Spilling the beans is our new obsession: A chat with Bold Bean Co
By Tara Henderson
When we think of beans, often we think of that dusty old can at the back of the cupboard – neglected, unloved and let’s be honest, rather dull. However, there’s one brand who believe that beans are anything but dull: Bold Bean Co. They’re obsessed with beans and are on a mission to make everyone else obsessed too. CEO and founder Amelia Christie-Miller sat down with eatbigfish recently to share how the brand is changing consumers' perception of beans by thinking like a Challenger and raising their brand ambitions.
Tell us about Bold Bean – what do you stand for?
We are a brand on a mission to make people obsessed with beans, and we do that through our tempting, delicious bean recipes that are on our website, on our socials and in our cookbooks. We do that through giving people the best of beans, which is our premium, slowly cooked, expertly sourced jars of beans that are disrupting the canned food category.
I’ve always loved food and my first main job before Bold Bean was working in the food sustainability space with chefs. There I learned about our declining soil health and I think that for anyone who loves food, the thought of our soils eroding and us all having to survive off of space milkshakes would just be horrible. But beans are one of the major crops that can help naturally fertilise the soil and make it healthier. It’s something I genuinely didn’t know before I fell in love with beans - but yes by literally growing (and eating) more beans, we will help improve our eroding soils and make them healthy again! As someone who loves real food, I was never drawn to the fake meat movement, but I found beans were such a great way of making my meals satisfying and really delicious. So I became completely bean mad. Beans are the best – so why aren't we all eating beans? And I realised I was so alone. I needed to make a brand that makes people love beans.
Who or what are Bold Bean challenging?
So beans can be completely delicious and tempting and uncompromising – that’s the word I like to use. They're uncompromising. You don't need to have them because they're healthy. You don't need to have them because they're sustainable. That's just what people think currently. But you can have them because you want an uncompromisingly, delicious experience that happens to be healthy and all those other things. So, we're challenging the fact that beans are a commodity that's unloved - something you feel you “should” be eating, and trying to turn them into something which is aspirational, inspiring, delicious and something that they want to eat. I don't want people to have beans because they have to. I want them to want them. And that's the change we are going for - both in our beans themselves but also with our recipes. I don't see our competitor as canned beans. I want beans at all mealtimes. So, our competitor is things like avocado toast, scrambled eggs or a piece of fish.
What’s your strategy for breaking with consumer expectations around beans?
From the get-go, a year before I launched the product range, I started sharing bean recipes, because I thought the barrier to consumption was number one, quality of product and people assuming that they will just taste terrible, and number two is people asking “What on earth do I do with them outside a chili con carne?” So I realised that the reason why my experience was different to other start-up founders was that because I was working with these chefs, I was looking at their menus continuously. I was constantly inspired by how they were putting together dishes. We see it as our responsibility to challenge people on their perception of beans as dull and dusty. So, that's why a huge part of our business is recipe content, because that is a main barrier to people trying beans.
Challengers have ambitions that outweigh their resources. How would you describe Bold Bean Co’s ambitions?
We're not a cool brand. That is one thing. I think that's also what's connecting with consumers, because traditionally you can't be cool and be obsessed with beans. But the fact that we're unapologetically obsessed is part of this new era of cool which is about not caring what is traditionally “cool”. It's having a passion and love for something. So our ambition right now, and we don’t know how’d we track it, is for everyone to be eating beans three times a week. But they don't need to be our beans. Our view is that as the tide rises around all beans, we will grow through that too.
If people are eating beans that's why we exist. You’ll notice that even in our cookbook, we have ways that you can hack a tin of beans. Consumers are so alert to commercial gains from brands, but brands with missions that are bigger than just themselves are standing out more. We see ourselves as a blend of an FMCG company and also a food media company. You could easily go on our webpage or socials and not realise that we're an FMCG brand. We collaborate with a lot of food writers who we support and that’s our community.
Our biggest ambition though is that I would love people to say that our brand is the one that made them love beans. If they’re eating more beans - great. If they’re eating more beans BECAUSE of Bold Bean - even better.
Your product is a premium brand in a commodity category, how do you get store buyers to take a chance and stock you?
When you're changing beans from fodder to something which sits at the centre of the plate, people have that perception change of, actually I'm just going to have a bean meal tonight. I'm not buying chicken, I'm not buying whatever. I'm just having beans, and they're the star of the show. That's a big shift in mindset.
So, the most compelling arguments are around cash margin and bringing new people into the category. At the moment, people are using beans as fodder, whereas, if we're stealing market share from chicken, then we're bringing people into that category. Also, a lot of these retailers are all targeted now around healthy eating, sustainable eating. And my argument to the buyers are that your category is the answer to minimally processed, plant sources of protein, shelf stable, etc. Your category is the answer and you're under investing in it. So, let's make it the star of the supermarket where it's been unloved for too long.
What role do you see your brand playing in your overall strategy?
Our brand underpins everything we do. In the modern day, you can't have a Challenger company without having a really strong brand that basically speaks on behalf of you. If you don’t have loads of marketing budget and you don’t have a strong brand, you won't get spoken about. You won't have a relationship with the consumer, and therefore they won't talk about you. We rely so much on word-of-mouth and so we want people to have the best possible brand experience. We can't do out-of-home campaigns for example because we don’t have the budget. Investment in the last five years has really dried up for Challenger brands, because people aren't willing to take the risk. So, you need to become self-sufficient. You can't just waste money on an ad and hope that it sticks based off a good product. In other words, your brand can’t be just one pithy line on a billboard. Instead, your brand needs to be embedded in everything you do, because that way you drive that word-of-mouth marketing, which is so valuable when you're a small brand. Building communities and really strong relationships with consumers is how you can cut through. The era of mass marketing is fading out.
We have bean obsession running through everything we do. The link to all of our content and communication is this enthusiasm and passion for beans.