Acquisition project | The Whole Truth Foods

​About The Whole truth foods

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Whole foods started in 2018 and based out of Mumbai. It is a series B company with funding of around $22M with ~150 employees.

The Whole Truth Foods is an internet first brand offering multi-category healthy snacks.

The product catalog includes energy bars, protein powder, spreads, chocolates, peanut butters, and more. The company claims that the products are gluten-free, sugar-free, preservatives- free.

Product is present in mobile web and desktop web.

Product was not present as android app.

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Product sold on:​

• Own website
• Amazon (Avg. review 4.5/5)
• Blinkit - no reviews found
• Zepto - no reviews found
• Bigbasket (Avg review 4/5)
• Not available on Flipkart

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Product details -

The Whole Truth foods sells Protein bars, Protein powder, Energy bars, Chocolates, Peanut butter and Muesli

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Products are available at different price points based on size and qty.

Option of bundling of product available at discounted rates.

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The user flow from selection to buying is intuitive and quick -

User selects category → Select Product → Add to cart → Checkout

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The Whole Truth Foods also has a section “learn” for brand awareness. Learn section includes:

• Newsletter
• GPT
• Dictionary
• Podcasts

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Ads/Marketing campaign -

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FB ad

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Google search

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Referral program

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Offers within website -

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Understanding the user

Findings from User research using surveys and online reviews -

• Average rating on Amazon and user survey was 4+ indicating product is well liked by its consumer
• • Among the reviewers who rated below 4 stars on Amazon, the most common reason was product pricing.
• More than 80% of users fall in the 25-35 age group, followed by 18-24 age group.
• Both males and females equally use this product.
• Approximately 50% consumers of healthy snacks not limited to whole food, maintain a high fitness activity level, working out 3-4 times a week.
• Out of the user who consume protein supplements, ~35% have tried whole truth product at least once.
• Users who consume protein powder also consume protein bars, indicating a good possibility of cross-selling to The Whole Truth Foods customers.
• 80% of surveyed users prefer Vegetarian sources of protein.
• Social media channels is the most popular way how people came across whole truth.
• Word of mouth

Who would buy this -

Health conscious adults and teens. Age 15-70. All genders.

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Need - Folks involved in High workout activity level

• Bodybuilders (Might already be using another protein supplement)
• Aspiring bodybuilders (Can be starting out in fitness world)
• Protein deficiency people (If recommended by doctor)

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Want - Folks with a sedentary lifestyle or moderate workout activity level

• Someone who just wants to stay fit
• Someone who wants to replace sugar chocolates with something healthy

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Why would users buy this -

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ICP Prioritization

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Selection of ICP

• Given that Whole Truth foods, core value proposition is healthy snacks and clean labels which is marketed well in the packaging, users are likely to have a low to moderate adoption curve due to trust factor and brand value.
• Price point of Whole foods is slightly higher than its peers which would mean users above a certain income should ideally be able to consider buying it.
• For the fitness enthusiast, protein foods are not a one time activity. They prefer to maintain a diet and ensure that they are consuming the nutrients in the right amount frequently.

Based on above assumptions, ICP 1 and ICP 2 are best suited to be considered for acquisition.

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Competitor analysis -

Before delving into the competitors, we need to detail out the subcategories whole foods operates.

• Protein based products -
• • Protein bars
  • Protein powder
• Peanut butter
• Muesli

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Amazon search results for Mumbai location

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Key Findings -

• MuscleBlaze has the best presence in all protein based categories
• MB is followed by Yogabar and ON
• The Whole Truth has presence in protein bar category but missing when searched for protein powder, healthy protein snacks, Muesli and Peanut butter.
• There is a clear gap in in protein category

Google search

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Key Findings

• The Whole Truth foods is likely to be shown as top result only when keyword consist of protein bar
• MuscleBlaze and Ritebite are the biggest players in protein food category
• Zero sugar protein brought up the Whole truth foods, but multiple other brands which were not present in other searches also popped up. One such brand is Hyp Protein.
• The Whole truth foods has little presence in peanut butter and muesli category.
• Peanut butter and Muesli are dominated by Pintola and Kellogg’s

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Blinkit | Location - Ahmedabad (Tier 2 city)

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Key findings

• Protein bars resulted in Whole Truth foods as top results followed by Ritebite. Note that Yogabar was not present
• Protein powder resulted in MuscleBlaze, ON followed by Whole Truth😍
• Zero sugar healthy snacks resulted in multigrain biscuits and healthy chips.

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Zepto | Location - Bengaluru (Tier 1 City)

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Key findings:

• Protein bars resulted in Whole Truth foods and Yogabar. Ritebite was less dominant here.
• Protein powder resulted in Whole Truth in top results along with ON and MuscleBlaze.
• Zero sugar healthy snacks resulted n Open Secret biscuits and other chips.
• Peanut butter is dominated by Pintola and Myfitness.

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To summarize -

• The Whole Truth foods is among the top brands in protein bar category but is lagging behind in protein powder, peanut butter and muesli categories.
• MuscleBlaze, ON Nutrition, Ritebite are major established players while Yogabar is a new and growing brand.
• Zero sugar/no sugar keywords did not bring up whole truth products despite one of the key USP of Whole truth foods is “no added sugar”
• Peanut butter and Muesli are traditional categories and are dominated by Pintola, Saffola, Kellogg’s

Details of top competitors

• MuscleBlaze - MuscleBlaze is India's trusted sports nutrition & bodybuilding supplements Brand.

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• Review- 4+ out of 5
• Pricing - Budget friendly
• Available on - Amazon, Zepto, Blinkit, Own website
• Whole Truth Price - Rs.3000

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• ON Nutrition

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• Rating - 4+ out of 5
• Price - Moderate
• Available on - Amazon, Zepto, Blinkit, Own website
• Whole Truth Price - Rs.3000

RiteBite Protein Bar

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• Rating - 3.5+ out of 5
• Price - Moderate
• Available on - Amazon, Zepto, Blinkit, Own website
• Whole Truth Price - Rs. 600

Summary

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Total addressable market in India

We would use top down approach →

Total population of India - 140 cr

Urban population → 50cr which is 35%

Age criteria - Ideally above 18 to 60. which would be ~68% of population which is 34cr

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Average revenue per user calculation:

Avg price of a protein bar on website - Rs. 600

Highest priced product on website - Rs. 3000

Assuming repeat rate of 2 and users trying out low priced skus in the start, the avg price would be Rs. 1000 times 2 i.e repeat rate

So ARPU = Rs. 2000

34*2000

= Rs. 68000 crores

Total serviceable market

Based on our findings from user research, healthy snacks are more likely to be used by people with

1. Health conscious
2. Disposable income
3. Access to internet and social media

Urban population (tier 1 and tier 2 places) India - 34cr

20% population would fall in middle, high and ultra high income tier → 7cr

With the growing trend of health consciousness, we can assume that people with the means to spend will prefer healthy snacks over mass produced snacks.

Access to internet and social media can be assumed to be close to 100% in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities for those with disposable income.

Thus, this set of 7cr can be our serviceable market -

Assuming avg revenue per user to be Rs. 2000, total serviceable market comes up to Rs. 14000cr

Serviceable obtainable market

Top players in healthy snacks and protein bar/protein powder are -

• Muscleblaze - 20%
• Ritebite - 10%
• MyProtein- 10%
• Optimum Nutrition - 15%

With multiple players in the category, whole truth can aim to capture a 10% market share, it’s Servicable obtainable market would be 140cr

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Core value proposition - Why buy from me?

• The bestseller protein bar demonstrates 100% transparency about its ingredients.
• The product contains no processed sugar or artificial sugar substitutes.
• The company addresses potential consumer concerns, such as explaining why the bar might appear dry.

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Core Value Proposition The Whole truth offers you healthy, clean and no added sugar protein based snacks which can be consumed by bodybuilders, fitness enthusiasts or just to satiate your hunger.

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Acquisition Channels

Which stage does whole truth lie in?

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Lets understand this by data -

Company has good reviews on all ecommerce platforms and from user surveys.

The Whole truth foods has good presence in social media and the founder is focused on building a personal brand.

This indicated consumers like the product and we have achieved a product market fit ✅

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With 36cr of revenue in sales, The Whole Truth foods is currently set for early scaling phase by increasing it’s market share and filling the gaps between itself and competitors.

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Channel Analysis

Web traffic analysis

Most of the web traffic comes via organic traffic with little paid traffic. This can be attributed due to company being in PMF stage in last couple of years.

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Channel Prioritization Framework-

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Based on above prioritization and web traffic analysis and Whole Truth Foods being in early scaling stage we choose the below methodologies to acquire customers -

• Organic - Whole foods have already been doing organic which has currently worked out well for the brand. With an already strong founder's brand and word of mouth. We can continue organic search for the company

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• Content Loops - Whole Truth Foods operate in a category which has been laced with misleading ads, false claims. This has led to a lack of trust among health conscious consumers. Content loops can help us serve create awareness around protein snacks and clean ingredient.

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• Paid ads - Since Whole Truth foods is in early scaling stage, a paid ads campaign can help boost it's presence as it's competitors such as MuscleBlaze get a decent amount of traffic from paid ads

Organic Search Analysis

Let’s start with Search volume comparison of different keywords

Let’s again go through the competitor analysis to understand the gaps in search optimization

• The Whole Truth foods is among the top brands in protein bar category but is lagging behind in protein powder, peanut butter and muesli categories.
• MuscleBlaze, ON Nutrition, Ritebite are major established players while Yogabar is a new and growing brand.
• Peanut butter and Muesli are traditional categories and are dominated by Pintola, Saffola, Kellogg’s

Actionable into improve Organic search

• Whole Truth Foods need to prioritize optimizing for “protein powders” across ALL e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms.
• Yogabar is a direct competitor which provides a similar USP and leads in SEO when it comes to protein bars.
• Peanut butter and Muesli seem to be non-core product of Whole Truth foods. However, large players such as Kellogg’s and Saffola have dominance here. We would need to pick the channels where peanut butter should be marketed.

Delving into the Offline space (As an experiment)

• Internet brands these days are just too many and attention is the new currency
• Offline stores and retailers, no matter how traditional they may be 🤷‍♂️, builds a trust factor rather than just seeing plethora of products online with the same optimization of keywords, fonts and colours.
• Given the ICP of The Whole Truth food is a health conscious, gym going professional, living in a tier -1 city, we can start an offline presence in these areas. Think Bandra in Mumbai or Whitefield in Bangalore.

Content Loops

Content loops can be created on social media platforms where users do not feel that the content is scripted to sell you the product.

Reddit is one such platform where the anonymity factor adds to the trust.

Popular subreddits such as r/fitness, r/bodybuilding can help build a content loop. Below is an example

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Hook - The question asked on a popular subreddit such as r/fitness

Content creator - Reddit users who use and recommend Whole Truth Foods products

Distributor - Google SEO

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Educate users on protein supplement myths by leveraging it’s own TruthGPT

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When it comes to food and health, trust factor can take you places. Whole Truth’s inhouse GPT to answer fitness and food queries is a good way to hook users and targeting them as potential leads.

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Hook - The question asked on Whole Truth website "TruthGPT"

Content creator - AI powered GPT

Distributor - User

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Content Building on Linkedin

Linkedin is increasingly used by young professionals who stay in Tier 1 cities proving to be an ideal place to target users.

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​Hook - Articles on fitness and need of healthy snacks

Content creator - Health influencers on Linkedin

Distributor - Users, Google SEO

Paid Advertisements -

The Ideal ICP characterizes as below -

• User of social media apps (Instagram, Youtube)
• Health and fitness enthusiast
• Falls in the age group for 25-35
• Has disposable income

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Basis the above characteristics, we will try to gain the attention the health conscious by a hook line about health, intending to provide something which will be useful to them.

Platform selection for Paid ads

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We have selected Instagram as the platform where we can push paid ads.

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Average lifetime value of customer = Avg. Transaction size * Frequency * Retention

Avg price of a product = Rs. 800

Frequency = Twice a month

Retention = 6 months

Avg LTV = 800 * 2 * 6 = Rs. 9600

CAC calculation

Assumptions -

• Budget of Whole Truth foods = Rs. 8 lakhs ($10,000)
• CPC: $1.50
• CTR: 1%
• Conversion Rate: 5%

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Number of Clicks= $10,000/1.5 =6666.67

Number of New Customers=6666.67×0.05=333.33

CAC = Budget/New customers = 10000/333 = ~$30

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Converting to Rupees = $30*85 = Rs. 2550

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CAC/LTV = 9600/2550 = ~3.7

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ICP Characteristics

• User of social media apps (Instagram, Youtube)
• Health and fitness enthusiast
• Falls in the age group for 25-35
• Has disposable income

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Given that ICP falls in affluent class, pricing information can be shared later after user clicks on the advertisement

Below is a rough creative to be targeted for the ICP on social media platforms such as Instagram

• Highlights
• • Less words
  • Keyword being no misleading claims i.e transparency in ingredients.

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The 2nd Category of ICP is someone who has a want for the product keeping the other characteristics as same.

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Below ad can help debunk myths around protein being just for gym bros and anyone who wants to stay fit can use it.

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Using the above 3 mentioned acquisition techniques, The Whole Truth Foods can set itself for the next phase of growth!

Thank you!