07.02
Heard about it on NPR and then On the Button: pork wants a shiny new tagline. Without further ado, some (mostly joke) ideas.
Pork:
- Brought to you by the makers of bacon
- Carnitas? More like carneato!
- Don’t hog the pork
- Don’t stick your snout up at it
- Favorite of the Chinese, your soon-to-be overlords
- Finally, something that doesn’t taste like chicken
- Got a beef with beef? Think chicken’s for chickens? Try pork.
- If you’re not eating pork, the terrorists have already won
- It’s actually red meat. Gotcha!
- It’s cracklin’!
- It’s in the can
- It’s got chops
- It’s time for America to bring home the bacon
- It’s what pork rinds are made of
- Jews can’t eat it. Muslims can’t eat it. Someone’s gotta!
- Makin’ bacon
- Now available in smoked flavor
- Oink it up!
- Pig out
- Probably an ingredient in SPAM
- Red, white and true
- So sweet. And yet so sour.
- Solving the mystery in “mystery meat”
- Swine and dine yourself (Wine and swine yourself?)
- Ten times more charmin’ than that Arnold on Green Acres (Pulp Fiction reference)
- That ain’t kosher
- That’ll do
- The red, white and good-to-chew meat
- This little piggy is delicious
- What’s one less pig?
- What’s the matter? Chicken?
- You can’t spell “spork” without pork
Got ideas?
[Thanks to Mom for originally pointing out this story.]
06.27
While visiting the US I stopped by Take a Bao, a new concept installed in the food court at Century City’s Westfield Mall. Despite feeling a bit funny about traveling all the way to LA for a Chinese-inspired lunch, I was drawn in by my fascination with fusion food, Take a Bao’s visual identity work, and the fact that I love char siu bao.
The idea for the place seems pretty straightforward. In their own words,
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06.15
Just something that’s been on my mind lately. Thought I’d throw together a mock menu. Click for a full-size version. If you open this restaurant, please get in touch.
05.03
I need to get my own mug for use in the office. Did a little homework online. Links below.
Top-left quadrant (structural, functional):
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04.26
[Originally published on BrandSource: Labbrand's Blog of Branding Insights. Please visit that site to comment.]
With last month’s announcement of Starbucks’ plan to offer tea in its hundreds of China-based stores, old questions are resurfacing about how Western brands should approach the Chinese marketplace. Chief among these questions is how to balance advantages of being perceived as a foreign brand with the increased relevance that comes from catering products to a local market.
As evidenced by mixed consumer and media reactions to Starbucks tea, there is no black and white answer to the question of whether brands should weight their product offerings more toward foreign or local attributes. Starbucks customers have been quoted as saying “How could a foreign newcomer satisfy us with our strict [tea] requirements?” while headlines like “Starbucks discovers that Chinese people like tea” suggest the company is late to the party—that it should have started selling tea closer to when it opened its first mainland store in 1999. Doubtless, many consumers will be delighted by the new option, while others will have legitimate complaints ranging from price, to concern for local teahouses, to the assumption that the American company can’t possibly make a good cup of Chinese tea.
But Starbucks is far from the first Western brand taking steps to localize its menu in China. Other local adaptations include
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11.12
A few months back I read a post by Ed Cotton about Mission Street Food called “What brands can learn from Mission Street Food.” Aside from making me really anxious to go eat there (which I haven’t yet), it made me think of Kogi BBQ (which I have tried), a Korean-Mexican fusion “restaurant” that hawks its tasty tacos out of a truck window in LA and Orange County.
I decided to write a companion post—partly because I really liked Ed’s post and partly to demonstrate (to myself, if no one else) that SoCal has its own foodie-friendly offerings. This post starts with stealing Ed’s format but at times descends into blatant plagiarism. Sorry Ed (sincerest form of flattery and all, right?).
Here’s how it works.
MSF “leases” a Chinese restaurant on Mission Street for two nights of the week and invites guest chefs to come in and create menus and prepare meals.
What Can Brands Learn from MSF?
1. The Power of Surprise
MSF is based on a pretty smart assumption, people like to try new restaurants all the time, which makes it hard for a single concept to gain traction and gain a group of loyal customers. In a world of hyper-instant gratification, people are constantly demanding for and seeking out the new.
How does your brand surprise its audience?
What are you doing to prevent brand fatigue?
2. Partnerships and Collaboration
MSF partners with a Chinese restaurant to host the events, it gets access to its kitchens and staff and it also partners with guest chefs every night. MSF is really a facilitator to the process.
Who is your brand collaborating with to add value?
3. Understanding the Audience
MSF gets who it’s audience is and what they want. They know this is an audience that is easily bored and is looking for culinary surprises. They know they are prepared to trade off ambience for food quality.
Does your brand know its audience?
Do you know what they are looking for from you now?
4. The Concept of Value
MSF gets value right. This is of course not about low prices, but instead the combination of price and quality. The interesting items on the menu are priced perfectly to acknowledge the audiences understanding of value. There’s no sense you are paying for the priviledge of eating there.
Does your brand have its pricing right?
Do you know what people are prepared to pay?
Do you have value add and do you know what it’s worth?
5. Giving Back
MSF gives back profits to local organizations and non-profits giving diners another reason to eat.
What is your brand giving back?
How are your causes tied to your brand?
How open are you about your contributions?
6. A Story
MSF has enough layers to build a great narrative including its original incarnation as a taco truck.
What’s your story?
How do you share it?
How are you building on it?
Here’s how Kogi BBQ works.
As mentioned, Kogi BBQ sells food out of a truck window—actually multiple trucks, all in Southern California. But unlike your average taco truck, Kogi tweets (@kogibbq) to let potential customers know when and where they can find a truck in their area. The result, in the words of an LA Times article, is “a social-networking juggernaut, drawing 300 to 800 people each time it parks (often several times in an evening) and spawning a burgeoning cyber-hippie movement affectionately referred to as “Kogi kulture.”
So…what can brands learn from Kogi BBQ?
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