globalEDGE International Business Blog

Generally, when something is put to a vote, the most popular vote wins. This is not the case for the Kraft Foods Australia product, Cheesybite. If you don’t know what Cheesybite is, it is a jar of caramel-brown, salty, gooey yeast paste (also known as Vegemite, an immensely popular Austrailian spread), that is mixed with cream cheese. Sounds appetizing, huh? Well to many Australians, it is. In a recent New York Times article, Bill Granger, a well known Sydney chef, said that Vegemite is “One of the only foods that is unique to Australia, and people see it as being quintessentially Australian.”

With the popularity of Vegemite in Australia, Kraft decided to place Cheesybite on the shelves of supermarkets without a name initially, in hopes to get ideas from consumers. By September, with a population of only 22 million people, Kraft sold 3 million jars of the new product to Australians! Following the sales, a decision was made to have consumers cast a vote. Here is where trouble all began… Kraft didn’t run with the most popular result. Instead, the name became Vegemite iSnack 2.0.

When the name was released to the public, consumers did not hold their tongues when it came to expressing their opinions. In The New York Times article, one commentator suggested that the designer who had submitted the winning name be tarred with Vegemite and forced to run naked through the streets of Sydney “as retribution for his cultural crime.” Others called the name “uStupid 1.0” and “un-Australian.” Needless to say, things got pretty heated. In fact, the negative reactions caused Kraft to announce they were putting the name back to a vote in just four days time. Thankfully, the second time around, Kraft chose the most popular result, dubbing Vegemite, plus cream cheese, with the name Cheesybite.

So, what was the point of having consumers participate to then deliberately stray from the results? Well, some believe that Kraft was attempting a publicity stunt similar to Coca-Cola’s, New Coke failure in 1985, because while consumers were complaining, sales of iSnack 2.0 rose 47 percent in the first two weeks. When accusations of a publicly stunt arose, Simon Talbot, the head of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods Australia, denied any such thing. He did say that the additional attention may have influenced sales, but it was the correct blend of taste and insights that made the product popular.

Overall, attention was being brought to the product, and whether it was positive or negative, it didn’t seem to matter. Regardless of the new name, Kraft has turned a rather ordinary product into a matter of public pride, ownership and likeness for the Vegemite brand. Nevertheless, there is a lingering question as to how such a large company could make such an obvious mistake? Was it for publicity, or was it truly an, “Oops!” moment?

In October of 2008, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum formally established Al Nassma - a chocolate producing company. It is not just another chocolate brand however. What distinguishes it from other brands is the fact that Al Nassma chocolate is made with camels' milk and is the first of its kind.

Now-a-days, Starbucks isn’t the only place you can go to grab a cup of joe. McDonald’s McCafés can now be found all over the globe offering a multitude of delicious, caffeinated beverages. This coffee chain was created in Melbourne, Australia in 1993. Ten years later, in 2003, it grew to be the largest coffee shop brand not only in Australia, but in New Zealand too!

Many people across the globe wake up every morning and require coffee within minutes to function during the day. The caffeine gives a kick-start to the long day at the office, in class, or wherever you may be. However, imagine waking up to a tea that can give you more than half the caffeinated zap of coffee plus tons of antioxidants and fewer jitters. I’m not asking you to totally end things with your old love, but simply, see other… beverages?

Poultry has been traded globally for years. Each individual country can not possibly produce everything it needs, making this trade a necessity. Of course, that does not mean that there hasn't been any problems. There are several past examples of poultry trade gone wrong, but as a result standards are higher, making trading less of a risk.

In 2004, China and the United States had a major rift in their chicken trades and there has been tension ever since. The initial problems were a result of the bird flu outbreaks. Following that, both countries temporarily banned the trade of poultry from one another. Soon after, China lifted their ban, but it was another two years before the U.S. followed suit. Around the same time, Thailand chicken exports were suffering because several countries refused to buy their chicken because of past outbreaks, even after the products have been inspected and deemed safe. It seems that there will always be tension over poultry trade.

If you're planning a trip abroad in the near future, make time to check out this fascinating article from International Business Times on the world's 10 strangest delicacies. Fried tarantulas, live octopus, balut, and puffin heart! Oh my!

Here's a neat video from National Geographic about eating live Octopus in South Korea.

Beer, actually.  To celebrate, they produced a commercial for it, running almost three minutes. Here's a video from Reuters with more details:

You may be surprised to learn that Brazil produced half of the world's coffee at one point. Although the nation doesn't enjoy this kind of pick-me-up dominance anymore, they still are the key player in the global market, and produce one-third of world's coffee beans. Despite the shear quantity of coffee coming out of Brazil, most consumers are more familiar with  Columbian beans, and Asian and African beans seem to be gaining in popularity. It's said that because of Brazil's large-scale production, the quality suffers. Poor quality controls and an economic crisis in the 80's and 90's led to less local consumption in Brazil. Their best beans were exported while they had the leftovers. I can see why coffee didn't appeal very much to Brazilians. In response to this unfavorable trend, the Brazilian Association of the Coffee Industry initiated a "coffee purity" program that was so succesful that it was expanded to 60 countries. That led to a more than doubling of sales in Brazil. Brazilians now consume more than any other nation with the exception of the United States.

If you think the financial crisis is throwing a wrench into your business plan, try running a distillery in Nepal. This article by Forbes tells the story of the Himalayan Distillery Group Ltd., or HDL, and their struggle to run a profitable business in the face of corruption, power outages, and kidnappings.

I had almost given up on news that isn’t somehow related to “credit crunch” or “bailout,” until I stumbled upon a thought provoking topic in a recent issue of The Economist: "The world has a water shortage, not a food shortage."

My immediate reaction was: "WHAT?" But the numbers seem to make sense – while people only drink about 2 liters of water a day, almost 3,000 liters of water goes into the food people eat every day (add a few more liters for the meat that takes far more water to produce). The article focuses particularly on the inefficient use of water by farmers based on today’s methods of agriculture. In fact, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) predicts that as population grows and incomes rise, 2,000 cubic kilometers of additional water will be needed each year to keep everyone fed!