Lee Kum Kee

Which of LKK’s prototypes had genuine potential to become an everyday staple in American kitchens, not just a trial purchase, and how could the company prove it?

Lee Kum Kee

PROJECT TYPE

Innovation Portfolio Performance / Opportunity Mapping and Validation

CONTEXT

Lee Kum Kee, a leading Asian sauce and condiment brand, had developed a pipeline of prototype products for the US market. The challenge was to identify which of these had genuine staple potential, the kind of everyday repeat purchase behavior associated with products like mayonnaise or ketchup, rather than appeal as an occasional or niche purchase.
Rather than relying on generic market trends, we built the prioritization on direct behavioral evidence. We researched the most popular everyday home cooking dishes in America, shadowed home cooks during grocery shopping, and had a separate group document their cooking over several weeks, narrating what they made and why. That insight was then used to pair LKK’s prototypes against real, everyday recipes, working closely with LKK’s internal team, including its cooks, to test which products fit naturally into how Americans already cook.

The work gave LKK's leadership a clear, evidence-based view of which prototypes had the strongest path to becoming everyday staples rather than niche purchases. LKK's team is now advancing the selected products through industrialization ahead of launch.