Writing For Food Industry

There are over 500+ brands competing in India's healthy food market across quick commerce, online marketplaces & offline. Having engaged with over 80+ brands and investing in 10, there are some patterns & hard truths about scaling in this crowded space. This is a breakdown on marketing and distribution in healthy foods for founders & marketers. First, here’s what you need to know about Indian consumers. - Indians buy food based on trust, not just marketing – If a celebrity promotes it but their neighbour or friend doesn’t recommend it, they won’t buy it. Word of mouth is king. - There is low willingness to pay premium, but high spend on indulgence. People will hesitate on a ₹200 protein bar but will happily buy a ₹500 artisanal mithai box. You need to frame health as indulgence, not sacrifice. -They snack, they don’t diet. Instead of selling "healthy diets", sell better snacking alternatives. That’s why makhanas, chikkis, and seed mixes work. - Unlike the west, 70% of discretionary food spend happens during festivals. Brands that nails Diwali, Rakhi, Ramzan and weddings will win. -Instead of mimicking the US health food market, make Indian-first products. Local trumps global. India is not one country, it’s 20 mini-countries. What works in North won’t work in South. Regional customization is key. - Indians love flavor and indulgence. If your product doesn’t taste good first, it won’t sell. Aim to be a weekly purchase, not a one-time trend. Marketing Don'ts - Don't sell fear, guilt or magic. Most health marketers are doing exactly this. Fear of missing out on fitness. Guilt of not eating right. Magic solutions promising six-pack abs in six weeks, “clinically tested” shortcuts . Health marketing shouldn’t be a psychological warfare. -Don't hijack medical language. Just because you put "backed by science" or "doctor-approved" in your ad ,doesn’t make it true. Most people don’t know what a randomized controlled trial is, but that doesn’t mean you should exploit their ignorance. Don’t throw a lab coat on a model, add "Doctor recommended," and hope no one asks which doctor. -Don't create fake urgency – "Only 3 packs left of our exclusive superfood". Healthy eating isn’t a flash sale; trust and quality build long-term customers, not gimmicks. Marketing Do’s - The best health brands don’t sell a product, they sell a perspective. Tell the truth, but make it interesting. If your product actually works, people will come back. No need to bait them with fake promises. Play the long game. -The best marketing in health is knowledge. Teach people something useful, and they’ll trust you. Educate, don’t manipulate. - Be honest, be helpful, and respect your customer’s intelligence. Anything else is just snake oil in new packaging. If your health product needs tricks to sell, it’s probably not worth buying. More notes on distribution and growth shared in the comments section. Hope this is useful to founders , marketers and their brands.

Food colonialism is all about how colonizers have not only taken land and resources from indigenous peoples but have also swooped in and claimed their culinary traditions as their own. This practice often involves taking traditional dishes and herbs, rebranding them, and erasing the original cultural stories behind them. Throughout history, colonizers have used food colonialism to assert their dominance. For example, during British rule in India, local spices and dishes were often modified or rebranded to suit British tastes, leading to a loss of authenticity and cultural heritage. Similarly, in the Americas, European settlers took indigenous crops like maize and potatoes, claiming them as their own discoveries while sidelining the agricultural knowledge of Native peoples. In Palestine, we see a similar pattern. Israelis have rebranded traditional Palestinian foods like Hummus, za'atar, labneh, and falafel as Israeli dishes. This appropriation not only strips these foods of their true cultural significance but also reinforces a narrative that diminishes Palestinian identity. A notable example is the book „How to Cook in Palestine“, published in 1930 by the Women's International Zionist Organization. This book presented Palestinian recipes within a framework that aligned them with Zionist ideals, complicating the relationship between food and national identity. The appropriation of cuisine is a powerful tool in the larger strategy of cultural erasure. By claiming traditional dishes as their own, colonizers diminish the cultural narratives of indigenous peoples, rewriting history to favor their version. This is especially clear in how Israeli cuisine is often showcased internationally, overshadowing the rich culinary heritage of Palestinian culture.

If a GM called me today and said, “Scott, every marketing effort we’ve tried in 2025 is failing, and I need you to come in and fix it so we don't go through the same thing in 2026,” here’s exactly how I’d start creating real change. These are the first ten things I’d do starting today: 1️⃣ Audit the foundation. Before changing anything, I’d study every digital touchpoint. Website, booking engine, social media, CRM, and OTA listings. You cannot fix what you don’t understand. 2️⃣ End autopilot marketing. Too many hotels copy each other. I’d stop every cookie-cutter campaign and rebuild creative that actually connects with people. 3️⃣ Rebuild storytelling from the inside out. I’d get every department involved. Every housekeeper, bartender, and concierge has a story. Let them tell it. That’s how your brand becomes human again. 4️⃣ Go all in on video. Short-form, long-form, drone, behind the scenes, chef stories, real guest reactions, all of it. In 2026, video isn’t optional. It’s how people discover you. 5️⃣ Dominate your local market. I’d run micro-campaigns targeting locals with spa days, dining experiences, and staycations. When locals love you, they sell you better than any ad. 6️⃣ Make data your foundation. I’d stop guessing and start tracking. Every post, ad, and campaign must be built on data and analyzed weekly to find what truly drives revenue. 7️⃣ Reinvent influencer partnerships. I’d stop the free-stay culture and build real collaborations that measure reach, conversions, and storytelling impact. If it doesn’t drive ROI, it’s not marketing. 8️⃣ Turn guests into content creators. Every guest has a phone and an audience. I’d launch a campaign that encourages guests to tag, share, and co-create content. That’s authentic marketing you can’t buy. 9️⃣ Redefine internal marketing culture. I’d move meetings from the office to the lobby. Let ideas breathe in the energy of your guests. The best marketing ideas come from proximity to real hospitality. 🔟 Build for AI and voice search. Travelers are already asking AI where to stay. I’d optimize every piece of content so that your hotel is the one that shows up first. The hotels that start executing on these things now will dominate 2026. The ones that wait will spend the next five years trying to catch up. --- If you like the way I look at the world of hospitality, let’s chat: scott@mrscotteddy.com

Most people look at Deepinder Goyal and see numbers. ₹13,360 Cr net worth. ₹2.3 trillion market cap. Zomato everywhere. But the real story is not wealth. It is brand architecture built over 15+ years. Let’s decode what actually made this work 1. One clear identity, relentlessly reinforced From Foodiebay to Zomato, the brand never tried to be everything. It owned one word in the consumer’s mind: food discovery → food delivery → food ecosystem. That consistency compounds trust. 2. Founder as a signal, not a celebrity Deepinder did not build personal branding for applause. He built it to reduce trust friction with: • investors • employees • regulators • the public When the founder is credible, the company scales faster. 3. Capital follows clarity Zomato’s IPO, acquisitions, and ecosystem bets were possible because the brand story was already clear. Markets reward clarity more than hype. 4. Philanthropy aligned with brand values ₹700 Cr pledged to delivery partners’ children is not charity marketing. It reinforces the brand’s internal promise: “People matter.” 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬: ▪️Your brand is not your logo. ▪️Your brand is what people expect from you — and are rarely disappointed by. #DeepinderGoyal didn’t build a unicorn. He built belief at scale. 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 If someone searches on Google or ChatGPT you or your company today, is there a clear story… or just scattered noise? #Branding #FounderBrand #Zomato #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #TrustEconomy #SidArora

I had a conversation with a private client recently that made me want to grab a handful of spaghetti and throw it at a wall - just to make a point. Frustrated their sales weren’t growing and that their marketing efforts felt like they were disappearing into the void, I asked a simple question: Who is your product offer for? Their answer? Well, you know… people who want healthy snacks. This is where I had to stop them. Because “people who want healthy snacks” is about as useful as saying “people who eat food.” It’s too broad. Too vague. Too forgettable. And in a market saturated with brands screaming for attention, forgettable is fatal. 💢 The Problem with the Spaghetti Strategy - Throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks. Hope is not a strategy. - Targeting “everyone” in the hopes of catching someone. It doesn't work. - Launching multiple marketing messages, hoping one will land. - Trying to be available in every channel, assuming that will drive sales. The sales channel spaghetti strategy is my personal favourite 😉. The problem is, trying to appeal to everyone winds up with resonating with no one. Blending in instead of standing out and ending up competing in a race to the bottom on price. 💢 The Power of Specificity I pushed my client to get more specific. Who, exactly, are you speaking to? Are you targeting parents looking for after-school snacks that won’t send their kids into a sugar crash? Are you catering to busy professionals who need high-protein options to fuel their workday? Are you serving endurance athletes who need slow-release energy for long training sessions? Each of these audiences has different needs, different pain points, and different reasons for choosing a product. When messaging speaks directly to one, a brand stops being just another option - it becomes the obvious choice. Amen. 💢 When a Brand Gets Specific - Lands more accounts in a specific channel (see what I did there!) - Builds stronger brand loyalty because they serve a clear purpose. - Wastes less resources on activities that don’t convert. - Competes on value, not price (even in a cost of living crisis). One client who originally marketed her product as “a better-for-you snack,” shifted her messaging to focus on working parents who needed an easy, nutritious snack for their kids’ lunchboxes. The result? A dramatic increase in engagement, retail interest, and customer loyalty. People saw themselves in her brand, sales followed. If you’re struggling to gain traction, ask yourself these two questions: 👉🏻 Can people easily tell exactly who your product is for? 👉🏻 Can they immediately understand why they need it? If the answer to either is no, it’s time to refine your messaging. When a brand is a perfect fit for the right people, customers will stick. ---- Hi, I'm Chelsea Ford and consumer packaged goods brand owners come to me to help them scale. If you want to learn more, visit https://chelseaford.com/ . #CPG #FMCG

Ever thought about how pasta and pizza became global icons  while butter chicken and dosa stayed “local”? They aren’t just dishes. They’re part of Italy’s identity. Every Italian brand — from Barilla to a tiny Naples pizzeria — built a story so strong that even miles away, when you see that deep blue box or smell fresh basil, you feel Italy. And it made me wonder — why not us? Why can’t the world think of India the same way we think of Italy when we see pasta? We have everything — flavour, nostalgia, emotion — but somewhere, we lost the art of telling it simply. Here’s what Italy mastered (and we can too): 👇 1️⃣ They made repetition their superpower No matter where you eat pasta — Milan or Manhattan — it tastes the same. They didn’t chase trends; they protected tradition. In India, we change everything, recipe to recipe, region to region, And then wonder why we don’t have a global recall. Even our food brands rebrand every few months. But real branding, like cooking, needs patience and consistency. Do one thing well, long enough, and people remember you for it. 2️⃣ They made simplicity emotional Italy turned three ingredients — tomato, wheat, olive oil — into poetry. Their ads don’t scream. They hum. Meanwhile, we often say too much — “20 spices, 15 herbs, a 200-year-old recipe.” But the truth is — people don’t fall in love with details. They fall in love with feeling. The simpler the story, the deeper it stays. 3️⃣ They made packaging sacred Barilla’s blue box isn’t just packaging. It’s trust. You see it once, and you know exactly what you’re getting. In India, design often comes last — squeezed between budgets and deadlines. But design is storytelling. It’s your brand’s first hello. Imagine if we told our food stories the same way. Butter chicken, branded like Barilla. Masala dosa, narrated like Neapolitan pizza. Ghee, bottled like Italian olive oil. We already have the soul. We just need the structure. The day Indian brands start selling stories instead of spice, We won’t just be loved — we’ll be remembered. 💜 P.S. If you’re a founder building a food or lifestyle brand in India that deserves to go beyond borders — DM me “BRAND.” Let’s make your story as timeless as your product.

I used to think branding was a luxury. Something you earned. Like dessert after dinner. You got customers first, figured out your pricing, maybe experimented with a few logos, then you started “branding.” That’s how I saw it. Until one random afternoon flipped that idea on its head. I was sitting across from a client, she ran a small bakery. No billboards. No fancy website. Just gooey, glorious brownies and the kind of word-of-mouth most founders dream of. But that day, she looked tired. Orders had slowed down. Her competitors? Copy-pasting her menu. Her Instagram? Ghost town. Her solution? More discounts, hoping someone would bite. I asked her, “What makes your brand different?” She paused, then said, “I don’t know… we make everything from scratch.” And that’s when it hit me hard. If she couldn’t say what made her different, how the hell would her customers know? We didn’t touch the product. We didn’t spend a dime on ads. We didn’t even change her pricing. Instead, we rewrote the story. New Instagram bio. Clearer menu headline. A better way to say what made her special, in her voice, for her audience. Within weeks, strangers started DMing her with orders. The snowball had started. Same brownies. Same oven. Same woman running the show. But the story? That changed everything. Because branding isn’t always about adding more features, more channels, more effort. Often, it’s about stripping away what’s not needed until only the truth remains. And when you say the right truth, clearly? Your people recognize you. You don’t need to shout. You just need to speak the right words to the right ears. Here’s the lie I carried for years: Marketing drives growth. Branding comes later. Reality check? Marketing is just the loudspeaker. Branding? That’s the script. Without a strong message, you’re just spending money to confuse more people. Your message is your shortcut. Your brand story is your leverage. It’s what turns “We sell cakes” into “We help people celebrate better.” One sounds like a vendor. The other sounds like a partner. Which one would you call? So if you’re creating nonstop, hustling for attention, getting compliments but no commitment — pause. The issue might not be your offer. It might be your story. Fix the story. Say it better. Then watch what happens. That’s what The Brand Engine is all about. No fluff. No jargon. Just the real roadmap to help you craft a brand message your dream clients feel. If this resonated, drop a comment and tell me, which part of your story feels fuzzy? The waitlist for The Brand Engine is in the comments.

The rise of turmeric lattes, ginger shots and other so-called superfoods in the Western wellness industry often overlooks a key truth. These ingredients come from long-standing South Asian traditions that have shaped our diets for generations. 🧡 In my clinics I frequently meet South Asian women who feel uncertain about the value of their cultural foods because marketing strips these ingredients of their heritage. They are often repackaged and sold at premium prices without acknowledging the communities that used them first. I also meet many women from outside these cultures who are paying very high costs for wellness products that offer no additional benefit compared to the traditional, affordable forms used in South Asian households. From a medical perspective, there is emerging evidence for some of the benefits of spices such as turmeric and ginger, but these effects are linked to overall dietary patterns rather than isolated high-priced products. There is real value in culturally rooted nutrition. Traditional diets can hold both cultural meaning and scientific relevance 🌿 For those working in health, nutrition or wellness, this is an opportunity to recognise cultural origins, respect lived experience and offer advice that is both evidence based and inclusive. #WomensHealth #SouthAsianCommunities #HealthEquity #InclusiveHealthcare #NutritionScience #CulturalCompetency #DietAndHealth #PublicHealthUK #WellnessIndustry #CulturalNutrition #EvidenceBasedPractice #HealthCommunication #MedicalEducation

We’ve spent decades removing friction for guests. Maybe that’s now becoming a problem. Hospitality has been obsessed with “frictionless” service, streamlined check-ins, and polished efficiency. But here’s the catch: when everything is easy, nothing is memorable. Gen Z and younger luxury travelers are tired of skating across glossy surfaces. They crave meaning, stories, and belonging, and meaning often comes with a little effort. Cultural brands already get this. Bon Iver’s album launch sent fans smoked salmon with a poet’s insert, a candle that smelled like a winter cabin, and an app guiding them to intimate listening parties. Many entry points, each a breadcrumb leading you deeper. Some hotels are rewriting this playbook. Aman Tokyo’s tea ceremony is an intentionally slow, ritualized welcome. It’s not convenient, but that’s the point. The friction makes it sacred, and guests leave with a story that outlasts any room amenity. — 5 Ways to Design Joyful Friction in Hospitality 1. Name your rituals. Stop hiding magic behind generic labels. “Turndown service” becomes “Night Script.” The “welcome drink” becomes “The First Pour.” Language signals intention and gives small moments emotional weight. 2. Multi-sensory storytelling kits. Borrow from cultural launches: On arrival, offer a mini city-scent candle, a handwritten poem from a local artist, and a ticket to an intimate lobby performance. Guests engage through touch, scent, and story, each doorway into your brand narrative. 3. Ask, then delight. Have guests complete a three-question “mood card” pre-arrival. Match it with a curated in-room surprise, a book, cocktail, or soundtrack. Effort makes them feel seen (backed by the IKEA effect: effort increases attachment). 4. Create scarcity with care. Design one-hour windows of magic: a nightly martini ritual, a chef’s table for four, or a password-protected dessert. Scarcity raises perceived value while making participation feel earned. 5. Ladder your story over time. Instead of trying to impress all at once, let the brand unfold: Visit 1: A custom coaster. Visit 2: A staff pin unlocking a library room. Visit 3: A seat at the chef’s counter. Each stay deepens their connection and drives return intent. "When everything is effortless, nothing is extraordinary." — Why This Works Choice overload studies prove curated experiences are more satisfying than endless options: - The scarcity principle shows limited access elevates perceived worth. - The IKEA effect reveals guests value what they invest in. Luxury travelers aren’t chasing convenience anymore. They want layered experiences that feel personal, not packaged. — Final Thoughts Hotels that dare to introduce meaningful friction don’t feel cold or inaccessible; they feel alive. Because in hospitality, perfection isn’t about smoothing every edge. It’s about designing edges worth touching. #LuxuryHospitality #GuestExperience #BrandStorytelling #ExperienceDesign #EmotionalDesign

Slow Food. Fast Culture. A Brilliant Lesson in Brand Positioning. In a world where 10-minute delivery has become a badge of honor, this biryani brand takes a bold stand: "Sorry. We don't deliver in 10 mins." Why? Because quality takes time. Authenticity takes effort. And customer trust is earned-not rushed. This packaging is more than clever copy... it's a masterclass in brand storytelling and differentiation. Key Marketing Lessons: 1. Contrarian Messaging Works By boldly refusing the trend, they instantly grab attention and spark curiosity. 2. Value > Speed They shift the conversation from delivery time to food quality. That's how you educate the customer without sounding preachy. 3. Transparency Builds Trust "We make our biryanis fresh on order." This line reassures customers and sets a clear expectation. 4. Packaging = Marketing Asset Most brands see packaging as a wrapper. Smart brands see it as free ad space. This one turned it into: • branding • storytelling • customer education • emotional connection The Big Takeaway In a cluttered, fast-paced market, the brands that win are the ones that dare to slow down and communicate WHY. Speed may attract customers. Quality creates loyalty. What do you think? Should more brands challenge industry norms instead of chasing trends ? #Branding #MarketingStrategy #Copywriting #BrandStorytelling #FoodBranding #CustomerExperience #PackagingDesign #BrandDifferentiation #D2C #MarketingTips #QualityMatters #LinkedInContent #StartupMarketing #BrandPositioning #FMCGMarketing #CreativePackaging