Lay's Ups Its Snack Game With a New Range of Unique Flavors
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Lay’s has upped its localized snack game with a new range of creative, and slightly bizarre, Chinese chip flavors. They've also collaborated with a few recognizable local brands to give weight to what may have otherwise been a branding exercise in weird for weird's sake.
You certainly can't accuse Lay's of not experimenting
Since Lay’s expansion to China in 1994, the US Pepsi-Co-owned company has quickly dominated/saturated the chips market with flavors that vary in their level of experimentation. And like many other multinationals that go abroad, the success and acceptance of Lay’s has stemmed from its carefully planned localization business strategy, adapting to the tastes of different cultures and enticing consumers to eat their chips through familiar but unique seasonings.
Not only has Lay's addressed the tastes of Chinese consumers as a whole, but they consider regional variations as well. For example, in China's fiery Sichuan province and surrounding areas you can find packets of numbing and spicy hotpot chips, while Beijingers can now proudly feast on their very own Peking duck variety.
With Dragon Boat Festival nearly upon us, it makes sense that Lay’s would experiment with a new zongzi flavor. Acknowledging that sticky rice by itself doesn't make for an inspiring chip, they've decided to stuff this variety with salted egg yolk and roast pork.
Conclusion: Fans of salted egg will be happy to hear that it outpowers the roast pork, making for a slightly sweet combination that has notes of Lay's roast chicken-flavored chips more commonly available in the West.
The hugely popular brand of braised duck snacks, Zhou Hei Ya, is already visible on many a commercial corner of Beijing’s streets. Now they're one step closer to snack domination, seeing their signature item's flavor bagged for convenience store shelves too.
What says "quick Beijing snack" more than a bag of Peking duck-flavored chips? While this edition is not the product of a collaboration between specific local brands, the iconic image of the Temple of Heaven's Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests plus the "Limited Beijing Flavor" (京味限定 jīngwèi xiàndìng) seems like Lay's received Beijing's seal of approval to promote the city.
At this point we’ve seen White Rabbit made into ice cream, milk tea, and even perfumes/vapes. But Lay’s is surely the first to try and put a savory spin on the milk flavored candy. And despite being an otherwise strange mashup, just by virtue of featuring the White Rabbit brand – one that has huge nostalgic value among several generations of Chinese – these are likely to be a hit.
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Images: Joey Knotts, Nicole Sun