Tawnya Falkner Of Le Grand Courtâge On 5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand

An Interview With Martita Mestey

Palate — Understand how and why your brand resonates in taste compared to the competition. Do blind taste tests against competition and get people’s feedback as to taste, texture and mouthfeel. Feedback is sometimes painful, but learn to see it as a blessing as it can save a ton of time and money.

As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tawnya Falkner.

American woman, Tawnya Falkner, took the leap and gave up her career to move to France and combine her love of food, wine and travel. The journey resulted in Le Grand Courtâge, a sparkling wine, and ​Très Chic Rosé. Her goal was to create an affordable luxury which elevates and celebrates the every day and embodies the French spirit of the joie de vivre (joy of life).

Tawnya has successfully raised capital and built the brand into a true national player with the wines scoring 90+ point and having amassed marquee accounts in a competitive category.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in a 3-street farming town across from the general store. While people didn’t have money, some of my fondest memories are Sunday dinners and backyard barbecues and I was fortunate that ‘farm to table’ was my reality before that was a coined term. Those small-town beginnings evoked a wanderlust, and my favorite possession as a child was my globe and National Geographic — I yearned to see the world. Despite humble beginnings and being the first in my family to go to college, I’ve always followed the unconventional path. At 19 I moved to Europe to study, and I later lived in Asia for work. After traveling extensively, I realized that food and drink are the common thread that brings friends and family together.

I took the leap, gave up my career as a real estate developer living in San Francisco, and moved to Burgundy, France to create wines which embody the French spirit of the joie de vivre after seeing a gap in the category on price, palate and packaging. I saw an opportunity to re-envision the French wine category. Since champagne is expensive, I wanted to create an affordable everyday luxury with balanced, fruit forward wines that delight the palate. My goal was to create a momentary escape to the romance of the French countryside. This journey resulted in creating Le Grand Courtâge, French sparkling wines, and Très Chic Rosé, a Provence-style still rosé.

Le Grand Courtâge, which translates as “the great courtship,” is meant to symbolize my story as an American working with the French, blending grapes from different regions and the Old and New World winemaking traditions converging.

Can you share with us the story of the “ah ha” moment that led to the creation of the food or beverage brand you are leading?

My “ah ha” moment came during an annual champagne tasting at Arlequin in San Francisco. I’d always loved the dance of the bubbles on the tongue, and the amazing pairability of bubbles, but at this particular event after tasting some of the best champagnes, the consensus among friends was that a lighter styled, less doughy profile was our favorite. I also asked what grabbed their eye visually, and most had the same opinion that it was the prettiest bottle. I remember two bottles in particular standing out because they were clear and modern feeling.

The second epiphany occurred at a monthly wine tasting with friends where we asked people to bring sparkling wines under $25 and of course some brought expensive champagnes. What won the blind tasting was a $13 wine that had a lighter palate with a hint of floral on the finish. This softer profile resonated, and it was that night that I thought about the level of traditionalism and lack of innovation in a lot of French wines with green glass, and “Domaine this” or “Chateau that” and rectangle labels. These two events led me to believe that there was an opportunity to create a delicate taste profile, combined with beautiful packaging and an affordable price.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Early on I knew that in order to put the brand on the map I had to land a few notable accounts. On the back of our bottles, it says ‘embrace life, dream big, accept all invitations’ and as Richard Branson is all about taking risks, I thought my story would resonate so I set out to pitch Virgin America in San Francisco.

After a year of stalking them and being the proverbial squeaky wheel, I was finally given the opportunity to work with them and I negotiated first position on their digital menus on their seatbacks. The final conditions precedent before signing a contract was to produce a prototype for them to test in-flight. The current label on our mini 187ml bottles was a wet glue application, and we needed to do a pressure sensitive label (a sticker) for them. I spent $10,000 on a custom die and limited production run, sent the product for testing and voila, we were approved. We launched on our first flight a few months later.

The excitement quickly dissipated as I was sent a nastygram with photos of our labels coming off the bottle in flight, which was clearly not acceptable for the airline’s image, and certainly didn’t leave a great first impression for Le Grand Courtâge. The person who I’d primarily negotiated with apparently never actually tested the product in-flight before signing the contract and was no longer with the company. Virgin was threatening breach of contract and that there would be damages if I didn’t rectify the solution immediately.

What I was not aware of was the fact that all products were put in an ice bin and would fly across the country and back again. Our wine, beer cans, milk cartons, etc. were all together and therefore the ice, water and products were causing the labels to be waterlogged and mutilated. The bottom line is we needed a different type of waterproof paper with a protective coating — more like a shampoo bottle — so that it wouldn’t be damaged by the water.

I had already shipped 70,000 bottles of the initial 200,000 bottle purchase order, and it takes a few months to produce and ship product via ocean freight. There was no quick resolve, so I shut my office door and became laser focused on brainstorming options. I came up with the idea of a custom zip lock bag for every bottle until I could deliver new product and we sourced a company to create it for us. I was given the approval from Virgin as a short-term solution, and then a few days later they came back and said that as they were a ‘green company’ and plastic bags were banned in CA, this was no longer an option. In a panic I saw my world falling apart, until I thought of dry ice. Shockingly, I convinced Virgin to reconfigure their cart bays to keep our product cold, and found a path forward and defied the odds.

Had I not found a solution, I could have lost my company over the debacle, but in the end, I gained respect for being solution oriented and it reminded me to think way outside of the box.

The error wasn’t funny or my fault, however I took responsibly and learned to never assume or take anything for granted. Be that annoying person who asks a ton of questions. You don’t know what you don’t know, and others make mistakes or don’t think to relay key details. Now I trust but validate. I look back and laugh at the irony of our labels falling off when the placement was to be our billboard and way to forge new business. Also, I realized the boldness of going after such a big account so early. In hindsight, make sure you have the supply chain, quality control, etc. or that ‘win’ can become the death nail.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a food or beverage line? What can be done to avoid those errors?

People can often fall in love with the product versus the problem they are trying to solve. Business owners often get too excited and rush to market without having a viable, let alone sustainable strategy, or they try to get to perfect versus creating and testing an MVP (minimum viable product). I believe that you iterate, pivot, and if necessary, fail fast. Conduct focus groups and learn from the critique and criticism as they are an opportunity for correction. Do taste tests and ask people’s candid opinion, and genuinely listen. I often say that I’m not trying to be right, rather I’m trying to be successful, and feedback is invaluable.

Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to produce. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Let the internet be your best friend and search extensively to see if anything like your product or name exists — stats, articles, closest competition, pricing. Be honest with yourself about the pros and cons of the closest ideas, and why yours stands apart. I also am a big fan of utilizing a SWOT analysis to think about your hypothetical finished product down the line, and consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your brand. Entrepreneurs are optimists by nature and take risks, but investors and distributors will have questions and find flaws so it’s better to be a pessimist and try to address all the concerns, so you are more measured.

Many people have good ideas all the time. But some people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. How would you encourage someone to overcome this hurdle?

Far too many people are great at conceptualization, but bad at execution. Work hard to hire people that aren’t just like you and who aren’t just going to tell you what you want to hear. Launching a business is a team sport and a pivotal part of the process must be bringing in an advisory board, building a team, and learning to check your ego.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

Innovation often comes from people outside of industries and while there is merit with consultants in certain arenas, you don’t want an echo chamber or people that can’t see your vision and are naysayers. Of course, there is merit in expediting the process and shortening the time to achieve things, but be careful to protect your IP, and learn to quiet the critics. I also feel there is huge benefit in understanding the entire process instead of leaning too heavily on consultants, as it will make you more effective as you scale.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

What people don’t talk about is defining what ‘success’ is to each individual, and knowing their long-term objective and if you desire to sell down the line. The U.S. is very fixated on the ‘exit’ and being acquired for millions, but it’s important for an entrepreneur to understand those tradeoffs and what it takes. Also, some entrepreneurs are more interested in a recurring revenue stream or a legacy to pass down to their children versus just growing quickly to sell. When you raise PE or VC funds, you need to understand the expectations and implications. I personally believe it is good to bootstrap until you test of some things, and then you can raise a little further down the line. There is an important nexus/consideration about dilution and impairing growth.

It is important to discuss angel, professional investors, private equity, and venture capital as there are pros and cons and different things to understand for each funding avenue and when appropriate to explore.

Can you share thoughts from your experience about how to file a patent, how to source good raw ingredients, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer or distributor?

Spend the money for trademark or patent lawyers as applicable for your business. Don’t just do the quick and dirty online search and think you are in the clear only to find out you have an infringement or someone challenging your mark down the line. You don’t want to get well into it with a product only to lose it.

With respect to sourcing ingredients, finding suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors, do your homework and take nothing for granted. Do not take anyone’s word for it. Get references and ask several other CPG brands who they recommend and try to join a mastermind and industry groups, so you have a network to uplevel and ask questions. These partners are essential to the success of your business and there are a lot of people whose standards and expectations are different from yours.

As competition is steep, it’s harder to get brokers or distributors than many realize, so try to land some notable wins on your own as that will help people take note and give you some leverage in negotiating. The Virgin airlines deal I mentioned above is what put us on the map.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand” and why?

To start with, for a successful company or brand, you need resilience, stamina, a positive attitude, comfort with a fairly high level of uncertainty and risk, and a strong company culture. Beyond those, there are 8 Ps that I refer to, but will hone in on 5 for this article. In total, I believe product, packaging, palate, price, people, positioning, place, and promotion all factor into the branding and marketing mix. Very importantly, I firmly believe you need to fall in love with the problem you are solving, not the solution (aka the product).

In today’s society we eat and drink with our eyes and make assumptions based on package, price, and descriptors before we decide to buy — — the last thing we experience is taste. As I have an architecture and design background, I joke that I used to design buildings, but now design bottles and that shelf slot is very expensive real estate.

First impressions matter. It’s true in an interview, on a date, in a restaurant and on the shelf. In this instance, a consumer’s first interaction with a product is through packaging, and in a crowded, retail environment, that encounter is over in about seven seconds. A brand has a few seconds for the conscious and subconscious to register if what you say and show rings true and makes sense.

Consumers make assumptions as to whether your packaging matches the price and product inside. When everything is aligned, it boosts consumer confidence which in turn, leads to sales. Similarly, consumers can sense brand disparity. If there is a disconnect it’s a reason for consumers to question your product’s value. Packaging is proven to influence sales and brand loyalty. When pricing precedes design, branding gets squeezed in, and positioning gets marginalized.

Packaging is a branded experience and the below all factor into the overarching “product” that you are creating.

1. Position — Understand the competition intently and decide how you desire to position your brand, and the space you want to own compared to the other brands within the same category (think about the range within a category like a pen (Mont Blanc vs Bic) or a shoe (Nike vs Payless) or handbag (Steve Madden vs Louis Vuitton). Spend time early on thinking about your unique selling position, tagline, distribution, key accounts, channels, competition, audience and define where you ideally see your brand sold. I’m a firm believer that you must define the destination to develop the road map to get there, and develop a multi-pronged marketing approach.
2. Price — Following the above, it’s important to consider those factors and understand whether you want to position between the low-cost leaders and premium products, and that will help inform what you want and where to spend. You need to understand your component costs now versus at a moderate scale so you can decide the pricing based upon the competitive set and the overall COGS (cost of goods), while weighing net profit and gross margins. Get as much intel as you can about metrics in your category to see how you index for S&M, SG&A etc.
3. Palate — Understand how and why your brand resonates in taste compared to the competition. Do blind taste tests against competition and get people’s feedback as to taste, texture and mouthfeel. Feedback is sometimes painful, but learn to see it as a blessing as it can save a ton of time and money.
4. Packaging — Your positioning and price points help define the packaging spends, but think about the name, logo, and overall packaging, and what will make you stand out on the shelf. I also believe it’s important to think about both today and 30 years from now and what will resonate and stand the test of time. For us, we wanted to be ‘on trend’ but not ‘trendy’. Our objective was timeless, elegant but modern. When conducting focus groups ask people’s thoughts on what they think your pricing would be based upon the packaging and let that help inform adjustments before you launch at scale.
5. People — Spend a lot of time thinking about the human experience and scale. Carefully consider your ideal core age targets. I believe in assigning an identity and creating a hypothetical shopper. We called ours Collette ​Courtâge and defined what she would like, how and where she shops, and what matters to her. We defined demographic and psychographics such as personality, values, lifestyle, social media usage, activities, and where we thought ‘she’ would spend her time to help narrow in on many product and marketing decisions since it impacts how we spend our time and money building the brand.

Can you share your ideas about how to create a product that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?

The true value of a brand is the promise it delivers to your consumer — it resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects.

I believe what really creates brand affinity and loyalty is developing a deeper emotional connection that comes from experience-based, aspirational messaging which evokes a feeling and connection to the brand, founders’ story and ethos and which drives curiosity, and a desire to share about the brand.

In a fast paced, on the go, achieve and ‘do’ society, Le Grand ​Courtâge really tries to capitalize on what we call the ‘champagne state of mind” and reminding people that life is a special occasion, and we need to take a few minutes to focus on joy and make time to elevate and celebrate the every day. If a Nike running shoe can be made sexy and evoke emotion, then surely a sparkling wine can tap into a stay-cation state of mind or the me-time/self-care movement.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

We are a woman owned and led company and we give back and support various female-centric charities and causes, like our Elevate Grant & Mentorship program for entrepreneurs.

Le Grand Courtâge partners with Ladies Who Launch, a mission driven, 501(c)3 that empowers women and non-binary entrepreneurs to scale the businesses of their dreams and thrive by providing access to educational resources and capital programs through its Launch Program.

Throughout the year we also work with a rotation of partners and projects to address the challenges and needs of women. By teaming up with similarly minded partners and pooling our financial resources, intellectual capital and networking communities, we will be able to provide meaningful immediate and longer-term support.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I firmly believe that economic equality and empowerment is the most important metric for improving the world, reducing poverty, improving health, and helping to ensure people are happier. When you look at the pay gap for women and minorities, there is still tremendous disparity; and when you look at the amount of capital, they as entrepreneurs receive, it’s even worse. I have a business idea and vision centered around this very reality.

Though I have a strong legal and financial background from my prior real estate development career, I struggled to raise capital and then became aware of the gross realities.

• Women receive less than 3% of venture capital (and minorities approximately 1% even less) and just 6% of Venture Capitalists are female, thus there is a structural lack of representation and understanding of the core consumer.
• Despite women accounting for 85% of all consumer purchases and spends, men not only receive a disproportionate share of all funding, but they also dominate the C-Suite.
• Sadly, 2023 is the first year there are more female CEOs than those named John in the Fortune 500.
• Studies have shown that companies with female owners, managers &/or Board members have been proven to financially out-perform male led companies.
• Women CEOs in the Fortune 1000 drive 3xs the returns as their male counterparts.
• Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the UN’s 17 goals.

The bottom line is that having a better distribution of wealth and representation would do the most amount of good in society.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.