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Brian Keating
Publisher and Lead Contributor
Brian is the founder of the Sage Group® (www.sagegroupnetworks.com), a think tank focusing on the specialty tea and natural products industries. For more than thirty years, Sage has assisted established and start-up ventures with creative, strategic, and technical support. Sage Group has international recognition for its in-depth experience within retail, wholesale, mail order, and supply-side (raw materials) tracks in tea, spice, nutraceuticals, and food industry sectors. Sage Group teams have published eight specialty tea industry reports since 1993, created dozens of consumer products – including more than 200 tea-based beverages – and contributed to numerous product expansions and repositioning within evolving competitive environments. Brian was the first tea blend master and tea buyer for Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest natural foods retailer and he has been a top-rated speaker at the annual World Tea Expo. He is widely quoted; his insights have been showcased in articles in both consumer and business publications, including Newsweek, The Economist, and Nutrition Business Journal. He also has unique hands-on experience at the retail level, having owned one of North America’s premier tea shops/cafés for many years, and has pioneered numerous retail and foodservice merchandising, marketing, and training methodologies. In addition to producing many specialty tea beverages, Brian was a recognized leader as the energy-tea category emerged during the 1980-90’s, from the development of new flavor/active ingredient combinations to unique extensions of traditional marketing concepts.
Kim Long
Business Journalist
Kim created The American Forecaster Almanac in 1984, a widely distributed annual publication with an emphasis on emerging and ongoing consumer and business trends. With twenty-two annual editions of The American Forecaster Almanac, he has been widely referenced in the national media as a key observer of change in major industries, most recently the food, beverage, and restaurant sectors with the Business-to-Business publication, Eat In/Eat Out. With Brian Keating, he pioneered the first market report on the rapidly expanding New Age niche beverage, Kombucha. In addition to other non-fiction books, the author also works as a consultant for corporate clients and business start-ups with a focus on opportunities, risks, and barriers related to future changes.
Dan McKeon
Market Research Analyst and Associate Contributor
Dan has tea-specific experience conducting diverse projects for corporate clients from branded products to raw materials. Working with Sage Group, he has conducted complex tea industry market analysis in both retail and foodservice segments and performed science-based product claim substantiation. Recently, he was an instrumental member of a team tasked with developing the first tea-based products for a manufacturer of dietary supplements and functional ingredients, with a key target the implementation of a sales strategy to help expand the company’s core business. Dan’s professional specialization extends from hands-on research and analysis developed in an advanced academic setting; he has a double major in Economics and Psychology from Boston College.
Publisher and Lead Contributor
Brian is the founder of the Sage Group® (www.sagegroupnetworks.com), a think tank focusing on the specialty tea and natural products industries. For more than thirty years, Sage has assisted established and start-up ventures with creative, strategic, and technical support. Sage Group has international recognition for its in-depth experience within retail, wholesale, mail order, and supply-side (raw materials) tracks in tea, spice, nutraceuticals, and food industry sectors. Sage Group teams have published eight specialty tea industry reports since 1993, created dozens of consumer products – including more than 200 tea-based beverages – and contributed to numerous product expansions and repositioning within evolving competitive environments. Brian was the first tea blend master and tea buyer for Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest natural foods retailer and he has been a top-rated speaker at the annual World Tea Expo. He is widely quoted; his insights have been showcased in articles in both consumer and business publications, including Newsweek, The Economist, and Nutrition Business Journal. He also has unique hands-on experience at the retail level, having owned one of North America’s premier tea shops/cafés for many years, and has pioneered numerous retail and foodservice merchandising, marketing, and training methodologies. In addition to producing many specialty tea beverages, Brian was a recognized leader as the energy-tea category emerged during the 1980-90’s, from the development of new flavor/active ingredient combinations to unique extensions of traditional marketing concepts.
Kim Long
Business Journalist
Kim created The American Forecaster Almanac in 1984, a widely distributed annual publication with an emphasis on emerging and ongoing consumer and business trends. With twenty-two annual editions of The American Forecaster Almanac, he has been widely referenced in the national media as a key observer of change in major industries, most recently the food, beverage, and restaurant sectors with the Business-to-Business publication, Eat In/Eat Out. With Brian Keating, he pioneered the first market report on the rapidly expanding New Age niche beverage, Kombucha. In addition to other non-fiction books, the author also works as a consultant for corporate clients and business start-ups with a focus on opportunities, risks, and barriers related to future changes.
Dan McKeon
Market Research Analyst and Associate Contributor
Dan has tea-specific experience conducting diverse projects for corporate clients from branded products to raw materials. Working with Sage Group, he has conducted complex tea industry market analysis in both retail and foodservice segments and performed science-based product claim substantiation. Recently, he was an instrumental member of a team tasked with developing the first tea-based products for a manufacturer of dietary supplements and functional ingredients, with a key target the implementation of a sales strategy to help expand the company’s core business. Dan’s professional specialization extends from hands-on research and analysis developed in an advanced academic setting; he has a double major in Economics and Psychology from Boston College.
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