First To Market
The Business of Food
by Jennifer Barney
First To Market
4-min read
Being first to market means anticipating a trend before it’s a trend and going all-or-broke the first time out. It is not a requirement to success. Let’s look at two success stories: one first to market and the other not.
But first, defining statements
First to market is when you meet the demand of the market at a large scale. It doesn't literally mean you're the first to come up with the product.
First to market is rare when it works and when it doesn’t it is the costliest way to crash and burn (remember Juicero?) It requires risking it all on a market that doesn’t exist. If something is already trending it already has a market.
Jumping on a trend
Once a trend is recognized as such there is already a leader in place. This happens because markets demand to be satisfied, and are satisfied, by the first minimum viable product available. Like the food unicorns you all know: Impossible Foods (alt meat), Oatly (alt milk) and Just (alt egg). They are unicorns because they were first to market but they are successful for one reason only: product/market fit (see last post). It’s not their teams or their products that make them the leader in their categories. In fact, (not naming names) some have had bouts of undisciplined founders, unfocused teams, and frankly, not great products. So while a genius idea that nails product/market fit can overcome other deficiencies and succeed as first to market, assume this is not you.
So how do I succeed if I'm not first?
Nowadays what you put in your mouth has to be tasty, nutritionally dense, clean label, whole food, ethically sourced, and sustainably produced. The demands on food brands and the supply chain are enormous. It’s hard to meet all these criteria in every new food trend category, segment, and form… so when something differentiated comes along, markets react. Therefore, the opportunity to meet product/market fit in an emerging category, even with lots of entrants, is huge.
Let’s look at two brand launches solving for the gluten free demand for pizza crust.
Clearly Caulipower, first to market with cauliflower crust pizza, is the leader in this category. But Cali’flour launched in 2016, is now rising.
Why is this happening?
Because in food one solution does not fit the bill for all consumers in that market. Launched around the same time, Caulipower went all-in year one and Cali’flour didn’t. When you apply probability to these two approaches Caulipower had the least chance of succeeding (but they did).
Next week I’ll tear apart these two brand launches and their go-to-market approaches, what the difference means, and how timing to product/market fit played the principal role in their success.
All my best,
Jennifer
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I'd love to hear from you - get in touch at jennifer@3rdandbroadway.com