CASE STUDY: SHAN FOODS-MAKINGS OF A

G L O B A L C UL I N A R Y B RA N D
Written by: Ms. Irtifa Nasir (Assistant Professor School of
Management, FC College University Lahore)

Introduction
If you were asked to list out the most ubiquitous Pakistani brands across the globe, what
are the names that come to mind? If you are a food -loving overseas Pakistani, in all
likelihood, you would exclaim "Shan Foods" followed by a hit of nostalgia and a sudden craving for a plate
of chicken biriyani, just like the one you enjoyed back at home.

Even though Pakistan is not known to produce many globally recognized brands, Shan Foods enjoys an
enviable international presence with shelf space in 75 countrie s across 5 continents. In a competitive global
market for South Asian spices, with prominent Indian competitors like MDH, Everest Food Products &
Eastern Condiments, and several other smaller regional contenders, Shan Foods has for the larger part,
dominated the branded spice mix category, both in terms of global reach and the diversity of its product
portfolio.
The Humble Origins
This iconic brand that has become a household name for P akistanis all around the world was
conceptualized over 40 years ago in the small backyard room of a young man named Sikandar Sultan when
he recognized an untapped consumer need that no business had addressed yet. If you are even slightly
familiar with South Asian cooking, you know how every dish, even the basic chicken curry, is a concoction
of spices, many of them hard to identify or remember. Preparing South Asian food is a culinary art and
requires a high degree of 'chefmanship'. Traditionally, it has be en a rigorous & time-consuming process
that involved procuring a long list of ingredients, including a variety of spices, followed by grinding whole
spices individually, and finally getting the proportions right - a slight deviation from the recipe could
render the dish unrecognizable.
However, the world was rapidly evolving, economically and socio -culturally; so was Pakistan. The
1970s saw a change in the traditional household structure with the joint family system giving way to
nuclear families and an increasing number of women opting for higher education as well as joining the
workforce. The busier lifestyles spurred a demand for products that provided convenience and reduced
the time & effort required to complete traditionally cumbersome tasks. During th e same period, an
exponentially growing Pakistani diaspora, especially across the Middle East, North America and UK was
reshaping the business landscape and opening up potential opportunities to fulfill the immigrant's need to
stay connected to their homeland.
Sikander Sultan, CEO Shan Foods, had the vision to identify these emerging trends just in time to make the first move.
In 1981, he partnered with his wife preveen sultan, a fellow culinary enthusiast, and converted a small servant
quarter into a home office. Together they began the painstaking process of perfecting different blends of
spices for various dishes, and drafting detailed recipes to go with them. Initially, the recipes mixes were
s h a r e d w i t h i n t h e e x t e n d e d f a m i l y , a n d t h e y w e r e a n i n s t a n t h i t . S o o n , orders started pouring
in from friends, acquaintances and eventually, from general consumer
Here was a product that didn't just simplify the cooking process and save time, it essentially helped blur the
lines between amateur and expert cooking. With a box of nihari spice mix, anybody could whip up magic in no
time.
With a winning product in hand Sikandar Sultan set on the course to revolution traditional South Asian
cooking and bring 'chefmanship 'to the table for people all around the world.
The Growing Market for Spice Mixes
Over the next few years, Sikandar & Perveen Sultan continued to scale the business by developing new blends,
introducing plain spices and other value -added products increasing penetration into existing markets
& expanding the business 'geographic coverage to reach out to newer markets.
By the mid-nineties, Shan Foods had become a well-established brand, and before long, started making
inroads into the ripe international markets where the Pakistani diaspora welcomed 'the authentic taste of
home 'with open arms & eager palates. In the 2000s. Shan Foods continued to widen and deepen its
international reach in Europe, the Asia Pacific region & in Middle Eastern countries.
In the past four decades, Shan Foods has garnered global recognition due to its products' consumer relevance,
a widespread distribution network, and sustained quality standards. With an extensive R&D setup, Shan
Foods has successfully launched over 88 different recipe mixes worldwide. Shan Foods also established
manufacturing units in five countries to support the rising international demand for authentic South Asian
recipes & spice mixes. Not surprisingly, while the South Asian diaspora acculturated to their host countries,
the local populations, especially in North America and Europe, developed a taste for spin 'desi 'food as
well. The pie was getting bigger, heavier & more diversified ; but so was the competition.
Changing Market Dynamics
Shan's initial success resulted from being the pioneers of the spice mix category in Pakistan.
Sikandar sultan noticed a wave of change fo rmin g in a big ‘blue ocean’, was the first to catch it
and ride it to the leaderboard. However, others soon followed suit. Once the idea took off, a
number of brands jum ped onto the bandwagon catering to a more diverse audience packing
regional flavors, at tim e offering cheaper o r more accessible alternatives.

International markets were also evolving faster than ever. The potential customer was not limited to people of
South Asian origin anymore; there was a burgeoning demand for ethnic South Asian cuisine among local
audiences too. While Shan Foods was quick to seize this massive growth opportunity, other spice brands were not
too far behind. The next few y e a r s a p r o l i f e r a t i o n o f S o u t h A s i a n s p i c e b r a n d s a c r o s s k e y
i n t e r n a t i o n a l markets, especially in North America, Europe and the Middle East. With easy access to a number of
brands each claiming to provide the 'best 'taste, quality, variety or value for money, consumers were spoilt for
choice.

in the past, Shan's marketing strategy had been anchored in the product concept with a focus on functional
advertising using a hard sell approach. Shan delivered a quality product that significantly reduced the time and effort
it took to prepare authentic South Asian food. The brand's unique taste profile had won hearts & minds within,
across and beyond borders. In fact, due to its widespread popularity, many Pakistanis had started using the brand
name 'Shan 'to refer to 'spice mixes', the generic product category.
However, Sikandar Sultan soon realized that in a world of consumer hyper choice, brand clutter and increasing
levels of perceived brand parity, a brand positioning strategy based solely on product differentiation was not
enough to sustain long-term competitive advantage.
The contemporary consumers belonged to Gen X, and increasingly Gen Y (popularly known as millennials'), who
were well-informed, socially aware, and evaluated brands on a new set of metrics: relevance, meaningfulness
& purpose.
Faced with these rapidly changing market dynamics and evolving consumer preferences, Sikandar Sultan had to
make a decision: should they stick to the status quo that had worked so well for Shan in the past, or was it time
to reevaluate and recalibrate their strategy as they stepped into the future?
The Revamp
Although Shan Foods was a conventional family-run business, Sikandar Sultan understood that to continue the
journey of growth globally, the company required an experienced professional management, an increased
focus on agility and a substantial investment into the front-end & back-end of the business. Hence, a new CEO
with a solid track record in the food & beverages industry was hired, and internationally experienced functional
heads were engaged and tasked with the job of modernizing systems & processes and deploying global MNCs
best practices.
 in the next few years Shan Foods broadened their product range and launched ready -tocook sauces, cooking
pastes, and other condiments. A special focus was laid on Shan Shoop Noodles and Shan Chutneys. To fulfill the
company's vision of being present on 'every table, every day across the world', Shan Foods was repositioned
from being simply a spice brand to a more diversified culinary brand that puts consumer needs and wants at
the center of all its value offerings.

An entirely new trajectory was formulated for the brand's communications; a renewed value proposition & purpose
was laid brick by brick. The objective was to build an emotional connection with consumers by stirring up feelings of
love, compassion and nostalgia and resonate with the audience on a deeply personal level. Consumer research showed
that the target market had a very intimate relationship with food; it connects them to family, friends, fond memories,
and for South Asian expats & immigrants, to their roots. Food is at the heart of every celebration, every
social engagement and every tradition. In short, for the target market, food is inextricably linked to love, joy and
togetherness.

This consumer insight laid grounds for the new brand positioning: 'Taste Happiness Khushiyan Chakh Lo). Over the next couple of
years, a number of integrated marketing communications campaigns were built around this idea:
2015: Two Brothers based in San Francisco yearning for the 'Taste of Home a deeply nostalgic tear-jerker, it was an
instant hit with both local and international audiences and the DVC went on to become one of the most viral videos
on social media that year

2016: 'Shan Stories '- Video testimonials from actual Shan consumers living abroad relating how Shan keeps them
connected to their roots by helping them prepare authentic traditional food
2017: 'Food with the Neighbor ‘(‘Khaana with Parosi’)- - A Chinese immigrant settled +in Pakistan looks to make friends
by surprising her neighbors with the perfect Biryani; based on the cultural insight of sharing food to build
neighborhood camaraderie
2018:' One Biryani One Family '- A boy challenges social norms & cooks biryani to impress a girl's family to ask for her
hand in marriage
2020:' Not Just a Cook '- A loving father surprises his daughter on her birthday by replicating a Korma (meat curry)
recipe just like her mother used to make, bringing back old memories and furthering the idea that cooking is not
limited to just the women of the household
The Result
As a result of the end-to-end overhaul, Shan Foods was able to double its business and triple its PAT (profit after taxes)
within 4 years. Better operational and buying efficiencies helped bring down COGS (cost of goods sold) leading to
higher gross margins. Significant upgrades in manufacturing and food safety practices led to key certifications
.and accreditations like FSSC, BRC, ISO 14000, ISO 45001 & PS 3733 further strengthening its brand perception in
international markets. As global consumer demand surged so did Shan's shelf presence within and across
international markets, making its way into the product listings of leading international chains like Wal-Mart
and TESCO. In the same period Shan's availability and visibility improved locally as distribution coverage
doubling in Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab.

Moreover, the marketing campaigns also hit home with audiences worldwide and went on to win local &
international accolades for effective advertising during the 2015 -2020 period including an APAC
Silver Effie, eight Effie Pakistan awards, and multiple Pakistan Advertisers Society awards. The campaigns
were among the most shared content on social media during their respective years of launch and
consumer research showed an unprecedented increase in Shan's brand equity and brand affinity.

The Way Forward

Shan Foods was set on the right course. The team's efforts had yielded results and propelled the brand
ahead in a busy competitive space. However, the road to success is long and strewn with challenges.
While the spice mixes portfolio was bringing in the revenues and remained the key driver of growth and
brand equity for Shan Foods, both locally and internationally, Sikandar Sultan knew this alone was not
enough to fulfill his long-term vision of establishing Shan as the leading global 'culinary 'brand. It was time
for the team to start planning for the next milestone in Shan's exciting journey of spreading the 'taste of
happiness 'around the world.
Questions to stimulate conversation on the case
1.What was Shan's communication objective in the marketing communi cation campaigns it launched over the
years?

Ans. Shan's communication objective in the marketing campaigns was to build an emotional connection with
consumers, focusing on feelings of love, compassion, and nostalgia. They aimed to resonate with the audience on a
deeply personal level, moving away from a purely functional approach to create a more meaningful brand experience.
2.Why did they switch from a hard-sell to a soft-sell approach?

Ans. The switch from a hard-sell to a soft-sell approach was driven by changing consumer preferences, particularly
among Gen X and Gen Y. Shan recognized the need to go beyond product differentiation and appeal to consumers on
the basis of relevance, meaningfulness, and purpose, leading to the development of a more emotional and consumer-
centric brand positioning.

3.What are the challenges that Shan Food's faces in transforming to a global culinary brand?

Ans. Shan Foods faces challenges in transforming into a global culinary brand, including the need to diversify its
product range successfully, navigate increased competition in the spice mix category, and address the complexities of
meeting the diverse preferences of a global audience. Additionally, they must continue to evolve in response to
changing market dynamics and consumer expectations.

4.What was the contributing factor in increasing Shan 's brand equity and brand affinity? Ans. The
contributing factors to increasing Shan's brand equity and brand affinity were the comprehensive brand overhaul,
the adoption of a new brand positioning strategy ("Taste Happiness"), and the implementation of emotionally
resonant marketing campaigns. The campaigns, focusing on real consumer stories and cultural connections,
effectively engaged audiences, leading to improved brand perception and higher affinity.