Beverage Startups
ZÜPA NOMA Ready-to-Sip Soup
ZÜPA NOMA Soup Line
Today living in a rush is a daily thing. People claim that rushing is a natural procedure for them and they even have gotten used to a fast speed of walking. To live a healthy lifestyle, eating food and taking vitamins are linked. The new brand ZÜPA NOMA is offering consumers a quick daily meal product in their busy schedules – it‘s healthy and flavorful soup in a bottle. The products are organic and suitable for people with various allergies. Today, we have an opportunity to talk to one of the ZÜPA NOMA team members about their product.
ZÜPA NOMA is a very practical product these days. How did you come up with an idea to create this kind of product?
While I was traveling throughout Europe, I saw that gazpacho was everywhere—from fine restaurants to roadside pitstops for chilled soup on-the-go. In America, this is simply not as commonplace. We think of soup as a can of Campbell‘s. I felt that we at Sonoma Brands could reinvent gazpacho in an on-the-go, organic way to combine the culinary traditions of Sonoma with the European roots of gazpacho to disrupt the soup industry.
ZÜPA NOMA offers a lot of different and tasty soups. How did you find the best flavors and recipes?
Growing up in Sonoma, I‘ve been surrounded by the rich culinary heritage of the region. Flavor and freshness are a part of everyday life here and in creating ZÜPA NOMA flavor profiles, a commitment to great taste and great nutrition was key. To maintain the bright flavors and the nutrients of our fresh, organic produce, we use High Pressure Processing (HPP). We have created a roster of flavors that range from sweet to spicy with powerhouse ingredients and superfoods seasonings such as coconut, turmeric and pumpkin seeds.
At the moment, ZÜPA NOMA is offering 6 different soups. Do you see the need to expand ZÜPA NOMA‘s portfolio?
We are staying perfectly curious and nimble-minded. We are very open to customer feedback, are listening to what consumers want through our ongoing field marketing and taste tests and are always exploring new flavor profiles.
Today, ZÜPA NOMA is available only to US consumers. Do you have plans to expand and offer these products to international consumers? If yes, to which countries?
Currently, we are focusing on growing the brand within the U.S. to reinvent the gazpacho and chilled soup category in the American marketplace.
Who is the ideal consumer of ZÜPA NOMA?
I think that our two brand partners in Ayesha Curry and Meredith Kessler perfectly display how varied our audience is. Ayesha is a cookbook author and busy mother who fits ZÜPA NOMA into her life as an on-the-go snack and meal that suits her busy lifestyle. Meanwhile, Meredith Kessler, Ironman Champion, has incorporated ZÜPA NOMA on a daily basis into her training regime. Nutrition and quality ingredients are important to both of our partners, and the ZÜPA NOMA customers also value the high-quality, organic ingredients that are available in a convenient, on-the-go way.
When creating an innovative brand, there is a lot of space to make mistakes. What were the main challenges you faced when working on ZÜPA NOMA soups?
ZÜPA NOMA is a product that is in an emerging category without an established market leader. This is a challenge and driving customer trial when you are a category disrupting brand is essential. In order to educate consumers and drive trial, we have a dedicated team for field marketing. We’ve distributed roughly 9,000 samples, directly leading to more than 4,000 bottles sold thus far. We absolutely depend on trial to introduce the category and grow the brand by creating new customers through meaningful experiences, who will then tell their friends.
What competitive advantages does ZÜPA NOMA have when comparing it to similar products?
As we are reintroducing soup as an emerging category, we have found that people often make comparisons to bottled juices or to canned soup. However, juice has absolutely no fiber and ZÜPA NOMA has as much fiber as an entire apple or a cup of broccoli. Additionally, on average, cold pressed juice can contain up to 50g of sugar and a can of soup can have up to 5000mg of sodium. ZÜPA NOMA offers as little as 4 grams of sugar per bottle (90% less than most ‘green’ juices on the market.) and 80% less sodium as most canned soups (and it’s from evaporated sea water, not soy or iodized salt).
It‘s also no secret that people often do not get in their daily servings of veggies. With ZÜPA NOMA , someone can conveniently have up to six servings of veggies per bottle. When choosing a snack, you could choose a sugar-filled bar or juice, or you could choose a soup swap to be ensured high-quality ingredients, fresh taste and great nutrition. This swap is simple, yet makes an impact with a filling, better-for-you snack that allows you to DRINK YOUR VEGGIES.
For more information visit Zupa Noma website.
