The condiments (and sauces) that never change
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tabasco sauce has been around since 1868, Lea and Perrins’ Worcestershire Sauce since 1837. So how have these brands managed to survive for so long?
David Reid explores why some brands outlive their founders by more than a century.
David speaks to Harold Osborn, CEO of McIlhenny Company which makes Tabasco.
Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at London Business School explains what happened when Coca Cola tried to 'tweak' their recipe.
Samir Nanji, spokesperson at KraftHeinz who now own Lea and Perrins, explains the history of the sauce - and how an early batch didn't go too well.
And Jake Burger, cocktail expert from Portabello Road Gin and The Ginstitute explains how Angostura Bitters outlasted prohibition to become a bar staple.
(Image: Tabasco sauce bottle. Credit: Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm just looking for something to put on my scrambled eggs. What have we got? |
| 0:11.8 | Oh this is great. Worcestershire sauce. I love this. Now expert blenders since 1837. 1837, that's 1885 years. Nice, but I like a bit of spice. Now, this is |
| 0:28.0 | Tabasco pepper sauce. Where does that date from? It says before 1868. That's 154 years. Now that's insane. We're always looking for the next big thing. But how of these |
| 0:42.5 | companies managed to keep their brands going for 100, 150, even 200 years? I think having family |
| 0:52.0 | involvement is incredibly important. And I think what it allows us to do is sort of have that longer view of things. |
| 0:59.0 | And also that if your name is on it, it gives us a pride. |
| 1:03.0 | The most important driver of brand equity is the product itself, |
| 1:08.0 | is the experience of buying and using products or services sold under the brand? |
| 1:15.0 | Once you've established it, it has enormous commercial value. On the 50s onwards, right, a pretty |
| 1:20.6 | clear run through to the modern Kotterra nations of circa 2000. The Angostura pretty much |
| 1:26.9 | had the world to itself. |
| 1:29.9 | You can barely imagine visiting any corner of the world |
| 1:32.3 | and walking into the bar and not seeing a bottle of Anger Store on the back by, |
| 1:35.6 | I can't think of another product which has got such market penetration globally. |
| 1:40.7 | I'm David Reed. |
| 1:42.3 | Today, on Business Daily, we twist the lid off condiments. The princes and princesses in our pantries. |
| 1:49.9 | Brand aristocrats who've not so much been a long time cooking, but have helped us cook for 100, even 200 years. |
| 1:57.8 | How have the likes of Tabasco sauce, Leon Perrin's, and if you fancy a tipple, |
| 2:02.4 | Angostura bitters, manage to stay the course, fight off pretenders and outlive their founders |
| 2:09.0 | by centuries? |
| 2:30.1 | They're still arguing today in Ireland over who really invented the pepper sauce produced on Louisiana's Avery Island in the US and known across the globe as Tabasco sauce. |
| 2:38.4 | The Irish take a vicarious pride in the accomplishments of the sons and daughters who left their shores. |
... |
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