JBA N+Y+C

There are different elements based on the type of concept, but above all, it’s a belief in the brand. Jeff Bezos of Amazon, for example, isn’t delivering product to your front door, but you feel like he is because there’s a connection. There’s a belief in the brand. So crafting a brand story is wrapped around believing in the brand. If you believe in the brand, and you’re accountable and responsible for the brand, it will be received by customers well.
And obviously, products need to be great. It’s a very competitive landscape, certainly in the food industry evolution.
Finally, be willing to evolve. There are a lot of historical brands who are still leaders because they’ve translated their brands to fit in the market today. They’ve evolved the brand in terms of the customer’s tastes and palates in products, even though the brand still remains the same.
What are some questions food entrepreneurs can ask themselves when working to create a solid brand strategy?
There are a lot of deep questions and it depends on the concept. When creating a strategy, you can start with a few questions such as:

1. Is there history we can pay homage to?
2. What is the quality of the product/concept?
3. How can the brand/copncept be simplified?
4. Can the brand/concept be scaled?
5. How versatile is the brand/concept?
6. How quickly can the brand adapt to market changes?
7. Is the product/concept something the marketplace wants?
8. What makes my product/concept different than everybody else?
9. How will the product/concept be conveyed in a physical space (if applicable)?
10. Can I deliver the same product/concept consistently no matter the location (if applicable)?

We use a multi-step process + Research + Strategy + Refine + Deliver.

RESEARCH
Understanding where you were, and where you are now helps us to identify the challenges and opportunities as we lay out the plan to get you where you want to go.

STRATEGY
We create a comprehensive game plan that delivers your unique ideas, voice and brand experience.

REFINE
We refine and then define the visual components that translate strategy into beautiful and measurable design.

DELIVER
We deliver the design solution that becomes a comprehensive and compelling brand experience.

It starts with three questions: Where were you? Where are you now? Where do you want to go? Pulling on those three threads is most important.
That said, one of the first things is creating a business plan to understand the numbers. If you understand the numbers, then the brand strategy and how you navigate organically into potential markets comes easier. It’s just so important for food entrepreneurs to take their creative hat off and put on the business hat to know what the numbers look like.

There is a big research component to determine the differentiating factor of the concept in the marketplace. A strategy and comprehensive game plan to deliver the unique idea, voice, and brand experience all must be created. And then it has to be refined so it actually delivers. All of these steps in the research phase help to identify the challenges and opportunities.

The ability to work with new and established companies and concepts as true partners. Business for us is personal and given the typical scopes of work we perform for clients is rather deep, we want to ensure there is a strong personal fit for both customer and client.

After a short finance career, I decided to buy an Italian Ice & Ice Cream Franchise and quickly scaled it to a 71-unit business. While working to grow the business, he attempted to find a firm to help with everything from design, branding, and finances, but nothing seemed to exist. Instead, he found firms strictly focused on one single area – design, branding, strategy or finance.

There was never a company combining these areas, something Ray refers to as the ‘head and heart’. The head being the finance side and the heart being the creative side. Such a gap in the market launched the idea for Ray to build a firm to marry these two sides. And he knew one thing “Most people have an idea of a concept, but they don’t understand the finance end and the commitment to time-frames to actually build the concept.”

Our experience is broad and deep which allows us to deliver a comprehensive work product, valued for combining design, content and technology. With a combination of hard work and good fortune, we've worked in partnership with some pretty spectacular and iconic brands. Our portfolio is a selection of featured work which conveys the passion and pride we have in our accomplishments across an array of industries. Different projects for different clients, each with a different approach.