How two brothers turned their struggling family business into an international brand

Even as youngsters, Kuni and Tomo Hijikata knew that their family firm was worth fighting for. It was founded by the Hijikata family in Nagoya, Japan back in 1936 in 1936, the Hijikata family's cast iron foundry was renowned for its extreme accuracy. But by the early aughts its future at risk. As the heirs of the long-standing business, Kuni and Tomo knew it was up to them to keep their cast iron craft in the present.

At the time, both brothers worked in Toyota and Toyota Tsusho however, they saw a potential in designing cast iron cookware meant to endure generations. each brother quit their jobs full-time to go completely focused on the preservation of the family-owned company. Brothers trained on the floor of the foundry as artisans before launching the company in 2010. Vermicular was created. The first time their cast iron pot hit the market, demand racked up a whopping 15-month waitlist, driven largely by the enthusiastic spread of word.

A decade later 10 years later, the Vermicular team has set their goals for global expansion. now offering their products in the U.S., China, and even beyond. To best communicate the value of their cookware to foreign markets that aren't yet available, Vermicular has invested heavily in video to increase awareness. "Without the videos we'd have a much tougher expansion of our company," says Mark Hayashi the Vermicular's Director of the U.S. Office. We spoke to Kuni, Tomo, and Mark to get a better understanding of Vermicular's approach to going global with video. Check out their video above, and then read the entire interview below.

"We always think of our video assets as become part of the company's brand and our products. Visuals are always more effective over writing, and this is especially true in the realm of cooking."   Mark Hayashi, Vermicular's Head of the U.S. Office

 What was the process behind this product?

Tomo: "I thought that we could utilize our company's casting iron know-how to make enameled cast iron pots equipped with lids that are perfectly fitting. There was nothing precedent for that process in Japan. It was clear that we'd need to invent it ourselves.

In order to learn as much as we could, Kuni and I sat in the foundry. Kuni turned into a casting craftsman while I became a machine master. It took us 3 years and more than 10,000 iterations to create a prototype that met our goals."

 What was the procedure for creating your brand's image in Japan?

Mark: "Brand storytelling has always been at the basis of our communication and marketing strategies. The telling of stories about our distinctive heritage and our commitment to excellence resonated with our audience and made us feel more connected to them on a deeper and deeper level.

We started by crafting ideas for videos around our mission statement for our brand. Whether creating a brand story video or how-to-product videos We make sure that the contents represent the person we're. At the start, we weren't focusing too heavily on sales in the short term and instead focused on maximizing the customer's satisfaction from a longer-term view."

 What has been your biggest issue in creating Vermicular? Vermicular brand outside of Japan?

Mark: "Our biggest challenge was the difficulty in communicating. When we first launched the Vermicular brand in the year 2010, we've established a solid branding presence in Japan but none of that transferred over outside Japan. The only thing we had to do was start creating the Vermicular brand from scratch, which was challenging and required lengthy preliminary preparations."

 What was the first place you invested when looking to build the international recognition of your brand?

 Your branded content is obviously stunning. What is the process that brought you to this high standard?

Mark: "We collaborated with an advertising agency to create the video for our brand and spent a lot of time discussing the overall look and feel' lighting, wardrobe, and casting, and food style. We also spent quite some time bouncing between us on the creation of videos storyboards, which were the primary guideline throughout the process including the day of shooting.

There are so many individuals involved on the set, there's almost always unexpected setbacks resulting in delays at the onset. Making a well-constructed storyboard that includes a detailed shoot schedule helps establish clearly defined expectations, and guides everyone involved in the shoot to look in the same direction. Not only did our storyboards provide a detailed plan for our hectic shoot days and helped us avoid post-production woes. I think this step is especially important for smaller brands that have a small budget."

 Which are the best places to invest your money to produce in order to continue expanding?

Mark: "Our hypothesis was creating a product video along with a video series on how-to allow our customers to experience the maximum capabilities of our induction cooker. As stated in our brand statement, our mission doesn't stop when our customers make purchases of our cooking equipment.

We want to see our customers enjoy cooking with the Vermicular cookware in the longest time possible. There are clear benefits from these how-to-videos as they aid in the education of cookware owners, but also aid the shoppers have a better understanding of how to use the cookware."

 Video has helped in establishing an image for Vermicular worldwide?

Mark: "Definitely! There's a lot. Our video content to be the extension of our brand and our products. Although we may not have the most budget, but we do spend many hours trying to find the structure and narrative of videos that will best tell our story. Visuals always work better over words, and this is especially applicable to cooking."

 What is the reason why we use the HTML0 format to embed and host your videos?

Mark: "We prefer for various reasons, the primary is the customizable capabilities for video embedding. A clutter-free, ad-free user experience ensures seamless user experiences throughout the website and protects the "touch and feel" of our brand.

also helps us share documents between our teams in Japan and the U.S. and Japan, which makes it easier to obtain feedback even if we're located 5,000 miles away."

 What's the next step for Vermicular?

Kuni: "More innovative products are on the way and we'll continue to expand our product offerings in the U.S. and across various Asian nations."

Mark: "We are currently strategizing our video content strategy that ranges from branded content with various partnered producers and chefs, to explanation videos and how-to-videos that are our key assets in the years ahead."