Healthy Asian ready-to-eat meals for the young and old
Food innovators, Green Capsule Organics, worked with IPI’s Innovation Advisors to market and effectively position their uniquely Asian ready-to-eat meals for babies and the elderly.
Breaking into a market already dominated by big name brands is no easy feat—especially for an SME. This was one of the major obstacles that faced Green Capsule Organics in their bid to enter the baby and elderly food industry over the last year.
To expand beyond their roots as an importer and distributor of organic food products and personal care items, Green Capsule decided to take advantage of a gap in the Asian baby food market and establish their own brand of baby and elderly food that can cater to local tastes.
Founded by Alice Foo and Lam Soo Sing in 2013, the SME has since promoted numerous products that abide by its “Eat well, Feel well” principle. According to the company website, Alice, who faced kidney failure at only 19 years old, was inspired to form a company with a mission to provide organic and healthy food products that can empower people to take charge of their health and well being.
However, successfully competing in a highly-saturated market demands a unique selling point. With the help of IPI’s Innovation Advisor (IA) Programme, founders Foo and Lam were able to work with IAs Brigitte Zeller and Ramachandran Rajamanickam to lay the brand foundations for two of their product lines: Deliciously Bib and Recipe with Love.
Having worked in Asia for 25 years with global companies like Unilever, Nestle, and Fonterra, IA Brigitte played a crucial role in the process of refining the Deliciously Bib's brand story and architecture. "We chose to work with IA Brigitte as we find her expertise in marketing, branding and innovation to be a good match to our needs to develop a new baby food brand," said Lam.
IA Brigitte also shared her expertise in package design, product pricing, and market research, providing Foo and Lam with a scoring framework to identify priority export markets based on each country's qualities. The power of a brand’s narrative, according to IA Brigitte, should not be underestimated. “It is important that the new value proposition has a clear and consistent story to be understood and trusted by consumers,” she explained.
As for Recipe with Love, Green Capsule’s ready-to-eat meals for the elderly, Foo and Lam decided to work with IA Ramachandran for his rich background in the functional food industry, having worked as Abbott Nutrition’s VP for Asia Pacific. Adopting IA Ramachandran's insights on the nutritional needs of the elderly, the company is currently in collaboration with the Food Innovation & Resource Centre to develop a new range of elderly food products. Apart from assisting in packaging designs, IA Ramachandran also helped Green Capsule fine-tune their sales channels—advising the start-up to focus on connecting with doctors, clinics and nursing homes on top of increasing supermarket exposure.
More than anything, Green Capsule and the IAs underscore the value of team chemistry in their success—something they all enjoyed throughout the programme. “Green Capsule was also willing to take a step back and look at the big picture versus being ‘locked’ into what they have always been doing—so it was an enriching experience,” shared IA Ramachandran.
Green Capsule also lauded IA Brigitte who proactively conducted market research for the start-up. “It gave us a really good overall insight into the export baby food market in Asia without having to travel there personally. She did this without us asking. She understood and anticipated our needs,” said Lam.
Green Capsule is set to assimilate Deliciously Bib and Recipe with Love under the overarching brand of Organic7days—a project they have also decided to pursue with the help of IPI’s IA programme.
According to Green Capsule, they are incredibly grateful to IPI for introducing them to industry veterans who saved them from hefty consultation fees and supported them through steep learning curves. Looking ahead, Green Capsule has started working with strategic narrative specialist IA Mike Amour to rebrand Organic7days. So far, IA Mike has helped the team sharpened the company's current brand purpose as well as refining a mission statement to create a more focused brand story for customers.
“Having a coach means we have external deadlines, accountability, or ‘homework’. As SME owners, it compels us to focus on longer-term objectives which are often lost within our daily grind of things,” they shared.
Breaking into the baby and elderly food market posed significant hurdles for Green Capsule Organics. As a small and medium-sized enterprise competing against established global brands, gaining traction and visibility in a highly saturated market was challenging.
Green Capsule sought to expand beyond its role as an importer and distributor by creating its own product lines of baby food and elderly meals tailored to local Asian tastes. However, successfully entering this competitive space required a clear value proposition, strong brand identity, and effective market positioning.
—areas where the founders recognized the need for external support. Additionally, the company faced the challenge of understanding and addressing the specific nutritional needs of both babies and the elderly, as well as navigating the complexities of packaging design, product pricing, and identifying priority export markets. Without the resources of larger competitors, Green Capsule needed a strategic approach to stand out and effectively reach their target audiences.
The founders recognised that building new brands from the ground up would require expertise in branding, product development for the specific nutritional needs of both babies and the elderly, pricing strategy, as well as navigating the complexities of packaging design and product pricing. In addition, the company needed guidance in understanding export market opportunities and identifying the most effective sales channels for its products.
IPI Singapore connected Green Capsule Organics with experienced Innovation Advisors through its Innovation Advisory, providing tailored guidance in branding, marketing, and product development. Founders Alice Foo and Lam Soo Sing worked closely with IA Brigitte Zeller and IA Ramachandran Rajamanickam to establish the brand foundations for two product lines: Deliciously Bib, a baby food brand, and Recipe with Love, a range of ready-to-eat meals for the elderly.
With more than 25 years of experience working with global companies such as Unilever, Nestlé, and Fonterra, IA Brigitte Zeller played a pivotal role in refining the brand story and architecture of Deliciously Bib. She also provided expertise in packaging design, product pricing, and market research, and developed a scoring framework to help Green Capsule identify and prioritise export markets across Asia, ensuring a strategic approach to market entry.
For the Recipe with Love product line, IA Ramachandran Rajamanickam contributed his deep knowledge of the functional food industry, drawing from his experience as Abbott Nutrition’s Vice President for Asia Pacific. He advised the team on the nutritional needs of elderly consumers and supported product development in collaboration with the Food Innovation & Resource Centre. IA Ramachandran also helped refine sales channels by recommending outreach to doctors, clinics, and nursing homes alongside traditional supermarket distribution.
Beyond product development, IPI continued supporting Green Capsule through additional advisory expertise. Strategic narrative specialist IA Mike Amour worked with the team to strengthen the overarching Organic7days brand by sharpening its brand purpose, refining its mission statement, and developing a more focused brand story.
Through the combined expertise of multiple Innovation Advisors, Green Capsule was able to strengthen its brand strategy, refine product positioning, and build a clearer roadmap for growth in the competitive health food market.
"We chose to work with IA Brigitte as we find her expertise in marketing, branding and innovation to be a good match to our needs to develop a new baby food brand. The findings from her market research gave us a really good overall insight into the export baby food market in Asia without having to travel there personally. She did this without us asking. She understood and anticipated our needs.
In addition, having a coach means we have external deadlines, accountability, or 'homework'. As SME owners, it compels us to focus on longer-term objectives which are often lost within our daily grind of things."
"It is important that the new value proposition has a clear and consistent story to be understood and trusted by consumers."
"Green Capsule was also willing to take a step back and look at the big picture versus being 'locked' into what they have always been doing, so it was an enriching experience."
Green Capsule Organics is a Singapore-based SME founded by Alice Foo and Lam Soo Sing in 2013. Originally established as an importer and distributor of organic food and personal care products, the company is driven by the mission to provide organic and healthy food products that empower people to take charge of their health and well-being.
Inspired by Alice’s personal health journey, the company promotes products guided by its principle: “Eat well, Feel well”. Seeking to expand beyond distribution, Green Capsule identified an opportunity to develop its own brands of healthy Asian ready-to-eat meals tailored for babies and the elderly.