Usually we divide beverage development projects in to two parts: technical and marketing. For a successful project both parts are extremely important.
Usually entrepreneurs identify a gap in the market which leads them to a product idea. However, we notice that a lot of companies start working on technical side of their projects before making a serious market analysis. What are the main questions to answer before starting developing your drink company?
Marketing-Related Beverage Questions
– What’s your products USP (unique selling proposition)? Is it better, cheaper, healthier, convenient..?
– What’s your target market? What’s your target consumer? Is it a functional drink targeted to elderly consumer or is it a juice drink targeted to children?
– How are you planning approach them?
– What’s the size of your target market?
– What % of your market are you planning to win? How are you planning to do that?
– Do you have any direct competitors? You should make in depth analysis of their pricing, positioning, marketing strategies.
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There are more questions to ask, however, in case you will manage to answer these then (and only then) you can proceed further and start planning technical development of your product.
We notice that there are several types of beverage development projects: Innovation, Upgrade and Copycats.
Innovation – the hardest type of development. Usually clients are coming with great ideas where we face huge difficulties during drink development process. It requires a lot of time and effort to prepare these product for the production. Usually everything is being done for the first time. It’s very exciting to work with these type of projects.
Upgrade – this type of development can be done, by adding an additional new functional ingredient and changing the concept of a beverage, or leaving the concept and functionality, but changing the flavor.
Copycats – a lot of companies express an interest to copy an existing product. This type of development might be interesting because of successful examples that you are able to find on shelves. So for young entrepreneurs it might seems as an easy way to get a successful product, but not always it is true. Usually our advice is to have a USP, to be different and to differentiate from already existing products.
Questions About Beverage Manufacturing, Ingredient Sourcing and Packaging
So after answering all marketing question you will need to answer these questions:
– What kind of packaging you want for your product? Is it aluminum can, glas, tetra-pack or PET?
– What kind of recipe do you want to have? Are you planning to use preservatives or not?
– Is your product pasteurized or not? Carbonated or still?
– Are you planning to use natural flavors and colorant or artificial?
– What kind of sweetener are you planning to use?
– Do you have any partners for contract filling? Do you have experience in it?
– What is the quantity of products you are seeking to produce?
Where to Find Answers to Your Beverage Questions
There are way more questions to answer. I will not proceed further. We understand that for entrepreneurs and SME’s it might look very difficult. To be honest – it is. That is why we are here. We are here to help you and offer an all-in-one technical solution for your project. MyDrink Beverage team is able to help you in every single step.
More information:
Beverage Development services.
Beverage Contract Manufacturing and Production Management services.
