Mr Chen’s is a family owned and loved company who have been bringing Australian’s the best of Yum Cha for over 40 years. As a locally owned business, the brand was founded in 1982 by Peter Chen whose childhood experiences with cooking in Vietnam ignited a passion for introducing authentic, Asian flavours to his new Australian community. Since 2015, his pioneering legacy has continued with his daughters, Lucy and Nancy leading the next chapter of growth and innovation.

As a brand that believes that the best meals are shared with the people we love, they take great pride in making seriously good quality Asian food that’s simple to prepare – giving Australian’s more time to savour their meals with the people they love. Chen Foods partnered with The Edison Agency to rejuvenate the story and visual identity of their brand and expand its appeal to a new generation of Asian food consumers.

The new positioning and brand relaunch sought to create impact through:
– Revitalising the Masterbrand’s story and visual assets
– Improving cut-through on shelf and resonance with consumers
– Develop a Masterbrand portfolio architecture strategy for future range navigation across Frozen and Ambient
– Create a future proof design system for internal rollout across the dumplings including internal implementation by Mr Chen’s design team
– Generate appeal and interest amongst the next generation of Asian cooking consumers with a high impact and flavourful brand expression

Challenge
After 40 years of success in the Australian market, Chen Foods engaged the Edison Agency to help them prepare for the next phase of growth and revitalise their relationship with customers. With an established reputation in their core category, frozen dumplings, Mr Chen’s now operates in 8 categories – (frozen snacks, meals, gluten free, ambient sauces, noodles, meal kits, pastes and coconut milk) and has ambitions to continue to innovate with new products, formats and occasions.

With the brand at risk of losing relevance with consumers due to a lack of distinction, range navigation and sensory flavour cues. An influx of new competitors to the frozen and ambient categories meant uncovering a rich storytelling platform for the brand was key to building their presence and credentials as a high quality, local “family flavour experts”.

Solution
The Edison Agency’s solution has amplified the unique Mr Chen’s family story and created a fresh and dynamic design system that’s flexible and brings together all ranges under a unified structure with a solution for premium tiered ranges and future innovations. Anchored to the new positioning, “Family Flavour Experts”, the new design captures the authentic spirit of the Chen family with light-hearted stories and anecdotes connected to the flavours, recipes, process, and eating experience of the families most-loved meals.

Each hand drawn illustration brings the Chen family stories to life and captures real people behind each recipe. The family characters, their love of flavour and cooking has been celebrated across the ranges like Grandpa Yeye’s Classics, Grandma Nainai’s Seafood range and Sister Meimei’s modern plant-based products. A human-centred design solution that connects the passion of multiple generations of the Chen family with a new generation of Australian food lovers – creating a brand shift that’s unpretentious, warm and has cleverly transformed each package into a canvas for authentic storytelling.