CASES

Bringing Latin American snacks to the US market


Cultural Exchanges for Food
branding
food&beverages

strategy
visual identity

Mismi Foods offers natural and organic food deeply rooted in South American culture

Meet Mismi Foods: a brand new food company that brings quality natural products from South America to the US market.

The snack culture in the United States

Snacks are extremely common in the American diet.

In 2021 alone, the US snack market was valued at $110 billion, while food sales in online marketplaces more than doubled (5.4% to 12.5%).

Snacks are often used to replace meals on a busy day and, from the moment this happens, there is a strong trend in the search for healthier products. More specifically, clean label ones.

In this scenario, we partnered with other companies to bring positive food references in the form of snacks: Zerum Ingredients, Singular and IEC Partners.

Process: Design and business strategy leverage initiative

We built this new business with a systemic and hybrid approach, a consumer-focused design vision that required us to look at which products could meet a real demand in the American market.

Soon we started prototyping and, from an early stage, we knew that the products had to combine health and purpose. That helped to define the strategy and visual design of the brand.

Agility has always been an essential matter for business development. The process of identifying these products, organizing the logistics and designing the company in the US was not an easy task, but we contacted several partners during this journey, such as Verum Ingredients (to establish and validate the supply chain) and IEC Partners, in formalizing the business.

Still, it was critical to test and understand how the products resonated in the market. For this, we chose online commerce, which offered fast delivery and consumer feedback. 

Mismi Foods: South American products come to the US

That’s how Mismi Foods came to life, a company established as a brand house, offering products originating in South America to the United States.

Now, Mismi faces a new phase, scaling the concept through new products and brands focused on online sales, but also with plans to be in American retail.

“The idea is that this group of products have a clear purpose and relevant brands, meet people’s needs and contribute with positive impact and a little bit of our culture to the USA”. – Levi Girardi, CEO of Questtonó Manyone

“We, as a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs in the United States and with everything we know about the origins of these products in South America, couldn’t help but share this here. There is a real, cultural and historical link with what we are promoting.” – Ricardo Dias, founder of Verum Ingredients

Mismi Food Products

The first product launched in the market is Smolbol, a version of the traditional “ovinho de amendoim” (peanut balls), very popular in Brazil and which were never released on the American market.

Smolbol is a vegan and gluten-free snack. The choice for this food was special: peanuts are already more traditional and well accepted in this market, but the cassava coating brings a different and exotic touch, which refers to the culture of its country of origin.

See the Smolbol brand here