How to use a little creativity to create a hit product?

Details determine success or failure. Do you agree with this statement?

For example, if Newton had not been hit by an apple falling from a tree, would he have discovered gravity? (Although the fact is that Newton saw the apple fall and was inspired to think)

Let’s take Apple as an example. Why does Apple always keep the silent physical button no matter how it innovates the iPhone?

There is no doubt that both Newton and Apple were successful in their respective fields. We can find that details can sometimes have a huge impact and inspire unexpected innovations; sometimes, although they are not enough to create something new, they are enough to impress people.

The fork for Cup Noodles is available in both left and right hand versions.

When talking about countries in the world that pay attention to details, we have to mention Japan. In the food industry, the Japanese are used to using small ideas to do big things, just like the world's first cup instant noodles, Nissin Cup Noodles. The inspiration came from the fact that when the father of instant noodles, Momofuku Ando, ​​was promoting instant noodles in the United States, he discovered that Americans used paper cups and forks to eat noodles. Japan is a country where everything is small. It has a small land area and a small population. How did the Japanese people's cleverness flourish in the food industry?

1. There is nothing that cannot be done, only what you can't think of. The Japanese are "crazy about details"

People who have been to Japan often marvel at how unforgettable and even "abnormal" the details in all walks of life in Japan are.

Why do Chinese women go to Japan to buy toilet lids? Because there are many thoughtful little features. Why do some Japanese cars have passenger seats that swivel? Because it is convenient for ladies wearing long skirts to get on and off the bus. Why do Japanese convenience stores provide dark packaging bags for women’s personal care products? Because it avoids embarrassment.

The Japanese, who are obsessed with details, have put a lot of thought into places you can and can't imagine.

Japanese ground staff waved before the plane took off

In Japan, the huge airport is a place full of small details. When the plane takes off, the ground staff will wave and bow to greet you, and sometimes they will hold up a large sign with blessings such as "Have a safe journey, welcome back next time" written on it. When the plane lands, the staff responsible for managing the luggage will sort the suitcases by color and pay attention to the consistent direction of the suitcase handles on the conveyor belt. Some airport staff will even carefully wipe the suitcases in front of the conveyor belt on rainy days.

Looking back at China, have you ever complained about suitcases being treated violently? Maybe you are lucky enough not to have encountered this, but have you ever experienced the situation where you can’t unscrew the bottle cap of a beverage for a long time? This almost never happens in Japan. The Japanese people's careful thinking is also fully demonstrated in the food industry.

2. It turns out that small, inconspicuous details can play a big role!

What are the amazing details in the Japanese food industry?

Persimmon tane is a national snack in Japan. People who often watch Japanese dramas or anime may be familiar with it. Although its name is persimmon, it is actually a rice snack. Persimmon seeds are made by grinding rice or glutinous rice, steaming it, then cooling it in the refrigerator to solidify. After solidification, it is cut into the shape of persimmon seeds, and after it is dried, it is baked in the oven. Most of today's persimmon products are mixed with peanuts.

Kameda's persimmon seeds

The best-selling persimmon in Japan comes from Kameda Seika. Kameda Seika is a long-established snack company in Japan that specializes in rice cracker snacks made from rice and has a history of 73 years.

Kameda Confectionery Launches Voting

Last month, Kameda Confectionery did something big. They launched a poll to let consumers choose the best ratio of persimmon seeds and peanuts in persimmon seeds products.

First place in the vote: The best ratio of persimmon seeds to peanuts is 7:3

The voting lasted from October 1 to November 27, and a total of 255,093 votes were received . You won’t know until you check. You’ll be shocked to find out that the ratio most desired by consumers is 7:3. The original score of 6:4 actually only ranked third, with nearly 30,000 votes less than the first place.

Kameda Seika has been mixing Kakitane with peanuts for about 53 years, and for these 53 years, Kakitane has been Kameda Seika's best-selling product. It has always sold well, so does that mean it is perfect?

Kameda Confectionery thinks not. Even Kameda Seika itself wrote on its official website that this investigation was justified in questioning something that was taken for granted .

Even though they have achieved number one, they are still thinking about consumers, and from such a subtle perspective as the ratio of persimmon seeds to peanuts. This is like being the top student in the class when you were in school. Although your grades were already very good, you still wanted to break through yourself in the details. Perhaps this is the difference between the top student and others!

Through this survey, Kameda Confectionery has decided to replace Kameda's persimmon seeds in 6 bags of 200g to a ratio of 7:3 starting from January 2020. How can consumers not love a brand that understands consumers so well?

There is also a Japanese tycoon who spans the three fields of food, beverages and dairy products. Although he is involved in a wide range of categories, he pays great attention to details. It is Meiji, which is also familiar to Chinese consumers.

Meiji Co., Ltd. is one of Japan's major food companies, with total sales of 1.56637 trillion yen (about 67.65 billion yuan) as of March 2019 . With such a large scale, Meiji has always been at the forefront of the Japanese food industry.

In March this year, Meiji announced that the liquid milk it produced had obtained a sales license issued by the Consumer Affairs Agency of Japan, which allows it to be marked with the words "for infants" and "can be used as a substitute for breast milk." This is the first time that a Japanese dairy company has been allowed to label liquid milk "for infants", and it is also the first infant liquid milk product released by Meiji.

The name of this baby liquid milk product is "Horhemirakurakura", which means smiling and relaxing. Indeed, liquid baby milk is very friendly to new moms and dads. There is no need to worry about the ratio of milk powder and water. Liquid baby milk can be drunk right after it is opened. Currently, other baby liquid milk on the Japanese market are mostly packaged in paper boxes, while Meiji baby liquid milk uses highly durable steel cans, which extends the shelf life of the product to 1 year. Therefore , it can not only be consumed daily, but also used as a reserve supply during disasters .

Meiji Hohe Mirakuraku baby liquid milk and pacifier accessories

It can be seen that Meiji thought one step further than other brands of products from the very beginning - steel cans have a long shelf life. Afterwards, Meiji took one more step in terms of details. On November 29, Meiji announced that it has developed a pacifier accessory to match its canned liquid milk, and plans to release a liquid milk set with a matching pacifier accessory in the spring of 2020.

With the matching pacifier, Meiji saves new parents the step of pouring milk into their own bottles. It may seem like a small thing, but a matching pacifier can make a big difference during a disaster or when traveling.

Meiji is a large and comprehensive brand that constantly refines its products in detail for the sake of consumers.

I think everyone has tried bottled chewing gum. It’s very convenient to put a bottle in the office and chew a piece after a meal. But after chewing, people often have to wrap it in paper before throwing it away. Sometimes it’s very embarrassing. What should I do if I don’t have any paper?

Paper in a bottle of Japanese chewing gum

Japanese chewing gum takes this embarrassing situation into consideration. If you've ever bought a bottle of chewing gum in Japan, when you open the bottle you'll see a stack of paper that looks like Post-it notes. Lotte blackblack gum and Meiji XYLISH gum both have a stack of paper.

Lotte chewing gum comes with a paper for spitting out the gum

This inconspicuous piece of paper, called "Shate Paper", is designed to make it easier for people to wrap up chewing gum. This design, which is not seen in China, not only solves the embarrassment of people not being able to find paper after chewing gum, but also saves sanitation workers the trouble of cleaning. After all, sticky chewing gum is not easy to deal with.

All of the above considerations are for ordinary consumers. In the Japanese food industry, there are also some detailed designs specifically for people with disabilities or mobility impairments .

A chipped corner means pure milk

In order to enable the elderly or visually impaired to distinguish between pure milk and formula milk at a glance when choosing milk, Japanese dairy product manufacturers have begun using cut-away packaging since December 2001. Milk with a chipped corner on the top of the carton is pure milk. On the other side of the missing corner is the opening of the paper box.

The lid of the can of wine has the word "wine" in Braille

On the lids of canned beer or other alcoholic beverages, there is a touchable Braille word for "alcohol" to help blind people know whether the product is alcohol or a beverage. The alcohol content of some beer products can even be felt on the bottle.

3. The little beauties hidden in the details make people smile

A change in a detail may be more meaningful and have a greater impact than creating something new. There are some small details in the Japanese food industry that, although they may not bring much practical effect, can make consumers smile.

The text inside the lid of the Japanese Danone bio series yogurt

Japanese people hardly lick yogurt lids. The reason is not because they are rich and willful, but because many Japanese yogurt lids do not leave any yogurt residue. You might say that you lose a kind of fun by not licking the yogurt lid, and the Japanese have thought of that too. After designing a yogurt lid that leaves no residue, they printed greetings or some witty sayings on the lid. If you open the lid of Danone yogurt, you can see words like "Good morning", "Super! Good luck!!" in various languages ​​​​around the world. Drinking a glass of yogurt in the morning will not only make your body more relaxed, but also make you feel better.

As we all know, Japan implemented garbage classification early and has more detailed regulations. For example, in Japan, after finishing a box of milk, you need to wash, cut, dry and fold the box. So some milk manufacturers made "Easter eggs" on the cartons. Where the box must be torn open, print the words "Thank you for recycling". When consumers see this sentence, do they feel the significance of garbage classification?

When you open the 200ml bottle of Kagome Vegetable Life Juice, you can see the words "Thank you for folding it"

There are also some paper-packaged beverages that cannot be recycled due to their small size. Although they cannot be recycled, it will save more space if they are folded and thrown away. Japan's Kagome juice prints the words "Thank you for folding it" on the carton, encouraging consumers to fold the package before throwing it away after drinking.

Kitkat Paper Packaging

Sending good wishes to consumers, the Japanese food industry is very good at using packaging to interact with consumers. For example, Japan's Kitkat has replaced its original plastic packaging with paper packaging since September this year. Of course, on the one hand, it is from the perspective of protecting the environment. On the other hand, as a spokesperson for Nestlé Japan said, “ It is difficult to make more people understand environmental issues, but it is possible to let people enjoy the fun of origami ” [1]. Paper packaging can be used for origami.

Paper crane made from KitKat wrapping paper (with the words "Believe in yourself, keep going!" - Mother)

Since the pronunciation of kitkat is similar to the Kyushu dialect of Japan, which means "must win", Japanese students have the habit of eating kitkat before exams. Kitkat encourages consumers to use Kitkat packaging to fold origami cranes, and write blessings such as "come on" on the cranes to support the candidates.

Using small details on the packaging to let consumers feel the little beauty will increase their favorability towards the product and brand.

4. Be casual or pay attention to details? This is not a problem for food people

These detailed actions taken by Japanese food companies make us see something different. So should we learn from them?

We can analyze why food companies must learn to pay attention to details from three perspectives: consumers, the companies themselves, and the industry.

1. More details, less picky consumers

In today's era of information explosion, consumers have a more comprehensive understanding of products and will become more particular about them. For example, there are parties of various components. Especially young consumers and the middle class, who are becoming more and more picky when buying food, and their refined life does not allow for products with poor experience.

When food companies pay attention to details, on the one hand they are controlling product quality , such as ensuring that there are no empty shells in a bag of melon seeds; on the other hand, paying attention to details allows consumers to feel the company's dedication . For example, macadamia nut packaging is equipped with fruit openers and disposable gloves, which can already be seen in nut snack companies such as Three Squirrels.

The more details there are, the less picky consumers will be.

2. Details that others cannot see are the source of your innovation

It is said that food innovation is difficult, and it is difficult to find the direction of innovation and measure the value of innovation. In fact, sometimes innovation is hidden behind some details . For example, the small-packaged foods and self-heating foods that have become popular in recent years are the result of discoveries made based on the fact that single people do not like to cook at home.

Discover details that others cannot find, and then innovate or make changes based on these details to create your own advantages. This is where details are most powerful for a business.

3. Good money drives out bad money, and the food industry needs to add details

For the industry, the pursuit of details helps to create a good atmosphere within the industry. Whether it is a large company or a small business, not relaxing on the details can jointly promote the development of the industry. We have also seen that food safety issues have become less common in recent years than before, and there are more and more food innovations, which is closely related to the grasp of details.

If you give the current food industry a score of 90, then details are a plus. When companies of all sizes pay attention to details, the good phenomenon of "good money drives out bad money" will emerge.

Conclusion

In fact, to put it bluntly, grasping the details means observing consumers, observing the company itself, and observing the industry.

So as for how to pick out the details, we have to start from these three aspects. The first thing is to have consumer awareness, as products are made for consumers to eat. Secondly, we need to have a reflective consciousness. A product is good only if consumers say it is good, not just if the company itself thinks it is good. Like Kameda Seika mentioned above, they began to doubt the recipe they had used for 53 years. Finally, observe the shortcomings and deficiencies in the industry, and then make changes in the details. If you look carefully, you may find that there are details to be explored everywhere from production, R&D, packaging to even marketing.

Lao Tzu once said, "All great things in the world are accomplished step by step from small things." Since all great things in the world are formed step by step from small things, the importance of grasping details for food companies that shoulder the important task of "food is the people's first necessity" is self-evident!

Author: FBIF

Source: FBIF Food and Beverage Innovation (FoodInnovation)