Is Churpee a Dog’s Food?
Growing up, do you remember borrowing 1 rupees from your parents to chew on the suckalicious churpee? Well, it has become a dog food now in the US. Rebranded as Himalayan Dog Chew, it becomes imperative to ask whether to consider this as an overseas success of a Nepali product, or a major branding failure that has led to people’s food now being relegated as a dog’s !!
Himalayan Dog chew has hit a jackpot, storming dog’s food market in the US. Basically, what started as a niche product in a festival from Nepali immigrants to the US has resulted in a multi million dollar empire today with sales exceeding millions! What might sound offensive, however, is that our beloved churpee has been rebranded as an exclusive dog food! After all, don’t you think with proper branding, our churpee could have become people’s food in the land of dreams as well?
Before we delve into that question, first let us revise our memory on what churpee is. Basically, churpee is solidified buttermilk that comes from the himalayan yak. It is a super hard to chew snack that us Nepalese have relied on for years to elevate our random hunger pangs. Unlike other snacks like candies, churpee lasts longer ( at least fifteen minutes from my own personal experience) and packs less sugar. Basically, churpee packs more fat and protein. So, from a health perspective as well, churpee serves as a better alternative to chocolates and candies. So, why has our churpee become synonymous to a dog’s food, and why is it not in an American’s mouth ?
While it is great that our local Nepalese product has become a synonymous name in American household, it is sad that the brand has positioned itself as simply a dog’s food brand. The lack of foresight that this snack could sell as well to human customers as well is depressing. What do you think? Would American consumers shy away from churpee, had it been branded as such?
One of the primary concerns is that the product is too hard to chew for the American customer base. While there is some logic to this reasoning, what has been forgotten is the growing awareness amongst the American consumer base to avoid excessive sugary products. Imagine if the company had pivoted its marketing to humans as a health alternative! Alternative healthy markets in the US has reached billions , which is clearly more, if not equivalent to, than the dog food industry in the US market. Moreover, it is not like we do not have a soft churpee alternative that would be perfectly palatable to American consumers!
This is not to put any question mark on the success that few Nepalese immigrants have had on a foreign land. After all, they have managed to not just break into the US market, but actually able to surpass what the market amounts to domestically. To simply put, kudos to that !
That said, by branding a food people relish in Nepal as a pet’s food in a foreign market, the company has missed out on potential growth in terms of both volume and revenue that it could easily get, had it branded its product as a food fit for human consumption.
Don’t you think the company should have at least introduced the product as more than fit for human consumption? After all, wouldn’t your friends and family be happy if they could buy the ‘Himalayan Dog Chew’ off the shelf in an American mart, and chew it off without getting any weird looks from the uninitiated?
‘Himalayan Dog Chew’, in spite of its success, is thus a major branding failure in that , as much success the product has had in a foreign market, it has self-inhibited itself by branding itself as a pet food product! Moreover, it has put a big wall against anybody hoping to see an American chew a churpee anytime soon.
An average business analyst will see Himalayan Dog chew as a spectacular success, however, we see an almost unbreakable handicap the brand has put on a beloved Nepalese product. With a booming alternative health product market, what is otherwise the collective intellectual property of all Nepalese, churpee will continue to remain a dog’s food overseas. The cost of educating a new product is definitely more than introducing a new product, and in that congratulations to us all ! We have collectively lost!
