Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2011 | Page 10

Anatomy
of a Start-Up

Grow Market Lead

By KEITH GERSON

Building a Brand
New Brand
Part 2

I

Differentiating from the start(up)
in a red-hot category

n this issue’s glimpse into a
franchise start-up, I’ll share the
challenges and the victories I’ve
encountered in attempting to
differentiate our emerging EarthFruits
Yogurt brand within its red-hot category
and the resultant commoditization occurring within the space. I’ll also make
the case for augmentation of critical
staff members through outsourcing for
non-recurring functions, in order to
get a better end result while preserving precious capital.
Evolution, not revolution

Starting with our product development,
we are the first to admit that we are not
rocket scientists. We aren’t creating any
new products or services here as frozen
yogurt has been in the marketplace for
decades. We are far from first in our
category. For that matter we aren’t even
second, third, or fourth! That certainly
didn’t keep Burger King from taking market share from McDonald’s back in the
day by narrowing their focus with “flame
broiling vs. frying” and “have it your way.”
And now it’s happening again as Five Guys
Burgers and Fries is evolving the category
with its “better burger” concept.

8

Okay, back to product development. We discovered that 90 percent
of our category is using the exact
same product from the exact same
manufacturers. So it appeared obvious
that we needed to narrow our focus
by having a manufacturer that could
produce the yogurt equivalent of the
“better burger.” Our plan was to have
a proprietary blend of exotic, superhealthful fruits imported from the
Amazon Rainforest versus the more
common shelf-stable synthetic flavors
and syrups out there. In this way we
could establish our role as the highest-quality provider, with the added
benefit of being “champions for the
preservation of the rainforest.” 
It’s not what we say it is, it’s
what they say it is

We worked with our internal team on
flavor and taste formulations and brought
in a couple of suppliers from our fruit
importer and our yogurt manufacturer to help us refine our recipes. We
thought we had a winner. But it didn’t
matter what we thought, what would
the public think? We contacted a local university that offered to conduct

a taste panel and focus groups to help
us ensure we were on point. In turn,
we would pay them an honorarium
of only $1,500 (talk about value)! Our
focus groups loved most of our flavors,
and sent us back to the drawing board
on a few others that were a little too
exotic for the American palate. Out of
this discipline came a few important
critical lessons:
1. People may have good intentions
when it comes to health, but not at the
expens Hو\