Max Brenner
Innovation
The uniqueness of the Chinese consumer can be vividly seen across all multinational brands established in China. Multinationals like Oreo, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Coca-Cola and many others who offer practically similar concepts all over the world, have had to either adapt their products and services or come up with innovations to attract the market share. Hence, after consultation with our sample frame, we believe it would be in our company’s interest to include new products and concepts to our brand to suit the chinese consumer. Our approach is to apply “blue ocean thinking” which is creating products and services for which we currently have no direct competitors.
Our two first ideas are product adaptations where we seek to fulfil a need and benefit in the Chinese market through offering Chinese food with a touch of chocolate. Our first idea is to include dumplings (Jiaozi or Dim Sum) into our menu. Jiaozi forms a part and parcel of the Chinese cuisine. They typically consists of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges. Our idea would be to replace the grounded meat with chocolate fillings, thus offering a Chinese twist with chocolate.
Our survey also revealed to us the unfamiliarity of the consumer to marshmallows. Therefore, we would consider replacing them with the traditional Baozi (bun). Baozi is usually eaten with sweet condensed milk. Hence, the chocolate sauce would be a perfect substitute for the condensed milk.
Our third innovation is more service oriented and a perfect example of blue ocean thinking. Our idea is to allow our customers to be part of this inclusive experience building process. Special hours will be assigned to tutor our customers on how to make chocolate desserts. Customers will be allowed to make their own chocolate desserts under the tutelage of our staff. This service would be very engaging and will attract an interesting mix of people from all over Shanghai, who seek to bond with each other and catch up on old times. From our secondary research we found that this approach has been successful in other countries in attracting our target segment. Furthermore, this added service will be priced fairly cheap, because will be used to build brand awareness, and not making profits, so by functioning as a marketing effort.