Skip to main content

Hungry? What about a Salmon Doughnut or a Pork Burger?

MSNBC featured a news article about a new menu item in China --- salmon doughnut. Once failed in the early 2000s, Dunkin’s Donuts now teams up with a Taiwanese franchise partner and re-opens several stores in Canton (Guangzhou), China.

Doughnuts have always been Americans’ favorite snack. Since the 90s, other Americans’ fast-food giants like McDonald’s and KFC, have already become popular eateries in China. When Dunkin’ Donuts followed McDonald’s and KFC, who would imagine Dunkin’s would fail and end up leaving the market of a 1.3 billion potential consumers?

Compared to Dunkin’s Donuts, McDonald’s did something more than just bringing American food to China. From the very beginning, McDonald’s has attempted to “blend” the Chinese custom and culture into the “Americanized menu.” The restaurant even tried rice burger. Some “renovated” items remain to serve the Chinese market. Today, consumers can order pork burger at a McDonald’s Hong Kong location because many Chinese consume pork and chicken more often than beef (you may check out McDonald’s menu at its HK homepage http://www.mcdonalds.com.hk/english/). Another great example is Pizza Hut Hong Kong (http://www.pizzahut.com.hk/en/home.html). In addition to the “Asianized menu items,” there is actually a host in Pizza Hut. The atmosphere is quite different from the ones in the U.S. With their localized attempts, both of these American chains have been doing excellent business in China.

I am not sure how good a salmon doughnut tastes, but I know Chinese are welcome to new ideas and are willing to try something new from time to time. I hope this “localized” Duncan’s Donut will succeed in China. “Think globally, act locally” can probably best describe this case. What are your opinions?

References:
MSNBC.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok02262010
Picture (A Pizza Hut Restaurant in HK) was copied from: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok02262010P

Comments

  1. Dunkin's Donuts Returns to Russia

    WSJ.com - http://on.wsj.com/9GaV2C

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I was in Tokyo in 2009, I was astounded to see a very long line going to Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme was on the downside in the U.S. because of the health reason.
    If bringing more Americanized fast food restaurants to China, will these Chinese people gain obesity and health problem like heart disease, diabetes, etc. in the next 10 years?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People indeed are gaining weights. There are so many options for food in Asia. More people have obesity and health issues related to diets as well, but the situation is not as bad as what is like the U.S. yet.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Luxury vs. Millennials and Their Technology: The Ritz-Carlton (By Julia Shorr)

Embodying the finest luxury experience, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC has been established since 1983. In 1998, Marriott International purchased the brand offering it more opportunity for growth while being independently owned and operated. They are known for their enhanced service level as the motto states, “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”. The luxury brand now carries 97 hotels and resorts internationally and is attempting to keep the aspects of luxury while keeping up with the trends of the technologically improving generations. The Varying Demographics of the Target Market The Ritz-Carlton’s typical target market includes: business executives, corporate, leisure travelers, typically middle-aged persons and elders, and families from the upper and upper-middle class section of society .   This infers a large range of types of travelers in which all are similar in that they are not opposed to spending extra for the luxurious ambiance. However, with

Want to win in future competitions? Invest in data-driven decisions now

Speaking of the permanent changes in the hospitality industry, many people will probably agree that demands for “bleisure”/“work-from-anywhere” travel and contactless self-service will continue to grow in the near future. Not everyone, however, realizes that data-driven decisions will become a key driver for growth in the industry, which has already affected how we do business now.   Automatic service enables businesses to capture more operational and consumer data for business decisions   One advantage of using automatic service comes from its ability to spontaneously capture and store real-time operational and consumer data for additional analysis. In the old-time when businesses still relied on workers to serve customers, operational data were collected usually through careful book-keeping, documentations, and observations; consumer data through market research were often limited to their perceptions, behavioral intentions, or past experience.     Now that automatic service is provi

Is It OK for Hotel Staff to Wear Piercings and Tattoos?

Time has changed. I see more and more college students wearing piercings and tattoos nowadays, but is it OK for hotel staff to wear piercings and tattoos? The answer is “no, no, no.” According a report at USAToday.com, customers across the board do not want to see any hotel workers with pierced eyebrow, pierced tongue, tattooed arm, or nose ring. Some may argue that tattooed and pierced workers may seem more acceptable in edgy boutique hotels as compared to the big franchised hotels, but the survey results did not find any differences among a variety of lodging products. Many respondents believe people who wear visible tattoos and piercings are taking a high risk of their professional lives. If you stay in a hotel, do you mind being served by tattooed and/or pierced staff? What if you are the one who makes the hiring decision? References: USAToday.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010 Picture was downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010P