Think Locally, Market Globally

Oreo may be "Milk's favorite cookie," as Kraft International likes to say, but it wasn't a favorite in China when the company introduced the snack there in 1996. Chinese customers said the black and white cookie was too sweet and too big. Sales of the product were flat. So in 2006, Kraft revamped its plan for the China market, connecting locally with customers by readjusting the recipe, packaging Oreos in wafer form and advertising on bicycles, T-shirts and buses, said Sanjay Khosla, president of Kraft International. Shortly after, Oreo became the top-selling cookie in China.