But if a customer pulls us into the market, we’re more than happy to go and keep their business that way. It’s not good or bad, just that we don’t operate that way. A big, national corporation may do that, but we don’t operate that way. We’re too small we don’t have the money to do that. We spend the money on research and development and testing, but we would never send a bunch of salesmen and marketers to Japan without any business to go develop a market. So we respond, and if it’s viable, it’s something we can do without jeopardizing our product, we look into it. It’s usually a customer who comes to us, who’s confident in our product here in the States and says they’re going to open up a franchise in Abu Dhabi or Japan (or something) and asks us to supply them in that market. I just mentioned following our customers, and that’s how we’ve managed to enter overseas markets. Can you talk about what exporting looks like for your company, and how you’ve selected markets for international expansion? Your website mentions Vienna Beef’s global expansion. The way we’ve kept relevant is to follow our customers. We have the stuff that everybody else has- a web presence, online business, t-shirts and hats to support our brand, and we never had that stuff 50 years ago. You have to adjust to that and keep up with the times: new packaging, innovations, new marketing. So I think one of the challenges has been to respond to our customers as their tastes change. We’ve also diversified and gotten into the soup and chili business, to make authentic deli style soups to supply to our customers. We make things the old, traditional ways: corned beef, roast beef, pastrami, hot dogs. That line of production fits exactly with our delicatessen beef offerings. What we’ve done is we’ve diversified we’ve gotten into the kosher pickle business for example. We’ve had to change as our customers change, but we can’t change the taste of our product, that’s who we are. Over the years, the diets of animals have changed, the tastes of our customers have changed, and we’ve become a more homogenous society. We’ve always tried to be known as a very high-quality, very high-consistency product that doesn’t vary even though the raw materials may change. You have to know who you are and what you stand for, and what your brand means to your customers. How do you balance the need to honor your company’s traditions and history, while still evolving with changing consumer tastes and needs? It’s basically the same family the original two partners passed it onto two sons, and then a son-in-law and his partner bought it in the 1970s after the death of the two brothers. It’s been a family owned, privately held company continuously for 123 years, based here in Chicago. They were so successful and there were ample supplies of beef here, so they stayed in Chicago and set up their sausage business and delicatessen business. They had a food stand at the exposition, and about 27 million people visited the fair, which is an amazing number for back then. to set up a sausage business surrounding the World’s Fair Columbian Exposition in 1893. In the 1890s, there were a couple of immigrants from Vienna, Austria (hence the name) who immigrated to the U.S. Tell us a little about the background of Vienna Beef. We recently spoke to Tom Pierce, Director of Marketing at Vienna Beef about some of his company’s unique successes and challenges. Today, Vienna Beef is much more than a hometown Chicago sausage maker: Vienna Beef manufactures a variety of foods under a number of brands, has a global footprint, and represents an intriguing middle market success story. The hot dog was a hit, and Vienna Beef was born. ( ) was founded in 1893 when two Austrian-Hungarian immigrants introduced their family frankfurter recipe at the legendary Columbian Exposition.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |