Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦ Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦ Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦ Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦ Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦ Canada's first fractional marketing agency dedicated to food & beverage✦

Copilot to hungry challenger brands

Structure and scale your marketing approach to move faster and with more impact

✦Marketing plans that drive your commercial priorities
✦The processes to go beyond pretty PowerPoints
✦Coaching & training for your marketing talent

« I founded Umami Marketing based on one belief: fractional marketing can and should be a force for positive impact.

We want to see more challenger brands grow big and win the hearts of Canadian consumers from coast to coast. »

Sonia Crocker — Founder, Umami Marketing

12+

years of CPG experience

20+

brands led

countries — Canada, UK, France

Bilingual English/French · fluent Spanish

Expertise in brand management, shopper marketing and category management

Amstel Ardbeg Belvedere Chandon Garden Spritz Glenmorangie Heineken Heineken 0.0 Hennessy Moët & Chandon Ocean Spray Strongbow Veuve Clicquot

From Anglophone provinces to Quebec.
And vice versa.

Your copilot to conquer a complex market

Two official languages

Very different consumption habits and preferences

A challenger client's point of view

“Our priority is to save time. This is exactly what we need to bring proven big-brand approaches to our challenger reality.”

Daath Boucher VP Marketing · DOSE

We're hiring

Join the Umami adventure

To meet the demand, we're looking for talented collaborators — if you're a passionate foodie, bilingual English/French, and want to make marketing a force for good, get in touch.

Are you hungry?

Good — so are we.

The agency

Your growth copilot

The big questions we tackle first with our clients.

The model

The model to give challenger brands an unfair advantage

In a world where AI is pushing us to rethink how we work, it's a new marketing approach — built on optimizing talent & processes.

deep sector expertise

at the right level of seniority

at the right moment

for a fraction of a senior hire

Tailored brand management Otherwise known as fractional marketing.

Time is money

For many growing challenger brands, the temptation is often to hire in-house.

But when a Senior Brand Manager package nears $200,000 and hiring can take three to six months, brands need to ask themselves: what's needed now, and can't wait?

Fractional marketing answers our clients' number-one priority:

saving time

This agile model is already booming elsewhere — it helped fuel the phenomenal growth of challenger brands in the UK and the USA.

Sonia Crocker · Founder

The Umami approach

Consumer obsession is at the heart of our model

Born in Taiwan to British parents and raised in France, our founder has always been fascinated by cultural differences.

For over 12 years, she has explored consumer insights and their impact on marketing strategies across several markets.

Her Specialized Master's in Marketing & Communications (2015) focused on optimizing marketing strategies in the beverage market, between France and the UK.

The story behind the name

A taste worth coming back for

Umami is the fifth taste — the one beyond sweet, salty, sour and bitter. It heightens the other flavours, lasts longer, and coats the whole palate.

It's the taste that makes you want to have another bite.

From the Japanese for ‘pleasant savoury taste’ or ‘essence of deliciousness’.

Found in:

Parmesan

Red wine

Green tea

Tomatoes

How it reflects our approach

We go beyond the traditional 4Ps of marketing to build the processes that deliver growth.

We amplify your existing brand advantages. E.g. the founding story, the product's uniqueness and the strengths of the team in place.

We firmly believe a new model is needed to maximize the agility of challenger brands: fractional marketing.

What we believe

Mission & values

Helping food & beverage challenger brands maximize the impact of their healthier and/or more sustainable solutions.

Marketing should never be wallpaper.

We measure, we learn, we adjust. Always in collaboration with the sales team.

We quickly become allies of our clients and partners — success is always a collective win.

Proven approaches, to reduce risk and avoid reinventing everything every single time.

Are you hungry?

Good — so are we.

How it works

Our services

Bringing proven brand-management principles to conquer new markets together.

A simple & agile approach

Where are we today?

Where do we want to go?

How do we get there?

A proven model

We always start with the diagnostic

Collaborative audit

The starting point as your copilot

An in-depth analysis of your marketing foundations: brand performance, positioning, current plans, processes and the team in place.

FormatInitial analysis and hypotheses formed upfront, followed by 2 half-day workshops with your founding / senior marketing team.

DeliverablesA clear diagnostic and a prioritized action plan.

From $3,000Variable price depending on the upfront analysis required

Action plan

Based on the opportunities identified

We build the core processes to evolve your in-house marketing approach and find the best partners to activate.

FormatSteering of key initiatives, brainstorms and key cross-functional meetings.

DeliverablesWeekly report of priorities and deliverables.

Minimum 3 monthsTypically 3 to 10h per week

Your copilot in action

Key projects delivered

Here's a snapshot of key projects delivered in recent months for Canadian challenger brands:

Strategic support

Strategic planning and optimization of the annual brand plan

Evolving brand positioning

Refining innovation concepts for consumer research

Presentations for key stakeholders: retailers (e.g. Costco), board meetings, potential investors

Optimizing key processes

Agency pitch management

Optimizing in-house packaging processes

Leading key brainstorms

Marketing team training (briefing tools, performance analysis e.g. Nielsen, Brand Tracking)

+30

Proprietary toolbox Templates & approaches inspired by proven brand-management principles, adapted to the reality of fast-growing challenger brands.

An innovative model, recognized by the entrepreneurial ecosystem

—Incubator: Base Entrepreneuriale HEC Montréal

—Winner of the OSEntreprendre 2026 prize — Business Services in Montreal

Are you hungry?

Good — so are we.

Contact

Let's talk

Hungry? Good — so are we.

Tell us everything

Food & beverage challengers

As a copilot, we work with a limited number of brands at a time.
If you think there's a strong fit, we want to hear from you.

Join Umami

To meet the demand, we're looking for talented collaborators — if you're a passionate foodie, bilingual English/French, and want to make marketing a force for good, get in touch.

Challenger fans

And we're always on the lookout for the best partners for our clients — so if you specialize in brand activation in Canada, with a passion for challenger brands, drop us a note!

Prefer a simple email? Write to us directly at sonia@umami-marketing.ca

You can expect a reply within 48 hours