Oreo: US Vs China Market

Oreo is a sandwich cookie that is made of two outer chocolate round biscuits filled with cream. The “Oreo Biscuit” was first introduced in the United States in 1912 in New York City by The National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco. Currently, Nabisco is a division of the Mondelez International brand. In its long history, the Oreo has been known by various different names including the “Oreo Sandwich”, introduced in 1921, the “Oreo Crème Sandwich” in 1948 and finally the “Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie” in 1974. The very first Oreo design was a simple wreath around the embossed word Oreo. In 1952, William A Turnier, created the Oreo design that is still used today, complete with the Nabisco logo and much further embossing around the cookie. In the 1990's, concerns about the health of Oreo's, regarding the lard in the cream filling, sparked a change in the recipe. The cookie filling was now made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. In 1997, following a three year recipe development, Oreo made their cookies Kosher and many consumers were over-joyed by this change. Later, Oreo suffered some criticism still, and in 2006 the recipe was changed again, only with the use of non-hydrogenated vegetable oil. This put Oreo on the “accidentally vegan” list on Peta.org and has since changed its previously negative views on the cookie's health to very positive, in moderation. On March 6th 2012, Oreo celebrated it's 100th anniversary in the United States with a year-long campaign called “Wonderfilled” in which the slogan “celebrate the kid inside” was used to draw in consumers of all ages. The Oreo cookie has become the biggest selling cookie in the world. The US consumers currently enjoy the 101st year of the Oreo and have essentially passed down the Oreo cookie experience through a few generations. This includes the “Twist, lick, dunk” (in milk) tradition that the Oreo is know for. For consumers in other countries and regions, such as Europe and Asia, this is not the case. Oreo ventured into new territory when it launched its product in China in 1996, and did not make the splash that it had hoped. Although sales weren't awful, Oreo executives almost decided to pull out of the Chinese market because it was not having enough of a positive impact for the business. The problem was that Oreo launched its product almost identically to its US counterpart. This was essentially a copy of Oreo's in the US market in regards to the product, packaging, price and promotion. Once Oreo took a step back and realized his prompted the company to take a new approach when sailing into foreign land.