ProQuo sits down with: Miso Tasty

Miso Tasty is the brainchild of the brilliant Bonnie Chung, who is not only a passionate foodie and author, but an award-winning entrepreneur. Her Japanese food business known for its complex flavors and versatility, has been on quite the journey since its foundation, and within 2 years of launching, it's already stocked in over 1,000 stores nationwide. The Miso Tasty collection has also been endorsed by a range of renowned chefs, including Jamie Oliver.

As Miso Tasty is one of our beloved brands on ProQuo, we were delighted to grab the opportunity to catch up with Bonnie and Ellie on their newest product venture: uber-tasty and organic craft tofu. Tune in for an exclusive interview with Amelia Badeni, Marketing Manager at ProQuo, Bonnie Chung, Founder and Director, and Ellie Minch, Sales and Marketing Manager at Miso Tasty.

ProQuo: Hi Bonnie and Ellie, we are so glad to have you here today and can’t wait to hear about your latest venture, craft tofu! Please can you tell us more about the inspiration behind your new product?

Miso Tasty: Well, firstly we are all huge tofu fans at Miso Tasty! But we find it so hard to locate good tofu in the supermarkets. I always end up going to my local Asian supermarket whenever I get the craving to whip up a tofu dish. That’s why I decided to create a new tofu brand that was tasty, traditional, and widely accessible. It caters to home chefs and uses authentic, good quality ingredients.

ProQuo: It sounds like you’re really disrupting the category with your new product! Have you changed any preconceptions of tofu with your new launch?

Miso Tasty: The problem with tofu is a lot of people think it's bland, lacking in flavour, and has an inconsistent texture. We are tackling this stigma with our new range, which is handcrafted, premium, and flavorful, perfect for any tofu dish, whether it's scrambled, curried or fried.

Our craft tofu perfectly reflects Miso Tasty’s value proposition of making Japanese food less intimidating. We’re putting tofu on the map, making it more accessible, and opening it up to a wider group of people.

ProQuo: Can you tell us more about the marketing and promotional tactics you used to launch your new product?

Miso Tasty: Of course! We used PR and digital advertising to reach our target audience. Our Miso Tasty collection already has strong PR, so we knew food writers would be interested in our new product. To generate awareness of our tofu, we used digital advertising, timing the launch to coincide with Veganuary, as well as  lockdown, when people were home-based and cooking more for themselves.

We framed our marketing activities around three ProQuo Drivers: Relevance, Consistency and Accessibility. After we launched the craft tofu, we noticed an initial drop on the ProQuo platform in Consistency. We quickly shifted our strategy to account for this, and are so happy to see Relevance, Performance and Connection rising! The ProQuo platform helped us to monitor the impact of our actions in real-time, allowing us to adapt quickly when needed.

ProQuo: That’s so great to hear! Can you please tell me more about how the ProQuo platform has helped you and your team grow today?

Miso Tasty: We are growing very quickly and ProQuo supports this growth, enabling us to have a tighter focus on our marketing activities. It makes a huge difference going into a buyer meeting with the ProQuo intelligence, as we can show them real category trends, not just regular shopping metrics. We now never go to buyer meetings without our ProQuo stats!

The biggest benefit of ProQuo is that I now have more confidence in my actions, and don’t have to just rely on my gut feelings.

In the future, we’re looking forward to using the platform in more depth, not just for analyzing results but also for planning upcoming campaigns.