Article at a GlanceThe following are the key factors that enabled “Dongwon Home Food,” the No. 1 company in Korea’s B2B sauce industry, to overcome organizational inertia and successfully expand into the B2C market.
1. Senior executives, including the group chairman, provided strong support that enabled the newly recruited B2C marketing expert to fully leverage their expertise.
2. Through extensive communication with existing task managers and partnerships with key internal connectors, the company changed employees’ negative perceptions such as ‘this can’t be done.’
3. By utilizing a differentiated concept and strong research and development capabilities, the company developed category products that were previously unavailable in the market.
4. Through new attempts never tried before and persistent challenges, the company broke through the high entry barriers of online distribution platforms.
5. Based on a simple decision-making line between the CEO and team leaders, the company quickly implemented new ideas from team members
Dongwon Home Food is a fixture in the industry, having maintained its position as the number one player in the business-to-business (B2B) seasoning market for the past 32 years. Most of the sauces, dressings, and seasonings used by popular chicken franchises like Goobne’s Volcano and BHC’s Bburinkle, as well as fast- food chains such as KFC and Burger King, famous pizza franchises, and family restaurants are manufactured by Dongwon Home Food. It is no exaggeration to say that almost every Korean has tasted food products made by this company. Despite being a company that has practically conquered the Korean palate with its sauces, the company name Dongwon Home Food itself was not well known to general consumers. This is because, despite its differentiated competitiveness such as the country’s best seasoning research and development (R&D) know-how and production infrastructure, the company had never created an independent brand that carried its own company name.
Previously, this lack of brand awareness had not been a significant issue. The B2B business based on partnerships with around 1,000 food companies was solid. However, as food market trends worldwide were changing rapidly, growth in the existing B2B market was gradually declining. The fast-following approach of quickly responding to client requirements had limitations in riding the wave of change and stepping on the pedal of growth. To become a leading company at the forefront of the market, a breakthrough change that creates a second growth engine was needed.
