The Lay's regional limited series of products has played a new trick. Recently, it has launched five new region-limited flavors of potato chips in one go, including Zhuangmei Guangxi snail noodles, Guizhou Zunyi mutton noodles, Qilu Shandong pancake rolls with green onions, Hebei Shijiazhuang beef plate noodles and three northeastern provinces stick bone stewed sauerkraut flavors.
After these potato chips were launched, they immediately became a hot topic among consumers and the object of cross-regional purchasing. Xiaohongshu netizen @worm posted: "I can't buy it all, I can't buy it at all!" The whole network is buying: magnificent Guangxi snail noodles, Guizhou Zunyi mutton noodles! ”
Image source: Xiaohongshu @ Worm
As Chinese consumers' cultural self-confidence and national pride continue to rise, products with localized elements are becoming more and more favored by consumers. As a consumer-centric brand, Lay's has keenly captured the trend of local cultural tourism recovery in recent years and the hot spots of regional cuisine. Since 2020, Lay's has launched regionally limited potato chips for five consecutive years.
Lay's regional flavours have become a strategic tool and an important platform for brands to build emotional bonds with consumers around the world, strengthening the emotional bond between brands and consumers by drawing inspiration from local food culture to meet the taste preferences of consumers in different regions.
As a world-renowned snack brand, how does Lay's explore local cuisine and integrate it into its products, and how does it integrate its localization strategy into the brand's development process?
1. This time, Lay's set a new record
This time, Lay's released five new region-limited flavored potato chips in one go, setting a new record.
According to the convention, in the past, only 2-3 new products were updated for the regional limited flavor series every year. This time, Lay's released five new products at one time, realizing a significant expansion of the region-limited flavor series products. Behind this is the determination and execution of Lay's to accelerate the decoding of China's regional culture and expand its product line.
These five new products are magnificent Guangxi snail noodles, Guizhou Zunyi mutton noodles, Qilu Shandong pancake rolls and green onions, Hebei Shijiazhuang beef plate noodles, and sauerkraut stewed in the three northeastern provinces. While retaining the light and crispy texture of the original potato chips, Lay's incorporates recognizable culinary elements from all over the world:
Guizhou Zunyi mutton flour flavored potato chips reproduce the peppery and spicy flavor of mutton flour;
The magnificent Guangxi snail flour flavored potato chips interpret the irresistible soul smell and sour bamboo shoot taste of snail noodles;
Shandong pancake rolls with green onion flavored potato chips are inspired by the combination of crispy pancakes, sweet flavor of sauce and spicy green onions, restoring the classic flavor combination of Shandong cuisine;
Hebei Shijiazhuang beef plate noodles flavored potato chips will be marinated and mellow beef, spicy and salty plate noodles taste reproduced on each potato chip;
As for the sauerkraut flavored potato chips stewed with sauerkraut in the three provinces of Northeast China, it shows the sour and greasy taste of sauerkraut and stick bones after slow stewing, awakening the taste memory that belongs to the Northeast.
In terms of packaging design, Lay's intuitively shows the typical characteristics of local culture, and integrates elements such as the traditional art of batik in Guizhou, the bauhinia in Liuzhou City, Guangxi, the Confucius Mansion in Shandong, the Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei, and the crystal clear ice sculptures in Northeast China. While enjoying the delicious food, people can feel the profound cultural heritage of China. In the past, regional souvenirs were often based on traditional handicrafts or specialty foods, but Lay's broke the routine and creatively transformed potato chips, a casual snack, into a city card that shows the land and water, adding cultural added value to potato chips.
2. From taste to culture, how does Lay's inspire local pride with a packet of potato chips?
By tapping into the region's culinary culture, Lay's is a testament to its deep understanding of the vast and diverse Chinese market and a tribute to the breadth and depth of Chinese culinary culture. Specifically, how does Lay's create potato chips products that understand your hometown and inspire consumers' sense of regional pride?
First of all, Lay's aims at the growing diversity and personalization needs of consumers.
When selecting cities, Lay's selects cities with a large consumer base and market development potential as target markets in China[1], and launches region-specific flavor products with local characteristics, which can not only cater to the enthusiasm and attachment of consumers in different regions for local food flavors, but also satisfy their pursuit of fresh and unique taste experience.
In this way, "there is always a new taste" has become the key perception of consumers for Lay's. This stable and high-frequency innovation output undoubtedly increases the attractiveness of the product, and builds a strong differentiated competitive advantage in the white-hot competitive environment of the snack food market, which enables Lay's to stand out from many competitors.
Secondly, Lay's firmly grasps the emotional bond with local consumers.
In a way, the launch of Lay's regional flavors is another form of emotional marketing. By constantly polishing and refining these potato chips with strong local characteristics, Lay's also evokes consumers' deep recognition and pride in their local cultural roots. When people taste the flavor of hometown food on potato chips, the hometown flavor mobilizes hometown feelings.
The new flavor launched this time has received positive responses from netizens and the media because it has successfully awakened the emotional connection of consumers. Some netizens saw their own city Shijiazhuang beef plate noodles flavored potato chips on the supermarket shelves, and sighed, "It turns out that my favorite Lay's attaches so much importance to the people of Shijiazhuang." There are also netizens in other cities, waiting for Lay's to "tailor" their city's special food flavor potato chips, and their expectations are full.
Image source: Weibo
On the one hand, for local consumers, Lay's potato chips created according to the dietary preferences of local consumers enhance the uniqueness and regional symbolism of the product, bringing local consumers an "exclusive" consumption experience, thereby strengthening their pride and cultural confidence in regional culture. On the other hand, Lay's regional limited flavor series of potato chips has stimulated the exploration interest of non-local consumers and enhanced their awareness of regional culture.
It is worth mentioning that the listing of Shijiazhuang beef plate noodles flavored potato chips has also attracted the attention and reports of Shijiazhuang Municipal People's Government, Hebei Cultural Tourism, Shijiazhuang Cultural Tourism and other multi-level official institutions. The participation of official media in the dissemination not only enhances the popularity of the product, vividly interprets the fun of "eating" and the connotation of local culture, but also helps to enhance local pride.
3. The localization strategy injects soul into potato chips
As an international brand, localized expression is a consistent strategy of Lay's.
The regional flavour series is a key part of Lay's local expression. Lay's has been working on the regional pop-up series for five years, actively innovating and using local influences to launch a series of unique potato chip flavours full of local flavors. In addition to the five new flavors launched this time, there are still a batch of potato chips that continue to sell well, including the fragrant Linyi fried chicken, the Sichuan spicy chicken flavor of Bashi Chengdu, the donkey meat roast flavor of Baoding, Hebei, the rattan pepper bowl chicken flavor of Leshan, Sichuan, and the barbecue flavor of Shandong Zibo in response to the cultural tourism boom.
In addition to taste, Lay's also continues to explore other forms of expression, injecting more cultural added value into its products through in-depth exploration and understanding of the connotation of local humanistic spirit and even China's precious intangible cultural heritage resources. Lay's has selected three representative intangible cultural heritage of Guizhou, namely Miao silver forging skills, Miao reed sheng dance and Miao batik skills, and printed these unique cultural silhouettes as limited edition products on the cans, tapping into the new vitality of traditional intangible cultural heritage in the contemporary context. Lay's also cooperated with CCTV-6 to launch a series of micro-documentaries "Looking for an Authentic Taste". In these documentaries, Lay's combines local food flavors with intangible cultural heritage to explore the rich authentic flavors and help promote intangible cultural heritage. Lay's strategy of combining product innovation with local culture has not only successfully reached the hearts of consumers, but also established an image with both international vision and local feelings.
IV. Conclusion
With ingenuity and innovation as the fulcrum, Lay's closely combines potato chip products with local cuisine and regional culture to create a "city card" with distinctive regional characteristics. At the same time, the rich local Chinese cuisine and culture also provide a steady stream of inspiration for Lay's, inject innovative vitality into the development of the brand, and help forge the brand power of Lay's. In the future, in the Chinese market, Lay's will continue to explore and deepen local culture, give new vitality to the wonderful local tastes, and bring more localized snack experiences to consumers.
Reference Sources:
[1] Deep Chop Lay's Potato Chips "Weird" Flavor, YiMagazine, 2023-6-14
This article is the original of FBIF Food and Beverage Innovation, author: Gloria, please contact for authorization for reprinting.