Two brothers transformed their family's struggling business into a global name

Even as children, Kuni and Tomo Hijikata knew that their family business was worth fighting for. Founded by the Hijikata family in Nagoya, Japan back in 1936 The Hijikata family's foundry made of cast iron was famous for its extraordinary exactness. But by the early aughts, the foundry's future was uncertain. As the heirs of the long-standing firm, Kuni and Tomo knew that it was their responsibility to preserve their casting iron craft intact.

The two brothers had stable jobs at Toyota and Toyota Tsusho However, they saw an opportunity in the design of cast iron cookware that would endure generations. each brother quit their regular jobs and went full-time into saving the family company. The brothers trained on the floor of the foundry, as craftsmen before launching the company in 2010. Vermicular was created. When their first cast iron pot hit the market, the demand racked up a whopping 15-month backorder, fueled largely by the enthusiastic spread of word.

Ten years later 10 years later, more than a decade later, the Vermicular team is setting their targets for expansion across the globe, currently offering their goods in the U.S., China, as well as beyond. In order to best convey the benefits of their cookware to emerging markets around the world, Vermicular has invested heavily in video to spread the word. "Without our videos, we'd be having a harder expansion of our company," says Mark Hayashi, Vermicular's Head of the U.S. Office. We caught up with Kuni, Tomo, and Mark to learn more about Vermicular's strategy to expand globally with video. Check out their video above, as well as read their full interview below.

"We constantly consider our video assets to serve as an extension of our company's brand and our products. Video is always more efficient over the written word. And this is true especially for cooking."   Mark Hayashi, Vermicular's Head of the U.S. Office

 How did you come up with this product?

Tomo: "I thought that we could make use of our company's experience in casting iron to design enameled cast iron vessels 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 the process on our own.

To master everything that we could about the subject, Kuni and I sat at the bottom of the foundry. Kuni was a skilled casting crafter and I became a precision equipment expert. It took us three years and more than 10,000 iterations to develop a design that met our goals."

 How did you go about creating your brand's image to Japan?

Mark: "Brand storytelling has always been at the basis of our communications and marketing strategies. Telling stories of our unique heritage and our commitment to excellence resonated with our audience and allowed us to connect with them on a deeper scale.

The first step was to create video concepts around the mission of our brand. If we are creating a branding story video, or how to-create product videos ensure that our content reflects the person we're. At the start, we weren't focusing too heavily on sales in the short term, but instead prioritized maximizing the customer's satisfaction from a longer-term standpoint."

 What was your most difficult obstacle in building the Vermicular brand outside of Japan?

Mark: "Our biggest challenge was the difficulty in communicating. Since we launched Vermicular in 2010, we've had a lot of challenges. Vermicular brand in the year 2010, we've established a solid branding presence in Japan however, none of it was transferred to outside Japan. It was a matter of building the Vermicular brand completely from scratch which was challenging and required lengthy preliminary preparations."

 Where did you invest first in order to establish global recognition for your brand?

 The content you have created for your brand is clearly gorgeous. What is the process that brought you to this high standard?

Mark: "We worked with a branding agency for the brand video and we spent quite some time deciding on the look and feel' of lighting, casting and wardrobe, and food design. Also, we spent a lot of time going back and forth about creating video storyboards that became the mainstay during the entire process, including shooting days.

There are so many individuals involved during the shooting, there are almost always unexpected setbacks resulting in delays at the onset. A solid narrative that is accompanied by a precise shoot schedule helps establish clear expectations and guide everyone involved in the shoot to follow the identical direction. Not only did our storyboards become a precise map for shooting days that were hectic and helped us save us from post-production headaches. This step I believe is crucial for smaller companies with a limited budget."

 How are you spending the money you earn as you continue to expand?

Mark: "Our hypothesis was creating a product video along with a series of how-to videos to allow our customers to experience the maximum capabilities of our induction cookware. In our policy, we don't come to an end once customers have made an order for our cooking equipment.

Our goal is to make sure that our customers love cooking using Vermicular cookware for in the longest time is. There are clear benefits with these videos that not only help educate the cookware owners, but also aid the shoppers have a better understanding of how to use the cooker."

 Video has helped in establishing an image for Vermicular worldwide?

Mark: "Definitely! Many. We always consider our videos to be the extension of our brand and products. We may not have the biggest budget, but we spend long hours trying to determine the narrative and structure of videos that will most effectively tell the story of our brand. Visuals can be more powerful than just writing, and this is especially true in the realm of cooking."

 Why does the team use to host and embed your video?

Mark: "We prefer for many reasons, the primary being the customizable options 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, it allows us to share documents between our teams in the U.S. and Japan, so it's easy to get feedback even if we're 5,000 miles apart."

 What's next to be the next step for Vermicular?

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

Mark: "We are currently developing our strategy for video content that includes everything from brand-name content that includes various farmers and chefs to explaining videos, as well as instructional videos that are our key assets over the next few years."