Earlier this year, News Corp Australia announced the launch of The Growth D_Stillery, a dedicated research and intelligence service offering consumer insights to help marketers navigate brand challenges, anticipate consumer trends and understand where best to invest.
See Also: Behind The Growth D_Stillery: News Corp’s newest research and intelligence offering
The Growth D_Stillery amplifies key research insights on trade marketing platforms, and on News Corp Australia channels. As a part of its release into market, the platform has launched a series of vodcasts hosted by News Corp Australia’s director, Growth Intelligence Centre Dan Krigstein, with guests from all corners of the marketing world.
Dan Krigstein
Released fortnightly, the vodcasts aim “to really humanise these insights,” according to Krigstein, and tackle a new marketing challenge every episode.
This week, Mediaweek spoke to Tushar Menon, co-founder and CEO of My Muscle Chef.
Menon joined the Groth D_Stillery vodcast off the back of News Corp’s Food D_Stilled report, saying that “I’m very passionate about anything to do with food.”
“News Corp gave me the background on the D_Stillery and the emphasis on the trends in food at the moment. I found that very interesting, and really wanted to share what My Muscle Chef is doing on that front, really leading innovation in the food space in Australia.”
In terms of consumer buying habits and how they have evolved over the last few years, Menon says that navigating Covid lockdowns – and the subsequent re-openings – highlighted the importance of not “having all your eggs in one basket”.
“During the Covid period, we saw a massive spike for E-commerce businesses across the board – we definitely did benefit from that as well,” says Menon. “During that period we saw some massive growth in online sales, and we saw more customers coming into the category as well. People that would not have considered ready-made meals delivered to their homes prior to that period were actively looking for that service.
“Coming out of that, we’ve seen a big shift now back into retail – customers were stuck inside for so long, and everyone wants to get out and about. That’s also worked in our favour because we have quite a strong retail presence, too.
“Being an omnichannel business really worked in our favour, I feel like if we had all our eggs in one basket – whether that be online or retail – we would have not been able to adapt to the changing market forces as well as we have.”
Outside of Covid, customer needs have also been evolving in the ready-meal space. Menon says that the My Muscle Chef team have been working to respond to whatever it is that customers are after, no matter what time of day they need it.
“Innovation is key. We pride ourselves on being a very data-driven business, all our decisions in the business are based on the back of research and data about what our customers want. We have the luxury of having access to our online database, where we can ask them questions about what they want to see. That really dictates the product offering.
“We’ve had to adapt over time based on changing customer needs. We’ve moved away from being a ready meals business only, to now offering a whole range of snacks and drinks to fill up the day. We found customers were wanting a healthier choice for every food, drink, and snack occasion during the day – so, yes, the meal served their purpose for lunch and dinner, but what are you going to eat in between that? We want to be present for that time too.”
In a very competitive market, with a number of brands that are working to fill the same space, Menon says that there are two major ways that My Muscle Chef stands out.
“The first one would be the quality of our product. We pride ourselves on being number one in the market for quality in terms of taste, consistency, and value, and we feel that’s something we’ve done in terms of revolutionising the ready-meal industry. Three or four years ago, there was a potential stigma around buying a microwave meal, and we feel like with the quality of our product, we’ve really overcome that.
“The second one for us would be definitely customer service. This goes across online and retail. In such a crowded market, the first impression is so important, and no matter how great your product tastes, if the customer has no good experience with you they’re not going to come back. So every interaction we have with the customer has to be perfect, no matter whether it’s online or retail.”
Although he remained tight-lipped about what comes next, Menon says that there are big things on the horizon for My Muscle Chef.
“We are working on something pretty exciting to really cut through again, I can’t give you too much information but it’s coming in the next couple of months. We know we’re ready to shake up the ready-meal space once again like we did a few years ago, and really be distinctive in market through our brand look and feel, our advertising, packaging, and everything about us is going to be really distinctive. It’s going to make My Muscle Chef out from the crowd, that’s for sure.”
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Top Image: Tushar Menon