Creating the Kosher Brand: Orthodox Judaism as Business Strategy

In 1990, industry journals reported that Dannon had moved kosher certification of its yogurts from an individual rabbi to the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (UOJCA, generally known as the Orthodox Union), permitting it to place the well-known U in a circle trademark on its packages. Visibly displaying the UOJCA's endorsement would, the company believed, measurably improve its sales to consumers who wanted to purchase kosher yogurt, even though the OU symbol would be added to products that already were kosher. Dannon's bottom line quickly validated this decision; an internal company report concluded that the UOJCA's endorsement increased sales by $2 million annually. The impact of kosher certification on Dannon received broad attention in the food industry, securing laudatory coverage in staid trade journals—and likely conversation among their readers whether they could emulate Dannon's success through a similar strategy.²

By the end of the 1990s, a remarkable range of new products were certified by the UOJCA. Gatorade, Tootsie rolls, Oreo cookies, and Miller and Coors beer all decided to carry its U in a circle symbol on their products, having concluded the costs of securing UOJCA endorsement were minor compared to anticipated increases in sales revenue. Since then, consistently 25-30% of all new consumer food products introduced each year are kosher certified, whether by the UOJCA or one of the other Orthodox certification agencies. Kosher requirements are now fully integrated into the operations of the American food system.³

The dramatic expansion of kosher food options reflects the emergence of kosher as a brand. Much as well-known product brands function to generate revenue through greater appeal in the marketplace, over the last third of the twentieth century kosher trademarks gradually took on brand-like qualities to augment the sales of products on whose labels they appeared. Kosher was not the primary brand in these instances; obviously the large Gatorade name on the label attracted more purchasers than the small OU symbol. Nonetheless, kosher certification augmented the principle brand's appeal, both for observant Jews and, remarkably, as a signifier containing information desired by a far larger market of non-observant food consumers.

Used loosely in popular terminology, the term "brand" often functions as a synonym for image and reputation, without reference to marketplace consequences. While such usage can operate as an effective rhetorical device, it lacks analytic rigor and fails to define what constitutes a brand. Drawing on conceptualizations developed in the extensive literature on brands in economic and business history scholarship, I consider brands an economic category whose existence can be determined through quantifiable measures of marketplace impact and revenue. In this frame, if kosher is indeed a brand, there should be a way to measure the value of the kosher designation both to the products that the carry the appropriate information, and the institutions that place the kosher designations on foods that meet their standards. Moreover, my claim is that kosher as a brand encompasses the discrete trademarks of the varied certification organizations; collectively, these symbols communicate to consumers which products meet kosher standards.

The UOJCA was the principal organization creating a kosher brand, with its efforts embedded in a broad effort by Orthodox partisans to expand kosher options available to observant Jews. The OUJCA's activities, generally in concert with other certification agencies, made kosher designations financially valuable to food producers. The extra profits for the firms that decided to make their products comply with kosher requirements generated sufficient revenue to create a new and robust income stream for Orthodox certification organizations. The substantial monetary benefits that they accrued as a result are quantifiable measures of their successful branding efforts. These revenues, in turn, generated significant resources for Orthodox Judaism. Certification revenues paid the salaries of hundreds of clergy and laity engaged in kosher supervision activities, with significant surpluses funding Orthodox educational and promotional initiatives.

This article begins by framing the emergence of kosher as a brand within central concepts developed by business and economic history scholarship. It then analyzes the long history of pre-agency kosher...