In my role as a food brand mentor, I meet businesses of numerous sizes at different stages of their brand journey.  But there is often a common theme – they…

According to a recent report from Asian Network, approximately 87% of Indian restaurants in the UK are run and owned by Bangladeshis.

For decades curry houses have been serving dishes such as chicken tikka masala, korma and vindaloo. These recipes are a big part of British culture but many of these “Indian” restaurants are now struggling as British tastes are evolving and changing.

I’m often asked how to start a food brand. Over the course of my career, I’ve learnt that successful food and drink brands are rather special – focused, brilliantly disruptive…

I frequently meet clients and entrepreneurs who are looking to deliver an innovative solution through a new business venture, often in a sector of which they have no previous experience.

Innovation covers so many aspects of both ideology and delivery and my expertise is in helping clients develop the most appropriate strategy, ready for translation into fabulous  branding and communications ideas, optimised to engage target consumers and achieve success.

Back in 2002 when my design agency of the time re-branded as Bryt, ownership of a short, sharp and distinctive brand name with a matching domain was very much de rigueur.

In a brand workshop a few weeks ago I asked this question about their business and whilst the session had gone really well thus far with free flowing conversation and feedback, this one seemed to have everyone stumped.

Some prompting followed but no progress was made so we moved on and agreed to revisit the question at the end of the session.

There are 8 key reasons for undertaking research activity:

To understand the current market.
To identify the criteria for success for a new entrant.
To quantify and identify the size of the target audience.
To develop routes to market.
To maximize the price potential.
To validate or challenge product or brand ideas.
To optimize the concept.
To help shape the marketing communication strategy.

We live in a world that is dominated by major brands – Apple, Microsoft, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Sony, Nestle, Samsung, Hilton Hotels to name but a few.

Brands are a fascinating entity. There is nothing else in our society today which is completely intangible for which we are prepared to pay money and yet we are persuaded to do just that multiple times every day.