How to make Chinese consumers fall in love with cheese beyond being just a novelty? Anchor seems to have the answer: more novelty. The New Zealand dairy brand recently introduced three speciality flavours to its Anchor sliced cheese line to try and capture the Chinese market by introducing more ways to enjoy the dairy delicacies.
The three flavours are green Szechuan pepper, thirteen-spice crayfish and Italian tomato. These are all familiar to Chinese consumers especially when it comes to snacks like crisps but is a bit surprising as cheese flavours. Anchor also makes suggestions on different scenarios that these flavoured cheese slices can be used. You can put them on top of dishes like the Italian tomato on chips, the Szechuan pepper flavour on malatang hot pots or the crayfish flavour on, wait for it, crayfish pasta. Of course, eating the cheese as it is, is also an option. To lower the price and for people to try out the novelty without too much commitment, each pack of flavoured cheese only contains 5 slices, instead of the normal 12.
Fonterra, the parent organisation of Anchor, says that the products are part of its “local for local” initiative to localise in the region and the flavours chosen are from its team’s observation of Chinese consumers. Cheese hasn’t been widely popular in China compared to neighbouring Asian countries. In 2021, the average consumption of cheese in China was 0.2kg per person per year, while in Korea, it was 2.5kg. Japan and Singapore also consume 1.9kg and 1.6kg of cheese per person each year, respectively.
Anchor’s localisation strategy also resembles that of Lay’s and Starbucks, who introduced localised regional flavours to their roster. Although it might be hard to imagine a Chinese consumer putting a slice of cheese on their malatang, adding a slice to instant noodles has already been popular among young people. The bold move from the Kiwi dairy brand might just work in China.
