Let's begin

The product I have chosen for this project is Protein Bars. I have specifically chosen Protein Bars from "The Whole Truth Foods".

What is The Whole Truth Foods?

A company that is focused on creating consumer trust in packaged foods. The Whole Truth Foods is a fresh face in an already established market who have made a wedge in this segment/criteria by its angular marketing and being 100% honest. #nothingtohide

Why did I choose Protein Bars from The Whole Truth Foods?

1. My personal story
   
   a. I was introduced to protein bars by my fitness trainer as I found it very difficult to have regular meals with my busy schedule. However, I was introduced to bars with artificial flavors or I was pushed to eat boiled eggs every time I felt hungry.
   When I told them about The Whole Truth Foods, I was shocked to see that they didn't know about this amazing tasty healthy product.
   b. I love the mission of the brand.
   c. They are pushing a change towards 100% honesty among brands in the market and educating consumers about what goes into their food.
2. Immense growth opportunity
   
   a. The brand has seen 900% growth in the last 3 years only with the focus on one mode of sale.
   b. They have built a cult following with 80% online. They are yet to enter the offline market.
   c. They are yet to educate and influence the fitness industry.
   

Elevator Pitch

Hey, does your protein bar have artificial flavors or ingredients? Do you know what Nature's identical flavors mean?
Are you worried that your healthy diet could be ruined by artificial sweeteners added to your "healthy" snack? Do you think your favorite brand is lying to you?

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If you are still asking yourself these questions, worry not.
THE WHOLE TRUTH FOODS has got you covered!

TWTF is obsessed with being 100% honest with their customers. Their CEO, Shashank, says that, "Our purpose is simple. We make food so clean, that we can proudly declare every single ingredient that goes into it, upfront. And we can speak the whole truth because we have #nothingtohide."

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Understand your Product and Core Value Proposition

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India, with its ever-growing fitness culture, has witnessed a great change in the thinking mentality of people and also this has changed the focus on macronutrients consumed by people. Anybody who starts working out or is following a diet will have his/her primary focus on how much protein am I consuming on an everyday basis. As our days get busier, it gets more and more difficult for people to get the right amount of nutrients easily, which has paved the way for PROTEIN BARS in the market.
These protein bars are created as a power-packed nutritious snack that has high protein content compared to other snacking options in the market.
Protein bars have been present in the market for a long time but this industry has been dominated by the brands that have been supplementing the fitness industry. This primarily generates a problem for the consumers - they are not aware of what goes inside the bar.
To list out a few problems faced by consumers in general:

Though the consumers are aware of the nutritional value of a product, they are unaware of the ingredients of the product.

If they want to choose the right products by paying attention to the ingredients, they would have to perform the straining ordeal of going through the ingredients list on the back of products. These are conveniently mentioned in small letters.

Consumers need to comb through alternative fancy words used for some ingredients. Ex: Maltodextrin instead of Sugar.

If somebody does not know these things, then he/she would depend on their circle's fitness influencer or their gym trainer's recommendations. Recommendations from fitness industry kind of revolve around legacy fitness brands. could be based on knowledge or what the market pushes.

These problems led to the main offerings of The Whole Truth Foods

Nutritious food products with:

a. Ingredients used are mentioned upfront.

b. Nutritional facts mentioned with utmost clarity.

c. No hidden * marks.

The Value prop would look something like this:

For a busy, urban, fitness-focused individual, who wants nutrition from clean food sources, The Whole Truth Foods is a clean food company, that provides various products for nutrition from clean sources. ​

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Understanding the Users & ICP

For the sample size: Did 5 conversations with people from different parts of the country and having different fitness/dietary goals. These are generally people who work a 9-5 job or are running their businesses.
We can summarise the main points mentioned by them here:

1. Introduced to TWTF because of Shashank's blogs or a great fan of their marketing
2. Users are unaware that TWTF bars are more calorie-dense as compared to other brands. They are reluctant to stick with TWTF when the know about calorie intake.
3. For a person who is trying to cut down on body fat or be on a calorie deficit diet, they feel kind of cheated that the brand only focuses on ingredients and not really on presenting the macros nutrients in the front. As protein bars are not consumed regularly, they don't mind consuming something of way lesser calorie but maybe has artificial sweetner.
4. People on the go do not find these to be present at local stores. Have to plan the purchases of TWTF bars or products.
5. A new person getting on diet or workout routine is guided by a fitness influencer in their circle or by a trainer from gyms --> These individuals are not really aware of the brand or its benefits.

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Apart from the above-mentioned consumers, I also had the chance to speak with a gym fraternity and Reebok-certified trainers & nutritionists.

1. They do not take any packaged snack supplements in between their meals because they don't want artificial substances.
2. They make their own protein bars or energy bars depending on their intake possibility.
3. They are open to have TWTF bars or even include them in their diet because they are clearly aware of the ingredients and they love the taste.

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B2C Table

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We have multiple types of consumers but we can group them in 2 sections and prioritise them:

ICP 1: Fitness enthusiast - greatly influenced by ads, marketing, and even the stories shown. This person has a 9-5 job and tries to maintain his/her fitness with minimum activities and diet. Most of their expense is focused on things related to family or house. Sometimes they make expenses in buying a gym membership or few supplements like protein powder or so.

ICP 2: Fitness experts - greatly influenced by the facts mentioned on the product. This person a fixed schedule to manage his/her fitness goals and work goals. They have fixed expenses for their house and investments along with the expenses focused on their fitness. Supplements, gym memberships or even body care products.

Understand Market

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Let's expand our understanding to some numbers:

For ease of our calculation, we assume that these two ICPs are concentrated in the top 10 metropolitan cities according to the 2011 census of India.

1. TAM = 52,831,162 people
   This is the total population of these cities.
   
2. SAM = 35,046,898 people
   We have considered people under the age bracket of 20-50 and this bracket would ideally consider both ICP 1 and ICP 2.
   Why?
   People of the age of 20 or above up until approximately 50 years old, lead a fast-paced life where they are busy with college, office, family, or kids. They will require supplements and snacks from time to time to accompany them and keep them full in their fast-paced life.
   Using the census of India, 2011, I have calculated all populations under this age bracket for both male & female genders. We have considered people situated in urban areas of each city.
   
3. SOM = 1,752,343 people -->
   
   The CEO says in one of the interviews that, the industry of protein bars ideally targets people who make at least 12 LPA as this gives them the spending potential and afford a product that costs anywhere between INR 80-100/- ."
   Since all the census data is from the year 2011, I have taken the liberty to adjust the earning potential to 9LPA minimum. According to the reports generated by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and McKinsey, back in 2011, about 1 to 5% of people earn above 9 LPA. For our calculation purposes, we shall consider the upper limit of 5%.
   
   You would be able to check the calculation per city in the table below.

P.S: As per various reports, the Indian urban population has seen a year-on-year growth of approximately 1.4%, and the earning potential of households in metro cities has seen a year-on-year growth of 8-12%.
This would significantly increase our SOM and SAM. ​

Current Acquisition loop:

These methods clearly show that most of TWTF's consumers are either fans of Fitshit or have been influenced by content marketing.
TWTF has a great content loop and hook to get consumers hooked on what they offer.

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Designing Acquisition Channel

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Detailing your Acquisition Channel

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Organic Channel

Organic searches across google, quick e-commerce apps and e-commerce ads are done on 17/08/24:

For words protein bar:

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For words like healthy Protein bar:

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From these two simple searches that associate most the protein bars or healthy options for protein bars, it is quite clear that TWTF has been spending a lot of money to show sponsored ads on Google searches and e-commerce searches.

SEO optimization is required for words like Protein bars, healthy protein bars, and healthy snacking. This will help consumers identify where exactly TWTF stands and differentiate themselves.
They should also add the words healthy protein bar or whole foods protein bar on their description so that it's easy to for consumers to understand.

This will be the first experiment I would do, to improve the acquisition of new consumers.

Things to do to improve organic results:

1. Improve the description of product on website:
   Possible description: Shop healthy protein bars from The Whole Truth foods. These protein bars are made using whole foods.
2. Change the name of the section:
   Possible change: Best honest protein bars in India or Best healthy Protein bars in India.
3. Get sponsored ads on Quick Commerce till TWTF's bars are listed on top.
4. Add some sort of offers on the description similar to done by Ritebite Maxprotein.

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Content Loop

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TWTF's team plays with their content on various sources and we can categorize their content loops as shown below:

These guys play a great game on the content side of their business as they utilize every touchpoint with their consumers via Social media or mass media.
As part of my experimentation, I would focus on doubling down on the Instagram content loop.
Why? --> This is a thing that never dies down. It always has one way or the other keeping the audience interacted.
This doesn't mean that other sources have a seasonal trend but they have a popularity trend that can move from time to time. For example: There was a peak when everybody was listening to podcasts, however, this had to be modified to video formats of podcasts which seemed to have become popular among its consumers. This makes a move from streaming audio sources to channels like YouTube. But Instagram is a medium where one can create content of different lengths, sizes, and focus. The consumption of content there has been increasing - on average a user consumes 33 minutes worth of content on Instagram.

Hook: "Health & wellness company that is focused on rebuilding the world's trust in its foods." --> This is the description of their Instagram page.
This description can be a great asset as it can be focused on not just educating people about what goes on in their food but also tell about the health problems or benefits that could come from the food they consume. This can also be used to talk about various healthy lifestyle choices and the kind of food that can supplement these choices.
This falls in line with the ultimate goal of the company - To rebuild the world's trust in its foods.

Generator: content

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Distributor & Channels:
At this stage, the main channels to which these contents are distributed are the timeline and explore tab of Instagram.
Once discovered, they are further shared by various users via social media messaging apps or DMs on Instagram.
The content hosted on Instagram can also act as a distribution channel for other sources.
Example: A reel about the new podcasts with the IndianPharmer can be communicated and linked on Instagram so that people see a small glimpse and then move on to listen to the podcast.
We can also focus on optimizing the SEO so that these contents are discovered on Google searches with specific words or sentences.

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Paid Ads

This is a topic that I will not be touching upon because, from the screenshots attached on the first section, we can see that they are heavily invested in paid ads on various platforms. 80% of their revenue is generated from online sales so their paid ads are clearly working.

Besides, I am more interested in looking at things that are not yet started and their focuses.

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Product Integration

TWTF being a fast-growing company that has had a great PMF, we should ideally focus on collaborating with fast-growing organizations which are related to health, fitness, or sports.
When we talk about these categories, we should ideally focus on fastest growing fitness center network in India - CULTFIT

Why Cultfit?

Cultfit is the fastest-growing chain of gym & fitness centers that set themselves apart from the traditional centers with the help of their cult fit app.
At this moment, Cultfit is focused on penetrating the metro cities market and then expanding to tier 2 cities in India. Within the top 10 metro cities (same as considered earlier) of India, cult operates approximately 327 centers.
Every single user who is going to these centers has been kept engaged via their cultfit app.

Discovery of TWTF products:

This will involve 2 types of discovery points:
a. Online discovery

• Here the users can find the products under the category of health and wellness as shown below.
• Users can have continuous engagement and reminders of TWTF products once they finish work or at the times of having regular meals.
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b. Offline discovery
This would mean the presence of small fridges at cult centers where quick consumption products like protein bars can be placed and displayed.
We can also have small advertisements or events with Cult that can be sponsored by TWTF which will improve the discovery points for the consumers.

This integration has 2 aspects to it:

1. It becomes easy for users to buy their fitness supplements from one location and this will be a constant reminder to them as they have to open the app every time they check in at a gym.
2. You will be targeting ICP2 very clearly as awareness of such products is a primary blocking point for them.

Added integration
Instagram Store:

This will be an easy and quick integration as the user will be able to buy a product directly from the Instagram posts as and when a product will be launched.
They have 266k followers on Instagram, with the Instagram store will help every new consumer to buy the product quickly and try it.

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Discovery points on Instagram:

1. Any point kind of post created on Instagram can become a discovery point for the TWTF store and its products.
2. There will be more people coming on to the store once it also gets distributed by followers on social media messaging apps. This becomes a point of discovery for new consumers.
   

Offline Integrations & Partnerships

ICP 2, which is being introduced to this product slowly are fitness experts who plan their weekly meals and will not be skipping meals because of any reason, so let's target ICP1.
These are mostly officegoers and people who have a 9-5 job and spend a lot of time at their desks in offices.

BB instant vending machines:


These are present in every tech park or co-working space and become the easy access point for snacks. Positioning of TWTF protein bars here has two aspects:

1. The brand continues to push the community to eat clean.
2. Acquisition of new consumers.

Local Kirana Stores:

Every consumer who is on the go and enters a local store to buy a protein bar is always greeted with MaxProtein or Yogabar. The reach of TWTF bars via local store presence is null. We are missing a huge chunk of people from this point.
We should target Kirana stores or medical stores that are close to fitness centers or sport centers or even turfs so that we have first hand exposure to our ideal customers.

Referral Program/Partner program:

Though the brand has a refer and earn page on its website, it's something that does not work or shows no information.
Their entire referral program can be considered null.

However, up until June 2023, TWTF had referral programs on their website and it was scrapped recently, which is extremely surprising.
So let's go ahead and design a new simple referral program for them.

The program:

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1. Discovery point for referral programs:
   The first thing to focus on is the discovery point for these programs, otherwise, how would the user know if there is a referral program?
   
   TWTF can add one more message on this black banner that users can refer their friends/colleagues to earn loyalty points that can be used as currency for their next purchase.
   
   
   Everytime an order is placed, the user can be notified on this page about the benefits of referring a new person to TWTF. Benefits would be loyalty points earned and the possibility to redeem them.
   Just as there is a loyalty point section, the user should be able to find a refer and earn section when he/she visits the accounts. This will serve as a constant reminder of the Referral program of TWTF.

2. Tracking of the referrals:
   
   In the account section, the user should be able to find his/her customized referral code which can be shared via social media platforms or messaging apps. This integration can be done very easily so that the user can share with friends and family very quickly.
   
   Under the section of refer and earn(has to be added here), the user should be able to track how many people have used his/her referral code and the loyalty points they have gained with this. This will push them to ask more of their friends to use the code.

3. Use of loyalty points:
   When the user is placing an order he/she should be reminded to use the referral codes they have got and also inform them that they can immediately use the loyalty points won.
   
   User should also have the option to pay using the loyalty points when they are making the payment.

In conclusion:

Given the responsibility of acquiring new consumers, I will target:

1. SEO optimization for better organic search results
2. Product integration with Cult and Instagram store.​
3. Partnerships with BB instant and local stores.
4. Implement a simple referral program to start with.​

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