Going beyond “Modern Asian”

Dang was already a super-cool brand when they came to us, making “Modern Asian” snacks with a hip, fresh packaging and a growing DTC business. But this was 2018, the year of Crazy Rich Asians, Ali Wong and K-pop—with Asians on the frontlines of modern culture, how could Dang own their Asianness in a more specific, ownable way?

Through our insights and foresight work, we realized the modern Asian moment could be defined best with one word: pride. Asian-Americans were expressing their pride in a fresh, irreverent way that was redefining Asian food—and American culture at large.

from exotic asian flavors
to aspirational asian-american culture

We also learned that Dang’s hip pack design was cueing “Silicon Valley bros” who “went to Thailand once” (to quote one respondent). In reality, Dang is deeply authentic and steeped in pride—they just needed their brand to express this more clearly.

We built a new positioning around the idea of “Asian for All” (for busy professionals, for healthy eaters, for all Americans) with innovation guardrails and personality attributes to focus the brand around this idea. And within a year, Dang had a new package design that was bursting with modern Asian-American pride.

What we did: Consumer Insights, Foresight Analysis, Brand Positioning, Messaging, Innovation Strategy/Visioning