Projects · Mariya Valui
Nashé: from product to business model
Consumer understanding, competitor analysis and the route to market.
Nashé was a team university venture exploring a cottage-cheese snack brand for the UK. My individual project report examined how an unfamiliar product could find its first customers, explain its value and choose a route to market.
My contribution
Business-model analysis, competitor positioning and routes to market, documented in my individual project report.
Status
University venture project.
The business question
The product format was familiar in parts of Eastern Europe but less familiar to the wider UK audience we were considering. A snack therefore needed more than a recipe and packaging: the business had to explain what it was, who it was for and why someone would try it.
My contribution
I compared the proposed Nashé model with an established dairy brand, Biotiful. The comparison helped me examine consumer education, product focus and distribution. I used it to analyse a possible route for Nashé.
The choices in my analysis
The report proposed beginning with audiences already familiar with the product and using that familiarity as a starting point for wider discovery. It considered a digital-first, direct-to-consumer approach in London, where delivery would be easier to organise, alongside content explaining the product and its cultural roots.
I also examined the sequence of expansion: start with one product line, learn how to communicate it and consider selected retail locations after establishing a brand presence.
The route-to-market logic
- Start with familiarityConsider an initial audience that already understands the product format.
- Explain the productUse product storytelling and clear presentation to help unfamiliar customers understand it.
- Focus the first routeExplore a London-focused, direct-to-consumer model and one initial product line.
- Consider the next channelEvaluate selected retail opportunities as a later step in the proposed strategy.
What I took from the project
A business model needs to connect the product with the way customers discover, understand and buy it. Competitor analysis is useful when it exposes those decisions. For Nashé, the central issue was the order in which to build familiarity, communicate the product and expand distribution.
That way of thinking also informs my technology work: begin with the customer or business problem, then make the product and route to use fit it.