Localizing Oatmeal
I stared in horror - momentarily distracted from buying my lunch in the supermarket. What the heck is in that oatmeal? I’ve always thought of oatmeal as a breakfast porridge with some bread-related and stuffing-related applications. Apparently, the image that the Quaker Marketing Department in Japan chose was…oatmeal in the mushroom risotto style. Riiiight.
I realize that the oatmeal that I know and love has a long history of changes and alterations. (The most pronounced being its instant form and the addition of colossal amounts of sugar - both of which I celebrate regularly. The existence of a product with the words “magicolor” and “crunch” in the name, which I discovered while poking around the Quaker Oatmeal website doing post prep disturbed me though.) Here are some of the flavors that Quaker America’s instant oatmeal comes in: Regular (nothing added - plain rolled oats); Maple and Brown Sugar; Raisins and Spice; Cinnamon and Spice; Raisin, Date, & Walnut; Apples and Cinnamon; Strawberries and Cream; Peaches and Cream; Cinnamon Roll; Apple Crisp; Honey Nut; French Toast; Cinnamon Pecan; Banana Walnut; and Apple Raisin. Generalizing a bit, fruit, nuts, and sweeteners. Right?
The back of the box and Quaker Oatmeal Japan’s homepage immediately make the different approach noticeable. The background image on the main page shows oatmeal with some fun ingredients (among them: pickled plum, white sesame seeds, dried baby sardines, and Japanese basil). Searching further reveals more and more photos of dubious flavorful inclusions on other pages. I finally got my nerve up and hit the recipes page that was mentioned on the box. It came close to making me feel nauseated. Hoping to find a good representative of my beloved western style oatmeal, I clicked to the Western Recipes page. Wrong move. Big mistake. Instead of being resuscitated, I was sucker punched. The “Western” recipes included: Oatmeal Hamburg Steak, Oatmeal Vegetable Stew, Oatmeal Full-of-Mushrooms Pizza, Turnip and Seafood Stew with Oatmeal Butter Rice Side, Oatmeal Cheese Risotto. It wasn’t a section for Western Oatmeal recipes, it was a section of Western Recipes to which you can feasibly add oatmeal. Incorporating oatmeal as an ingredient and eating oatmeal are vastly different things. Look, in my opinion, the only savory oatmeal dishes should traditionally come from Scotland. We can experiment with nouveau cuisine, too, I guess. Ha ha. The other recipe pages - particularly the Simple Recipes and Japanese Recipes featured some weirdo recipes. I’m actually curious about the Oatmeal Chijimi (I wonder about Korea’s take on oatmeal now, too…).
Ugh. Heading to Quaker Oatmeal America’s homepage restores my peace of mind by featuring warm, sweet, and “breakfasty” recipes. (By the way - in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t find anything objectionable on the Confectionary Recipes page on the Japanese site. Looks pretty good. On the other hand, the American site also features some odd sounding savory recipes - Dilled Salmon Cakes, for instance. I’d give them a run for their money. I can say, however, that a Chinese Recipes section is not under construction on the American site. That speaks volumes. Mostly breads, bars, mixes, etc.) Mmm. Maybe when I visit the states for Christmas I can talk someone into helping try to make something resembling the delicious sounding Vermont style oatmeal that I learned about today, too. I guess at the end of the day you like oatmeal or you don’t. I love it. More as a meal than an ingredient. Maybe too much. I know it’s a requested item in my own care packages as well as Nicole’s. If you’re a fan of oatmeal, this entry was probably mildly entertaining (or traumatic) to you. However, even if you detest oatmeal, it is a fascinating case of product localization. I think oatmeal would sell well in Japan the same way it does in America if it were marketed in the same way. What I can tell you is that oatmeal is hard for me to buy - despite this pretty extensive flavor makeover by Quaker. So - do you think the image / ingredients changes worked?