Andrew Kuiler's experience with exotic foods is expansive, but his knowledge of cultural research is more impressive. Now add Momma Bird, Priscilla McKinney's expertise into the mix and you have a culturally rich conversation... that leaves you a little hungry.
"And that's knowledge, right? When you start hearing the conversations of what keeps folks up at night, then you start to think about, 'Okay, what can I offer from the brand consulting perspective?' I mean I had all the quintessential knowledge early in my career from the insights, but how to wrap that up for inbound brands was quite new to me, to be honest. So that was a big part of our success is just surrounding ourselves with folks who had similar problems and then working out, bit by bit, how to solve those problems and those then became solutions for TSI."
In a recent episode of Ponderings from the Perch, Priscilla and Andrew discuss how The Silk Initiative - brand insight, strategy and innovation firm - uses their specialized knowledge and custom research to provide detailed consulting for the international food and beverage industry.
"I'm a big fan of producing your own data [...] Real research that gets you front and center with a consumer, gets you into focus groups, get you into homes, gets you into the retail space - thinking and feeling like a consumer and asking those kind of questions around brand."
Andrew is the founder and CEO of The Silk Initiative (TSI). With over 15 years of experience working with major brands including Campbell’s, PepsiCo, Arla, Vita Coco, Goodman Fielder, Pizza Hut, US Dairy, New Zealand King Salmon and Mars Wrigley, Andrew has a strong understanding of the strategic approach brands need to thrive within the Chinese market.
TSI is one of the world’s few food and beverage specialists sitting at the intersection of insight, strategy, innovation and creative development.
Tune-in to the episode for more on:
- Priscilla and Andrew's favorite food cities
- Diverse research approaches
- "Culturizing" brand experience
- Obscure musical instruments
The best 35 minutes you'll spend today.
Listen to the full episode here.
Let Us Know What You Thought about this Post.
Put your Comment Below.