The natural products business in a pandemic
Industry: Food + Beverage
A Food Story: The Regenerative Rancher
Over the course of 2019, we’d been having great conversations internally and with several of our partners about the food supply in general and, more specifically, about the future of meat. Given our founding and our focus, we care not only about trends in proteins and meat alternatives but also about large-scale issues like sustainability,… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Innovative and Disruptive Brands of 2020 in Food and Beverage
Here at the end of a disrupted and disruptive year, we’re looking back with gratitude at some of the good things of the year. Specifically, in this post and following, we’ll be examining some of our favorite discoveries of the year in each of the sectors we serve, in our second annual series on innovative and disruptive food and… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Refrigerator Marketing: the True Art of Cold
As Brand Growth Partners to food + beverage, pet + animal, and health + wellness brands, we’ve worked with a lot of perishable products: milk, cookies, and sandwiches, to name a few, along with the colors and ingredients that go into them. However, refrigerator marketing was one thing we hadn’t tapped into. How We Entered… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
A Regenerative Supply Chain
At MarketPlace, we love to do our small part in making those connections. Have a healthy ingredient to promote? We can help. Looking to upgrade your supply chain with better connections to healthy ingredients or nutrient-dense foods? We can help there too. Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Understanding the CBD Consumer
Dairy Alternatives Must Deliver On Flavor, Function
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Is the Coronavirus Makin’ Bacon Cheaper?
The past decade has been a wild ride for the makers and partakers of bacon. A 2012 grain shortage prompted some forward-thinking citizens to “procure as much bacon as humanly possible and hide it in as many locations as [they] can.” In more recent years, the African swine flu ravaged Chinese hog farms, causing U.S.… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
5 Steps to Feeding 9 Billion
9,000,000,000. Nine billion. If you’re paying attention to news about food and the environment, you’re probably hearing that number, which represents the likely size of the global population by the middle of the century, up two billion from where we are now. The biggest concern about this growth is how the planet will hold up,… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Innovative and Disruptive Brands of 2019 in Food and Beverage
We’re looking back at some of our favorite discoveries of the year 2019 in a series of posts covering each of the sectors we serve. In this first post of the series, we’re looking at innovative and disruptive brands in food and beverage. As always, we avidly watched developments in food and beverage—not only as… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Three Things Food Startups Need to Know about the Food Industry
Although the food industry has historically been dominated by entrenched major brands, startups and venture capital have begun to move aggressively into food and beverage and agriculture, rightly perceiving the industry to be both exciting and profitable. High-profile food startups like KRAVE and Blue Bottle Coffee have found success bringing an entrepreneurial, tech-centric ethos to food and… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Stomaching the Unfamiliar: How Food Trends Take Shape
NPR’s food blog The Salt recently reported on a pop-up restaurant in Washington, D.C., serving a menu devoted to insects. Sponsored by an exterminator and called the “Pestaurant,” the eatery features grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms, and ants. As it happens, we talked last year about whether eating bugs could be one of several new food trends,… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
The Basics of Marketing GMOs
Food companies confront no more sensitive topic today than the debates over genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Consumers are deeply concerned, asking questions like “What are GMOs doing to our food supply,” “Are they dangerous,” and, whether they are or not, “Should they be labeled?.” Many of us have strong opinions about these questions, and even… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Food Styling for Substance
The secret to every successful food photo Like any art, mastering food photography requires time and hands-on doing. That hands-on part is multi-layered, skill built upon skill built upon skill. From restaurant dishes to protein ingredients to pet treats to gourmet ice, food styling is a complex art, and the skill underpinning any successful photograph… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Cupcakes and the Life Cycle of Trends
Every consumer trend has a life cycle, and food trends are no exception. Many observers have recently proclaimed that cupcakes’ time is up. Is that true? And what does the answer mean for manufacturers and retailers of similar products? A combination of influential bakeries and a high-profile cameo in 2000 on Sex and the City… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>