Name: Martha Jensen
Age: 26
Job title: Brand manager
Company & location: Rude Health, London
Education: University of Edinburgh, Geography and Politics
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? We spend most of our days at work, so I wanted to make sure I felt good about my career. I wanted it to be fun, challenging and do good for the planet. I’ve always been a foodie, so working for a sustainable challenger food and drinks brand seemed like the perfect fit. Breakfast is my favourite meal so when I saw the role at Rude Health, I was hooked!
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): There are three main parts to my job. Firstly, I lead and deliver the overall shopper and trade marketing strategy, ensuring we show up loud and proud at point of sale. Secondly, I lead on PR and partnerships, bringing the brand to life and building saliency with our target audience. Lastly, Rude Health is a proud B Corp and I look after how we can amplify this accreditation across branded touchpoints, from events to merch to the supermarket shelf.
What does a typical day look like for you? One of my favourite things about working for a fast-paced challenger brand is that my role and days are super varied. Typically, however, there will be meetings to discuss upcoming promotions and how we can support them, reviewing and writing coverage opportunities, and tastings. Always tastings. The Rude Health office essentially has a permanent queue to the kitchen to try new products and to hear about up and coming trends in the category.
“Rude Health in particular attracts such a positive and fun kind of person, it means you’re working alongside friends”
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I applied back in 2020 for an assistant brand manager role and had to complete three tasks all centred around ‘bringing brightness to a bleak time’ (January 2021). The tasks included drafting content for socials, planning a virtual event and pitching a brand ambassador. Afterwards I had two rounds of interviews, one of which included a ‘meet the team’ coffee. The interview questions of course touched on my suitability for the role, but also tested my understanding of Rude Health’s mission and ensured I had a glass-half-full attitude to life.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Eating and drinking the delicious food and drink seems like an obvious answer, but it’s up there. Especially when you work for a company that has its own café and makes the most delicious Roasted Almond & Oat Drink – my favourite in our range. Otherwise, I’d say the people. The industry in general, but Rude Health in particular, attracts such a positive and fun kind of person, it means you’re working alongside friends.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? The amount of behind-the-scenes work to get a product onto someone’s kitchen table. It’s not as simple as just making something delicious. Before joining a food and drink brand, I seriously underestimated all that goes into making a best-selling product. For Rude Health, it’s about balancing our product pillars to get the best-tasting option, using sustainably sourced ingredients, ensuring the product is available to buy from the best place possible, and then shouting loud and proud about it. It’s an incredibly collaborative process and definitely doesn’t happen overnight. It’s why working alongside a great team is so important!
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Write down a list of brands you admire and would love to work for, and follow them closely so when a role comes up you’re ready. Make sure you understand what they’re trying to do. For Rude Health, that’s making the healthy choice a celebration and not a sacrifice. If it’s a brand you truly admire, your passion will say it all.
What’s your ultimate career dream? To combine food and travel. Maybe I can figure out a way for someone to pay me to eat my way around the world, but until then I’m happy shouting about Rude Health and all the exciting plans we have in the pipeline.
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