Are you thinking about starting your own food brand? Do you have a great idea for a snack or a meal that other people will enjoy that you’d love to see on the grocery store shelves? If so, there are several important factors to consider before you move ahead with your launch. Creating a food product can be exciting, but it can also come with a large number of unknowns.
Here are some things you’ll want to consider before getting too far into your project.
Article Breakdown
1. Who is your target market?
Many people make the mistake of starting a food brand because they have an item they want to share with the world. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but it’s a backward approach. Trying to sell an existing product to people is harder than creating a product to fill a specific need or want. There’s a chance that your food product has a good market, but you won’t know until you do market research.
You’ll want to identify your target market first before you settle on all the details, like your product’s ingredients, shape, and name. When you know your market, you can create a product that will appeal to them. So, rather than trying to find a market for your food item, let the market guide your final product.
For example, if your market consists of people who love to hike, you may find that your product will do best as a snack bar that contains plenty of nuts. If your market is full of busy moms who need a snack for their kids, your product may do better with limited sugar and only a few ingredients.
2. Who are your competitors?
Competition is everywhere, even in the food industry, and it can be fierce. Large brands that are now household names took decades to achieve their status, so you’ll need to offer something unique to succeed.
Who are your competitors? What do they sell? What kind of lore do they create around their products? Do they have a movement attached to their brand? Who is their market? All of these are important questions that will help you position yourself for success. Everyone has at least one competitor, but if you can do something differently that pleases your market, or simply find a good marketing angle, there will be room for you, too.
It’s not that hard to be different. Even if your product is nearly identical to an existing product, you can change the way people perceive it through your presentation and packaging. For example, experiments have shown that sometimes the shape of a product can influence sales more than anything else. For instance, some items that don’t sell well as a rectangular snack bar will sell quickly when reformed and sold as a round cookie.
Figure out what your competition is doing right and find a way to get an edge in the market. For example, it might be as simple as starting a movement or aligning your brand with important, shared core values, like healthy eating or sustainable food systems. There are people who are easily swayed into buying sustainably sourced/made food products, and something that simple could be the edge you need.
You can also come up with an influential marketing angle. When you target a market’s identity, you’ll have a good chance of succeeding if you get it right. For example, 7UP was just a lemon-lime soda spiked with lithium until it was marketed as the “un-cola.” That’s when it really took off because it was seen specifically as an alternative to Pepsi and Coke within the cola market.
3. How will you package your product?
Once you have a good product and you know your market, you’ll need to consider packaging at some point. Traditionally, wrappers are sealed with heat, but that doesn’t work well for all food products. Sometimes it’s better to use cold seal technology. This tech uses adhesives made with advanced polymers, like Septon, that work great in low temperatures and will adhere even to non-porous substrates.
Although it can be more expensive, the advantages of cold seal wrappers include:
- Faster packing speeds, which means less time spent on the line
- Shorter setup times, which means less spoilage
- There is less chance of damage to heat-sensitive products, like yoghurt bars and chocolate
These are key benefits if your food item is sensitive to melting.
Be willing to go the long mile
Before moving ahead, make sure you’re willing to spend the time and energy because there will be competition and challenges along the way. Launching a food product brand can be profitable, but it will be a long road and will require a lot of hard work.