Asian House

The Asian House team made it plain from the outset. They intended to position themselves as the leading choice for standardized Asian food in the Spanish and European market. They had the name, the idea, and the crew. Jiaping Ma, a MasterChef Celebrity contestant and Zapeando collaborator, would join Michael Lin in bringing their experience and oriental perspective to the project. Álvaro Bordas would bring a Western perspective. They understood they just needed one more key component to bring Asian House to life and boost the business. working on a powerful brand, from the strategy to the digital product, including its identity. And that’s where we came in.

As a starting point for everything we worked on with them, we had one of the keys to the project: an operational process that is a tremendous differential opportunity. One of the differential elements of Asian House compared to other proposals is a professionalization of the processes that will lead not only to an improvement in cost optimization but also to a more controlled and homogeneous experience in each restaurant. This idea, which has already been a great success in other types of food (burgers, pizza, pasta), did not exist for an Asian food menu. This opportunity joins the business objective of the Asian House team, which, in reality, is more than a business objective; it is a vital and emotional purpose: to reposition Asian food.

An atomized and familial expansion

We conducted a deep dive into the market as a fundamental phase of working on the brand strategy. We all know the current model of Asian food in the West, its atomized expansion in the last 60 years, and how it has reached today without referents or standards. The first Asian food to reach Spain was Chinese in the 1960s. Although the concept spread throughout all the cities of the country—and Europe—it has done so in an fragmented way: family restaurants, with their own recipes and their own processes that used to base their proposal on price and not on quality.

In the last 15 years, dishes from many other parts of Asia—sushi, bao, gyozas—have entered the Western scene and have had a different relationship with local cuisines: they have merged with local proposals. They can be on the menu of restaurants with different economic ranges.

The market is moving

Going deeper into the sector context, we find some very relevant data for the project. According to data from 2022, in Spain, one-third of the consumption was done outside the restaurant. Until not so long ago, we could say that restaurants were the option for “eating out”. That statement no longer serves to understand the reality of food consumption habits. 69.1% of people consume in the establishment, but the other 30% of restaurant sales were eaten at home (11.6%) or at the home of others (5.2%), at work (6.2%) and even on the street (4.9%). And we know that Asian food is extremely popular when ordering home delivery, despite this current atomization.

However, in 2023, we witnessed a reversal of the trend: a return to in-house dining. The first quarter of 2023 saw a substantial 26% surge in in-house consumption, indicating a potential return to pre-pandemic dining habits. While food delivery orders also increased, the growth was less pronounced at 13%. Notably, fast food restaurants experienced a significant increase in on-premise consumption, with a 39% rise, while take-away and delivery saw more modest increases of 13% and 7% respectively.

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Diversity in target audience and use cases

We continue analyzing the target. In this project the audience is tremendously diverse, both in use case typologies (eating at a restaurant or taking it home), in how it's shared (alone, as a couple, with friends or as a family), in age and even economic situation. We want Asian House to be a place that anyone in a major city wants to visit to try their Asian food.

We complete our analysis by focusing on how the fast good sector speaks to the public. Its key messages center on food quality through flavor, being superior or centered on its "real" character; on its impact beyond the moment, a positive impact on life; and on a new way of understanding restaurants at the level of brands, communication and marketing.

A comfortable experience

With all the project, market and target information analyzed and put into perspective, the moment came to encapsulate it in strategic tools that would help us drive the experience and business of Asian House. On this brand platform, as in the project, comfort plays a major role—worked from ease, convenience and enjoyment of the experience, from it being a comfortable decision, to the actual digestion itself. And, furthermore, differentiated by the creators' optimistic capacity, bringing their way of relating to the world, people and business to their brand too.

Easy to reimagine

Another key concept we created for Asian House is "easyway". Very much in line with that comfort: an easy experience at the restaurant, at home and for pickup. We also count on our pillars, taste, ease and that always optimistic way of approaching the world. And everything always with the big goal, the purpose, very present in everything we are and do: reimagine the flavors of Asia. Here we walked you through how we reimagined it for their brand universe.

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Starting a conversation

How do we communicate all this universe? With a personality capable of conveying knowledge of Asian food culture. A very enjoyable one. And with a key message: have you eaten yet? 你吃了吗, pronounced ni chi le ma, is a traditional way of greeting others, even if there is no real interest in the literal answer to the question. A concept that works because it serves as a conversation opener, it has an informal feel, has storytelling that is closely related to the culture, and reflects the importance of food in the Asian way of relating to each other.

Have you eaten yet?

In March 2024, Asian House successfully launched its delivery service through its digital home and the leading platforms (don't miss its executive menu, capable of turning any Tuesday into a happy day, ohmama!).Now, they are open! From September 4th you can find them in Madrid: Bravo Murillo 238. We can't make spoilers, you should go and give it a try. But keep keep tuned for a fresh brand activation case study coming soon.