Smart start-up strategy in healthy food and beverage

If you have an idea for a new food or beverage with health benefits, or nutrition science that you want to commercialise, how do you successfully take it to market? Starting up a new business in healthy foods and beverages is risky; the cost of marketing is always higher than entrepreneurs believe it is going to be, and the rate of sales growth is always slower. This report sets out the five elements of successful start-up strategy over 21 pages, drawing on lessons from 28 key case studies of recent start-ups, both successful and unsuccessful. All the case studies are based on interviews with the companies themselves to give you a first-hand account of what works and what doesn't, enabling you to maximize your chances of success.

Brochure (pdf) Table of contents (pdf) Add to Shopping Cart

PDF – 162 pages, with product illustrations, charts and tables

November 2010

PDF priced at:
US$395.00, £255.00, €300.00, NZ$530.00, A$420.00, CAD$395.00, JPY33,000.00

About this report

Download brochure

If you have an idea for a new food or beverage with health benefits, or nutrition science that you want to commercialise, how do you successfully take it to market?

Even a successful serial food entrepreneur such as Steve Demos, who made his fortune by creating the American soy milk market, initially got it wrong with a new start-up, as this report shows. Demos explained that the business plan for his new product had not targeted the right consumer group – a mistake that he fortunately realized in time to remedy.

In the challenge and excitement of planning a new venture, it can be hard to be clear about fundamentals such as: which consumers will buy the product and at what price; how big a group they are; will this be a high-margin business or a high-volume business; and how will the product be distributed, retailed and marketed. Yet it's vital to find the best answers to these questions because the rate of failure in healthy start-ups is more than 95%.

Taking new healthy foods and beverages to market is risky; the cost of marketing is always higher than entrepreneurs believe it is going to be, and the rate of sales growth is always slower.

This report sets out the five elements of successful start-up strategy over 21 pages, drawing on lessons from 28 key case studies of recent start-ups, both successful and unsuccessful. All the case studies are based on interviews with the companies themselves to give you a first-hand account of what works and what doesn’t.

Taking together the strategy section and the insights from entrepreneurs this report enables you to maximize your chances of success by:

Making a realistic appraisal of your potential market.
Getting a realistic view of how long it will take you to go from start-up to success.
Getting a clear view about how best to identify and target the right consumer group for your product.
Learning about appropriate marketing guerilla tactics and best practices that you can use in your own start-up.
Using all this information to work out how much capital you will need to fulfill your ambition.

Our case studies cover diverse areas including:

Vegetable juice
Coconut water
Protein
Fibre
Probiotics
Oral health

Calorie-burning
Superfoods
Sports nutrition
Digestive health
Immunity
Snacking

This report is written in our trademark opinionated, data-rich style to provide executives in marketing and technical roles with real-world insights that can be applied in any setting.

Executive Summary

Part I: Strategy

1. Targeting the right consumers
1. 1.1 Technology consumers
2. 1.2 Lifestyle consumers
3. 1.3 Mass market consumers
4. 1.4 Early-adopters are the key to start-up success
2. Open new categories and segments – don’t be a me-too
3. Commercialising new “naturally healthy” science
1. 3.1 Get the strategy right from the start
2. 3.2 Avoid commodity comparisons by using “extreme differentiation”
3. 3.3 Super-premium price
4. Distribution & routes to market: smart thinking finds smarter ways to take health to market
1. 4.1 Alternative channels a particular opportunity for small businesses
2. 4.2 Identify the alternative retailers
5. Marketing communications
1. 5.1 Public relations
2. 5.2 Sampling
3. 5.3 Social media

Part II: Case studies

Beverage start ups
1. Case study 1: Beet It – science gives beetroot a superfood boost
2. Case study 2: Wild Bunch reinvents vegetable juice
3. Case study 3: Green Coco – German technology redefines coconut water market
4. Case study 4: GoodBelly – building probiotics among the early adopters
5. Case study 5: Mile High – lessons about branding and distribution
6. Case study 6: Wat-aah – creating an urban lifestyle brand with social media
7. Case study 7: Celsius – creating a new niche for calorie-burning beverages in the wake of Coke’s failure
8. Case study 8: Provita – cracking the code for protein drinks
9. Case study 9: Click – women’s lifestyles and convenience needs guide innovation
10. Case study 10: Evoid beats cola giants to get foot in school door
11. Case study 11: Froose infuses juice with whole grains
Snacking start ups
1. Case study 12: Popchips – fewer calories + less oil + social media = a recipe for growth
2. Case study 13: Sahale Snacks – portable, healthy gourmet treats
3. Case study 14: Red’s All Natural focuses on protein, fibre, fun and Facebook
4. Case study 15: Moma Foods – reinventing healthy breakfast with smart distribution
5. Case study 16: Better Bowls – giving a sweet treat a healthy makeover
6. Case study 17: Go Picnic – airline meals inspire lunch-in-a-box
Food service start ups
1. Case study 18: Red Mango tempting lifestyle consumers with immunity and ambience
2. Case study 19: Naked Pizza – reinventing pizza with probiotics and social media
Kids’ food start ups
1. Case study 20: Ella’s Kitchen – innovative products, packaging and marketing
2. Case study 21: Tum-E Yummies heralds evolution of kids’ beverage category
3. Case study 22: Bear – all natural snacks
Science start ups
1. Case study 23: Strategy rethink boosts BLIS oral health probiotic
2. Case study 24: Lo-Gi-Cane – low-GI sugar enters the sweetener war
3. Case study 25: Barleymax – demand for innovative fibre cereal outstrips supply
4. Case study 26: Probake50 – sarcopenia solution takes the biscuit
5. Case study 27: Brocco Sprouts – anti-cancer benefits drive sales of super-premium natural product
6. Case study 28: Booster Broccoli – first failure shows importance of differentiation

Charts & Tables

Chart 1: The nutritional product life cycle – how it works
Chart 2: Technology consumers, a key segment for health brands
Chart 3: Lifestyle consumers, a key segment for health brands
Chart 4: Mass market consumers
Chart 5: Green Coco juice nutrition facts
Chart 6: Comparison of per-litre retail prices of Goodbelly & DanActive with non-probiotic beverages
Chart 7: Antioxidant content of AOk compared
Chart 8: Ingredients and nutrition facts for Provita protein drink
Chart 9: Nutrition facts panels for Click
Chart 10: Evoid One nutritional information
Chart 11: Froose Playful Peach beverage nutrition facts
Chart 12: Froose Gummy Snacks nutrition facts
Chart 13: Popchips nutrition facts compared
Chart 14: Nutrition facts for cashew and pomegranate glazed nuts
Chart 15: Red’s All Natural Burritos ingredients & nutrition facts
Chart 16: Better Bowls ingredients & nutrition facts
Chart 17: Naked Pizza nutrition facts panel
Chart 18: Nature’s Plus Tooth Fairy nutrition and ingredients facts
Chart 19: Lo-Gi-Cane nutrition compared with white sugar
Chart 20: Probake50 ingredients and nutrition facts
Chart 21: Nutritional content of BroccoSprouts
Chart 21: Nutritional content of BroccoSprouts
Chart 22: Booster Broccoli nutrition facts
Chart 23: Sulforaphane content for Booster Broccoli and conventional broccoli compared
Chart 23: Sulforaphane content for Booster Broccoli and conventional broccoli compared
Table 1: Summary comparison of how to – and how not to – commercialise the science of Naturally healthy foods
Table 2: Popchips and Flat Earth – a comparison