Tessa studied history and boys at Oxford University, and started in advertising. She then got a ‘proper job’ in branding research, working for Cadbury, British Airways, Nestle, and re-branding the UK Army, Navy, Royal Air Force and handsome Marines.

She now loves and specializes in food and drink research, wrapping up in her duvet coat in the chilled aisles of major supermarkets, watching and talking to shoppers as they make their food choices. Her clients include established household name brands like innocent drinks, Rude Health, Yorkshire Provender, Firefly Tonics, MOMA! Foods, Daylesford, Leon Restaurants, and newer start-ups like G’Nosh Dips, Peters Yard Crispbreads, and Jimmys Iced Coffee. She helps food brands to adjust their customer offer, colour, sizing, branding, and pack health messages, so they can attract MAXIMUM attention and sales from shoppers in the super-competitive supermarket aisles.

She is the author of the best-selling Packed: The Food Entrepreneur’s Guide – How To Get Noticed and How To Get Bought, available on Amazon and Kindle.

In it she shares her 20 years’ food research experience in a tried and tested set of principles to get start-ups from idea, to a product on the shelf, and to THE next household name. And, once there, how to stay there!

On Today’s show Tessa will share:

-The story behind your product is why people buy.
They could buy any drink or any snack, but if they feel personally connected to the founder of the business that makes what they eat or drink, that emotion keeps them coming back to you.

- How to pick the perfect price point (and how raising your prices can make people buy more).
UK Supermarkets generally expect to make between 32% and 40% margin on the price of the product you supply into them. So work backwards from that to the price you need to offer them, which must take account of distribution costs to get the product to them, manufacturing costs, compliance with food regulations, packaging costs, and finally raw material costs. Whilst also leaving you some margin to live off!  If you are special or premium or hand-made or rare, price yourself accordingly. Cheapness signals poor quality. You can be stocked at a certain price, and if it’s too high, you can discount it slightly, but you can never work up if you cost too low, and most start-ups do!

- To avoid being ousted from the shelf, you need to be very active on and off it.
That means knowing the category of food you are in and understanding what customers want from it, and knowing how to present yourself to your store buyer as the expert on its dynamics, and where the category is headed in the future. It means connecting with your consumer through social media and in person to get them to build a habit and recommend you to others. It means constantly tweaking your offer so that it remains fresh and relevant to the customer.

- Fancy over-elaborate highly shiny packaging doesn’t send the right messages in a health food store.
Dull cardboardy uncolorful packs get overlooked in a supermarket aisle. You will need to move from one position to another as your business grows and you move out of specialty food stores and into mainstream supermarkets, where your messages on pack need to shout more and be super-clear to shoppers in a hurry with their minds elsewhere. Shine never goes amiss on packs at Christmas time – it signals luxury, especially in desserts. Dairy is white.  Getting the idea?

- Plus much more...