I was reading back over posts from earlier in the month that dealt with branding and China (Sept 9 – 11) and this reminded me of the case of a venerable American company—Kraft Foods—and their foray into the Chinese market with their top brand in the Nabisco cookie line, the iconic Oreo. Their story is a great example of a crucial tenant of branding: your brand is not yours—it’s the world’s.The Oreo has long been the best-selling cookie in America (a Kraft claim that no one seems to be disputing). It’s now also the best-selling cookie in China—but this wasn’t always so for the tasty two-toned treat. When Kraft Foods first unveiled the cookie to the Chinese in 1996 and then up to 2005, sales were less than stellar. Into the picture came a Kraft veteran, 37-year-old Shawn Warren, who had spent years marketing and promoting the Nabisco brands around the world. Warren could see that change was needed. But what? First, he listened to the marketplace seeking insight into why the Oreo wasn’t selling well, and learned that: a) the Chinese aren’t big cookie eaters to begin with; b) they thought the Oreo as we know it here in America was too sweet, and c) they found the price expensive for a quick snack. Plus, Warren also noted two related trends: that the Chinese are increasing their taste for milk in their diet and that the cookie-wafer segment of the market was the fastest-growing, lead by Kraft’s rival Nestlé SA.
So armed with this customer insight, Warren guided Kraft to make a bold strategic move: change the icon to meet the needs of the target consumer. For the first time in its history, Kraft redesigned the cookie for a foreign market. They developed and tested 20 prototypes of a new Oreo more suited to Chinese tastes and economic needs. They made a wafer-style treat that had four thin layers of the famous dark-and-light combo, was coated in chocolatem, and less sweet. The Chinese packaging was redesigned to refer to the product as a “biscuit,” not a cookie, and less wafers were included per pack, allowing the price to be lowered. Then a grassroots marketing & promotion campaign commenced to educated Chinese snackers that the Oreo is traditionally paired with milk. The company introduced an Oreo apprenticeship program at 30 Chinese universities, which drew 6,000 applicants. Three hundred of the best were trained as Oreo brand ambassadors, who went around doing things like handing out the new treat on bicycles decorated with Oreo wheels, or at Oreo-themed basketball games that reinforced the idea of "dunking" in milk. All these tactics were decided at the local level. Today the Chinese version of the Oreo is the best-selling biscuit in the country and the company is planning to expand to different regions in Asia.
My point? That while your company’s vision for its brand may not change (i.e. the company’s brand ideals & mission), your execution of your brand attributes, services to your customers, and—in particular—your products do. Your products must change—especially the successful ones, though this latter at first may seem counter-intuitive. The reason is, as company leaders and representatives of your brand, you do not determine what your brand is. The marketplace does. A brand is not a marketing slogan or an ad campaign or corporate vision statement. A brand is the sum total of all the perceptions, beliefs, associations, assumptions, and feelings about your company or line of products by your customers, the marketplace, and the public-at-large. They ultimately determined what your brand is. Thus your brand will change over time, and a company, on the other end of this on-going conversation—for that’s what it really is—should always be trying to lead the consumer to the company's ultimate vision or ideal for its brand. As a result of this back-and-forth, the world will change the way you express your brand ideal via your products and services—either because you are proactively listening and responding to the consumer or because you have passively allowed yourself to be branded out of the marketplace.
So product developers, editors, producers, and executives: don’t be afraid to make informed changes, especially to your most successful products. And remember, these sometimes down better with a little milk.
References: "Kraft Reformualtes Oreo, Scores in China" by Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal, 5/1/08; http://www.kraft.com/MediaCenter/
Posts
