Condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise tend to be closely associated with ‘dipping’ in most markets, but China poses a particular challenge in the ‘at home’ setting'.
“Chinese consumers may eat French fries or nuggets in out-of-home settings, but are far less likely to eat these at home when cooking rice or noodles - which also means they don’t really ‘dip’ their food at home whether in ketchup or chilli sauces,” Kraft Heinz China CMO Allen Cai told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“For us, this meant a very clear need to develop new consumption occasions for our condiments, and that these needed to be adapted to local culture.
“The key has been to incorporate the ‘dipping’ into Chinese culture and we realised that there are actually quite a few ways to do this, so we associated dipping with various popular Chinese festivals and foods – e.g. Dipping spring rolls in ketchup during Chinese New Year meals, or dipping dumplings during summer.
“This strategy has clearly worked for us as the current brand leader in the market despite a strong portfolio focus on Western condiments,”
In addition to the localisation of consumption occasions, Kraft Heinz as also gone to great lengths to adjust its formats and recipes to be as adherent to local consumer demands as possible.
“One of the first areas we knew we needed to look at was convenience, because we can’t deny that laziness is human nature and it is even more apparent when it comes to condiments usage,” he added.
“We realised that no one wants to use unwieldy glass bottles with difficult twist caps anymore, which is why we invested CNY100mn (US$14.1mn) into the squeeze bottle that is so commonly used today – the additional convenience this format brings is well worth it in China.
“Then there has also been the development of small, single-serve mayonnaise and salad dressing packs where each pack is targeted at single consumers, allowing them to access more flavours at a faster rate.
“Our data shows that when it comes to foreign flavours, some 63% of Chinese consumers are attracted to new and exotic flavours, hence the ability to experiment is very important.”
Flavour adjustments
Dipping condiments in particular must meet several specific local flavour requirements that have necessitated significant recipe changes in China for Kraft Heinz.
“In general, dipping condiments are required to be thick and concentrated to be accepted as such, and the flavours also need to be adapted and adjusted according to local preference,” he added.
“For ketchup, in China this needs to be a sweet and sour combination that is more intense than international variants.
“For mayonnaise, this is very new to the Chinese market, and in contrast to the rest of the world which prefers mayonnaise that is light or even sourish or savoury, in China it is sweet mayonnaise that has been doing well, so we have also adjusted according to this preference.”
