The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

   PRODUCT INNOVATION       FRAMEWORK   

Hey ,

Today I want to share a process I learned on innovating with Food or Beverage Products. This is a great framework to use for your existing products or when launching new ones. How did I learn this lesson you may ask? From my own failure creating a product that was "too innovative."I launched TeaSquares as a "Tea Infused Energy Snack" back in 2016. What is a "Tea Infused Energy Snack" You may ask? Well, the product descriptor says it all, and nothing at all at the same time. Essentially, my goal was to make an energy bar made with tea powder for a natural caffeine boost.BUT I thought I needed to make my product AS differentiated as possible, so I made:

• Multi-serve pouches instead of individual serving.

• Bite-sized squares instead of a bar.

• "Tea" as our hero ingredient, when almost no one consumes "Tea" as a food.

• Flavors including "Citrus Green Tea Matcha" instead of Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, and Blueberry.

What happened is that we built around our product from competitors AND consumers. No one knew what the heck this thing was and why they should buy it. The education hurdle was so expensive that it put us out of business. That's when I learned the importance of adhering to category norms.Category norms are the attributes that consumers come to expect from every product in a given category. When you’re innovating in a new product category, start with the expected attributes, then choose one or two areas to differentiate. Companies that deviate too much from category norms risk confusing or alienating customers. 

Here are some of the attributes to consider:

• Packaging Format 

• Flavors 

• Inner Pack / Case

• Manufacturing Processes 

• Temperature State

• Macronutrients

Category norms can be important for companies because they help establish customer expectations and can influence purchasing decisions. However, sometimes breaking category norms can help you differentiate a product and create a new category. For example, the protein bar company Perfect Bar differentiated itself by introducing a new temperature state innovation – refrigerated protein bars. 

Here are the category attributes for Protein Bars:

• Packaging Format - Packaged as a single-serving bar

• Flavors - Most popular flavors are Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Blueberry

• Inner Pack / Case - Sold in a case of 8-12 single-serving bars

• Manufacturing Processes - 3 ways of manufacturing: Slab Method, Extrusion Method, and Molding Method

• Temperature State - Shelf Stable

• Macronutrients - High Protein

By emphasizing the use of whole-food ingredients that were kept fresh through refrigeration, Perfect Bar could carve out a niche in the market and create a loyal customer base. 

Before Perfect Bar, all protein bars were shelf-stable and did not require refrigeration, helping the company stand out in a crowded market. 

Perfect Bar innovated in Temperature State while keeping everything else aligned with category norms. 

If you also want to make a splash with your new product, breaking one or two of these norms is the way to go.

Here's how you can do it:

• Identify the existing category norms: Before breaking category norms, you need to understand what they are. Study your competitors and identify what they do and don't do.

• Look for gaps in the market: Identify gaps in the market and create a product that fills those gaps. For example, if most protein bars are shelf-stable, consider creating refrigerated bars as Perfect Bar did.

• Analyze competition: Find out what other companies in your category are doing. Look at their website, social media posts, ads, and packaging. Study their customer service interactions and read their blog posts and tweets. Then find out what they're not doing.

• Discover customer expectations: Find out what customers expect from your category by surveying them or observing them in person (preferably both). Consumers likely won't say they want a "refrigerated protein bar" but they may say they "are tired of stale and dry protein bars and looking for a fresher snack with healthier ingredients". A refrigerated bar meets that demand.

Once you understand this framework you’ll be one step closer to breaking the category norm and marking your presence in the market.  

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Sponsored    THEO CHOCOLATE +       BIGCOMMERCE    

Is your e-commerce website doing the heavy lifting you need it to? 

Theo launched its first ecommerce site using WooCommerce in 2017. Admittedly the site was built more for branding than it was for ecommerce, which meant things needed to change.

“Our team had built the website. It had beautiful photography, showed off the branding really well, but selling products online wasn't the top priority of the site,” said Lynne Rowan, director of marketing at Theo Chocolate. “We were going through a rebranding of our company and took account of our website. We came to the consensus that WooCommerce's front-end user experience was not built for shopping. We had limited control over the shopping experience and found it difficult to manage the site without development support.”Learn more about how switching to BigCommerce accelerated their growth.

   GRANTS FOR CPG       FOUNDERS   

The Enthuse Foundation’s Grant Program addresses the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face, such as access to childcare, lack of mentorship, and funding for healthcare and business tools.  

In collaboration with our corporate partners, the Enthuse Foundation offers nine grants worth $2,500 each: 

• Business Tools sponsored by Webster Bank

• Child Care sponsored by B.T.R. Nation

• Community Building sponsored by Inspiro Tequila

• Digital Marketing sponsored by HAMLIN

• Digital Marketing sponsored by SIA Scotch Whisky

• Healthcare sponsored by Daigle & Travers

• Insurance sponsored by The Alera Group

• Rainy Day sponsored by C/OLABWORKS

• Retirement sponsored by Alliant

Applications are open. The deadline for submission is Monday, April 17th and winners will be announced in June 2023.  LEARN MORE 

Sponsored    FLEXIBLE FUNDING       FOR CPG BRANDS    

If you're looking for flexible financing for your CPG Brand, read this. When it comes to CPG financing, I've seen it all:

• Founders frustrated by expensive invoice factoring

• Founders regret giving up too much equity too early on

• Founders being turned away by big banks

• Founders missing out on new revenue opportunities due to a lack of funds 

That's why I brought on

Aion

as a new partner for the Foodbevy community. Aion provides:

• Flexible financing for food startups.

• Unrestricted capital

• Competitive rates and quick turnaround

"In the early days of Purely Elizabeth, we needed to keep up with increasing demand. Aion provided flexible, non-dilutive funding that grew with our business and helped us scale." - Mark Freeburg, Chief Financial Officer, Purely Elizabeth.

Apply in minutes

 using the promo code FOODBEVY for a 10% discount on interest rate or 

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Sponsored    DRIVE SALES TO 1200+       RETAIL E-COM CARTS    

Hey, I discovered a cool new tool (

Pear

) that allows you to create a path to purchase to nearly every retailer e-com cart, and then measure the sales data--click-to-conversion--in real-time. I recently talked to Louis and got the scoop on how it can help you drive more sales.

Pear creates shoppable ads and store locators with personalized paths to purchase to 1200+ retail e-com carts based on where a shopper is located and what's in stock. They automatically manage your retail e-com inventory on a UPC-level so shoppers won’t hit dead links or out-of-stocks. More importantly, Pear then returns full-funnel retail eComm sales data in real-time. The data is also attributable so you can run performance marketing; for example:

1. Run your retail e-com like DTC — optimize ROAS for campaigns in real-time, build custom and lookalike audiences, run A/B tests, optimize campaigns for conversion, retarget abandoned carts, etc.

2. Let your Store Locator actually help you — Pear automatically manages your eComm inventory and returns actionable, attributable data.

3. Increase sales velocity using Pear — Run campaigns to specific retailers to increase velocity.

Louis was gracious enough to offer the Foodbevy community a free landing page link. All you need to do is give us your UPCs and they'll return a link that unlocks all of Pear's capabilities. Let me know if you're interested and I can send over an introduction.

Request an Introduction to Louis

STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

100. 3 Things Driving the CPG Industry

Welcome to episode 100 of the Startup to Scale Podcast! I can’t believe that we’re here… 99 interviews later. Today, I want to share my gratitude that you chose to join me on this journey of building a thriving Food and Beverage Ecosystem.

On today’s episode, I want to share my personal reflections on the state of the food and beverage industry.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

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