Pocket Parm is silly enough to get attention and practical enough that plenty of cheese lovers will feel the need.

I‘m a fan of every cheese from bocconcini to Limburger, and so the idea of never finding myself stranded somewhere without Parmesan has obvious appeal.

Sure, I much prefer the real stuff. But we’re discussing emergency cheese here. Standards gotta be flexible.

Photo: Kraft

Kraft Natural Cheese has created Pocket Parm, a miniature version of its familiar grated-cheese shaker that clips onto a handbag, backpack or keyring.

The tiny bottles contain actual cheese and come with colourful collectible charms. They also preview three new varieties arriving in full-size packages in January: Tomato Basil Parmesan, Garlic Herb Parmesan and Grated Cheddar. 

At first glance, it’s another food-brand novelty designed for Instagram.

But Kraft has done something better than inventing the first-ever Parmesan jewellery.

It turned sampling into a wearable accessory.

Instead of handing people a spoonful at Costco, Kraft gives them enough cheese to experiment with a new flavour in real situations.

Pizza at lunch, popcorn at the movies.

Maybe a sandwich that clearly needs intervention.

And the recognizable miniature shaker makes the sample something folks will carry, photograph and even keep after it’s empty.

That creates way more exposure than a foil packet headed for the garbage.

There’s also a nice product lesson in these little canisters.

Convenience products work best when they solve a problem at precisely the moment it appears.

Not many of us spend much time worrying about future Parmesan shortages. (I think it’s mostly a me thing.)

But hand me a container small enough to clip onto my man-bag and suddenly I can picture several situations where I’d be glad it was there.

If you’d like help creating and marketing products people feel compelled to buy, the product marketing consultants at Graphos Product can help.