This case study focuses on How Three Nigerian founders used content to build a creator-brand that now makes over 9 figures in annual revenue. A story on how MelonyPine, Gourmet Twist & Haute Collections executed strategies, viral moments, and community tactics, and built successful brands.
From MelonyPine’s aesthetic-pleasing parfait & educational content to Gourmet Twist’s food artistry & storytelling to Haute Collections’ expressive modeling style, each founder built not just a business but a community with their personal brands.
Here’s how these founders built their brands, and what you can learn from them.
MelonyPine
How It Started
Founded in May 2018 by Augusta Nkanu, Melony Pine didn’t start big and popular like it is today.
Instead, it had a very humble beginning, one that can inspire any founder currently in the position she was then to keep pushing their business forward.
According to Augusta, she was fresh out of University in 2017 and was employed by a secondary school in Calabar to teach CRK (Christian Religious Knowledge).
With just ₦30,000 as her monthly salary, she knew she had to do something to earn more, because, like every Nigerian firstborn, you are shackled with responsibilities.
After gaining the permission of her Pastor, Augusta started Melony Pine (the name was inspired by a combination of Melony from Watermelon & Pine from Pineapple), by selling mixed fruit bowls in her Church in 2018.
With just an umbrella, a plastic table, and lots of fruits and packaging cups, Melony Pine had its first buyers from the church coming to buy after church service.
After two months of selling in church, Augusta partnered with a person in church who had a store to sell her fruit bowls and parfaits alongside.
She gained popularity by selling parfaits and fresh fruits there, and soon after, she expanded to opening her own store in the heart of Calabar, where she sold even more.
After getting married, she moved to Lagos with her family in 2021, seeking greener pastures. Like everyone new to an environment, she decided to explore the city to learn about its happenings.
If you know Lagos, you will know it is home to many businesses and a cut-throat environment with intense competition. So Augusta had to look for a way to stand out from the crowd and sell her parfait.
How The Big Break Happened
In June 2023, Augusta decided to relaunch Melony Pine, but this time with something better. This time, she named it Melony Pine Fruit Hub.
She opened a store, improved its branding on Instagram, refined the taste of her parfait to a premium level, and even expanded her product offerings to include yoghurts, premium fruit bowls & hampers that she could sell alongside her parfaits and fruit bowls.
This rebrand was strategic.
Augusta positioned Melony Pine as a premium brand, and not just another parfait seller, but Lagos’s answer to guilt-free indulgence.
Her brand’s messaging was clear: premium quality using only the finest and freshest ingredients, packaged in Instagram-worthy presentations with colorful, perfectly layered parfaits that looked as good as they tasted.
The pricing reflected this premium positioning as well.
While some might have considered her parfaits expensive, Augusta understood that her target market, Lagosians, were willing to pay more for quality, health-conscious options that didn’t compromise on taste or aesthetics.
However, like every business in its early stage, she was getting little traction & sales.
With the help of running ads on Instagram, she could increase sales, but that resulted in only about 100 bowls of parfait being sold daily or weekly.
Like every business owner, she continued to learn and take courses to enhance the growth of her business.
But in 2024, Melony Pine got her big break.
While attending a class led by Nelly Agbogu (The Famous Naija Brand Chick), Augusta decided to do something most business owners would consider too expensive or not worth doing.
After class, Augusta handed out over 250 sample parfait bowls to attendees, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Around the same time, the popular food critic in Nigeria, Opeyemi Famakin, with over a million followers across all social media platforms, mentioned Melony Pine as one of his top parfait brands in Lagos, and his fans rushed to place orders.
@opeyemifamakin Book Me For Your Parties, I Will Drum For You Parfait Plug: @melonypine
This wasn’t just luck; it was a result of strategic sampling combined with influencer validation.
And it was only the beginning.
Augusta understood the power of getting her product into the right hands, so she continued partnering with influencers and celebrities.
She partnered with influencers and creators like Folagade Banks, Opeyemi Famakin, EniOluwa, Akproko Doctor, Charles Born, Uzor Arukwe, Brian Nwanna, Lady yella, Blessing Nze, etc, each bringing their natural expertise in discussing her product, sharing their audience’s experiences, and making the brand go viral repeatedly.
And within that year (2024), Melony Pine grew from making and shipping out hundreds of parfait bowls in a week to thousands of parfait bowls sold in a week.
The class & influencer mentions opened Augusta’s eyes to powerful marketing tactics, which she consistently implemented, turning one viral moment into a stream of successful campaigns.
A Brand People Can’t Stop Talking About
What makes Melony Pine different isn’t just the parfait, it’s the entire brand experience.
On Instagram, where Melony Pine brands itself as “Lagos & Abuja’s #1 Premium Parfait Factory” with over 131,000 followers, every post is carefully crafted to make you crave a bowl.
With heavy use of reels and video marketing, the parfaits are presented in vibrant colors and perfectly layered with fruit toppings that grab attention the moment you scroll past them.
A glance at their Instagram page reveals a masterclass in strategically utilizing the platform’s tools: they use Reels for product showcases and promotions, regular posts for brand announcements, and captions loaded with clear calls to action.
Co-branding tags, collaboration mentions, and founder stories reinforce their narrative.
Customer reviews are displayed on their About page, while feedback is shared in captions as social proof. To keep customers coming back, referrals and loyalty incentives, such as points and free items, are utilized.
But here’s where it gets really smart: Augusta built the content strategy around four core pillars:
1. Founder-Led Content
Augusta herself is the face of Melony Pine and has been since the company’s inception.
She didn’t hide behind the brand; instead, she made herself the brand.
Her personality, story, and authenticity make customers feel connected to something genuine and authentic.
Notice how every time she posts on her personal page, she tags Melony Pine. That’s intentional. She’s building the business around her personal brand, and it’s working.
2. Product Showcasing
Every parfait is a work of art, videographed & photographed to highlight those gorgeous layers and fresh ingredients that justify the premium price. These videos consistently attract thousands of views to the page.
Here is a screenshot below.
3. Behind-the-Scenes Content
People love seeing how their food is made. Weekly, Melony Pine shares kitchen moments, prep work, and the care that goes into each bowl, as well as showcasing staff and internal culture (e.g., staff anniversaries), which helps build emotional connection and trust.
4. Customer Love
This is crucial.
When customers share their experience after buying the parfait bowls in a video, Augusta reposts and celebrates them. This fosters a community of people who constantly discuss the brand.
As a result, customers not only buy parfait, but they also become part of the Melony Pine tribe. They share their orders, tag their friends, leave glowing reviews, and continue to come back for more.
Alongside word-of-mouth, Melony Pine’s most powerful marketing channel has become loyalty programs, free deliveries & parfait bowls, and the organic community that has formed around the brand.
Posts with free deliveries & free parfait bowls when you order perform well and go viral.
The Cost Of Going Viral
Imagine two unforgettable yet unplanned viral moments happening to your business simultaneously. That caused a surge in business.
Augusta had finally made it. She had hit the jackpot.
Her parfait business was booming, and orders kept pouring in every minute, more than her business structure could handle. However, the demand outweighed the supply, and soon Melony Pine was falling short in quality customer service, quality delivery, and overall consistency.
This led to customer complaints, and Augusta was on the verge of shutting down the business.
At the end of 2024, she decided to rework the structure of her business, hired and trained more people to manage daily operations.
This led to a shift in her business, and within 10 months, the business expanded to two additional locations in Lagos.
Life After
After going viral and establishing a solid structure in her business that allows it to continue scaling, Augusta took a step further with her personal brand.
She leveraged her years of experience in growing a business and her expertise in developing Melony Pine into what it is today. She branded herself as a business coach and business strategist who teaches people how to start and scale healthy food brands.
She has currently trained 4,500+ business owners & has won an award at the SabiStation Business Owners Awards 2024.
Her dual identity as the founder of the successful business “Melony Pine” & a business coach educating people on how to scale their businesses helped amplify her authority, and in turn, Melony Pine’s presence on social media.
When Augusta speaks about building a food brand, people listen, because she’s done it. She’s not teaching theory; she’s teaching from the trenches. Her students become customers and her customers become students, creating a cycle that keeps both her business and her personal brand growing.
Today, Melony Pine stands as proof that with the right positioning, authentic branding, and a founder willing to be the face of their brand, you can build something that doesn’t just sell products but something people want to be part of.
Gourmet twist
How It Started
If you’ve ever thought that being the face of your brand is “cringe” or unprofessional, Chef Uche Annie Uzoka is about to change your mind.
Known as Chef Chuchay, Chef Annie, or simply the Queen of Banana Bread in Lagos, she built Gourmet Twist by doing exactly what most founders are afraid to do: showing up daily, sharing her story, and letting customers into her world.
And it worked. Fast.
Unlike your classic entrepreneurial story of raising capital, building a fancy website, and waiting for customers to show up, Chef Annie did things differently.
Here’s the backstory & how she did it.
Before launching Gourmet Twist in 2017, Chef Annie was like every other regular student at the University of Lagos, where she studied Biochemistry.
While learning the ins & outs of her course, she was motivated by her husband to attend culinary school so she could perfect her cooking skills, as she was passionate about cooking.
She attended Red Dish Culinary School in Lagos, which is owned by the renowned chef, Chef Stone.
After culinary school, she decided to put her newly acquired knowledge to work and got a job at the Marriott Hotel. Then she teamed up with her coursemates to start a business, but like every newbie entrepreneur, your first business might fail, and Chef Annie’s was not exempt from that.
The business she built with her coursemates failed, but as a resilient entrepreneur, she learned from that experience.
In 2017, with her husband’s encouragement, she launched Gourmet Twist.
The business began as an online restaurant that prepared and delivered freshly cooked meals to customers across Lagos.
It was a blissful experience, as she continued to show up every day to sell her dishes to customers on social media, until something unexpected happened.
The COVID Pivot That Changed Everything
In 2020, the world shut down due to the widespread outbreak of the Coronavirus. Lagos, too, was on lockdown, and getting food ingredients to fulfill customer orders was a serious pain.
As the COVID-19 lockdown grew, she decided to downsize to keep the business afloat. At the same time, she thought of a product that wouldn’t require frequent market runs, and banana bread stood out as a viable option.
She quickly started making more banana breads in her kitchen, using the oven she had, while sharing the behind-the-scenes process and outcome online.
Sales for the bread started slowly, but by showing up daily and discussing her product, within two months, sales had picked up, and due to increased demand, she had upgraded and expanded her supply capacity.
However, here’s where Chef Annie really excelled with technology.
In 2020, alongside pivoting to banana bread, she integrated WhatsApp Business into her operations. This wasn’t just about answering messages faster, it transformed the entire customer experience during the pandemic.
She set up catalogs that allowed customers to browse flavors with images before placing an order, and automated messaging to handle FAQs without overwhelming her team. She began using WhatsApp Status for targeted promotions and limited-time offers that created a sense of urgency.
How The Big Break Happened
Consistency & showing up for your customers always pays off.
Three months after launching the Gourmet Twist Banana bread specials, an FMCG company hired the brand to make their office lunches, which was the first signal that the business was working.
That huge break led Chef Annie to move her operations from her home kitchen to her first commercial kitchen in February 2021, allowing her to scale production.
Since its big pivot in 2020, Gourmet Twist has attracted thousands of customers across Lagos and other neighboring states.
They have partnered with and worked with brands such as Peak, Nestlé, Baileys, and Nigerian Breweries, which have further elevated the brand’s profile.
Also in 2023, her family’s relocation to Atlanta brought about the expansion of the business overseas. From not being sure of the market there, she only left with samples and a few breads to sell to anyone who asked.
Within two months of relocating, she had orders coming in & had to open a location to sell her pastries and dishes there.
Today, Gourmet Twist bakes and ships hundreds of loaves & dishes daily, delivering to her customers in Lagos, select states across Nigeria, and the US.
The signature banana bread that started the magic in 2020 now has over 30 variations, according to the Gourmet Twist Instagram page & website, while also offering fully packed meals and catering to corporate events & weddings.
The Content Strategy Behind Gourmet Twist
A sneak peek into Gourmet Twist’s Instagram page, their primary social media channel, reveals that apart from its bold yellow branding & packs of banana bread, and its 173k+ followers, you will notice that Chef Annie is the face of the brand.
Her face & voice are consistent throughout the brand page, making you almost feel like it is her personal page.
She consistently shows up on social media every day to connect with her audience and promote Gourmet Twist products, whether organically or through ads.
And her content strategy is built around seven core pillars, which are:
- Product Showcasing: With over 30 banana bread variations (plus pastries and meals), there’s always something new to highlight.
- Founder-Led Content: Chef Annie doesn’t just own the brand, she IS the brand: her personality, her story, her face on every video.
- Behind-the-Scenes: Kitchen operations, baking processes, the care that goes into each loaf, people love seeing how their food is made, and who is making what.
- Customer Testimonials: Building social proof by celebrating “Twisters” (what she calls her customers) and sharing their feedback.
- Seasonal/Limited Offers: Creating urgency through WhatsApp Status updates and Instagram reels & stories about time-sensitive promos.
- Educational Content: Sharing culinary tips, baking hacks, and kitchen wisdom that positions her as an expert.
- Partnership Announcements: Big corporate collaborations with brands like Baileys, Nestlé, and Peak get celebrated and shared.
She personally loves using storytelling and behind-the-scenes content to grab attention, and here’s the proof: posts featuring her face perform incredibly well, pulling in tens to hundreds of thousands of views.
However, posts without her in them receive fewer than ten thousand views.
For every video, her bubbly personality, relatable storytelling, and quality content contribute to the virality of each piece the brand shares on Instagram.
Building A Community That Keeps Coming Back
What makes Gourmet Twist special isn’t just the banana bread, it’s how Chef Annie treats her customers.
First, she listens. When developing new flavors or products, she doesn’t guess. She asks her customers what they like in the current lineup and what they’d love to explore next.
She then examines which ingredients are bestsellers and creates combinations she knows will be well-received.
Next, she rewards loyalty.
After every purchase, customers get updates and loyalty program reminders. Points, freebies, and seasonal free deliveries – these perks act as a thank-you for coming back. The brand actively encourages repeat business by rewarding consistency and offers seasonal promotions, such as buy a certain amount of Banana Bread & get a loaf free.
Finally, she genuinely cares for her customers. Each customer is dear to the brand, and the feedback and support they provide are what drive Chef Annie to keep showing up every single day.
This personal connection is why people don’t just buy from Gourmet Twist; they become “Twisters,” part of a community that makes them feel seen, valued, and appreciated.
Influencers, Partnerships & Strategic Collaborations
Just like Melony Pine, Gourmet Twist collaborates with influencers such as Charles Born, Erica Nlewedim, Opeyemi Famakin, Onijekujelagos, Tomike Adeoye & many more.
Here’s a video they created with Charles Born (an actor) that has garnered over 280k views & with other celebrities to promote the brand
Additionally, Gourmet Twist places a strong emphasis on running ads on Instagram.
Then there are partnerships with businesses like Melony Pine, Film One Cinema, and Glovo, as well as showcasing & selling at major events like the GTCo Food & Drink event, to increase offline reach and bring in new customers.
Finally, another thing that makes this business stand out and get repeat customers is the consistent use of employee-led content & celebration of her team.
Beyond social media fame, Chef Annie has been featured in prominent magazines and newspapers, including Her Network, Business Day Newspaper, Foodie in Lagos, and Naijapreneur, thereby further expanding the brand’s reach.
Today, Gourmet Twist has two locations in Nigeria. One in Lekki, Lagos, & another on the Mainland in Lagos. The brand also won the Menu Mastermind Award via Glovo.
Haute Collections
If you think Augusta of Melony Pine and Chef Chuchay of Gourmet Twist were doing a lot, showing up daily, and selling their products on social media while sharing their personal stories was cringe, then you need to meet the Founder of Haute Collections, Abimbola Jegede.
Before 2025, businesses selling fashionable pieces had just a straightforward format of sharing their pieces online:
- Hire models to wear your pieces
- Go for a photoshoot
- Post the static pictures online, and
- On a good day, share regular videos just showing the outfits
But Abimbola saw a gap that most boutique business owners couldn’t see.
That is, to get attention in the oversaturated market of fashion, you will have to stand out with your marketing, and by doing so, you will need to give life to each piece by showing viewers how to wear & style it so that they can easily envision how it will look on them too.
And this playbook worked.
But before we get to how she did it, here is how Abimbola started Haute Collections with just 60k seed money from her dad and uncle.
How It Started
In 2014, Abimbola was a second-year student at the university, with a burning passion for fashion and a desire to look good.
She would spend her pocket money on clothes and anything that would make her look really nice. Her classmates always wanted to know where she got her clothes from, as she was one of the best-dressed in school.
But then disaster happened.
Her dad lost his job, and suddenly, everything changed. Her pocket money was cut off, and she needed to find a way to earn money to keep up with her school expenses.
For most people, this would’ve been a crushing blow, but for Abimbola, it gave her an idea to turn her love for fashion into a business.
She pitched the idea to her uncle and dad, and without asking questions, they raised ₦60,000 for her.
Just like that, she was in business.
She quickly got to work buying the first set of clothes she would sell.
For the next two years, she focused on selling to the market she knew best, her campus.
Students who already loved her style became her first customers, and word spread quickly.
By 2017, after building solid traction on campus, Abimbola knew it was time to think bigger. So, she moved to Lagos to push her business to new heights and attract more high-paying customers.
At the time, her Instagram account had just 2,000 followers.
Determined to increase her reach and get the attention she needed to sell out more clothes, Abimbola researched and studied as many African-American-owned fashion businesses as possible.
From Fashion Nova to House of CB, and much more. She learned that what attracted people to the social media posts of these brands was the element of content creation they added to their posts. They also taught their followers how to wear and style the clothes, letting them know exactly how they’d look when wearing the outfit.
And she was ready to replicate that for her business. She began implementing this strategy, but her first major success with it didn’t come until 2020, after she had faced a devastating setback.
The Loss That Almost Broke Her
In January 2020, Abimbola lost her Instagram business page, which she had built with blood, sweat, and tears, to over 58,000 followers.
Imagine spending years growing an audience, only to watch it disappear overnight because of one flagged post.
The loss was devastating, and she had to take some time off to cool off and strategize.
Then she converted her personal page into a business page and resumed selling her dresses.
However, just as she was recovering from losing her account, COVID-19 happened, and the world was on lockdown.
During that time, you might wonder, “Why would anyone buy clothes when there’s nowhere to wear them?” That was the same question she had asked herself as well.
But the crazy thing is that that was the time sales shot over the roof for her.
Remember, during the COVID pandemic, everyone was home and had a lot of time on their hands; as a result, many people got into content creation and showcased their outfits online. This prompted people to want to buy more outfits so they could dress up more & show off online, or even participate in viral fashion challenges online.
The visibility & sales she had always prayed for were finally here, and sales grew steadily each year.
However, the big break came in 2024 when Bumpa awarded her as the entrepreneur with the Most terminal transactions in 2024. She generated over 587 million Naira in sales alone in 2024. Bumpa made a video about it, showcasing the sales she made each month, which totaled N587 million by the end of the year. That was over $390k in a year just from sales.
That video from Bumpa went viral.
View this post on Instagram
Immediately, everyone was watching, and her business page grew. She even landed a press interview with Zikoko, a leading publication in Nigeria, which put her and Haute Collections in the spotlight.
Today, apart from making many sales through Instagram, her website, and WhatsApp, Abimbola now has a physical location in Lekki Phase 1, where she sells more high-end outfits and creates her content.
The Content That Brought The Success
While most Nigerian boutique owners were simply posting static pictures of their outfits online, Abimbola was studying the playbooks of brands like Fashion Nova and understanding something crucial: content creation wasn’t optional – it was the whole game. And this what took her page to over 540k followers & hundreds of orders in a day.
But she didn’t just copy what she learned. She adapted it, made it her own, and created something that would become her biggest competitive advantage.
In the early days, Abimbola pioneered a strategy that felt cringe to outsiders but was pure genius for customer acquisition.
She began modeling her own outfits, incorporating dramatic facial expressions, jumping on viral sounds, and riding trending audio clips on Instagram.
At first, it felt risky.
Fashion was supposed to be polished and professional, but her followers didn’t want polished; they wanted real, entertaining, and relatable.
They loved it.
Today, if you scroll through the Haute Collections Instagram page, you’ll notice Abimbola is the main model for every piece. And she’s not standing there looking pretty.
She’s making faces, moving with energy, jumping, posing dramatically, all backed by viral sounds that make the videos impossible to scroll past.
The results speak for themselves: hundreds of thousands to millions of views per video. Her most viral video hit almost 9+ million views. 
While videos without her in them pull 10k-20k views at best.
Here’s the pattern: people buy from people, not mannequins. Just as we saw with Chef Annie and Augusta, Abimbola understood that her face and personality were her most effective marketing tools.
She’s developed an eye for content that works. It’s a skill she’s sharpened over years of daily posting, and now she knows exactly what type of content her audience will receive well, or even push to viral status, before it’s published.
The Daily Grind
Abimbola doesn’t go a day without posting content on her business page.
Sometimes it’s multiple posts per day.
Why?
Because consistency builds trust, and trust converts scrollers into buyers.
She also discovered something many founders overlook: engagement is a closing tool.
When she likes or replies to a potential customer’s comment under a post, that simple interaction can be the deciding factor in whether they place an order. It’s founder-led customer service that feels personal, not transactional.
Then there’s her community celebration strategy.
She calls her customers “Haute Babes,” and whenever they share pictures wearing her outfits on their social media feeds, she reposts them to her stories.
This creates a virtuous cycle where customers feel celebrated, leading them to make more content, which in turn drives more sales and attracts new customers.
The Seasonal Sales & Ad Strategy
Unlike Melony Pine and Gourmet Twist, you won’t see heavy influencer partnerships plastered all over Haute Collections’ page. However, what you will see is strategic paid advertising and seasonal sales promotions.
Here is a video that was used as an ad that brought in 2.8 million views. And another that brought in almost 600k views.
Abimbola runs seasonal sales, where she slashes prices by nearly 50%, creating urgency and driving massive viewer spikes. Combined with carefully crafted ad videos, this simple strategy has driven millions of views and corresponding sales.
Today, Abimbola operates Haute Collections across multiple channels: Instagram (the primary shopping destination), her website (for international customers), WhatsApp (for direct orders), and a physical location in Lekki Phase 1 where she showcases and sells her high-end pieces while creating content.
From ₦60,000 seed money raised by her dad and uncle to ₦587 million in annual sales. From 2,000 Instagram followers to over 545,000.
From dramatic expressions that felt cringe to a strategy that became her competitive moat.
That’s not luck. That’s the result of understanding your customer, showing up relentlessly, and refusing to apologize for being visible.
Key Lessons You Should Learn From These Founders (And How To Apply Them)
1. Your Face Is Your Competitive Advantage
The Pattern Across All Three:
- Augusta (MelonyPine): Posts with her face get exponential engagement.
- Chef Annie (Gourmet Twist): Posts without her get 10k views; posts with her get 100k+
- Abimbola (Haute Collections): Videos with dramatic expressions hit millions of views; without her, they cap at 10k-20k.
In an oversaturated market, the founder’s visibility isn’t optional, it’s the differentiator. People don’t buy products; they buy from people they know and trust.
How To Apply It:
- Stop hiding behind your brand. Show your face daily on your primary social media channel.
- Share your story, your journey, your personality, not just product content.
- Consistency matters: post regularly with your face, not sporadically.
- If you’re afraid of visibility, remember these three founders built million-naira businesses by doing exactly what scared them.
The Reality: You might feel cringe doing this. You might even worry about judgment, but the data is undeniable. Founder visibility converts strangers into paying customers faster than any ad campaign.
2. Start With What You Have, Then Scale With Systems
The Pattern:
- Augusta: Umbrella + plastic table → commercial kitchen → System integration.
- Chef Annie: Home oven (8 loaves max) → commercial oven → WhatsApp Business → multiple locations.
- Abimbola: Campus sales → Instagram → website → physical Lekki store.
None of them waited for perfect conditions. Instead, they validated demand first, then invested in infrastructure.
How To Apply It:
- Don’t wait for the perfect equipment, fancy website, or big budget to start.
- Use what’s available to you right now and test if customers want what you’re offering.
- Once demand proves the market exists, then invest in systems and tools.
- Scale doesn’t come from better tools, it comes from having customers first, then giving them better service.
Note: Avoid spending money on infrastructure before proving anyone wants to buy. Validate first, scale second.
3. Content Strategy > Random Posting
The Pattern:
- Augusta: Strategic sampling at Nelly Agbogu’s class + influencer partnerships + consistent posting
- Chef Annie: 7 clear content pillars (product, founder, behind-scenes, testimonials, offers, education, partnerships)
- Abimbola: Dramatic expressions + viral sounds + consistent daily posting + seasonal ads
The brands that won didn’t post randomly hoping they will go viral, instead they had systems.
How To Apply It:
- Define 5-7 content pillars for your brand (product showcase, behind-the-scenes, customer testimonials, founder story, educational content, promotions, partnerships)
- Create a content rotation so you’re never wondering “what do I post today?”
- Study what content performs best for your audience (high engagement, saves, shares) and amplify it with paid ads.
- Post consistently, ideally daily or multiple times daily. This builds algorithm favor and keeps you top-of-mind.
- Variety prevents audience fatigue while consistency builds trust.
All three founders noticed that their posts with the most human element (face, personality, behind-the-scenes) outperformed product-only content by 10x or more.
4. Listen To Your Customers, Then Give Them What They Ask For
The Pattern:
- Augusta: Created new parfait flavors based on customer requests.
- Chef Annie: Developed 30+ banana bread variations from customer feedback.
- Abimbola: Adjusted content style after followers responded positively to dramatic expressions.
The market tells you what to sell if you’re willing to listen.
How To Apply It:
- Create active feedback loops: ask customers what they love, what they wish you offered, what would make them buy more.
- Pay attention to comments, DMs, and engagement patterns, they reveal what resonates.
- Don’t guess or follow trends blindly; respond to actual customer demand.
- Implement suggestions quickly and celebrate the customer who suggested them.
- This reduces wasted inventory, increases conversion rates, and makes customers feel heard.
Remember, your customers are doing your market research for free if you pay attention.
5. Build Community, Not Just Customer Base
The Pattern:
- Augusta: Created loyalty programs and rewards system.
- Chef Annie: Calls customers “Twisters,” celebrates them on social media, sends loyalty reminders.
- Abimbola: Calls customers “Haute Babes,” reposts their content, makes them feel celebrated.
Customers who feel part of a community become unpaid marketers.
They refer friends, create content, and keep coming back.
How To Apply It:
- Create an identity for your customer base (a name, a vibe, a tribe feeling)
- Celebrate customers publicly: repost their content, feature testimonials, thank them specifically.
- Build loyalty incentives: points for purchases, free products for referrals, exclusive promos for repeat customers.
- After every purchase, send a touchpoint (email, WhatsApp, DM) that makes them feel remembered.
- Make membership in your community feel special, not transactional.
The Psychology: It’s 5-10x cheaper to retain a customer than acquire a new one. Community keeps people coming back.
6. Partnerships Amplify What Consistency Builds
The Pattern:
- Augusta: Sampling at Nelly Agbogu’s class + influencers (Opeyemi Famakin, Folagade Banks) + media features.
- Chef Annie: Major FMCG brands (Nestlé, Baileys, Peak) + influencers + business media coverage.
- Abimbola: Bumpa award (viral moment) + Zikoko press feature + seasonal ad campaigns.
Strategic partnerships don’t replace consistency; they amplify it.
These founders showed up consistently first, then partnerships increased the growth.
How To Apply It:
- Make a list of brands, influencers, and platforms that serve your target audience but aren’t direct competitors.
- Reach out with collaboration ideas that benefit both parties (not just “promote my business”)
- Start with earned media: build something noteworthy, then tell journalists about it.
- Use partnerships to reach new audiences, not to replace organic growth.
- One strategic partnership can accelerate what would take months of paid ads.
Don’t obsess over partnerships early on. Build the brand first. Partnerships are the acceleration, not the foundation.
7. Consistency Compounds Over Years, Not Weeks
The Pattern:
- Augusta: 2017-2023 before viral moment (6 years of consistently showing up)
- Chef Annie: 2017-2020 before breakthrough (3 years), then 2020-2025 building on it (5 years)
- Abimbola: 2014-2020 before big growth (6 years), then 2020-2024 scaling (4 years)
All three built their brands over years of daily showing up, not viral moments that came out of nowhere.
How To Apply It:
- Post daily (or as close to it as possible) even when growth feels slow.
- Don’t quit after a few weeks of no traction.
- Consistency builds trust, and trust eventually converts into sales and referrals.
- Track your progress in months and years, not days and weeks.
- Every post, every comment reply, every customer interaction compounds over time.
The hard truth is, most creators quit right before the breakthrough. They post for 2-3 weeks, don’t see results, and disappear. These three founders showed up for years.
The question is are you willing to show up daily for at least a year, even if growth feels slow in months 1-6? Because that’s the actual price of entry.
The Meta-Lesson: Founder-Led Brands Win Because They Feel Real
All three founders succeeded because they refused to hide. They showed their faces, shared struggles, celebrated customers, and stayed consistent.
In a world of filters and perfection, authenticity is the rarest competitive advantage.
You don’t need:
- The perfect product
- The perfect timing
- The perfect equipment
- Perfect content
You just need to start, stay consistent, listen to customers, and be willing to be visible while doing it. That’s it & that’s the blueprint.
Final Words
At the heart of every great brand story we love is a human face.
MelonyPine, Gourmet Twist, and Haute Collections remind us that authenticity isn’t a marketing strategy; instead, it’s the foundation of connection.
By merging personality with purpose, these founders built brands that didn’t just sell products but created a community that fostered a sense of belonging.
In a highly competitive market like food & fashion, where attention is currency, these founders have proven that consistently showing up as yourself, sharing your story, and educating your audience is still the strongest competitive edge any brand can have.
So, if you’re building a brand today, remember that your audience doesn’t just want your product. They want you, your story, your energy, and your vibe.
