Skip to main content

3 Lessons Learnt in my Food & Drink #startup

I worked for many years in the global food & drink industry (Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mars, & Kraft/Mondelez) before launching my own startup brand. Many people have asked me since what's it like running a startup versus working "in corporate". I want to share with you just 3 lessons I have learnt that are reinforced for me every day.
Quality remains priority #1:
One of the things drilled into me from early in my career was the importance of product quality. Indeed, the first of Mars Inc.’s 5 principles is “quality” which I remember being defined as “the consumer is our boss, quality is our work and value for money is our goal.”
Product quality is an important strategic weapon for small and large food & drink manufacturers alike and no corners should be cut! It was also a key factor for us winning a place on Tesco Backit, a new-to-the-world specialist food and drink

crowdfunding platform which has been developed to support emerging brands raise funds to scale up (and of course help Tesco customers discover great new products from the best small food and drink businesses in the UK).
Direct Communication:
I have learnt that you don’t need 1 way focus group mirrors nor 100 page PowerPoint presentations to understand your customers. 
In a startup, you get the chance every day to chat with customers and even build a natural two-way relationship which in no small way enables you not just to fulfil customer’s needs and expectations but also to surprise & delight them.
Recognition:
External recognition is critical as you build awareness and availability. Awards gives retailers and consumers reassurance that the product is worth trying out.
That every one of our iced teas were recently shortlisted for a 2016 Quality Food Award can go a long way to encouraging listing & trial. I can’t thank the judges enough for acknowledging that Tg green tea is something special. 
YOU also get a chance to “road test” Tg green teas. Click on www.drinktg.com to get through to our “Tesco Backit” crowdfunding page. With a pledge of £25 or more, in addition to helping me immensely to scale up, you will rewarded with tasty Tg green teas – and other goodies – to enjoy! As Tesco says, "every little helps".
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kraft Heinz dropping the Unilever acquisition just an interlude?

(c) 2012 Convergence Alimentaire blog image I cut my FMCG marketing teeth  at Unilever and ended my full-time global food & drink industry career at Kraft/Mondelez. I now run a  healthier drinks startup  business ( drinktg.com ) alongside a global innovation consultancy where I work as an  "extrapreneur"  supporting companies wanting to remake their portfolios to better fit emerging consumer needs for healthier products......so I am perhaps in a unique position to give a point of view.  If you are Dutch or British, you  feel closer culturally to Unilever  and few people living in the UK will have forgotten Kraft's poor treatment of people & assets post  Cadbury's acquisition . However, the reality is that the  vision and values of both companies are not so dissimilar  and both are facing the same  fundamental shifts  in consumer behaviour & needs in relation to "big FMCG/CPG" brands in both developed a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is sugar the new tobacco? Yes!....unless we do more

Ian Quinn 's article in  The Grocer , " FDF head calls out NHS boss over sugar claims " [subscription may be required] covers the Food and Drink Federation's response to a comment  NHS  head  Simon Stevens ' made in a  BBC  interview over the weekend in which he suggested  the obesity crisis  was the " new smoking ". Soft Drink and Tobacco parallels As someone who’s worked in both the  soft drink and tobacco industries , I empathise with Simon Stevens linking obesity with smoking. After sitting through thousands of interviews with smokers up and down the country talking about obstacles to quitting tobacco etc. – and observing numerous food & drink consumer research before and since then – it’s clear that there are huge parallels between triggers of the emerging obesity crisis and smoking e.g. pitched initially as “ cool ” and a “ lifestyle/generational choice ” (especially  soft drinks ) but later becoming hard to shak...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sophia Nadur presenting at the 2017 Food Vision Asia conference

I am pleased to be presenting at the Food Vision Asia conference in Singapore 26th April 2017, on the topic of "East meets West meets East. Tapping plant wellness for new beverage segments" which will also showcase Tg green teas  - considered a leading beverage platform for translating ancient TCM wellness traditions into mass-market drinks. East meets West meets East. Tapping plant wellness for new beverage segments People instinctively know the value of consuming plant-based food and drink; they feel it’s good for their health and for the planet, its animals, climate and the environment.  In recent years, however, increased availability of highly processed products, largely marketed by Western companies, has broken the connection with indigenous plant-based diets for Asia’s millennial consumers.  At the same time, on the other side of the world the West is experiencing a fundamental consumer shift towards vegetarian, vegan and other plant-based formulations. S...
Post a Comment
Read more