Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

Functional foods. We’ve all heard the term. We know that in the past functional foods were considered to be foods that had a potentially positive effect on health beyond their basic nutritional value. For instance, oatmeal contains soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol. Or salmon is an excellent functional food because the omega-3 fatty acids can reportedly decrease the risk of heart disease.

But today, functional foods mean so much more to both consumers and brands.

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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

When I was a teenager, my dad would say, son “clean up your act.” Basically, he was telling me to get the crap out of my life that was dragging me down. And, today, for food brands, I would say the same thing…you need to “clean up your act.”

The bottom line is that we live in a new era of food. Consumers simply expect more from the food brands they buy. The bar is higher than it was 10-15 years ago. Even “clean label” has been taken to an entirely new level; real ingredients, nutrition, functional benefits, claims, certifications, sustainability, and on and on.

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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

Are you currently launching innovative, new products for your food or beverage brand? Do you have ideas in the pipeline for the next 6 months? The next year or two or three?

New product innovation is key to the success of every brand. If you’re simply relying on your current product offering for the future of your brand—then you don’t have a sustainable growth model.

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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

Many CPG food brands are continuing to see record sales growth. However, there are many questions that accompany this growth…How long will this growth continue? When will this spike start trending down? Should we increase capacity? How can we reach and retain the new households that have purchased our brand—some for the first time? Will we see sustained growth? If so, what will it be…2%, 5%, 10% or more?

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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, food and beverage companies are having to navigate unchartered waters when it comes to sourcing raw materials, workforce sustainability, retailer demand, consumer consumption, and overall brand management. Read more…

Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

Feelin’ tired and old? The kids aren’t making time for you. Nobody cares about you anymore. All that’s left to talk about are your “old” glory days?

You may have been “all that” back in the day, but now you’re a legacy brand that seems to have lost its luster with consumers.

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Scott Cooter Creative Director / Senior Copywriter

No, that’s not a typo – Incogmeato’s a clever new brand name for a new line of plant-based burgers, brats and Italian sausage poised to begin hitting backyard grills across America during the next few months, just in time for prime grilling season. As the name suggests, the goal for the products was that they be indistinguishable from their traditional meat-based counterparts.
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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

We are living in very unique times for food and beverage brands. In years past, brands could simply keep producing and selling the same old “go-to’s” year after year. Sometimes decade after decade. And maybe come up with a new twist, flavor, or product extension every few years.
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Scott Cooter Creative Director / Senior Copywriter

Snack-naming trends

Consumer attitudes toward snacking are changing, driven in a large part by the millennial audience. Where older generations viewed snacks as guilty pleasures, millennials’ insistence on socially aware, better-for-you food has created cross-over snacks requiring no discretion.
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Jamie Allebach Chief Executive & Creative Officer

I see soooo many food and beverage brands just pushing out the same old content on social media…nice food pic, talk about how great my brand is, more food pics, maybe a happy kid, throw in a packaging shot or two…predictable, boring, and most importantly …UNEFFECTIVE!
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