Ready for a Tulip musubi? Or Tulip fried rice?

By Jaymes Song
Associated Press

Not since the overthrow of Hawai'i's last queen has a foreigner dared to wage a battle so fierce against an island institution.

Spam has been Hawai'i's undisputed king of canned luncheon meat since the gelatinous pink pork brick was first introduced to the Islands during World War II. Now a new Danish copycat called Tulip is trying to unseat Spam.

In Hawai'i, Spam is much more than a four-letter word for unwanted e-mail. The product made by Austin, Minn.-based Hormel Foods Corp. isn't just another canned meat, either. It's more of a staple food and part of the local culture — Hawai'i leads the nation in per-capita Spam consumption.

After two years of planning and development, Tulip was introduced in Hawai'i last August with an aggressive marketing campaign and an ambitious goal of gaining nearly 20 percent of Spam's enviable market share in two years.

Tulip's distributor and marketer, Advantage Webco Dodge Hawaii, said sales have been strong. Its marketing goal of selling 1.2 million cans may be met a year earlier than expected, the company said.

"Surprised? Oh yeah, because you just can't just challenge the big boy and expect to do that well in the first year," said Percy Higashi, Webco's vice president.

But Higashi acknowledges that putting a major dent in Spam will be a challenge.

"I don't think anyone has been successful against Hormel in Hawai'i," he said. Tulip, made for the Hawai'i market, isn't sold in any other states.

Hawaii residents consume nearly 7 million cans of Spam a year, an average of about six cans for every man, woman and child. McDonald's in Hawai'i serves Spam for breakfast. Spam musubi — a slice of Spam atop a slab of rice and wrapped in seaweed — is an Island favorite sold at nearly every convenience store. Spam fried rice is a local classic.

It's one of three necessities — the others are toilet paper and rice — that many people stock up on whenever there's a threat of a hurricane or dock strike.

"It's everywhere in Hawai'i," said Nick Meyer, senior brand manager for Spam.

Some consumers said they're willing to try Tulip, but that they'd have a hard time giving up Spam.

"I would buy Tulip, but we're so used to buying Spam," said Richard Shimabukuro, of Waipahu, who said Tulip tasted similar to Spam, but seemed to be less salty. "We've been eating it all our lives."

Meyer said Spam, which owns about 95 percent of the Hawai'i market, isn't fazed by its new rival.

"We feel competition is good," he said. "We realize they might take some of our share away, but our hope is that consumers will see that Spam is the tastiest product out there and if they try Tulip, they come back and say, 'Spam is what I've grown up eating and I'm going back to Spam.' "

But Spam, taking no chances, is stepping up its marketing. Tulip, manufactured by Tulip Food Co., is made partly with bacon. Hormel is introducing a Spam with bacon next month in Hawai'i before it is introduced in other markets, Meyer said.

Hormel also redesigned its can for Hawai'i consumers, including a picture of a musubi, in August 2003, the same month Tulip came out after two years of testing. But Meyer said the new bacon product and the new can were all planned for a long time and were not a response to Tulip.

At Times Supermarkets' 12 locations, purchasing director Ed Vargas said Tulip sales are better than he expected.

"I think Tulip has done a good job in trying to take market share, and they have taken some from Spam," he said.

At Foodland, which operates 29 stores statewide, "Tulip sales are very favorable," spokeswoman Cheryl Toda said. "Although we don't sell as many cans of Tulip as Spam, more and more customers are purchasing this product and enjoy having an alternative to Spam."

Besides Tulip, there are also about half a dozen other luncheon meats on the market including Treet, Celebrity and others.

Others, too, have come and gone, but Spam still reigns.

"Right now, my bigger competitors are Portuguese sausage, deli meats and bacon," Meyer said. "Quite frankly, it's not Tulip.

"In the end, the best product is going to win."