The story behind the cult brand from Japan

What do blue jeans, dolls and mayonnaise have in common?

They’re all part of the Kewpie origin story! Buckle up for an episode I’m calling…

No, you’re not looking at Google search data for chatGPT.

You’re looking at the rapidly rising, global interest in Kewpie Mayo.

I’m gonna break down how this brand became a global hit, with some practical lessons for every curious mind out there.

Every good story starts with a relentless founder

The company was started in Tokyo in 1919 by Toichiro Nakashima. I’m gonna nickname him Naka in this article because it’s the responsible Aussie thing to do.

Naka was a keen business student sent over to the US and UK by the Japanese Department of Commerce to learn about trends and culture (this is before we had TikTok).

After spending time immersed in culture of other countries, he noticed an interesting trend when he returned to Japan.

Life was changing and many women started wearing Western style clothing - like blue jeans.

Lesson 1: Connect the dots

If you’re wanna get good at product development, keep your eyes open for cultural trends.

Naka spotted the shifting fashion trends and sensed that this would also flow over into diet and food.

At the time, Mayonnaise didn’t exist in Japan. But after experiencing it overseas, Naka set about creating a Japanese twist on the Western staple.

Instead of using whole eggs, they used just the yolks to create a richer, creamier taste (more on this later).

Kewpie Mayo was born.

Branding matters

Naka wanted to tap into culture.

He noticed the small “cupid” baby doll was a popular gift and household item, so he named the brand Kewpie.

The doll was designed by American artist, Rose O’Neill, who Naka struck a deal with to license the doll for his branding.

Side note: This deal made Rose the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars! She lived an extravagant life, spending every cent (and gifting loads to charity).

Let’s skip over the part about a couple of World Wars.

New pack, who’s this?

It was in the late 50’s that Kewpie switched from glass jars into it’s iconic plastic bottle in a bag setup.

Instead of banking the extra margin from the cheaper plastic format, they passed savings on to drive adoption of mayonnaise to the next level.

The founder was hellbent on getting the Japanese hooked on mayo (sounds like an episode of Breaking Bad, just with less ice).

And it worked.

Lesson 2: Focus on household penetration

Getting your product into as many hands as possible.

It’s an incredibly tough slog and there are no shortcuts, but it’s interesting to see how Kewpie were more focused on people actually using the product regularly than how much money they could make.

Getting creative with costs

It turns out if you drop your prices consistently, you need to find other ways to make money.

Naka was a smart operator - instead of trying to cut costs, he looked ways to eek more value out of them.

Given they only used egg yolks, they experimented with interesting ways to develop and sell the left over egg whites.

They ended up creating a chemical division of the company, reformulating the egg whites into ingredients for cosmetics and other food products.

Make entertainment, not ads

Kewpie’s approach to advertising was different.

They had a broadcast television program called Kewpie’s Three-minute Cooking, where they shared ideas for daily meal planning in a format similar to weather forecasts.

This played into their broader mindset that advertising formats should be built up, consistently, over a long period of time, to become an asset instead of a short term hit.

Genius.

Lesson 3: Think in decades, not months

It is incredibly challenging to think beyond your current campaign.

But what if you created something that would last ten years, instead of just this cycle? What if it lasted decades?

It’s an interesting thought experiment, at the very least…

Kewpie Mayo is now a multibillion dollar company

They expanded internationally in the late 2000’s by leveraging the concept of “Japanese Mayonnaise” through Japanese restaurants and chefs.

The brand has gained ‘cult status’, with most of their growth coming from an incredible product that drives word of mouth.

This story is a simple snippet into the history behind the brand - all recreated from their corporate website (it’s like 10,000 words and has less bad jokes, but go read it if you wanna).

If you enjoyed this article, send it to your manager and colleagues.

But give them a 10 second summary of why you liked it. No one likes being forwarded long articles with no context.