Calbee is the most famous snack (especially potato chip) company in Japan. It is not too much to say that all Japanese have eaten Calbee products. In the meeting, Eguchi told us about Calbee's Brand Value Management In connection with this, it is helpful to read the Calbee Management Philosophy and Policies. (See <http://www.calbee.co.jp/english/>.) Management Philosophy - We make the best use of nature's blessing to create flavor and enjoyment and support healthy lifestyles.
Calbee Group Management Policies - Strive for a truly customer-centered operation and ensure customer opinions are reflected on our corporate activities.
- Achieve continuous growth through the marketing of emotional value.
- Achieve safe and dependable production and distribution systems
through attention to the basics. - Aim to improve our employees' value (learning and growth) through
participatory management.
The following two concrete examples of their policies were
particularly interesting. - Calbee is the first snack company to print the date of manufacture on its packages in Japan. Because this date is there, they are very particular about product freshness. Starting in January, their website has had profiles of the potatoes they use. So you can check who grows the potatoes and where on a day-to-day basis. You can even see pictures of the farmers. Looking ahead, they want to provide this information not just day-by-day but package-by-package. This website got 2,190,000 page views (about 1,190,000 unique users) by August.
- Calbee Snack School provides lectures for elementary school students on how to develop good eating habits and avoid an unbalanced diet. About 430 schools took part in this program in 2006.
Report by Hoshiba Keizo
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