Overcoming the “Only Blind Spot”: Koikeya Pride Potato’s 10th-Year Revolutionary Revamp with “Passion Consomme”
Key takeaways
- Pride Potato skips blanching to keep potato umami
- Weak point identified: continuous eating appeal
- Seasoning adjusted in 0.1% increments
- New flavour “Passion Consomme” leads the relaunch
- Pack redesigned around “100% domestic potatoes”
Why it matters
- For processors
- Skipping blanching is a raw-material decision — it makes the potato itself the flavour, and the sourcing spec non-negotiable.
- For traders
- Rising prices mean shoppers stretch a bag over days; that is why continuous eatability became a commercial metric.
60-second summary
Koikeya Pride Potato, launched in early 2017, created a premium chip category by skipping the blanching step to keep the umami of domestically grown potatoes. Approaching its tenth anniversary, marketers identified one remaining weakness: renshokusei, continuous eating appeal — consumers rated the chips highly on premium flavour and quality but only average on “never get tired” and “easy to eat”. The team adjusted the two-stage “addictive oil” seasoning in 0.1% increments and reworked the rock salt, seaweed and black pepper coatings to prevent flavour hollowness. Packaging was redesigned with a larger logo, emphasis on 100% domestic potatoes and bold flavour colours replacing white space. The centrepiece is “Passion Consomme”: consomme holds 12.6% of the chip market, but this version targets adults seeking indulgence rather than families, with rich aromatic-vegetable impact followed by a clean finish.
Launched in early 2017, Koikeya Pride Potato carved out a new premium category in the potato chip market by defying conventional wisdom—specifically, by skipping the blanching process to lock in the full umami of domestically grown potatoes. However, as the brand approached its 10th anniversary in 2026, marketers identified a single remaining weakness: “renshokusei” (continuous eating appeal). While consumers rated the chips highly for premium flavor and quality, scores for “never-get-tired” and “easy-to-eat” remained merely average. To address this, the team fine-tuned the “addictive oil” two-stage seasoning process in 0.1% increments and adjusted rock salt, seaweed, and black pepper coatings to prevent flavor hollowness while enhancing the craving for “just one more chip.” At the same time, the packaging was radically redesigned—enlarging the logo, emphasizing “100% domestic potatoes,” and replacing white spaces with bold flavor colors to boost shelf presence and communicate taste more directly.
The centerpiece of this major renewal is the new “Passion Consomme” flavor. Consomme ranks third in the chip market (12.6% share), but Pride Potato’s version deliberately targets adults seeking a rewarding indulgence rather than families or daily snackers. The development team engineered a sophisticated flavor curve: a bold, rich umami impact from aromatic vegetables at the first bite, followed by a clean, crisp finish that avoids heaviness. This contrast—strong attack versus sharp aftertaste—creates a deliberate “satisfying insufficiency” that keeps hands reaching for the next chip. This dual pursuit of richness and continuous eatability embodies Pride Potato’s decade-long philosophy of achieving the seemingly impossible. Moreover, the renewal reflects shifting consumer habits: with rising prices, more people now stretch a bag over several days, so enhancing “renshokusei” encourages finishing a bag in one sitting, protecting the brand’s “affordable daily reward” positioning while preserving its premium identity.
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Sources
- Koikeya product development team — cited in the article
Linked in this material
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