmed by the response of the Australian and New Zealand public".
"It has been an insightful debate. Australians and New Zealanders have now selected a successful name for a successful product," he said.
The name Vegemite iSnack 2.0 was decided upon last month after a competition saw more than 48,000 people enter their suggestions in a competition to name the new product.
However it failed to find favour with the public.
Thousands of people turned to social networking websites to voice their distaste for the name and after just four days Kraft announced it would run a new competition in the hope of finding a name that better resonated with consumers.
Six names submitted to the original competition were put forward by Kraft for people to vote on over the weekend: Vegemite Cheesybite, Vegemite Creamymate, Vegemite Smooth, Vegemite Snackmate, Vegemite Vegemate and Vegemite Vegemild.
Vegemite Cheesybite garnered over a third of the more than 30,000 votes to become the new name.
Kraft said the most popular name suggestion from the original competition was 'Cheesymite' but that name was already being used by other companies in both New Zealand and Australia.
Vegemite iSnack 2.0-labelled jars will continue to appear on supermarket shelves until supplies are exhausted.
Talbot said jars of the new product with Vegemite Cheesybite labels would begin to appear within the next few months.
- with NZPA
