Emerging Food & Beverage Brands: Finding Your Niche

For many small businesses, especially new family-owned brands, finding your niche and growing your business takes quite a bit of trial and error. There is no one-size-fits-all business or marketing plan that works for everyone. For brands that have limited resources and are trying to find their bearings in the market, knowing when to pull back or push forward is a valuable skill. Recently on our podcast Beyond the Shelf, we spoke with the Founder and CEO of Six-Point Creative, Meghan Lynch. She shared some invaluable information about what common roadblocks exist for emerging food & beverage brands, and how to maneuver through them.

Growing your business by saying “No!”

As Meghan explained in our interview, owners of small brands often have a deep personal connection to their products – which is fantastic! But at some point that connection can act as a blinder, limiting your scope to opportunities that you feel are best rather than what is actually best for your business. From the get-go, you may have an idea of how your brand should be positioned in the market but in actuality, it may be more lucrative to focus elsewhere. For example, your first instinct may be to get your product on shelves in local grocery stores, and if your entire focus is on that you may be missing an opportunity to foster corporate partnerships or B2B selling. Entering the retail space would be a major accomplishment, but finding your footing elsewhere may be a better route to get there.

The common belief that all business is good business is true to an extent. For emerging food & beverage brands, however, stretching yourself too thin in hopes of growing your business can have major repercussions. Meghan goes on to explain that sometimes it’s best for emerging food & beverage brand owners to say “No” to opportunities. It’s vital for brand owners to focus on a few key goals rather than trying to hit every target.

Establishing your key goals

Every emerging food & beverage brand’s key targets are unique. For some, it may be getting into retail or creating a robust eCommerce site. For others, it may be partnering with organizations to help build value in your products. Either way, your initial goals can help set the foundation to help grow your business in the long term. Here at ChefsBest, we firmly believe that a ChefsBest Excellence Award is a great way to help build value for your food & beverage products. By qualifying for a ChefsBest Excellence Award, you unlock the ability to license our medallion to use on package and in advertising to share that your product has been identified by our ChefsBest Master Taster as surpassing quality standards. To learn more about our judging process and to learn how your product can qualify, contact us today.

For more information about Meghan’s tips for emerging food & beverage brands, listen to our full interview on Beyond Shelf or visit their website.

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