My Time at Fix8 Kombucha – Liisbet Hellenurme

Date:June 14, 2022

Category:Industry Experience, Level 5, Media & Communication

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Industry Experience Module

MY TIME AT FIX8 KOMBUCHA

LIISBET HELLENURME

Introduction:

This report will reflect how my 4-weeks placement at the Fix8 kombucha company changed my perception of the management of a small company and the world of kombucha. I learned about processes of running a business, product development and the importance of social media marketing. This experience made me realise that I want to get a job in marketing and helped me prepare for the future in the industry.

Overview

Company that I did my work experience in is registered as Yeast Meets West 2.0, and named Fix8 Kombucha. It is a small company that specialises in craft kombucha. It is under the UK food & beverage industry (The Working Centre, n.d.). Kombucha is raw fermented tea, made from four simple ingredients: tea, sugar, water, and live kombucha cultures, as known as SCOBY (Smith & Kubala, 2020). The company was started in 2018 by Freya Twigden, who became obsessed with kombucha when she was living in Shanghai. When she came back to London, she was trying to find kombucha here, but it was hard to find, so the idea for the company started. Before starting Fix8, she travelled around the United States to learn more about brewing. She went to Portland, Oregon because they have a lot of microbreweries there to learn from and ended up working at a pickle shop in San Francisco for a month, to learn more about fermentation (Makers Met, 2020). After having learned enough about fermentation and kombucha brewing, she came back to London, and started her own brand in 2018. Fix8 currently sells 3 flavours of kombucha: strawberry tulsi, triple ginger and citrus saffron. Compared to the UK kombucha market competition, Fix8 is a small company, but they do very well. It is currently run by 2 people: Freya Twidgen, who is the founder and Fayz Ahmed, who is the partner. They usually split the tasks evenly, but Freya is focusing more on the creative and communication side of business and Fayz on the financial and funding.

Their main goal as a company is to make drinking kombucha a positive addiction. Their main customer base are health conscious men and women who work out regularly and care about their health (Doemland, 2019). Since the brand distributes to health food stores and yoga studios around London, the people who buy Fix8 have a naturally active and health- focused lifestyle, but the brand wants to reach more and more people. Currently, Fix8 is available in over 300 independent coffee shops, delis and restaurants, and we’re online at Ocado and also available in Whole Foods Market, on their own website and soon they will restock on Amazon where they used to sell previously (Novuna, 2021). Some examples of places Fix8 is stocked are: Selfridges, Fortnum and Masons and Whole Foods Market (Knox Richmond, 2020).

As a brand they want to focus on the positive addiction aspect of drinking kombucha and urban lifestyle. Their goal is to talk about kombucha through that, as opposed to just talking about the drink itself. Brand themes for Fix8 are: contemporary wellness trends, urban art & culture and millennial causes & concerns. The brand wants to connect with people, be relatable, start conversations and build a loyal community. Visually: expressing the irresistibility, obsessiveness and buzz are important for the company and they want to show it through their social media and website design (B&B Studio, 2019). The brand loves to use vibrant colours and abstract art in their communications and design. What I found the most impressive when I started at Fix8 was how many Instagram followers they’ve got. The first post was posted in June 2018 and in January 2022 they have 10,3k followers. Within 3 years that small company has grown an impressive follower base and they’ve done it all organically. They have never paid an agency and have only done a few promoted posts on Instagram. Organic growth usually takes a lot of time unless you build a very successful marketing campaign and get trending, but somehow Fix8 has done a very good job.

Process of recruitment

When I first started looking for a work placement, my focus was only on production companies and advertising agencies. I researched different agencies in London, looked at their work and if I liked what they had done, I reached out to enquire about internship opportunities. Some companies I emailed, some I seeked out an HR person in the company and contacted them. I only heard back from 2 agencies. First one said that they can’t take on any new people before the new year so I had to keep looking. The second company invited me to a video interview, but I never heard back from them after it. I was not sure if I’d be able to find anything at that point. I told my friends about this issue and one of them knew Freya. They had met up a few weeks prior and Freya had told him how she has a lot of work to do and could use some help, especially with social media and marketing. Since she runs Fix8 alone with 1 other person, they have a very small team and both of them have a lot on their plate. I got her email from my friend, emailed her and offered to help in the company with their social media, research and planning. She got back to me and said that she would love me to help, since it is basically just her and one other person running the company at the moment. We agreed that I’d start on the 13th of December and work twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays until the 14th of January. They have an office in Marylebone and I could choose every week if I preferred to go there or work from home. Intro to the company was very friendly and thorough. First, we met up with Freya at a cafe and she explained the company to me, told me the story of how it started, what the company has gone through and how they’ve developed. We got to know each other a little better and she asked me to be open about what I was looking for from this experience and if there’s any other aspect of running a company I’d like to get involved in. I told her that marketing and branding interest me and that would be a perfect starting point. She made it very clear that even after this month-long internship period was over, she would kindly offer to stay for longer, since there’s always something to help with. Going into this opportunity, getting experience was the most important for me. To gain transferable skills and to have something to add to my CV. Working for a cool brand that I personally like was all a big bonus.The role she offered me was Social Media and Partnerships Intern. I would have a chat with her every week and we would discuss that week’s goals and to-do lists. I would report directly to Freya with any questions or concerns. I was sent a document with the things I’d set out to achieve during the placement. I would do as much as I could in the month. From then I was hired and she agreed to sign all the University documents before I’d officially start with the role.

The work and achievements

I started on the 13th of December and because it was a week before the holidays, Freya and I agreed that it’d be better if we worked from home just to ensure covid safety and not risk getting ill before everybody had to fly. The first day I started by acquainting myself with the company and products. I was sent the document with brand values and moodboards to get a better feel for it. Then I’d spend some time researching the target audience for kombucha, research the kombucha market and competitors. That was my focus in the first week. When the holiday week came, Freya and I had a call to discuss what I should be working and focusing on over the holidays. I could work on my own schedule and spread the work out over the 2 weeks of Christmas. We agreed that I would prioritise watching the video on Social Media Trends for 2022, start working on some creative for the social media including memes and graphic design and draft emails to be sent out for influencers and brands to collaborate with. I have to admit that I definitely took a week off during the Christmas break, being back home and enjoying the holidays with my family, but promised myself that I’d make up for all the lost time in the first week of January. Freya was very understanding and friendly, never pressuring me to do anything. The experience would be up to me and I would get exactly what I wanted out of this role.

In January I started by listening to the Social Media Trends for 2022 talk and made notes on everything useful to be implemented for the Fix8 brand. I had to pick out the most relevant tips for the brand and give my advice on how Fix8 could use those. Out of all 10 tips I chose: Social Shopping, Instagram Reels and Advertising Developments. I drafted a general email to be sent for brands and influencers for collaborations and worked on the creative. On the 13th January I finally got to go to the office at Marylebone. It was really good to catch up with Freya in person and meet Fayz who I hadn’t met yet. Both of them are very nice accommodating people and easy to work with. I showed Freya the work I had done over the holidays and introduced the collaboration ideas I had. First one: to collaborate with a salad and healthy food concept Atis (email added to appendix) and the second one: to contact Pastan, a vegan pasta restaurant in London and ask them if they’d want to sell Fix8 kombucha there. They both loved both of these ideas and are going to make them happen in upcoming months. I also wrote up all important dates for this year to plan the Instagram posting schedule and wrote down brands and influencers to collaborate with. For example, 21st February is World Kombucha Day and on that day, I scheduled a post that talks about the history of kombucha and wrote a brief history copy. I also wrote a copy on gut health tips and an introduction to kombucha. The day at the office was very productive and as it was the last official day of the work placement, my current experience ends here.

Self evaluation

I feel like I learned a lot during my month at Fix8. I gained new technical skills and improved on the ones I had already. From competencies, I got to know myself a little better and analysed what environment I work the best in. From the technical side, I learned how to use Planoly; Canva for branded content; improved my copywriting skills for posts; learned how to properly write a collaboration email and what to say in it; and thanks to the Media Trends video, I know what to expect in 2022. I had never used Planoly before and that’s the tool I had to use to schedule posts and write captions. Now I know how to use that platform and am confident there. I was taught how to sound professional and friendly at the same time and how important that is when reaching out to potential partners. One thing I noticed was how hard it is to find relevant information for my research. Since kombucha is such a new thing, there aren’t many good papers written on it. Maybe I didn’t dig deep enough so I’d like to improve my research skills as well. Going in I thought that the easiest part of the experience would be creative content and especially kombucha themed memes. I learned quickly that it’s not as easy as it seems and even if you think you have a good idea, others might hate it or think it’s inappropriate. I was reminded of the importance of keeping up with the news and current trends and I could do a better job keeping track. Moving forward, I will write down all the important news and trends I hear about so that I have an overview. I understood how important getting out of the house is for me to be creative and productive. Being at home it’s so easy to get distracted or unmotivated and that happened a lot. When at the office I was the most productive, sadly it was just 1 day of the experience. I have to work on self motivation when at home or find alternative places to work at. I want to learn more about the running of a business and insights of marketing. For example, I started a LinkedIn Learning course on SEO improvement for websites. I want to get better at the technical stuff and data analysis. I will definitely take a few courses before starting my next position. I felt confident in finding potential partners and writing a collaboration email. I feel like I had a good idea and hope it will be executed. I also enjoyed making the graphics for Instagram and feel like I understood the tone of the brand well and that helped me write good copy. I have so much more to learn and improve on, but I like the direction I’m going in.

Conclusion

Before my time at Fix8 I was still unsure what career path I wanted to take in the future but this work experience gave me confidence in moving forward into the direction of marketing. I am now certain that I want to get a role in marketing after I graduate and I will start looking for paid opportunities this year already. I still have to learn more, especially from the technical side. I feel like I’m more interested in the analytical planning side of marketing and turning data into insight. I experienced how good it is to work for good people. I have experienced unfair and unfriendly workplaces in the past but at Fix8 I felt like I belonged and was taken into consideration every step of the way, I was helped and all my questions were always answered. Moving forward, I have more confidence in communicating and expressing my ideas.