The 21st Century Food Entrepreneur’s Consumer Journey
In my last article I presented a series of sensory myths and said to “Trust your gut, but allow yourself to be wrong by collaborating with your consumer.” In this article, we’re going to leave myths behind and talk more broadly about how a consumer strategy fits into the food entrepreneur’s journey.
The goal of most food entrepreneurs is to create a product, market it at retail, and eventually sell the new product or brand for a profit. The entrepreneur herself also changes during the process, at first owning most or all decisions, to eventually creating an exit strategy where she becomes deprecated and the new management takes over.
During the evolution of the entrepreneur’s role, she also changes how she thinks about consumer decisions. In the beginning, she is an autocrat, speaking 100% for the consumer. Over time, she gives the consumer a voice through sampling, online markets, sensory testing and/or consumer testing. This collaborative process is used to refine the product, improve the proposition and, perhaps most importantly, provide legs for the product to eventually thrive without the entrepreneur at all.
Managing the consumer strategy and transition is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do. Thoughtful planning is required because this transition happens regardless of whether or not the entrepreneur directs it. If she chooses to continue down the autocrat path, the consumer will feel the tension of being told what to like.
Idea Stage
During the idea stage of a food startup, the founder herself represents the consumer. Quite often the product idea solves a need in her own life or one she has first hand knowledge of in her family or social circles. She has made the product at home using off the shelf ingredients and home processing equipment. At the end of the idea stage, she has a Protocept — a homemade product as a starting point.
Our entrepreneur documents her consumer strategy in a brief. The consumer brief outlines who her consumer target is, and why this is the right product for them. It covers off on demographics (age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.) and psychographics (beliefs, needs). Where do they shop? What other products do they buy? What problem does this product solve? On the product side, it describes in detail what product characteristics are most important to deliver against her vision. Most of the information to fill out this brief initially comes from the entrepreneurs own head, but also can be informed by online research (e.g. Mintel, trade magazines, newspapers), store visits, and discussions with experts.
By getting this down on paper, it allows her to capture this point in time and her thinking, but also critically understand how the decisions and constraints imposed by subsequent stages may impact the consumer.
Seed Stage
During the seed stage, she has some no-strings-attached investment (e.g. family, friends, etc.) and our entrepreneur’s time is dominated by commercial feasibility. How and where is she going to produce the product safely? How does she package it? How does it taste after 6 months on shelf? She needs a brand, graphics, and a social media presence. What is her route to market? She still represents the consumer, but preparation starts now for the transition.
The consumer brief helps center our entrepreneur amidst an overwhelming stage where new information and changes come rapidly. She comes back to it time and again to ensure that she’s staying true to what mattered to her when there were no constraints, but also to thoughtfully adapt the brief where necessary. She shares this document with vendors, who use it to develop the graphics, brand voice, and social media targets, and potential investors, who appreciate that she is thinking both strategically and with the consumer in mind.
Consumer feedback during the seed stage comes via both informal methods — sampling with friends — but also formal methods — sampling events at stores or public events with real live sensory and product questionnaires. She leveraged a relationship with a local YMCA to conduct a formal taste test during a summer fair, and is planning on using a local business showcase to recruit consumers for a focus group on package design. Most importantly, she is using this feedback to make her product more likely to succeed.
At the end of the seed stage the product is commercially made and packaged, and her consumer strategy is both documented and valid since consumers themselves have voiced their opinions. She is now selling her product at retail and is using her consumer brief and documented approach to prove the viability of her product to investors.
Funded Stage
Congratulations! Our entrepreneur has secured some serious institutional funding. With valuation and funding comes a higher level of due diligence and expectations. Her control — which was just recently unilateral and total, is now a shared responsibility among her investors & leadership. As she prepares for rapid growth and exit over the next 2–3 years, she now pushes her consumer strategy towards the end game, where the consumer reigns. During this end-stage development exercise, our entrepreneur has allocated 10% of her marketing budget to gather formal consumer feedback and optimize the product characteristics.
With some of the larger product decisions fixed — size, named flavor, ingredients, processing — she partners with a sensory scientist to learn how real consumers are experiencing the product in their own homes. She uses this information to make changes that improve product-concept fit, increasing the potential for success.
On the business side, a new CEO oversees a vigorous distribution push and corresponding revenue growth. They start planning for line extensions, new platforms and new leadership to come on board.
Exit Stage
Our entrepreneur takes some time to revisit the first draft of her consumer brief. During her journey she was able to stay true to her core idea, but much has changed. Her consumer target narrowed, the sensory characteristics and ingredients went in a different direction than her home-made product and she simplified the consumer benefits. She realizes that the consumer is speaking for themselves and that the validity of her own opinion on the product characteristics is no longer important to her.
She has successfully exited her business. She once again represents the consumer, this time only herself.
Request a copy of my food entrepreneurs consumer brief here.
I founded MNC in order to help organizations of all sizes and stages approach consumer product research and especially taste tests with the best scientific design matched with the needs of the modern, connected organization and consumer. I have numerous scientific publications, degrees from Cornell & the CIA, but am most proud of helping bring new thinking to marketing and R&D organizations. Prior to MNC, I lead the sensory team at both a $2B FMCG organization and a small boutique market research firm, and completed a postdoc at the U.S. Army Natick Labs.
