In September 2020, I left my career in advertising to try my hand at an entrepreneurial journey launching No Ugly wellness tonics in Australia. In the middle of Covid. This unique functional beverage range would wage a war on ugly beliefs, behaviours and ingredients and deliver true functional health to all Australians.
My journey has seen me work through every aspect of a start up from pricing, packaging, logistics & distribution, P&L & forecasting, comms, concepting, copywriting, art direction and design. No Ugly is now distributed in over 600 locations across Woolworths, Costco, WHSmith and independent grocers with a budding D2C business.
Since launching the business I've learned what I love most about business; marketing. After a busy few years I've since sold the No Ugly AU business to pursue my passion for pure marketing. It's been a crazy ride, but it certainly hasn't been ugly.
No Ugly wellness tonics are a New Zealand brand launched in 2018. At first it was a single SKU meant for hangover recovery in a variety of flavours. But with the rise and rise of functional foods, the brand pivoted to a lineup of specific functions delivering a variety of benefits. Rather than looking at a single function like kombucha (gut health) by a multitude of flavours, No Ugly would be led by different functions from skin to sleep. This new range launched in New Zealand in September of 2020 and I would bring it to Australia in January 2021. Given I was one person trying to crack the Australian market from standing start, one of my strategies would be to consistently seem bigger than I actually was. Everything had to created at a very high polish, even if it was for an audience of one.
My first task was to determine pricing for the market. I researched pricing across all health beverages in multitude of store formats from mass grocery to convenience and created a forecast and P&L to understand how I'd make a living. To enter the Australian market, I would go via high end independent grocery and health food stores because their customers are more discerning and nutritionally adept. Not only are functional foods are an emerging category but the price point puts the brand at a much higher RRP than it's nearest counterpart, kombucha, which opened the door to the functional health. I made a list of the top 20 independent grocers in Sydney, created a top tier sales presenter (since adopted by the global team) and got my dancing shoes on for sales calls.
My store research uncovered a major insight which got me in the door - the realisation that all stores functional health range was made entirely of kombucha. When you blocked it visually for them, they realised that it made sense to expand their functional offering rather than have one function (gut) by many flavours. And blocking out their fridge before I met the manager/buyer usually did the trick.
I was able to get listed at a number of premium independent grocers such as Wholefoods House and Forestway Fresh along with an alignment with City Cave Float and Wellness Centres across Australia. This was a great foot in the door and something I would use as leverage for the next sales call. But to grow in Australia I knew I would need a distribution partner as I didn't have the manpower to scale at speed. I decided to take a chance and create a social campaign to get me noticed even if my true footprint was very small.
I needed to seem bigger than I actually was.
To do so, I'd create a social campaign around one of our most unique products, No Ugly Sleep. I pulled favours from my advertising network and, with the help of Innocean Australia, created a fun campaign with one goal, get noticed by the big boys and girls in grocery and/or distribution.
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Not only did I manage to kick off my D2C sales and get a few messages from some independent grocers to stock No Ugly, I was contacted by The Better Food Distribution Company (TBFDCo) who specialise in health foods & beverages and who distribute Remedy kombucha. They saw No Ugly as a great addition to their portfolio and we negotiated a distribution deal only three months after I was in market.
From here, I would adapt my sales presenter for the TBFDCo sales force and design a suite of POS material ready for deployment.
I would also continue to create my budding social presence by designing and copywriting all social materials, teaching myself video editing, how to use Facebook Ads Manager and travelling with the distribution company sales reps to generate sales at independent grocers across Australia.
And just when my distribution partner received their product, the Covid-19 Delta variant lockdown began. No tastings, no route trade possibilities, the non-distribution deals I had secured with Fishbowl, QT hotels and some offices went on hold. Throughout the lockdown the focus shifted to price promotion to ensure we keep our shelf space in a time when consumers turn to staples vs. high RRP products as well as to drive the D2C arm of the business.
Covid put a large hurdle in the progression of the business but lockdown has ended and I've signed a deal with the likes of Woolies, Costco, WHSmith and more. And with that, I've sold the Australian business and my No Ugly journey has come to an end. An incredible experience with learnings that I'll continue to apply,
It was also nice to receive a few creative awards along the way. Like the longest copy ads ever with prizes hidden inside if you actually made it to the end for No Ugly Focus.
Or taking one the 'big boys' by showing how our ingredients stack up to theirs. how? Putting our ingredients on the front of our labels, of course.
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My biggest learnings to date
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As a sales rep without any prior relationships, you have about 2 minutes to make your entire pitch. Like any comms, it's about key messaging.
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Finding and insight at the store level is just as valuable as the one at the consumer level.
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Starting a business from scratch is exactly as hard as everyone says.
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If you have belief in your product, perseverance is key.
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Cash is king.