Our founder story was featured in FQ Magazine, the rise of the Dadpreneur.
Please http://www.fqmagazine.co.uk/issues/FQ-Winter-2016/index.html?page=16
‘Dads who do’ –
Dean Dempsey is 42, lives in Manchester with his wife Joanne and their daughters Alivia & Della 7 & 4. He is the creator of Naturelly Jelly Juice.
Naturelly jelly juice a thirst quenching, tummy filling children’s snack juice. I launched it in September 2015.
In a previous life before becoming a father I was head of a large FMCG marketing agency, I worked as a brand strategist and one of my clients produced a gel drink for cyclists, something completely new to the UK market, but huge in Japan. I researched the Japanese market and found a wonderful array of options that we just don’t have the equivalent of in the UK. I did nothing about it at the time and it was only when I had children myself that I realised this how applicable this new food group could be to the world of children’s snacking.
I discovered when my daughters got a bit older how difficult it was to find, healthy, sugar free filling snacks that wouldn’t spoil their next meal but would keep the tantrums at bay for a little while! Days out turned into a minefield of unhealthy snacks that they demanded but I wasn’t prepared give them, it’s ok to give into sweets and ice cream for special occasions but I soon realised that there was really nothing out there that would appeal to a child’s sweet tooth whilst giving me peace of mind that they were still having something nutritionally sound.
We needed an on the go refreshment that would fill them up just a little, until dinner time, it got me thinking about those gel drinks all those years ago, I revisited the research I’d done Naturelly was born: It is a gelatine free, fun and fruity juicy jelly snack with no added sugar or sweeteners and only 36 kcal per 100g pouch, it is lower in naturally occurring fruit sugar than any other kids fruit based snack or drink on the market. It is designed to appeal to health-conscious parents with active kids aged from 12 months to 9 years old.
I am really pleased with how Naturelly is growing as a brand, the brand has just undergone a complete re-fresh, incorporating a playful new design into both the packaging and the website www.naturelly.co.uk we undertook a vast amount of research when sampling and online listening to understand what the shopper thought about our brand. The feedback was that we were nice and safe but needed a stronger, bolder more confident image, we are a disruptive and premium challenger brand & think that our new look, a combination of fun and naturalness, reflects this now.
Tips for other Dad’s:
- Have patience, people take a long time to understanding that you have a solution to a problem that they need
- Be resilient, you will get a lot of doors slammed in face and you will feel at time like no one cares try and stay strong
- Always be in beta mode test, learn and improve
