In Japan, by default, everything Made in Japan is considered the best－the cheese category forms one of the exceptions; even though Hokkaido is definitely in the mix.
But there is already an endless array of foreign premium cheeses on the shelf, the stalwarts being the French soft (both in flavour and texture) cheese brands. How can a Swiss brand with hard (both in flavour and texture) cheeses come in and offer something extraordinarily enough to divert attention on a crowded shelf－and before that, be attractive enough for B2B purchasers to stock in the first place?
All the while as China's cheese market matures and more and more copycats keep springing up, Swissmooh's first-mover, functional positioning around nutrition for children and calcium was getting eroded: after all, if you make your product all about calcium, all it takes is for a copycat to say their cheese has 1g more calcium. A new proposition that should help Swissmooh stand out on Japan's shelves should therefore also secure it's footprint in China.
Yuzu looked into the assets the brand had, all its potential claims and unique selling points, put them to the test with consumers, and devised ways of how all those assets could be put together in a new brand concept.
This could then inspire packaging design, positioning, as well as brand comms: thus the Swiss Family Farms concept was born. Family Farm was the anchor that consumers in both China's and Japan's major cities found most appealing, whilst not alienating its existing base of Chinese urban moms.
So together with Swissmooh we coordinated with a design agency to bring to life the new concept in packaging design－and the current, fantastic design that's all about the small-scale artisanal farms where all Swiss cheeses was created. A branding package that’s harder to copy for a Chinese－or Japanese brand.
Armed with a local distribution partner, Swissmooh has now broken into some of Japan's most prestigious supermarket chain (rather than the usual go-to 'import markets' that sell foreign curiosities rather than goods for daily life in Japan). And in China, it can now take on its copycats.
Swissmooh's market entry strategy to Japan is one of these great stories of a brand having done it all right: invested in setting up the brand on the right path strategically, showing evidence of its relevance and how it researched and took on board local sensitivities to have ammunition to convince the B2B middlemen with direct consumer evidence, and with localised packaging that competes on much higher Japanese and Chinese design standards rather than that of Europe's supermarket world.
After all, the whole point of family farms is that they're in it for the long run, for generations, not a quick buck. Japanese and Chinese consumers will reward them for it.
