It’s difficult to remember what drinking beers and spirits was like before the craft drinks revolution. Suffice to say, genuinely tasty beverages that were founded on taste and creativity, rather than global branding and mass-production, were hard to come by back then. But the picture has since changed dramatically; flavour and brand character now abound in beers and spirits, and the big global brands are scratching their heads, or just buying up the craft brands to compete!

In the soft drinks market, however, the picture is very different, and is yet to experience its own craft revolution. Much like the lager market ten years ago, the soft drinks industry is still dominated by global corporate brands. The teetotallers, health-conscious and designated drivers among us, are forced to choose between a relatively small selection of global corporate soft drinks – drinks that are all fizz and no flavour!

However, a craft soft drink revolution is already on the horizon. And here’s why….

Young people are drinking less

When choosing their tipple at the bar, new generations are accustomed to being spoiled for choice. With a huge selection of craft alcohols to choose from, their palettes have not known anything other than quality refreshments.

However, despite having the choice that previous generations could only have dreamed of, not all young people are enthused about drinking booze.

Surprisingly, more than a quarter of Britain’s 16 to 24-year-olds are teetotal, compared with just over a fifth of the adult population, according to the UK Government’s ONS stats. As the Guardian highlighted, this is “a four-fold increase on the rest of the population, with just one in 10 seeing drinking as ‘cool’”.

Indeed, Dr James Nicholls, director of research and policy development at Alcohol Research UK, told the newspaper that drinking among young people has been declining for a decade, and that this is part of a worldwide trend.

So, if young people are moving away from alcohol itself, what might this mean for the future of craft soft drinks?

The move towards craft soft drinks

Big lager brands have long produced extremely similar drinks that are yellow, fizzy and lacking in pizzazz, all of which created the fertile ground for distinctive craft beers to flourish. Now, many consumers are beginning to notice that ‘old school’ soft drinks are similarly lacking in flavour and character.

While young people are drinking less alcohol – or cutting it out altogether – they still go out to socialise. Their friends enjoy a variety of craft beers and spirits while they’re left to nurse a half-pint of diet cola or a glass of orange juice.

This is a very real frustration that we hear when we speak to consumers everyday.

Why aren’t there more exciting soft drinks available? And, why have we had largely the same limited choices over the decades? they often wonder.

It’s unsurprising then, that millennials are desperate to find some more flavoursome soft drinks with a bit of personality.

With craft alcohol firmly entrenched in our drinking habits, we expect the same trends that kickstarted the craft alcohol revolution to fuel rapid growth in craft soft drinks.

But what do consumers look for in a craft soft drink? What does a craft soft drink need to deliver if it is to be part of the forthcoming revolution?

The 4 Crafty P’s

Passion: The craft movement has excited consumers’ taste buds with unique, interesting, flavoursome drinks, made with real passion. Consumers have a clear feeling that the people behind the product have put their ‘heart and soul’ into these bottles and cans to make something more distinctive, better tasting, healthier and more authentic.

Provenance: People love to know about the source of the ingredients, the story of the founders, and the people behind the product. These ‘brand stories’ (think Brewdog) create a very strong feeling of transparency and connectedness to the company, which increases their emotional commitment to craft brands.

Purpose: People like to see craft product companies as having a wider purpose and being conscious about the impact they’re having on their local community and the wider world, rather than caring solely about money.

Craft producers often strive to prove that they’re committed to local job creation, looking after their suppliers in less-developed companies, passing on a percentage of profits to charity, or helping to protect the environment.

Personality: Some people say millennials don’t like big corporate brands, but I’m not sure that’s true. It’s just that they prefer the way craft brands talk and look.

Consumers also love the distinctive personality and character that craft brands project, both through interesting packaging and through language/tone of voice. Whether it’s humour, a rebellious streak, or some other quirk, craft brands look different and communicate in a way that’s very un-corporate.

So, we can expect to see many craft soft drinks springing-up as new and current generations seek something that looks, sounds and tastes inherently different to what they’re used to.

Considering all the creativity, the entrepreneurship of small brewers and the explosion of exciting and flavourful products that were borne out of the craft alcohol revolution, we’ll have even more to celebrate as the world wakes up to the craft soft drinks revolution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melvin Jay is the founder of Gunna Drinks, an award-winning range of craft soft drinks with less sugar but more flavour. Gunna comes in four different flavours using natural ingredients inspired from recipes around the world. In the same way craft beers have disrupted their market, Gunna is aiming to shake up the soft drinks industry. Gunna is currently available in over 3,500 outlets including the Co-op and WHSmith, and has a sales growth of 300%.

Web: https://www.gunnadrinks.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gunnadrinks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gunnadrinks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GUNNADRINKS

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melvin-jay-96b617

Citations

More than a quarter of Britain’s 16- to 24-year-olds are teetotal, compared with just over a fifth of the adult population, according to UK Government stats: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholandsmoking/bulletins/opinionsandlifestylesurveyadultdrinkinghabitsingreatbritain/2005to2016

As the Guardian highlighted, this is “a four-fold increase on the rest of the population, with just one in 10 seeing drinking as ‘cool’”: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/23/time-please-is-drinking-becoming-as-socially-unacceptable-as-smoking

 

Brands that are all about health and fitness have a great opportunity to make a contribution and do good in the world.   Given that they can improve profits at the same time why aren’t they taking this path? What steps can brands take so that they both contribute and prosper?

Fitness is bigger business now than ever before. Gym membership, in the UK, has increased approximately 4% year on year from 2015 to 2018. The UK industry is worth a staggering £4.9bn (according to The 2018 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report). That is an increase of £0.6bn since 2015, and with that growth likely to increase in the coming years of data driven health and fitness, it’s the industry to be in.

Fitness apparel, for example, is no longer just about the big names; small boutique brands are appearing – each with their own unique take on what looks and feels good in the gym.. Beyond style, functionality and quality (which should be givens for every brand) – what is there to help a consumer choose one over the other?  The answer lies in choosing to prioritise social responsibility in your brand.

The fitness industry has traditionally had strong links with charity; for example, the Virgin Money London Marathon is the world’s largest one-day fundraising event. Over 75 per cent of the 40,000+ runners who participated in 2018 raised money for charity.

In UK every year there are approximately 807,000 running events. There are 100,000 members of British Cycling and over 140,000 active triathletes running, swimming and cycling. So, with such large numbers of keen people willing to push their limits in the name of doing good, why, are the fitness brands not living up to this generous giving mentality?

The answer is, of course, profit. They are there to make money. And that’s exactly where they are missing the point; doing good is also good for your bottom line.

Here are just a few profitable companies, in a variety of sectors, having a huge impact on world:

• TOMS – For every pair of TOMS shoes brought, they provide a pair of shoes to someone in need

• SMILE SQUARED – For every wooden toothbrush sold, Smile² provide a toothbrush to someone in need worldwide

• S’WELL – Providing sustainable water bottles and coolers that support UNICEFs water projects
• ASUNO – Providing premium quality fitness and yoga clothing that supports charitable actions with every purchase

• VITAE LONDON – Each watch purchased supplies a child with two sets of a school uniform, a bag and footwear to see them through the year in Africa
• SOAPBOX – A one-for-one model donating soap bars for good health and sanitation with every product purchased
• FIGS – Provide medical scrubs and other clothing, whilst donating thousands of scrubs to medical projects around the world

These companies demonstrate that doing good is good for business. And since so many fitness fans are also keen charity fundraisers it makes perfect economic sense to combine the two.

New and existing fitness brands can approach this in a variety of ways – whatever suits your business model, internal resources, and target market best:

1. Donate a percentage of your profits. Every penny helps when it comes to charity, and if you are rocking a healthy turnover then even 1% will make a huge impact.
2. Sponsor events. Becoming a corporate sponsor for an event is not only a huge help to the charity, it provides your company with a great advertising opportunity.
3. Empower your employees. Support and sponsor employee fundraising days, put on an event, get your employees family and friends involved. Target your employees that are most passionate at volunteering.
4. Buy one, give one. Adopt this into your business model. Do you have a product that could help others? Support a cause that compliments your product and donate one for one.
5. Partner with a charity. Support a charity directly with co-branding and awareness campaigns; keep your profits but co-advertise to bring more awareness for your charity partner. Make it easy for your customers to donate, promote the charity on your website, social media and in your newsletters.
6. Develop your story. Customers want to know the story, envelope themselves in the cause and believe that your company is seriously in it to do good, build your brand story to tell them.

All of these options not only help those in need but will also boost your brand’s social responsibility.

As the 2018 State Of The UK Fitness Industry Report confirms 1 in every 7 people attends a gym or fitness class.  That’s 9.9m people buying fitness clothing and huge potential for the fitness community to make money and change millions of lives across the world at the same time.

Consider the numbers; assume the average gym outfit costs £30, and 9.9m people purchase one outfit a year that means £297m spent on fitness apparel every year. This shows that; a) if brands donate 1% of total sale prices, it frees up £2.97m for projects every year, and b) if that small donation enables you to grab another 1% market share, it would make a massive difference to your bottom line.

If you are planning to build your health and fitness brand and develop a profitable business, looks at opportunities to contribute to charity. You’ll do good, your business will thrive and your increasing customer base will feel good about contributing too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Moreland is co-founder of Asuno, a Manchester-based fitness and yoga clothing brand passionate about making an impact on the world. Using the city as inspiration, the team design beautiful, premium quality, functional fitness clothing that saves lives. Every item in the range is linked to an individual charity and each purchase provides a specific action from alleviating hunger to providing access to water and helping children build an identity.

Web: www.asuno-uk.com

Instagram: @asuno.uk

Facebook: /asuno.uk

Indiegogo Community Crowdfunding: https://bit.ly/2FDtqNb

Citations:

2018 Virgin Money London Marathon: The Runners’ Stories – https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com

2018 STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT – http://www.leisuredb.com

2016 – More people are taking part in endurance sport than ever before – https://www.sports-insight.co.uk/trends-features/

Everyone has read the stories. The company that started in a garden shed and ended up being sold to Google for billions. So many aspiring entrepreneurs and founders share this dream. However, building your start-up with the long-term goal of a trade sale takes a lot of forward planning. So where do you start?

I sold my first company, Clear Ideas, £18.4m in 2007 and here are my top five tips to help you to build your start-up for a trade sale.

1. Start at the exit – and work backwards

You can envision a successful and lucrative exit right from the inception of your business, but do you have a clear idea of how you’ll pave the way to this end goal? The best way is to work backwards.

Start by identifying early who might be interested in buying a business like yours, then build your business with potential acquirers needs in mind. Here’re a few questions that you should be asking yourself:

• What are the gaps in their portfolio? What sort of business would fit well within it?
• What types of deal have they done before?
• What would they look for in an acquisition, and what might be a show stopper for them?
• How big would you need to be before they’d be interested in you?

With your goal in-mind, get on their radar in some capacity as soon as possible. Make yourself known to them so that they can track your progress from the start.

2. It’s a bad idea, until you prove it’s not

Of course, you think your idea is a unique game changer. When you’ve identified a solution to a long-standing problem or have simply spotted a glaring gap in the market, it seems nothing will stop you from taking over the world.

Unfortunately for budding entrepreneurs, this is seldom the reality.

Most founders are good at selling their idea, but executing it is a completely different matter. Investors hear about incredible ideas every day, almost to the point where they’re immune to them. The thing that captures their attention is when a founder has demonstrated that the market is ready for this idea.

How do you prove the market cares about your idea? You need to challenge yourself every day to pressure test your concept and maximise your points of difference versus potential rivals. Know your audience and why they would buy your product or service; importantly, learn everything you can about your competitors so you can identify how to improve on their weaknesses. Hint – even if you think you don’t have competitors, you do. Even the first motor car had a competitor in the horse drawn carriage.

Your early adopters and supporters are crucial, so be sure to thank and nurture them regularly. But don’t ignore your critics completely. The challenges they present will give you all the insights you’ll need to raise your game.

3. Team building 

If you have a great idea but not a great team, don’t rush to take your product or service to market. All start-ups depend on having a solid team, which will secure a strong foundation for you to launch your idea and run a successful business.

In the modern era of entrepreneurship, it’s unlikely that an individual will succeed in a new venture without an excellent team around them. Beyond the need for a wide portfolio of skills and discipline, there’s also the investor element

Smart investors invest in the team as much as the idea, as they know that a strong team will be able to overcome most challenges and work out how to make money for the business. In their eyes, the stronger the team, the more worthy the investment will be.

4. Fundraising – start on day one and… never stop

Like any building project, your venture will cost twice as much as you originally expected, and it will take twice as long as you planned.

Unless you have the money yourself, or just get lucky, it will take much more effort than you think to raise the funds you need. As such, you’ll need to have a crystal-clear funding strategy, and review this at each different stage of development.

At each stage, make sure you understand where the most likely sources of funding will be for your evolving business. Who might the early investors be? Who can you target now that you have a proof of concept and an expanded team with new expertise? And so on.

Ideally, you’ll have one person in your team dedicated to fundraising for at least 50% of their time.

So, when you’ve closed a round of funding, be sure to celebrate your victory – just don’t stop there. Start planning the next round immediately and never stop talking to potential investors.

Understand what they’ll need to see from you to commit money to your project and be sure to stay in-touch and let them track your progress. Investors like to be kept in the loop, rather than hear from you only when you need another funding injection following a long period of radio silence.

5. In-source value creation, outsource everything else

Everyone feels precious about the operations of their business to some extent, but it’s important to decipher what activities truly create value for you – of which you must retain control over – and which would ultimately be better to outsource.

Beyond your start-up’s R&D, programming, sales, marketing etc., everything else should be outsourced to existing suppliers. While it may feel like you’re forfeiting control to a certain extent, outsourcing does two key things that will help to define your success:

1. It ensures that you’re able to keep your overheads very low.
2. It ensures that you’ll spend your time only on activities that create value.

Even when you outsource certain responsibilities, you’ll still be able to keep tabs on how this aspect of your business is being run. If the company you’ve outsourced to isn’t cutting it, you can always find another.

Remember, the founders who are successful in their exit are normally the ones who planned it many years ahead. It can be a scary thing to visualise a scenario with so many unknowns, but that’s the difference between a business person and a true entrepreneur.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melvin Jay is the founder of Gunna Drinks, an award-winning range of craft soft drinks with less sugar but more flavour. Gunna comes in four different flavours using natural ingredients inspired from recipes around the world. In the same way craft beers have disrupted their market, Gunna is aiming to shake up the soft drinks industry. Gunna is currently available in over 3,500 outlets including the Co-op and WHSmith, and has a sales growth of 300%.

Web: https://www.gunnadrinks.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gunnadrinks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gunnadrinks/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GUNNADRINKS

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melvin-jay-96b617

Online games, Netflix, home cinema, and the seemingly endless supply of mobile apps have made it incredibly easy to connect with others and to be entertained at home. Hundreds of millions are being spent on research by giant corporations whose aim is to get more of your attention. Sadly, the losers are nightclubs and bars.

Between 2010 and 2015 a staggering fifty percent of the nightclubs in London closed. In contrast the number of people going to a concert or festival has nearly doubled. Attendance increased from 15.9m in 2012 to 30.9m by 2016. Instead of going to predictable, generic club nights and bars people seem to be heading to festivals which provide a very different experience.

MyCityVenue, has had over 1.2 million people attend events through its platform. They looked at the stats around where people were going. This showed a huge shift towards fun and interactive activities. Very interestingly, for example, Halloween has become the UK’s busiest night out, and there is significant increase in festival attendance. 

True to this pattern London’s club scene is beginning to see the rise of a new type of interactive night, taking over from nightclubs. These are called experiential parties. Parties where you may find yourself walking into a futuristic fantasy world, an enchanted forest or see people apparently riding across the ceiling on floating horses!

This type of experience is a standard night at Planet Angel, one of London’s biggest parties of this kind. These events tend to sell-out quick with Rumpus, a very similar event selling out in less than 11 minutes. Rumpus is so popular in fact, Santiago Genochio, co- founder of Rumpus is working on new ways to get tickets to more people over time as opposed to all in one batch.

Even amongst festivals, you can see the focus shifting away from providing a traditional concert environment to offering festival-goers more exciting experiences.

Boomtown, one of the UK’s most popular festivals has grown immensely over the past few years as they continue their annual, immersive storyline. New festivals such as Neverworld promise more than just music and arts, including three immersive areas where you can embrace your inner child.

What are clubs doing to fight back?

Enter the rise of the mini-indoor festival. In just one night, usually from 10pm – 6am, London event organisers have shifted their formula to really focus on being immersive, fun and interactive. By creating a rounded experience and focusing on bringing the joy into the night out, they are creating a community of like-minded people: so like-minded that they’ve found people to marry, found a donor for a much needed organ transplant or found the courage to come out in this environment.

Dave Randall, who found fame as a guitarist for Faithless, was so inspired by his experience of a party night event that he wrote a song about it

This party night trend is growing and following on from early pioneers many others have come to embrace it. Here are some examples:

Imaginarium was inspired by a love for ‘rave parties, festivals, kink and performance.’ It seeks to provide its clubbers with a sensory overload of music, cabaret and outrageous, over-the-top costumes. Dru Lynch and Rob Voodoo say they created Imaginarium as, ‘a place where people can express themselves in a non-judgmental environment, to explore themselves and connect with others.’

Wonderland Events runs what they call a ‘colourful and silly.”indoor festival” club night in Brixton.’ They’re part of a rising tide of nights that put clubbers before profits (they donate all profits to charity) and clubbers’ experiences before big name, commercial DJs.

‘Wonderland is about being yourself and being among friendly, wonderful people – if someone spills your drink they’ll hug you and buy you a new one. I think once people realise that clubs exist that are colourful, creative communities – and full of smiles – they never look back.’ says Co-Founder, Mark Quest.

Lefteris Angelidis of Visual Architects says that they too have seen a sharp rise in business as clubs are turning to them and other experts to create events which are way more than a club night.

In essence these events are tapping into our need to feel excited, connected and part of a tribe. Clubbing is part of this. Over the year clubbing forgot what it stood for but now it is being re-vitalised and reimagined. Continuous innovation will make sure that niche club nights will reinvent the club industry. The result? They’ll be providing an experience that everyone can enjoy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Sachiti is from Planet Angel, which has created some of the most unique and spectacular immersive events in London for the last 18 years. Only occurring four times a year, we completely transform entire venues with unbelievable decor, amazing lighting, colorful costumes and present an experience unlike most nights in London.

www.planetangel.co.uk

https://en-gb.facebook.com/planetangel/

https://twitter.com/planetangel?lang=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg_DnSQ4Y6Y

Many of us have ideas for creating new brand. In my case I dreamed about starting a health food or beverage brand. This is a growth market and one which has rapidly changing trends. Here are my tips for getting started from my experience of a successful launch.

Getting your idea into shape

Define your ‘what’ and more importantly identify your ‘why’. The ‘what’ is usually straightforward, but the ‘why’ is critical. It will form the basis of your brand story and the passion that drives you.

My “what” is simple – fresh juice. My “why” being healthy, fewer hours shopping, and less kitchen time combining ingredients to make this fresh juice for my family. That was the small scale problem dealt with.

Take it further. Ask where and when. How big can your idea get? Keep stretching it to find how far you can take it. For example, I wanted to think globally because as a parent I want to think about the future and the legacy we’re leaving our children and the planet.

Finally are there new markets you can push into in the future? For example, with INIU, we can tackle snacking. Don’t think big – think huge!

Once you have your what, why, where and when – ask yourself, “what would just one step before that huge idea look like? And one step before that?” etc. The answers will created your plan.

Scoping the market

To figure this out you need to test your idea or product on as many different and diverse people as possible, listen to the feedback and adapt if you need to.

Even with a small test-group, if people want to buy it, you could have a market. Then it’s time to widen the net, start testing larger focus groups.

Investing in market research is an investment in the fine-tuning of your product. Everything from public demand and target markets to key geographical locations can come from market research.

Always research your competition. You will need to have a crystal-clear picture of what’s happening in the market you hope to enter. That ecosystem could make or break your idea. Look for any competing products, their pricing, their market share; and look at past and present trends in food, drinks, health foods, and shopper behaviour. Do you fit into recently past trends? You don’t want to start a new business in a declining field or find that your ideas is already out there.

Moving into production

Having validated your idea you need to turn it into a product where will you produce it?

We worked with professional nutritionists to get our ingredient combinations so that they not only taste great but are also good for you. Engage experts to help you – even if you think you have the knowledge in-house, bringing external expertise into the process is a good idea; you don’t know what you don’t know!

Don’t be tempted to set up your own production facility. It’s best to find a reliable production facility that can scale in production as your demands do.

Expressing your brand

You are launching a new brand with its own identity. It’s important to start thinking about this early on, and to trademark it so that the results of your hard work are protected.

Know what makes you different to and better than everyone else. This differentiation will be vital when targeting your chosen consumers.

With limited resources you need an effective way to reach your target market. Work with influencers who love your product. Treating your customers well and they’ll become brand ambassadors, sharing your message over social media. Also, look at options for PR, social media, blogging, YouTube, paid advertising and exhibitions. Although your budget dictates a lot of what you can and can’t do – it’s best to consider every option and to understand its benefits, challenges and costs. Then you can make sensible, helpful decisions.

Standing out

Your packaging is a consumer’s first impression of your product. Go to a wide variety of shops; study your competitors again. How your design will fit within and stand out once on the shelf?

My advice is to use professional designers and keep working with them until you’re happy that it has your voice, style and individuality.

There are practicalities: how the packaging will handle when delivered by post; and how the product will interact with the packaging? You don’t want packaging that’s easily damaged. Anticipate customers wanting the product and the packing to be environmentally conscious, especially with healthy products.

Getting the business right

Get into your finances, particularly your cashflow and pricing. Understand all your costs and margins. You won’t expect profit immediately, but you need to plan your financials as if your survival depends on it, because it does.

If you take the retailer route you’ll need resources as it takes 1) time to negotiate these contracts and 2) the facilities to meet their volume demand. There may be other channels, including direct to consumers, which will get your product sold initially.

Your best asset

I truly believe that if you try and do everything by yourself you’ll run into trouble quickly. It will simply take longer to get things done and there is a danger that you’ll get to a stage where you find you’re second guessing every decision. Get yourself a team of highly skilled and motivated people and you will give yourself the best chance of being able to scale up your business when you need to and creating success for the long-term.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

João Gouveiais the founder of INIU – a range of functional fruit and vegetable juices that are 100% natural, with no added sugar, preservatives or other additives. Cryogenically frozen, INIU juices retain up to 99% of their nutrients and taste; as good as if you’d made them yourself. Store the juice in your freezer and when you’re ready simply add water and blend. A fresh, 100% natural juice with all the best bits of nature in under a minute.

Launched in Portugal in 2017, INIU was nominated for the Innovation Award at the Food Entrepreneur Show 2018 in London and is now launching in the UK. INIU’s mission is to develop products built on the foundations of health and convenience.

www.iniu.pt

facebook.com/iniuyourtruenature

instagram.com/iniu_yourtruenature