Jun 5, 2012
The Challenge
Brewcraft (later Imake), a New Zealand-based homebrew company, had a predominantly male customer base and was struggling to broaden its market. The leadership wanted to create a new revenue stream and reposition themselves beyond homebrew, appealing to a wider, more diverse audience.
At just 22, I was entrusted with creating a new sub-brand from scratch. I was given full autonomy to design, launch, and run the brand as if it were my own business — responsible for everything from strategy and product development through to marketing, distribution, and team leadership.
The Approach
I created and led Mad Millie, a DIY cheesemaking brand, from concept to international scale.
Market Research & Positioning: Identified a gap in the market by researching customer needs and perceptions around cheesemaking — turning a “too hard” category into something fun and accessible.
Brand Development: Created and evolved the Mad Millie brand identity, keeping it fresh and relevant over multiple iterations.
Product Strategy: Designed the initial range of five kits, tailored to different skill levels.
Go-To-Market Strategy: Designed a launch that combined grassroots momentum with strategic global positioning:
Live demonstrations and markets — showcasing cheesemaking in action, building community, and gathering direct feedback to refine the kits quickly.
PR-driven awareness — securing TV features, media coverage, and storytelling that generated national and international buzz.
Retail distribution and key partnerships — placing Mad Millie in department stores, kitchenware chains, and gourmet food retailers early to signal credibility and scale.
Distributors across multiple regions — expanding into Australia, Europe, the UK, and the USA through trusted partners.
International trade shows — exhibited Mad Millie at leading food, homeware, and giftware/kitchen shows worldwide, building relationships and securing access to global distributors and retailers.
Supplier Relations: Sourced ingredients and equipment globally, negotiating with vendors in Europe and China.
Team Leadership: Built and trained the first team of demonstrators, sales reps, and marketing support to scale the brand community.
The Outcome
Generated $1.5M in revenue in the first 18 months.
Sold 55,000 kits in the first two years.
Expanded internationally into Australia, Europe, the UK, and the USA, stocked by leading retailers including David Jones (AU), Selfridges (UK), Lakeland (UK), and Uncommon Goods (USA).
National and international PR — including TV coverage and media features — generated such strong demand that the website temporarily crashed from high traffic!
Mad Millie’s success was so transformative that Brewcraft rebranded itself as Imake, repositioning the entire company as a broader DIY “maker” brand attractive to distributors, partners, and new talent.
Client Feedback
“This project didn’t just change the business by adding another market and revenue stream, it helped us reposition the whole company. All of a sudden, we became interesting to many more distributors and business partners, not to mention it completely widened our talent pool. Everyone who applied to work with us wanted to work for us because of the Mad Millie brand!”
- Peter Eastwood, Managing Director Imake (parent company).
Why This Matters
Mad Millie demonstrates how customer insight, brand creation, and layered go-to-market execution can unlock entirely new markets. By combining grassroots community-building with international retail and trade show positioning, the project generated rapid revenue growth, international expansion, and repositioned the company for long-term opportunity.