Five new “authentic flavors”! How does Lay’s decode local culture?

This article delves into how Lay's decodes China's local culture and strengthens regional pride by launching regionally limited flavors of potato chips. It also demonstrates the brand's deep understanding of the localization process and innovative practices. I hope it will be helpful to you.

At present, domestic cultural and tourism booms are rising one after another, regional cuisine is in fashion, national delicacies continue to become popular, and regional pride in various regions is constantly rising.

It is precisely because of this observation that Lay's, as a leader in the snack industry, has been deeply rooted in local culture in recent years and has continued to launch regional limited flavor series of potato chips inspired by local cuisine, which not only highlights the charm of local specialties, but also inspires people's long-hidden pride in regional culture. The interaction between the brand and consumers is also colorful, and the emotional connection is constantly deepening, which has attracted the attention and linkage of local governments, jointly promoting the development and promotion of local culture.

Recently, Lay's has once again launched 5 new regional limited potato chips, with flavors traced from Guangxi, Guizhou to Shandong, Hebei, all the way to the three northeastern provinces...

This year marks the fifth year that Lay's regional limited flavor series of potato chips has been continuously updated. This series is also an important platform for Lay's to deepen its regional culture. In the vast Chinese food landscape, how does Lay's decipher the regional delicacies among them, and inspire people's regional pride while "eating for happiness"? How can the excavation of authentic Chinese flavors build new brand potential?

1. Five cities, five flavors, how local characteristics ignite regional pride

As a snack giant that has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market for more than 30 years, Lay's began exploring regional flavors five years ago.

At present, Lay's still has many regional limited flavors that are still hot-selling, for example, Shandong Linyi fried chicken flavor, Chengdu Sichuan spicy chicken flavor, Hebei Baoding donkey meat roast flavor, Sichuan Leshan pepper Bobo chicken flavor, Shandong Zibo barbecue flavor and other authentic delicious potato chips, bringing multiple taste enjoyment to consumers.

For this new product launch, Lay's has targeted five distinctive regional cuisines and launched five new products at one time - the magnificent Guangxi snail noodle flavor, the Guizhou Zunyi mutton noodle flavor, the Qilu Shandong pancake roll green onion flavor, the Hebei Shijiazhuang beef flat noodle flavor, and the Northeast Three Provinces pork ribs stewed with sauerkraut flavor, sweeping regional delicacies from "most" of China.

In Foodaily's view, the five flavors stand out from the dazzling array of regional cuisines not only because they are highly representative in terms of geographical distribution, but also because each flavor embodies a profound food culture and folk heritage.

Lay's Guangxi River Snails Noodles Flavor: Inspired by the famous local snack in Guangxi - River Snails Noodles. As one of the intangible cultural heritage of Guangxi, River Snails Noodles has made the "Guangxi" flavor known to the whole country with its unique "fragrant, spicy, and smelly" flavor. Lay's targeted this "hot flavor" and highlighted the fragrant and smelly smell and sour and spicy taste of the soul sour bamboo shoots in the magnificent Guangxi River Snails Noodles Flavor, creating a "one-touch head" experience, thus restoring the authentic and refreshing Guangxi flavor.

Lay's Guizhou Zunyi Lamb Rice Noodles: Zunyi Lamb Rice Noodles is made with great care in ingredients and production, and its taste is very Guizhou-style. It once attracted diners from all over the country to come to the beautiful southwest to taste this "fresh food". This time, Lay's perfectly reproduced the style of Zunyi's special snacks, awakening the memory of diners on their tongues.

Lay's Qilu Shandong Pancake with Scallion Flavor: Inspired by the traditional Shandong snack, pancake with scallion. The combination of fresh scallions, pancakes, and sauces perfectly reflects the passionate and bold "Shandong flavor". This time, Lay's regional limited flavor series targets this traditional delicacy, blending the sweet and spicy sauce with the rich scallion flavor, accurately interpreting the Qilu delicacy that has been passed down for thousands of years.

Lay's Hebei Shijiazhuang Beef Noodles Flavor: In Shijiazhuang, Hebei, which is adjacent to Shandong, beef noodles, which were once a "life-saving fast food", have gradually become the city's business card. The refreshing and chewy thick noodles are drizzled with red oil, and the thick soup is simmered over a slow fire, which attracts countless people to check in. This time, Lay's Hebei Shijiazhuang Beef Noodles Flavored Potato Chips use the aroma of braised beef and the spiciness of chili as the main flavors, restoring the rich taste of the beef soup base.

Lay's Northeastern Three Provinces Bones and Sour Cabbage Flavor: The most difficult delicacy to avoid in the three northeastern provinces is "sour cabbage". Bones and sour cabbage stewed as a representative delicacy that tourists must check in to the Northeast, once set off a DIY trend on social media. This time, the Northeastern Bones and Sour Cabbage stewed flavor is used as the inspiration for the new product, which will undoubtedly continue to increase the traffic of the popular Northeastern food since the beginning of the year. This potato chip highlights the rich meaty aroma and the sourness of sauerkraut, awakening the taste memory of the Northeast in one bite.

From south to north, from west to east... the launch of five new products, with its rich geographical coverage and careful selection of representative specialties, conveys a strong regional characteristic. Behind this is the result of Lay's insistence on observing changes in the consumer market, deeply exploring China's regional food culture, and helping to create a new business card for urban culture.

The five new products demonstrate a strong regional charm and can be used as unique regional souvenirs, allowing consumers to enjoy delicious food while having a unique experience of urban tourism and culture.

Foodaily noticed that the newly launched Lay's regional limited flavor potato chips quickly attracted market attention with high-quality execution and placement. For example, the launch of beef flat noodle flavor potato chips in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, received spontaneous attention and reports from many provincial and cultural tourism departments such as the Shijiazhuang Municipal People's Government, Hebei Tourism, and Shijiazhuang Tourism, further promoting and carrying forward the local people's regional pride.

2. How does Lay’s decode local culture and enhance regional pride?

Foodaily has noticed that regional cuisine is not only popular in China, but also innovative foods inspired by it are emerging in an endless stream. What factors are driving this phenomenon?

Multiple parties work together to promote the frequent popularity of regional cuisine

In the context of a society with cultural confidence, the value of local food with heritage significance is increasingly prominent. The regional cuisine that has become popular in the cultural tourism boom has not only driven the economic development of various regions, but also made the unique culture of the city visible and perceived by more people, and the people's sense of regional pride has continued to rise.

According to innova market research data, 52% of Chinese consumers attach great importance to whether the food can inherit local culture when choosing food. Therefore, contemporary people want to have more experience of tasting local food characteristics in their eating habits and gain a sense of regional pride.

Last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 11 other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Cultivating Traditional Advantageous Food Production Areas and Local Specialty Food Industries". The World Federation of Chinese Cuisine specially set up a "Food Communication Volume" in the "Encyclopedia of Chinese Food Culture" organized and compiled... These actions are all supporting the expansion of the influence of local specialty foods and further promoting the value of Chinese food culture.

The snack industry is empowering itself to help boost the visibility of regional cuisine

In the trillion-dollar snack industry, regional cuisine inspires more innovative ideas. However, some snacks with regional characteristics are too niche, have strong promotion limitations, and have low market acceptance.

Whether a brand can open up the market by relying on regional flavors and promote the pride of each region through snacks is a test of its ability to analyze regional culture.

How does Lay's, which continues to generate enthusiastic market response with its regionally limited flavors, accurately grasp the essence of regional cuisine and unlock the unique local culture with a bag of potato chips?

First of all, focus on regional characteristics and select delicious food!

Lay's targets the "delicacies" that are distinctive, representative and well-known in the market in specific regions, and deeply restores the real and authentic taste of local delicacies, allowing people from all over the world to start their city journey with one bite, and allowing local consumers to experience the authentic local taste with one bite.

For example, the Guizhou Zunyi Mutton Rice Noodles targeted in this new product have been well-known since the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It has a history of 300 years and was once rated as a "famous Chinese snack". Everyone who has tasted Zunyi Mutton Rice Noodles in Zunyi has praised it highly. Guizhou Zunyi Mutton Rice Noodles has long been an indispensable part of Zunyi's diet and a deep cultural sustenance.

Lay's has accurately captured this unique regional food culture, and has precisely reproduced the rich aroma of mutton and the spicy characteristics of the soup base in Guizhou Zunyi Mutton Rice Noodles, allowing people to experience the unique Guizhou style while enjoying the crispy and delicious potato chips.

Second, connect with local culture to boost tourism boom.

Products with local characteristics are a plus in the minds of Chinese people. In the packaging of this new product series, Lay's designed a different ingenuity around local cultural elements.

In order to showcase the local culture of different cities, Lay's visually presents cultural elements from various places on the packaging, such as the Zhaozhou Bridge in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, the batik art in Guizhou, the Bauhinia in Guangxi, the ice sculpture art in Northeast China, and the Confucius Mansion in Shandong. While conveying local culture, it is also boosting the travel boom.

From flavor production to visual presentation, Lay's carefully interprets the charm of different regional cultures in China, which not only satisfies consumers' pursuit of taste, but also conveys a deep exploration and respect for local culture, bringing the public a double enjoyment from "mouth" to "heart".

Third, localized “happiness” is engraved into Lashi’s DNA.

In the 30 years since entering the Chinese market, Lay's has been committed to bringing "happiness" to consumers.

"Consumer-centric", Lay's has a precise insight into consumer taste and quality demand trends, and implements localization to provide diverse, delicious and bite-size potato chips.

In fact, potato chips are inherently fun, and their fun comes more from the “flavor.” Inspired by regional flavors, Lay’s continues to open up new possibilities for potato chip flavors, allowing Chinese consumers to “taste Chinese cuisine” in a bag of potato chips and start a happy journey.

The donkey meat grilled flavor from Baoding, Hebei, the Sichuan Leshan peppercorn chicken flavor, the Zibo barbecue flavor that follows the cultural tourism boom... Every new regional flavor product from Lay's resonates with and is welcomed by consumers.

On major social media platforms, consumers’ evaluation of Lay’s regional limited flavor series products is “authentic,” “genuine,” and “delicious”... The market response has been enthusiastic.

At present, regional limited flavor series have become an important part of Lay's product matrix.

It is precisely because of the perception that Chinese food culture is profound and extensive, regional cuisines are flourishing, and consumers in different regions have very different tastes that Lay's has achieved deeper exploration in its localization process.

As an important platform for Lay's to deeply cultivate regional culture, every year, Lay's launches various new products to continuously update and enrich the series. By digging deep into local characteristics and launching various new products inspired by the food flavors of different regions, it creates "the potato chips that best understand your hometown", so as to better meet the different taste preferences of consumers across the country and taste the happiness in the "delicious taste of hometown".

This not only increases consumers' favorability towards the Lays brand, but also allows consumers to directly experience the food culture of various regions from the products, helping to enhance national cultural confidence.

Faced with a rapidly changing consumer market, the launch of new products in regionally limited flavor series has not only continuously expanded the boundaries of product categories, but has also injected new vitality into the Lays brand, further enhancing its brand value.

But Lay's does not stop at products with flavor attributes. From tangible to intangible, Lay's uses its deep understanding of Chinese culture to continuously promote the localization process in the true sense.

For example, last year, in conjunction with the launch of new summer flavors, Lay's launched the micro-documentary "Finding an Authentic Taste", which explored the food and traditional culture of Hubei, Yunnan, and Shaanxi; soon after, it launched a limited edition Guizhou cultural can, and joined hands with CCTV to launch "China in Intangible Cultural Heritage: Guizhou Extra", deeply tapping the new vitality of traditional intangible cultural heritage in the contemporary context. These documentaries not only attracted the attention and reprinting of local governments, but also won the recognition of local media for Lay's deep cultivation of local culture, dissemination of brand value, and promotion of national pride.

Through various explorations, Lay's continues to help cities create new business cards, enhance local cultural pride, and create food innovations that are warmer and more profound.

3. Conclusion

In the "2023 New Product Trend Report" released by Foodaily at the beginning of the year, it was pointed out: In 2023, the trend of reviving regional delicacies in the snack industry will become more and more obvious-restaurant dishes, street snacks, and even the ancient flavors passed down from generation to generation in farmers' homes are constantly stimulating the industry's enthusiasm for innovation.

For more than 30 years since Lay's entered China, practicing localization has always been the main theme of its development in the Chinese market.

Among them, the exploration and understanding of regional culture, the excavation and presentation of regional delicacies, and each product iteration are based on Lay's deep insight into consumers, accurate prediction of the market and persistence in cultural heritage.

In the future, we also expect Lay's to continue to explore and empower more diverse regional flavors, let more people see the local taste of China, take cultural confidence to a higher level, and let the integration of innovation and culture inspire more possibilities.

Author: Foodaily WeChat Official Account: Foodaily Daily Food (ID: foodaily)