Viking Simmers a Strategy

By Melba Newsome / Greenwood

At least once a week, someone tells Viking Range marketing director Bill Andrews about his or her family's long, storied history with the company's products, claiming a mother or grandmother cooked on a Viking. Andrews smiles and nods, knowing that couldn't possibly be true. Viking turns 20 this year. "It just seems like we have been around forever because Viking is an icon," he says.

Going from zero to icon in 20 years was no accident. Viking founder and CEO Fred Carl set out to create a brand that would become synonymous with professional-class home cooking. He picked a look (industrial), a niche (upscale) and a mission (to be on the cutting edge of the food movement), and has not deviated. "I reminded our people that we were a culinary company, not a manufacturing company, and that was going to make Viking different," he says. "I knew this would build brand awareness and image faster than just advertising and sales promotions. It was all part of the plan."

That plan has paid off. In 2006 FORTUNE ranked Viking second in terms of brand strength and identification, behind iPod. As a privately held company, Viking is tight-lipped about hard numbers but claims double-digit growth for the past 15 years. Published reports put annual sales at more than $300 million, a figure the company does not dispute. It's a neat trick to create a global brand from Greenwood, Miss., where the company does all its manufacturing.

Now comes the hard part. Staying relevant and competitive in the appliance business is getting more difficult--just ask Maytag. Viking has attracted a slew of competition, from GE to Wolf, companies that have followed its path upmarket. The reason is obvious: Why struggle selling discount white goods when Viking has proved that you can sell a $20,000 range to a generation of gourmet-chef aspirants?

Influenced by Land Rover's off-road driving schools and Orvis' fly-fishing trips, Carl devised a strategy to keep the product line fresh by finding ways to make Viking an experience rather than just a product. Its brand is a lifestyle badge. Currently, there are 11 Viking Cooking Schools across the country that offer courses in baking, grilling, chopping and general entertaining. Courses average $100 for a three-hour class and are taught by staff and celebrity chefs. Three years ago, the company raised the heat, teaming up with the Culinary Institute of America to offer 4-to-10-day luxury culinary tours to destinations like Vietnam, Italy and Morocco for $2,200 to $7,000 per person.

Closer to home, Carl and Viking have transformed the former cotton capital turned derelict into a culinary destination. Cooking enthusiasts come to Greenwood to stay at the Alluvian, the company's boutique hotel, get pampered in the spa, learn cooking techniques and test-drive a range at the Viking Cooking School. Last year the Alluvian hosted 18,000 guests, 12,000 of whom visited the spa or took cooking classes, or both. "Viking consumers are passionate about their purchase and want opportunities to engage in the lifestyle," says Kathy Potts, who heads the Viking Life division.

To deepen the connection, Viking has added new product lines. Refrigerators came along in 1996, cookware, cutlery and wine cellars in 2001 and countertop appliances in 2003. The latest innovation is a combination steam and convection oven.

Yet Viking's big guns, its heavy-metal ranges and ovens, are under some pressure from such high-end rivals as Wolf, Thermador and France's La Cornue--should you absolutely need a professional-grade range. Viking also got dinged by low Consumer Reports ratings and persistent complaints about durability and uneven performance. Andrews says it's all relative. "Consumer Reports operates on a value-for-money ratio, and our products are never going to be in the lower-price range," he says. He points to Viking's one-year warranty on parts and labor and a five-year limited warranty on parts as proof that the company stands behind its products. That hasn't convinced Ben Collins, president of the Salins Group in Charlotte, N.C., which specializes in multimillion-dollar home renovations. After persistent problems with his Viking wall ovens, he is no longer a fan. "Viking has been called the Mercedes of kitchen appliances, and it's living on the brand name," says Collins.

It is unlikely that Carl will allow his flagship to deteriorate in quality, since he spent years sweating the development details. A fourth-generation builder, the inspiration for Viking occurred when Carl was constructing his own home in Greenwood in the early 1980s. His wife Margaret wanted a gas range like the Chambers brand she had grown up with: a hulking cast-iron and porcelain beast weighing more than 500 lbs. (225 kg). Chambers was long gone, supplanted by flimsier ranges that offered utility sans style. So Carl decided to build his own, inspired by another contractor whose high-quality cooking utensils changed the culinary world: Williams-Sonoma founder Chuck Williams.

Carl also turned Viking into a redevelopment project for his hometown. Since 1989, every Viking has been made in Greenwood at the cavernous 230,000-sq.-ft. (21,700 sq m) facility near downtown. Hundreds of Greenwoodians man the assembly line to press, spray, mold and piece together massive stacks of stainless steel into an endless variety of cooking appliances to fill orders from distributors in 80 countries. Viking makes 24 in.-to -60 in. (60 cm to 150 cm) gas ranges with 17 different configurations in 14 different finishes, including stainless steel, cobalt blue and mint julep. Just a stone's throw away is a plant that makes refrigerators, and another that makes ventilation equipment.

Although car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have built plants in the American South, appliance makers are increasingly moving production to Mexico and elsewhere. But Carl is banking on the premium his brand can command to provide some cover. "We want an American-made product, and I am 110% committed to keeping Viking manufacturing in Greenwood," he says. "This town is special to me. We grew up here; our family is here. Staying here is a way for us to have fun, make money and help the community along the way."

To keep the fun going, Viking plans to venture into even more arenas, like sponsoring its own PGA tour event this fall to enhance its lifestyle-brand image. As the Chambers stove on which Carl modeled Viking demonstrated, turning 20 is something to be celebrated, but it doesn't guarantee that you will be around forever.