International Brand Building: A Lesson From Oreo
For this week’s MBA Mondays blog, let’s take a look at the importance of brand building on a global scale. We all know and love Oreos, and we should – it’s the most popular cookie in the world and a household name. But what they’ve done on a global level is the most intriguing, and key for our online MBA and Hybrid MBA students.
While recognizing the importance of brand continuity across the globe, they diversify their products to cater to consumer interests in each market. In China Oreos are slightly less sweet, and in Venezuela they make milk chocolate Oreos instead of the darker, traditional Oreos because that’s what consumers prefer. With tweaks in packaging and taste to cater to local consumer tastes, Oreo has maintained its iconic name (brand continuity) while also being able to indulge people from all ethnic backgrounds (brand diversification).
Oreo has created the winning global formula for successfully launching and establishing the cookie empire’s delicious presence in many countries around the world, and it’s because of their brilliant international brand building that they’ve been able to do it.
Transcript of the Video
[Narrator]: At 95 years old, Kraft’s Oreo is the most popular cookie in the world, enjoyed in more than 100 countries throughout North and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Australia. The Oreo cookie is a truly global product. It is sold in a consistent form with very few exceptions, in all regions of the world.
[Michael Senackerib, Sr. Vice President & General Manager]: The Oreo cookie is universally appealing. The unique flavor translates across borders, and the sandwich cookie with the fun of a cookie and cream, makes Oreo a real fun eating experience.
[Narrator]: Though the Oreo brand is popular around the world, adjustments to product, packaging and promotion are sometimes necessary to match consumer tastes and expectations in each country.
[Michael Senackerib]: In China, for example, we have a lightly sweetened version of Oreo, which has 27 percent less sugar; and that’s really a response to consumers’ desire and taste preferences for a less sweet product. In the case of Venezuela, milk chocolate biscuits are more appealing to consumers than the dark, intense cocoa that we’re familiar with in the US and in some other markets, and so we have introduced and successfully launched a chocolate – a milk chocolate version of Oreo.
[Narrator]: Packaging is a feature than can change greatly from market to market. In the US, the 18-ounce size of Oreo is the predominant package form, and that’s really because in the US many consumers are more accustomed to shopping at large format stores, they have large pantries at home, they tend to shop in a more weekly versus daily. In other countries, there’s a variety of different formats – often smaller store formats – whether it’s the kiosks in Brazil, or the self-service convenient stores in China, or even the street vendors in Venezuela; and so in those countries, larger packages don’t make as much sense. The stores don’t have the space, and consumers don’t have the pantry space in their homes.
Video Transcription by GMR Transcription
