I co-founded a start-up F&B business called Mom's Bento. Our business model involved installing vending machines in locations such as university campuses and office buildings to offer authentic Malaysian food that's ready to eat and convenient to carry around.

Our mission was to distinguish themselves from the other vending machine competitors in a university campus. This question informed my research of our consumer profile and competition, which led to very intentional decisions on how the brand should be perceived. I designed the branding to look modern and with bright colours, which would help our machine stand out amongst the other bland "old-school" vending machines in its surroundings.

After designing and implementing the brand, I transitioned to the role of marketing coordinator. In this capacity, I designed advertisements such as flyers and postcards, and developed ad campaigns for social media platforms. My primary focus was on conveying the message that the food from our vending machine is just as delicious as food prepared in a restaurant and served on a plate.

"Like what you taste?" was a campaign that I created for an on campus grand opening pop-up event where we served our food to students in a "traditional fashion", with a storefront, cashier, and of course, a plate. With each plate, a postcard is given to the customer to inform that the same food that they just ate can be found on campus, readily available, 24/7.

I designed our ad campaigns for Facebook and Instagram to tackle the presumption that vending machine food is cheap or bland, reinforcing a message that challenged this notion.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, vending machines became an unviable option for selling food on campus due to remote classes. We concluded that establishing an online presence on Facebook and Instagram was necessary to promote ongoing operations through food pop-ups and delivery services across several regions of the Greater Toronto Area.

I designed and published a website in order to establish web presence through SEO and easily manage their e-commerce through online orders. I designed a simple and effective landing page with prompts to order their ready made meals online with menu item photos and easy payment processing through Stripe. All this made for a seamless experience for the customer from landing to checkout.