http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/e/fr/tnks/Nni20090619D19JF062.htm
Friday, June 19, 2009
Curry, The New Breakfast Staple
House Foods profits by pinpointing, expanding tiny social trend
By Kosuke IwanoHouse Foods' House Asa-Curry became an instant hit as a packaged breakfast product, quickly selling out after it hit store shelves in February. It spawned a continuing trend in Japan.
Over the past couple of years, curry has gone from being a novel item on the breakfast table to establishing itself as a breakfast staple. House Foods Corp.'s House Asa-Curry is largely responsible for the trend. The company released the ready-made curry meal after spending a year on product development.
What was the secret to transforming a small trend into a mainstream one? Taking advantage of a small social phenomenon with smart marketing.
House Asa-Curry comes in two varieties: Medium Hot and Yasai Keema Medium Hot. One package holds two 75-gram curry pouches, a perfect size to pour over a bowl of rice. A package is priced at around Y198 ($2.04). Soon after House Foods released the curry on Feb. 26, it sold out, and is now taking a bite out of the market share of leading brands Bon Curry by Otsuka Foods Co. and House Foods' own Curry Marche.New curry concepts"While contemplating the next curry product, the company's product developer noticed a TV show on baseball star Ichiro Suzuki that aired on New Year's Day in 2008. The special showed Ichiro eating the homemade curry his wife prepares for him every morning before he goes to work as a Major League Baseball player. The word "morning" stood out in the product developer's head."
Baseball star Ichiro Suzuki gets his morning lift from curry breakfasts prepared by his wife. Foodmakers and consumers took notice.
House Foods, the largest curry seller in the country, has always been aggressive about developing new curry concepts, from white curry to curry served in a pot.
While contemplating the next curry product, the company's product developer noticed a TV show on baseball star Ichiro Suzuki that aired on New Year's Day in 2008. The special showed Ichiro eating the homemade curry his wife prepares for him every morning before he goes to work as a Major League Baseball player. The word "morning" stood out in the product developer's head.
A quick search on NTT Data Lifescape Marketing Corp.'s Shoku-Map revealed that breakfast curry was on the rise. Having curry for breakfast is not all that unusual, but luckily, Ichiro's morning curry story got picked up by the mass media. House Foods product developers realized they were onto something and sensed that the floundering market for pouch curry was about to turn around.
One of the first things researchers looked into was the average time people spent on breakfast regardless of generation or age. Their finding: 10 minutes. That meant heating time needed to be reduced. But curry pouches use animal fat and without heat, the curry gets too thick. Manufacturers decided to use vegetable oil with a low melting point so that all it needed was a warm bed of rice.
To keep the curry light on the stomach, wheat content was reduced, while vegetable fiber was increased to give the meal some weight. Ingredients were cut up into small bite-size pieces.
For marketing and promotional purposes, the target consumer was the family. For a whole month after the day before the product's release, commercials were aired relentlessly in the morning to reach TV-viewing mothers.
Masahiro Tanaka, a starting pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball, was hired as a spokesman to convey the product's image of strength and toughness.
The plan worked. Pouched curry is usually considered a meal for single people, but it is also popular with families and young couples, according to officials at Daiei Inc.'s Ichikawa Colton Plaza outlet, a supermarket in Chiba Prefecture. The curry was unveiled during exam season, and it was around that time that people took notice of an essay discussing how curry's beneficial effects on blood flow in the brain help boost concentration. Mothers who had children taking exams started feeding them more curry.
The breakfast angle is not really new - consider canned coffee - but the company succeeded at identifying a latent demand, giving a product a new twist - in this case, a place on the breakfast table - and breathing new life into it.
Already part of the diet
House Foods's hit concept can be found in many train stations in Japan. Curry Shop C&C is managed by Restaurant Keio Co., a subsidiary of Keio Corp. It added morning curry to its menu in 1998, and the meal has been popular with businessmen in their 30s and older. Sales at the restaurant have been climbing in recent years.Curry guru Prof. Tei of Nihon Pharmaceutical University has actively spread his scientific findings that curry enhances brain power.
Curry is a dish most commonly ordered during lunch or dinner at restaurants. The Curry Shop had tried offering curry as part of its breakfast menu earlier, but the response was tepid. However, when the shop began offering a special curry it had developed for breakfast, the response was positive. The portion is smaller and comes in two toppings: sausage priced at Y370 and omelet at Y400, both cheaper than the regular pork curry at Y430.
The morning curry is offered until 11 a.m. The regular menu is also available, but at the busiest Shinsen Shinjuku store, 80% of its customers order the morning curry. At the 10 stores that offer morning curry, an average of 70% order it. The curry accounts for an average of 5% of total sales for all 10 outlets.
Why curry in the morning? A survey conducted in September 2008 by Asahi Soft Drinks Co. of office workers in their 20s and 30s may provide some clues. The survey was conducted to get a clear picture of how today's businessmen spend their mornings.
When asked how their daily routines have changed since two to three years ago, about 40% responded that they were doing more in the mornings. About 53% said they eat out for breakfast and spend an average of Y338 on breakfast.
The decline in economic conditions has forced companies to reduce overtime, encouraging office workers to make better use of their mornings. That meant people wanted a more substantial breakfast, but one that can be consumed quickly.
Prof. Munetetsu Tei of Nihon Pharmaceutical University, a specialist in Eastern medicine, is the man behind House Foods' Asa-Curry. In clinical studies, he confirmed that curry improved blood flow in the brain and strengthened one's ability to concentrate. He has been singing curry's praises for 10 years.
Tei himself is a big curry fan and critic. When he steps into a curry shop, restaurant owners go on high alert. He makes his own curry spices from scratch, and during his days as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, he discovered that after a curry meal, blood flow in the brain increased 2-4%. This, he found, was due to cardamon, a spice commonly used to add aroma.
(The Nikkei Weekly June 8 issue)
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