PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Coffee, milk, bread, juice, bacon. Some food products are superior to others in terms of their reach and scale. There are 36 different types of spaghetti sauce made by Ragu. Yet how often do we buy spaghetti sauce? Often enough to make a huge profit for Ragu, and still not as often as any of these other staples. With perhaps the exception of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and meats, almost all of the products on the supermarket shelves are relatively marginal. We may consume them occassionally, but nowhere near as frequently as the ones that we consume every day, or even multiple times every day. All sandwiches require bread. All cereal requires milk. It could be argued that the really big money is in these key items: products whereby product loyalty means consumers consuming a product, every single day, perhaps for the rest of their lives, in a product market that includes anybody that eats or drinks on a regular basis. That’s everybody. There are consumers that always have soy milk in their refrigerator. Some drink Coca-Cola every day, and always will. The main objective of this project would be to create a product in exactly this category, specifically, a brand of plain and flavored hemp milks.

PROJECT STRATEGY

Instead of creating a brand-new infrastructure from the ground up, it would be simpler and just as effective to select an existing hemp milk manufacturer to provide a variation of their own product (with adjusted ingredients/specifications), contained within the H Brand packaging. H Brand would then execute a vastly different marketing plan to all of the other products within the hemp milk market. The existing hemp milks on the market, Frenkenberger, Living Harvest, and Pacific Foods, are all packaged and marketed with ‘alternative’ branding styles. It’s as if they were designed to be marginalized. With the right strategy, hemp milk could overtake the competition in milk replacement products, incur on the traditional dairy product market, and become perhaps a heretofor underheard-of mainstream staple. 

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Hemp milk is a creamy beverage exremely similar to soy milk or rice milk. Hemp milk is creamier and nuttier than soy milk as well as being higher in nutritional value by far. People who have allergies to dairy, soy milk or tree nuts can safely drink hemp milk. It can be used in every situation that calls for dairy, soy or rice milk, and some that the others cannot. For instance, hemp milk is safe for nursing infants (in fact it’s the only natural product that can be used as a substitute for breast milk), as well as tea, coffee, soups, cereals, sauces, cocktails, smoothies and milkshakes. It's a product that can be used every day, by almost everybody. People LOVE the taste of hemp milk too. Most consumers are shocked that something could taste so natural, and yet some have never even heard of it.

INGREDIENTS

Hemp milk is made from water and the shelled seed of the hemp plant, which is actually a nut. The hemp ‘nut’ has a light, pleasant flavor and taste similar to toasted pine nuts. Hemp seeds have been cultivated as a food for centuries in all over Asia, Europe and Africa. Like rice and soy milk, a little honey or cane sugar is all you need to make it extra delicious. Cow’s milk has its own natural sugar; lactose.

HISTORY

Archaeologists agree that hemp was among the first crops cultivated by human beings up to 12,000 years ago, for everything from food and lamp fuel to fibre for rope and fabric. Amongst the founding fathers, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were all hemp farmers and processors. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on paper made from hemp, and the first American flag was made from hemp fiber. Only recently has hemp been allowed to grow again in countries across the world, including the UK and Canada.

 

NUTRITIONAL VALUE

The hemp seed is botanically speaking, a nut, and as a result, is packed with nutrition. It contains all the essential amino acids (protein building blocks) required for life and also the unsaturated fatty acids, in concentrated form. It even contains the rare gamma-linolenic acid, used by the body for cell renewal in skin, nerves and tissue along with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, fiber, phytonutrients and natural antioxidants like vitamin E. Hemp seeds may be the perfect food, and hemp milk, the perfect drink.

65% of hemp seeds’ protein is high-quality edestin, making them the highest vegan source of this simple protein that's required for proper immune system function. The other 35% is albumin protein. With live enzymes intact, hemp's digestible proteins are easily assimilated into the body, which is why hemp milk is a great alternative for those allergic to the proteins found in dairy and soy.

   

The polyunsaturated fats you find in hemp seeds are the good ones. Hemp seed may well contain, “Nature's most perfectly balanced oil” due to the fact that it contains the perfectly balanced 3:1 ratio of both the required essential fatty acids for long term human consumption.

Hemp milk is an excellent source of ALA (Alpha-Linolenic Acid) Omega-3 fatty acids. One serving of hemp milk provides about 50% of your daily value of Omega-3 EFA's. In fact, 92% of the fat content in hemp milk is Omega EFA's. Hemp milk provides almost 3 times the Omega-3's found in the leading soymilk brand, and more than double the Omega-6's. By contrast, almond, rice milk and dairy contain no Omega-3's and less than 100 mg of Omega-6's.

There are Omegas, and then there are Super Omegas. Hemp milk contains naturally-occurring Super Omegas Stearidonic Acid (SDA) and Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA). SDA and GLA help your body convert the benefits of Omega-3 & Omega-6 EFA's more efficiently. We don't all process these good fats the same way. SDA and GLA help everyone maximize the benefits of Omega EFA's. SDA and GLA are not found in flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, soybeans, pumpkin seeds, canola oil, corn oil, almonds, walnuts nor hazelnuts. Other sources of SDA are marine oils and other sources of GLA can be found in borage and primrose oils.

             

Hemp protein doesn't contain high levels of enzyme inhibitors, phytates, which are in soy milk (which can interfere with the proper assimilation of essential minerals) or oligosaccharides.

Hemp seeds have significant levels of arginine, histidine, methionine and cysteine, all of which are needed for enzyme production. Arginine and histidine are also necessary for children's growth.

One cup (8 ounces) provides 46% of your daily calcium and 43% of your phosphorus.

Hemp contains virtually no THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the psycho-active component found in marijuana. Drug varieties of Cannabis sativa produce 5% to 20% THC. Hemp foods contain 0.00% THC. They are legal and safe to consume. You will not flunk a drug test eating hemp foods.  

BRAND IDENTITY

Iconic brands have simple and iconic imagery. Symbolism has been used effectively as a means of representing values for tens of thousands of years. Religions use them, governments harness their power and corporations use them with just as great an effect. That is why Coca-Cola is possibly the most recognized image worldwide, the ubitiquous golden arches instantly say McDonalds and a simple swoosh means Nike. An extremely considered identity and image is not just about what is included, but what is omitted. Style is important.

The H brand packaging is intended to communicate even at a distance. It is honest and simple but contemporary. It has a giant green H on the front (just a little msyterious at first) to inspire the consumers’ curiosity. It is it's own advertisement. A teaser, designed first to draw attention and then to inspire confidence. The green softened heart is a symbol of all things wholesome and healthy, reflecting the product inside. It is designed to look like a first choice, and not an alternative, sitting right next to the brand leaders in the dairy aisle.

EXISTING MARKET

In North America, hemp seed food products are sold typically in health food stores or through mail order. The USDA estimates that “the market potential for hemp seed as a food ingredient is unknown. However, it probably will remain a small market, like those for sesame and poppy seeds.”

This seems like an invitation to do two things. First - create a gap in the market for those consumers that like dairy but would consider consuming hemp milk for its flavor and nutritional benefits. Second - to take advantage of the existing soy and rice milk markets. In 2002 the U.S. soy milk market alone was worth $800M.

Existing hemp and hemp milk products utilize imported sterilized hemp seed from Canada.

OBJECTIVES FOR H BRAND

Get the product on the shelves of Seven Eleven, Ralphs and Vons (Tecos, Asda, Sainsburys in the UK). These are the target accounts. By themselves they represent two seperate and massive potential hemp milk demographics, both of which would have to be catered for, seperately. In Seven Eleven, a single size (healthy) serving of chocolate and vanilla flavor hemp milk makes a perfect milkshake on the go. In the supermarkets, hemp milk (next to the soy milk in the refrigerator) is perfect for the family’s cereals and coffee. These markets will eclipse all others in terms of scale. 

COMPARIBLE MARKET SHIFTS

In 1998, the UK beverage company Innocent Drinks started with just over $750 of fresh fruit smoothies and carried out ‘product testing’ on the general public. Even with an eventual $400k investment from a venture capitalist, they did not have an unlimited marketing budget, and opted for their ‘friends’ to design them a simple, but sophisticated image and a brand identity that was very much their own. No similar products, at the time, had previously been available at gas stations and supermarkets. They created a market for fresh juices and smoothies using a distribution network that did not previously carry those type pf products. The upshot for consumers being that healthy beverages were now available at every convenience store and gas station in the UK. By 2009 Innocent Drinks sold 18% of their company to Coca-Cola for almost $50M. In 2010, Coca-Cola increased its stake to 58% for approximately another $100M. Now, Coca-Cola now over 90% of Innocent. The 100% natural drinks have since become as ubiquitous throughout the UK.

FUTURE EXPANSION

Hemp milk can come in many forms of flavor and convenience. Like other milks it can pasteurized and refrigerated or ultra heat treated (UHT) for a long shelf life and besides the more popular flavors there are potentially more exotic possibilities for the more adventurous palate. Hemp ice cream, hemp bars, hemp nut butter, hemp tofu and traditional hemp oil are also potential spin-offs that would derive great benefit from the associated product values and momentum created by a successful hemp milk product launch. The benefit of modern networks is the ability for feedback to inform the next direction.

LATERAL EXPANSION

According to wikipedia: “lateral expansion (sometimes known as horizontal expansion), in economics, is the growth of a business enterprise through the acquisition of similar companies, in the hope of achieving economies of scale or economies of scope.”

In the event of phenomenonal success, it would make fiscal sense to own the manufacturing and the farming elements of the process. If there was such an opportunity for such massive expansion it is tantalizing to reflect on the many other ways that industrial hemp can be profitable, however long range a vision that may be. In fact, the “by-products” from hemp farming are more valuable than the seed itself.

Hemp is one of the fastest growing biomasses known, producing up to 11 tonnes of dry matter per acre every year (3-8 dry tons of fiber per acre, four times as much as an average forest can yield), and as it is one of the earliest domesticated plants known, it requires no pesticides or herbicides; a saving both financialy and environmentally. Unlike many crops, hemp growing requires no ‘rotation crop’ every few years whereby farmers must grow beans to put nitrogen back into the soil. Hemp improces the quality of the soil year after year and ensures an income year after year as a result. It is also what is known as a "dual-income" crop for farmers, as both seeds and fiber can be processed. There are supposedly over 25,000 applications for hemp.

The fiber is actually one of the most valuable parts of the hemp plant. It is commonly called bast, which refers to the fibers that grow on the outside of the woody interior of the plant's stalk, and under the outer most part (the bark). Bast fibers give the plants strength. Hemp fibers can be between approximately 0.91 m (3 ft) and 4.6 m (15 ft) long, running the length of the plant. Hemp shives are the core of the stem. In Europe, they are used for bedding (horse bedding for instance), or for horticultural mulch. Industrial hemp is much more profitable if both fibers and shives can be used.

Areas suitable for growing hemp

Historically it has produced the finest oil and fibres obtainable from nature for food, fabric, paper, ropes, inks, paint and canvas. Currently there is a resurgence in hemp manufacturing - so much so, that worldwide demand is currently greater than supply. For many poducts, hemp is the only option, and besides traditionally prized oil from the seed used for food and cosmetics, recently there have been advances in the utilzation of the fibres. For example, German car manufacturers BMW and mercedes use the fibres for vehicle parts and panels and in Europe and China, the same fibres can also be used in prototype quanitites with great success to strengthen concrete, fibre glass and any building construction material that requires added tensile strength.

Henry Ford grew industrial hemp on his estate after 1937. He made a plastic car (he called it the Hemp Car) with wheat straw, hemp and sisal. Filtered hemp oil can be used directly to power diesels. In 1892, Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine, which he intended to fuel by a variety of fuels, especially vegetable and seed oils.

Biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol fuel can be made from the oils in hemp seeds and stalks, and the fermentation of the plant, respectively. Biodiesel produced from hemp is sometimes known as hempoline. In Brazil, almost all of production vehicles run on bio-ethanol which is made from sugar cane and maize grown domestically. Just the growing of hemp results in carbon sequestration helping to slow climate change.

Today, hemp is grown in most industrialized nations of the world, excluding the U.S., but federal law that prevents hemp being farmed in America is currently being challenged by multiple states and their contradicting state laws. These cases may be settled this year, and if they are in favor of hemp farming, the floodgates could be opened for what, in 1938, Popular Mechanics called “the billion dollar crop” to be consumed and exported by America (along with all countries with suitable farmland), creating a cascade of jobs and prosperity from the soil itself. It's a real natural renewable energy, that could fuel the people, and the world economy.

Not only is hemp a historical dual-income boom crop with abundant lateral expansion opportunities in a variety of industries, hemp milk is its best strategic entry product. Naturally delicious and nutrionally superior to the competition, with the right iconic and inviting marketing, hemp milk can take its place next to, or replace soy and rice milk in supermarkets and convenience stores around the world. Unlike those products, hemp milk could even win over traditional milk drinkers, too. Its straightforward production process can easily be delegated to an existing manufacturer. Truly, no one has yet tapped hemp milk's mainstream potential in what could be a billion dollar market in the U.S. alone.

Genesis 3:17-18  To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife's voice, and have eaten of the tree..... In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles will it bring forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.”

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