The Spotlight Summer 2021 - Startup CPG by Startup CPG

SUMMER ‘21

SPOTLIGHT B U ILDI NG C OM M UN ITY

Following

The Secret to

TAKING OVER TIKTOK A Guide to

BROKERS

The Importance

OF RATINGS & REVIEWS

PLUS

CONTRACT MANUFACTURER PARTNERSHIPS + EQUITY WHAT TO EXPECT @ EXPO EAST

@brodoughcanada

Original Sound

For You

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THE SPOTLIGHT SUMMER 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS 03

Letter from the Editor

Meet the Startup CPGer Sarah Rose

06 Building Community 101 08 Quokka Brew: Revolutionizing the Coffee Industry, One Campus At A Time 12 The Importance of Ratings and Reviews 14 The Secret to Taking Over TikTok: Erica Rankin, Bro Dough 18 What’s Really At Stake: Contract Manufacturer Partnerships + Equity 20 Daily Crunch: Building an Omnichannel Approach with a Mission 24 A Guide to Brokers 26 How It Started, How It’s Going: Must Love 28 Q&A with Merchant Candy 32 The Scoop on Natural Products Expo East 36 Community Feature: Hardpops 2

DITOR'S LETTER

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DEAR STARTUP CPG COMMUNITY, It is with great pleasure that I present the second edition of The Spotlight magazine, a publication dedicated to emerging CPG brands and their many industry partners. The first edition, which came out in April 2021, was focused around sustainability in honor of Earth Day. We featured incredibly sustainable brands in our community and partners who support their sustainability efforts. In this edition, we have shifted our focus to a theme that is less tangible, but equally important to CPG brands: building community. In this edition, you will find several pieces related to this theme of building community, why community is crucial to CPG success, and what “community” actually means in practice. You will hear from founders in our community who have gone above and beyond to build their own loyal brand ambassadors, social media followings, and mission-aligned partnerships. You will also continue to learn from our incredible industry partners, who share insights on topics ranging from sharing equity with a co-manufacturer to navigating ratings and reviews. Ultimately, this edition is an ode to the very purpose of Startup CPG: to connect emerging CPG brands with each other and industry partners through a vibrant, collaborative community. As we return to in-person events and begin to see a cultural shift in our everyday lives, we are excited to continue to adapt and evolve our incredible Startup CPG community. And we are endlessly grateful to have you along for the ride. Cheers,

Jenna Movsowitz Editor, The Spotlight

Jenna Movsowitz is the Editor of The Spotlight magazine and works on Startup CPG’s marketing team. She has deep roots in CPG, also working as a publicist for food and beverage brands at Knack PR.

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THE SPOTLIGHT EDITORIAL TEAM Jenna Movsowitz Editor, The Spotlight Erin Fasano Managing Editor

CONTRIBUTORS Patricia Menegoto, Director of Community at Startup CPG Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services* Andy Kurtts, Founder and Creative Director at Buttermilk Creative* Pierre Jamet, Head of Sales for Petit Pot *= Partners of Startup CPG

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SARAH ROSE PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER, STARTUP CPG

Marketing Manager, McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams

ELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND T IN 3 SENTENCES. My background felt nonlinear while it was happening but in hindsight I’m able to connect the dots. Initially, I tried out careers in entertainment and social impact. I thought my first CPG job would be a brief stint, but found myself immediately hooked by the pace, interdisciplinarity, and innovation, and haven’t looked back since!

HAT ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT W (IN 5 WORDS OR FEWER)? Self-improvement, brand collabs, concerts, and running.

HAT’S BEEN THE MOST W REWARDING PART OF BEING PART OF THE STARTUP CPG COMMUNITY? I love being able to contribute in small ways so that the brands in our community are able to scale and shine! Through my role on the Partnerships team, I get to know service providers and help elevate their offerings and expertise through our sponsorship opportunities, which is super rewarding as well. I also learn so much every day from the conversations happening on Slack, which helps me immensely in my day job at McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams.

AVORITE SNEAK-INTO-THE-KITCHF EN-IN-THE-MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT SNACK? Plantain chips and guac - though this is more of a middle of the day snack for me!

CPG BRAND YOU EAT/DRINK A EVERY DAY? Olipop! I stopped drinking soda as a kid after watching a video of nails and screws disintegrating in a glass of Coke. Needless to say it’s such a comforting delight to enjoy Olipop without the kid (and adult) in me worrying about my teeth!

AVORITE PODCAST OR REGULAR F CLUBHOUSE TO TUNE INTO? I’m currently loving Smartless. It’s so fun, funny, and lighthearted. CPG podcasts I listen to regularly are The Ecommerce Opportunity, Brand Builder, and Unfinished Biz.

EST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER BEEN B GIVEN IN THE CPG SPACE Take time to look at things from the 30,000 foot view. In my experience working at startups and small companies on small-but-mighty teams, it’s so easy to get caught up in and consumed by the day-to-day tasks, minutiae, and deadlines. It’s an ongoing pursuit of mine to regularly block out time for roadmapping and big-picture thinking!

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BUILDING COMMUNITY 101

Patricia Menegoto is the Director of Community at Startup CPG and an independent branding, social media, and Brand Experience Consultant based in San Francisco.

uilding a community from scratch can be difficult. We invited our own Director of Community, Patricia Menegoto, to share insights into the value and practice of community building.

WHY DO BRANDS NEED TO CARE ABOUT COMMUNITY BUILDING?

Community is an extension of your team and an impact accelerator. What other tool can differentiate your brand from competitors, aid in consumer-driven decision-making, and drive brand awareness? Your community isn’t just people who buy your brand, or who are

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aware of your brand. Your community is emotionally involved in your brand’s journey. They are following your brand across social media platforms, telling friends and family about your brand, enjoying your behind-the-scenes content, and sharing their feedback with you. To keep them engaged, it is critical that you find ways to help them and give them opportunities for feedback. Community building for a brand must include real, two-way relationships. By asking for feedback and demonstrating appreciation for your consumers, you will:

l foster brand loyalty l reduce customer support cost l increase brand credibility l better customer retention l create a great channel to launch new products l own a valuable source of data and feedback

HOW DO YOU START TO BUILD COMMUNITY?

To get started, think about where you’ll host your community. Is your brand active on social media and are you able to foster open dialogue there? What about Clubhouse? Messaging platforms like Slack and Discord? While these platforms are often considered an internal resource, utilizing them for external relations will demonstrate your brand’s interest in fostering non-transactional relationships with customers. At Startup CPG, we use Slack to provide value to all members of our community. We’ve structured our Slack with several channels for different needs, so members can choose the way they engage with the community and what would provide the most value to them. Next, you’ll have to assess how much time you’ll have to dedicate to community engagement. Are you a one-person business? If so, you might consider leveraging social media, where immediate interaction is less expected than a Slack-based community. You need to commit yourself to being consistent in engaging with your community — at least daily! Poll the community to find out what content would be most valuable for them (ex. sharing your founder journey, recipes, interviews with thought leaders in your space) and post valuable content regularly, or create ambassador or reward programs that motivate them to get directly involved. The community you build for your brand can also help you build a successful launch. Try sending your most engaged community members early product samples for feedback. Can they help you improve it? Ask them how they would talk about the new product if they were responsible for the marketing strategy. You might get great ideas that you hadn’t considered! You can also think about ways to leverage your community to drive additional awareness to your new product launch. An example may be sending them new products with a handwritten note asking them to unbox it on their social channels. This engagement will help your community feel like they’re a part of the team, deepening their fandom for your brand. You can also feature members of your community in email campaigns,

your blog, or social posts. These are easy ways to share the love with your highest-value fans, and will strengthen the bond they feel to your brand.

HOW DO YOU SCALE COMMUNITY?

Community building may seem overwhelming, but empowering the most motivated and capable members of your community can help you grow. For example, Duolingo, a language learning software, has more than 300 million active users, 80+ courses and 2,500+ events per month. Sounds like a lot to manage — but they have only two Community Managers. They make it work by empowering their community members to spread the word about the power of Duolingo, turning the community into community managers themselves. Find local leaders. This is where a mission-forward approach will serve you best. While it may be difficult to get consumers to gather around your product, you can easily tap into existing communities that are affiliated with your mission or story. Are you an AAPI-founded team? Find local AAPI entrepreneurial groups! Are you focused on sustainability? Tap into different chapters of Students for Environmental Action at local universities. Once you find one or two passionate people who are excited about your mission, they’ll help fill out the local community and bring your mission to their area. You can give them the autonomy to plan and organize local events sponsored by your team. You (or your community managers) will be available for guidance and support to ensure the local communities are serving the overall mission of your brand. If you’re building an ambassador program, you’ll need similar tools. A document outlining guardrails and the brand mission will help them maximize the benefit they can be to the brand, while ensuring they have the space they need to be true to themselves, their own brand, and their regional culture. They’ll be a great resource as you look to learn how you can grow faster.

HOW DO YOU SET GOALS FOR COMMUNITY?

Community should be just one part of your overall marketing plan, so the goals for community should align with your larger brand goals. What are your company goals for the month, quarter, or year? How can the community support your overall goals? Here are some examples: If you are focused on improving your product, you could leverage your community by collecting feedback and insights via qualitative interviews or a quantitative survey. If you are trying to improve acquisition, you could develop ideas to leverage your community to expose more consumers to your brand. For example, Lululemon store owners are the community organizers who are responsible for selecting local ambassadors. The ambassadors in turn create local fitness experiences to drive awareness of the brand, create off-premise sales, and deepen the relationship of the brand within the broader community. If you’re trying to drive LTV, try to understand how consumers who attend events or engage in your community behave vs those who don’t. I have a client who learned that consumers who attended events purchased from the brand 3x longer than those that didn’t — which helped prove the ROI of the events, and give the organization a reason to maximize attendance at events. Whatever stage of community building you’re in, stay engaged, listen to the community, and have fun!

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By Jenna Movsowitz

Quokka Brew REVOLUTIONIZING THE COFFEE INDUSTRY, ONE CAMPUS AT A TIME

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he idea for jitterless, readyto-drink coffee was first brewed in a college library. Co-founders and co-CEOs Ofek Arush and George Passantino were students at UC Berkeley who couldn’t help but notice their friends struggling to make it through finals week without increasing their caffeine consumption - and then experiencing its subsequent jitters and crash. As aspiring entrepreneurs, Ofek and George knew this problem needed a solution, but they had yet to find it on the market. So while their friends spent their summers readjusting their circadian rhythms, Ofek and George got to work on researching a crashless solution to fuel finals.

IDEATION + CREATION The co-founders knew that this product couldn’t just be any crash-free coffee; it had to come in a ready-to-drink format. The on-the-go college student or young professional was their target market: the same people clutching bottled Starbucks frappuccinos on their way to class or work. Not only were these existing products contributing caffeine jitters, but they also were loaded with sugar, which only worsened afternoon crashes. The student team concluded that the true solution to the college caffeine crisis would be conveniently packaged, low sugar, and jitter free coffee. “We worked with food scientists and chemists for five months and created our patent-pending blend of organic amino acids and nootropics which we infused into cold brew,” Ofek says. With the help of many different food scientists, they discovered that caffeine constricts blood vessels, which often causes jitters. The addition of specific amino acids can be used to counteract this effect by dilating blood vessels and relaxing the caffeine consumer. “We conducted a double blind study to prove its efficacy. The study proved that this blend eliminates the jitters and crash from caffeine without sacrificing any of the energy or focus. When the results came back, we immediately

Co-founders and Co-CEOs George Passantino (left) and Ofek Arush (right)

sprung into action.” The team added almond milk to the blend for a low-sugar, low-calorie hint of sweetness, and bottled the resulting product. Just like that, Quokka Brew was born.

BUILDING THE QUOKKA COMMUNITY Unlike other CPG brands who spend months working on branding or packaging, Ofek and George knew that their product required education. Confident that their product’s effects would speak for themselves, they took 4-oz bottles with a mockup Quokka Brew label straight to the UC Berkeley’s plaza to start sampling immediately. This effort worked twofold: it exposed potential consumers to this category disrupting product and also acted as an exercise in market research for the co-founders. “In real time, people would ask questions like ‘what are coffee jitters?’ and ‘is this product decaf?’” George recalls. “This helped us pivot our marketing and rapidly iterate our copy to answer these questions upfront.” The most valuable asset they gained from this initial sampling, though, was the community they built around the product. “What seemed like overnight, we built an ambassador program of 40 students at UC Berkeley alone. We

knew we could replicate this at other universities, so we packed George’s car to the brim and drove to universities all around the area. This first effort in sampling led to our expansion to 15 universities with over 230 student ambassadors,” Ofek says. “Students would sample one day, and then come back the next to say how blown away they were that the product actually worked. They joined the ambassador program because they were passionate about the product, but they stayed involved because of the community we created.” For Ofek and George, this meant building relationships within the Quokka community through regular social events and establishing campus partners. They took the lack of natural college socializing during COVID as an opportunity to make virtual Quokka events the main place where college students could meet one another. Rather than pushing the ambassadors to make sales, they rooted the program in a strong communal mission to “revolutionize the coffee industry.” Ofek and George believe that much of Quokka Brew’s success can be attributed to this larger-than-thyself mission adopted by all campus ambassadors and team members. This community-oriented culture doesn’t stop at their ambassador program. “We’re always communicating

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with our customers,” Ofek says. “Our whole team takes on a customer service role. We each text a group of customers at the end of each month, saying ‘This is so-and-so from Quokka, we’d love to hear what you think of your order!’ This personal touch connects us to our customers and provides us with continuous, genuine feedback.” Feedback received from the Quokka Brew community has led to several reformulations of the product. And their strong customer connection proved to be the single most important asset in their crowdfunding.

NAVIGATING CHANGE + CROWDFUNDING Throughout Quokka’s early stages, the focus was never on numbers. But as the team grew and its mission spread across California college campuses, Ofek and George knew it was time to start crowdfunding to get this product off sampling tables and onto shelves. But they never could have anticipated this phase to be the most challenging phase thus far; while the Quokka team came into crowdfunding on Kickstarter with an almond milk latte, they ended up launching on Indiegogo a month later with an entirely different product. Just four days before their highly-anticipated Kickstarter launched, the team got a call from their formulator. For six months, the formulator and Quokka team had been working on perfecting a canned almond milk latte - and the promotional materials all boasted this product. But when the formulator called days before the Kickstarter launch, they said this product could not be made. The taste was far off from the product that the co-founder team had bottled and sampled, and the can format was not working for the formulator. With a countdown to crowdfunding ticking away on Quokka’s socials, they had no product to offer. Immediately, the team pivoted. They pushed the campaign back one month, cut ties with the formulator, and sourced a new one: one who was able to bring their true original vision of an oat milk latte to life. But where one problem was solved, another arose. Two days before their new campaign was supposed to launch, the Kickstart-

er team reached out to say that they could not launch the product on their platform. Because the product was a category disruptor (a coffee with added amino acids), Kickstarter mislisted it as an energy drink and would not permit them to launch. Again, the team had to pivot. This time, they reached out to the founders of Indiegogo to see if it was possible to launch the campaign on their platform in two days. Not only did Indiegogo set up the campaign for them, but the team also allowed them to take over the Indiegogo Instagram account for a day to promote the product on the new platform. On Quokka’s Instagram, Ofek and George remained transparent about the pivot and used this challenge as an opportunity to show the behind-the-scenes stressors of being entrepreneurs. When the Indiegogo went live, the Quokka team and ambassadors immediately did what they do best: texted everyone they knew. And though the customer base had never tried the new formulation, they had faith in the team that was “revolutionizing the coffee industry”- and they demonstrated their faith with their wallets. Less than 24 hours into their crowdfunding campaign, Quokka Brew surpassed their fundraising goal for the entire month -by $10,000. By the end of the campaign, they were one of the highest crowdfunded beverages in the industry.

THE FUTURE OF QUOKKA BREW An ever-adapting team, the crew is currently working on two new SKUs: black jitterless coffee and their chocolate flavor of the latte. They just launched at Erewhon and are continuing to expand in retailers across California and through direct-to-consumer. As for their ambassador team, aka their secret to success, they plan to continue fostering meaningful relationships through working closely with ambassador presidents to make the most out of their return to campus. You can try Quokka Brew at https:// www.quokkabrew.com/ and follow along with Ofek, George, and their team of incredible ambassadors @quokkabrew on Instagram.

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The Importance OF RATINGS & REVIEWS Erin Fasano is the Managing Editor of Startup CPG’s Spotlight and the Founder of Starryside Company, a brand on a mission to save creativity through drinks and snacks that ensure kids creativity lasts. For this story, she sat down with members of the community to talk all things Ratings & Reviews: Leon Lewis, Founder of Daybreak Growth Partners, Fernando Campos – Cofounder of MarketplaceOps.com, and Corey Scholibo, a serial social entrepreneur, currently launching Wile.

n April 2021, a new beauty brand launched on Sephora's website — and changed the way people viewed reviews forever. This brand had sourced fake product reviews before the product was available to buy, and the story circulated for days. It made me wonder: why would a founder ever buy reviews? Are good product reviews really worth the risk?

REVIEWS HAVE A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON YOUR BRAND’S SUCCESS The one thing all three of the pros I talked to agreed on is that ratings and reviews matter – a lot. Whether they actually influence the Amazon algorithm itself or not seemed to be up for debate, but one thing is clear: the more high quality ratings & reviews you have on Amazon (and any other online marketplace), the more likely you are to drive a click to your listing and get an opportunity to convert a sale. That conversion is a critical measure for your brand, both for your bottom line and the future ranking of your listing in the search results on the marketplace. Plus, as Scholibo notes, strong Ratings & Reviews on your listings help you build your "moat" and protect your

brand from look-a-like, fast followers who might try to capitalize on your great idea with copycat products.

SO HOW DO YOU GET REVIEWS? And how do you avoid doing things that will get you in trouble — either with consumers who find out you have fake reviews, or with the online marketplaces themselves? »L everage your existing con-

sumers. Reach out to your own email list, SMS list, and social following and ask them to find you on Amazon. You can simply ask them to leave you a review after they make their purchase. »T ry a coupon. In order to get users to try you on Amazon, Lewis recommends trying a coupon to drive trial. You will naturally get more ratings and reviews as you move more product – plus, the coupon will help you drive that coveted conversion, which will improve your overall sales velocity and ranking in search results. »M ake Amazon a part of your Influencer Program. Have influencers talk about how they found your product on Amazon, how

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the ratings and reviews helped them make a decision, and encourage their followers to find your product there. »A sk friends and family for help – but be careful how you do it. More on that in a minute.

Lewis told me a fun story of a brand in Brooklyn that (pre-COVID) would go down to a local bar for happy hour, and just start talking about the brand with other patrons and asking them to buy their product on Amazon – in exchange for a round of drinks. There wasn’t a lot of consensus among the group on how many reviews is “enough” but once you get to about 3050, you will likely see better conversion to your page in paid media. You’re never really done fostering reviews – even if you get thousands. Remember, its part of your digital moat that can protect you from fraudulent copycats!

RISKS AND WATCHOUTS FOR SOURCING REVIEWS Why do you need to be careful about asking your family or friends to buy your product and review it? Amazon really wants reviews to be authentic, and goes to great lengths to ensure that they

are, flagging any suspicious reviews. »B e careful of friends and family

reviews. If you share an IP address, a shipping address, a last name, or where you connect the internet with a potential reviewer – find someone else. This could flag Amazon’s system. So be judicious with those you ask for support, ensuring they're geographically diverse, don't share your name, and are an existing Amazon shopper. »D on’t buy reviews. While tempting as a fast way to get a lot of reviews quickly, these are often low value buyers. As Campos explains, Amazon actually rates buyers, too. If buyers are only buying on deep discounts or coming from rebate websites, this could also be a red flag to Amazon. »O ne tactic that many brands utilize is creating a free product funnel against their lowest price point offer to not only drive sales velocity for ranking and visibility, but to also drive ratings. Doing this carefully is crucial, as it is a very fine line between enhancing the customer experience and violating Amazon’s terms of service. When done correctly

however, this strategy is incredibly effective for driving reviews from the get go.

Violations of Amazon’s policies in this area can be detrimental to your Amazon business, including removing you from the platform. To come back, you’d need a new LLC, new trademarks, new everything! In fairness though, the experts agreed that a more likely outcome is a slap on the wrist notices from Amazon to halt behaviors deemed a violation of their Ts&Cs.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER DIGITAL MARKETPLACES? All the other digital marketplaces are catching up to Amazon, and Ratings & Reviews on sites like Walmart.com, Target.com, Sephora.com and the like are important to conversion and finding success in the algorithm, too. In fact, Lewis notes that you could potentially make a more material impact on your business by focusing the same level of effort to drive ratings and reviews on these other platforms, simply because the volume of ratings and reviews is so much lower. Of course note, you still need to consider product-market fit on other digital properties.

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by Jenna Movsowitz

THE “SECRET” TO TAKING OVER TIKTOK

ERICA RANKIN, BRO DOUGH

aving your small business go “viral” on social media often sounds as probable as winning the lottery. While we regularly hear of viral marketing success stories, it’s easy to feel detached from them. It’s as though the subject simply “cracked the code” or is in on a “secret” that the rest of us couldn’t possibly understand. Rather than spending all of our time trying to figure out a formula, it feels safer to focus time and money on marketing techniques that guarantee ROI — missing out on a potential overnight success story in exchange for steady growth. But what if “going viral” wasn’t such a secret? When Erica Rankin founded her own protein cookie dough business in 2020, she never could have predicted the immense impact that a little new app called TikTok could have on her one-woman business. In just two short months, the Founder and CEO of Bro Dough watched her business’s TikTok account skyrocket from zero followers to 40,000+ followers and her sales doubled — without ever hiring out or spending a dime on ads. Today, her TikTok account has reached over 130,000 followers, which she notes “is four times the size of [her] hometown.” Now, she is eager to share her best TikTok tips with the Startup CPG community. You’re going to want to grab a notepad for this one.

Post and engage regularly

THE BASICS

On other platforms, posting every day, let alone three times a day, would be a faux pas. But on TikTok, the more you’re posting, the more likely you are to go viral. Erica posts one to three times per day, and has found that regular posting was the key element that took her account off the ground. Regular posting makes you more likely to end up on someone’s For You Page, or the discovery page on TikTok where users spend most of their time. The more content, the merrier. When it comes to regular engagement, Erica sets aside 20-30 minutes a day to reply to comments and messages in the platform. This quick effort can have a huge impact. It demonstrates Erica’s devotion to customer service and builds a community that feels personally connected to the person behind the brand.

People-first content

Use viral sounds

Erica focused on putting her face in front of the brand. Her videos show the behind-the-scenes of owning a small business or tell her personal founder story through humor. While her product is featured in many of her videos, her most viral videos never feel like an ad. In fact, 33% of TikTok’s top performing ads break the fourth wall with a narrator who speaks directly to the camera (source: TikTok for Business). While TikTok is an entertainment app, users expect people-centric content with a user-generated feel, rather than a professional, studio feel. And though TikTok may feel unapproachable, this fact alone is precisely why small business owners on TikTok have the potential to be just as successful, if not more, than household names.

The TikTok algorithm rewards those that stick with the trends. While you may get excited by the wealth of sounds you can use as audio for your TikToks, your favorite songs or DIY sounds likely won’t get you discovered. Instead, Erica rec-

33% of TikTok’s top performing ads break the fourth wall with a narrator who speaks directly to the camera

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WWW.BRODOUGH.CA ommends utilizing the Viral button that pops up when you’re making a video on the app. This shows you which sounds are currently viral. You can also look up other videos. “I often search the hashtag #smallbusiness and scroll on that search result. This helps me find sounds, either music or voiceovers, that other successful small businesses have been using to go viral. I favorite these videos to keep the sounds for my future content.”

Use specific hashtags

Erica recommends using hashtags that are more specific or tailored to your content, with fewer videos. “For example, instead of using the hashtag ‘#cookiedough’ I use ‘#proteincookiedough’. The goal with a hashtag, is when someone searches these, you want your video to appear at the top of the page where it will be seen. If there are millions of videos under a hashtag (like #foryoupage or #fyp), your video will get lost.” Think of this as TikTok SEO: the most engaged-with videos of each hashtag will appear at the top of that search. These specific hashtags will also help you engage with the right audience. If Erica limited her hashtag to #cookie-

dough, she may miss those looking for high-protein sweet treat alternatives. If she limited her hashtag to #protein, she may miss those who are looking to satisfy their sweet tooth.

BEING EFFICIENT Time block to film

As the self-proclaimed “Chief Everything Officer’’ of Bro Dough, Erica knows that time is often the scarcest resource, next to capital. The trade-off is often why people outsource content creation; they choose to save the time and spend the capital. But Erica decided to save the cash and instead streamline the creation process. Her best tip? Time block. Erica sets aside about two hours on two days a week to make as many TikToks as she can. “That’s why in a lot of my TikToks, I have the same outfit on. I do them all at once, and then save the drafts and upload them throughout the week.” For inspiration, she scrolls through TikTok at night and favorites content that performed well for other businesses. On her content creating days, she goes

back to her favorited videos and uses the sounds to make her own content.

Recycle

TikTok is setting trends for the social media landscape. Instagram now has Reels, YouTube has Shorts, and the list will likely continue to grow. If you’re already strapped for time, Erica recommends repurposing all TikToks for other platforms. “I’ve never actually made a Reel for Instagram. Instead, I take my TikTok and put them on Instagram as Reels.” Because Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes content made on their app, she uses a website called snaptik.com that allows you to remove the watermark from your downloaded TikTok content. Erica also often repurposes TikToks on LinkedIn posts to humanize and add character to an often overly-professional platform.

Capitalize on someone else’s success

Erica’s most successful TikTok ever wasn’t originally hers. An often underutilized feature of TikTok is stitching, which allows creators to add their own video to someone else’s original content. Erica recommends finding another viral TikTok, one with thousands or even millions of views, and clicking the Stitch button to add your own content to the end of it. “There was this viral video on slime that looked just like cookie dough. It had millions of views, so I stitched it with my reaction as a real cookie dough business owner. It got over 2 million views and took me seconds to make.”

ENGAGING AND BUILDING COMMUNITY Duet with customers

While stitching puts your video at the end of another video clip, “duetting” is the function on TikTok that allows you to put your video and another video side-by-side at the same time. Erica uses this function to amplify customer reviews and show her customers how much she appreciates their engagement. She duets customer review videos with her live reaction to their review. “If customers see that I posted a video with another customer reviewing my product, they will be more likely to post a review, too, in hopes of getting featured on my page.”

WWW.BRODOUGH.CA WWW.BRODOUGH.CA Respond to comments with a video

When you get a comment on a TikTok (especially a viral one) that receives a lot of likes, it’s smart to respond to it with a video. There is a function on TikTok that allows you to “reply with a video”, which creates a new TikTok with the referenced comment on the screen. “Most people who see the viral video will see your reply to the top comment, and then go view that video as well,” Erica says. This helps increase views, but also shows that you are dedicated to personal customer service.

Engage with other small businesses

Following other small businesses is a great way to build a larger community. Erica suggests finding small businesses and supporting them through comments and likes. The community of small businesses on TikTok has been incredibly supportive for Erica, and allows customers who are looking to shop small to find her through comments on others’ videos.

MISCELLANEOUS TIPS Seven seconds = sweet spot

The best performing TikToks are often the shortest. This is because TikTok prioritizes videos that were watched multiple times and videos that are watched all the way or most of the way through. When you make a very short video, users often accidentally rewatch it. And because the average attention span for a Gen Z user in 2021 is around eight seconds, keeping videos at or around that length is your best bet. If someone watches six seconds of a seven second video, that will be registered by the algorithm as a quality video and will be pushed to more screens than a minute-long video that was only watched for six seconds.

Giveaways

To accelerate community building, Erica suggests creating a TikTok asking your customers to engage with the video (like, comment or follow) for a chance to win free product. More people will engage for the opportunity of free product, which creates a snowball of increased visibility; the algorithm pushes highly engaged-with content on the For You Page.

Don’t underestimate the microinfluencer

When working with TikTok influencers, you may encounter some cost barriers. Creators on TikTok are often charging hundreds of dollars for a single video. For some, this may be worth the investment. But Erica has a few suggestions to maximize that investment. Firstly, if you do choose to invest, she recommends agreeing on a metric goal. For instance, if the influencer charges $500 for a post, you would pay $250 upfront and the remaining $250 after the video gets, say, 500,000 views. But her favorite suggestion is working with microinfluencers, or those with under 10,000 followers. In Erica’s experience, microinfluencers have been more likely to go above and beyond for a brand and have a more engaged audience. “I had someone with over a million followers post about my product, and then I had someone who had 5,000 followers post about my product. I got no orders from the lager influencer, but from the microinfluencer I got around 50 orders.”

Measuring success from TikTok

While it can be difficult to measure ROI from a post (TikTok still doesn’t integrate with Shopify), Erica has noticed an instant increase in sales the morning after posting a viral TikTok. She also looks into where the traffic on her Shopify came from, and often sees that it came from Instagram which is linked in her TikTok bio. Another option is creating a unique website link to put in a TikTok bio to accurately reflect sales from TikTok. When Erica Rankin started her TikTok account, she never anticipated that it would contribute to Bro Dough’s success to the degree that it has. In just one month of regular posting, Bro Dough orders doubled. By taking a people-centric, product-second, casual approach to content marketing, Erica has turned customers into fans. Her loyal followers are eager to engage with her in the comments, to tag her in videos, and to incessantly beg her to start shipping her product internationally. An ad may buy a one-time customer. But a strong following and charismatic social presence can buy a lifetime fan and repeat purchaser. The next time you’re debating between spending the money or the time, consider taking a page out of Erica’s book. Sometimes the scrappiest techniques build the best brands.

Erica is a 26 year old fitness advocate from a small town in Ontario, Canada. Wanting to live a healthier lifestyle, she became passionate about recreating her favourite treats and putting a healthy spin on them. She started to develop an interest in weight lifting and nutrition, and was really drawn to the fitness community. As time went on, she became greatly interested in betterfor-you foods, and trying to lead a more plant-based lifestyle. She noticed there was a gap in the market for an improved version of a nostalgic treat - cookie dough. This led to the development of Bro Dough and she bridged that gap, by creating a 100% vegan, plant-based, protein infused edible cookie dough that is lower in sugar. She wanted to take this treat and transform it into something individuals could enjoy without sacrificing their health or fitness goals.

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WHAT’S REALLY AT STAKE CONTRACT MANUFACTURER PARTNERSHIPS + EQUITY

By Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services

Early in the life span of a CPG company, a vital decision must be made: will they partner with a contract manufacturer (co-man), and if so, what will this relationship look like? This decision can have major implications on the brand’s future success. We hear a lot of questions from founders about co-man relationships, so we asked an expert to explain equity-based arrangements. Jamie Valenti-Jordan of Catapult Commercialization Services offers his insights into the often complicated financial relationship between these two parties -- and why “equity” and “strategic partnerships” are not always synonymous. 18

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CONTRACT MANUFACTURING RELATIONSHIPS

To understand the nuanced relationship between a company and a co-man, it is necessary to first understand the key differences between these parties’ goals. The brand needs the product to cost a certain amount on shelf and has to pay a lot of people to get it there. The brand makes money when the product is sold and consumed over and over again. The brand must have the flexibility to respond to their market forces of competitive products, cost pressures, demand spikes, seasonal category cycles, target consumer optimizations in product attributes or quality, etc. These are not always things that co-mans are built to respond to directly. The contract manufacturer’s business model, on the other hand, is to make product to a specification from the brand - not necessarily to make a brand succeed. The co-man has to get paid and make their margins for product produced in order to stay in operation. When input costs change (a function of their market forces), they have to be able to charge for them. When they reach a physical limitation (24 hours in a day, square feet of production space, power limitations, municipal waste limits, etc), they necessarily must halt growth until something changes. When a co-man puts equity on the table to form a “strategic partnership,” the brand may assume that by sharing the equity, they can change the business model for the co-man; they cannot. The co-man will always focus on production and cost problems, which means the brand won’t feel like they have a partner in their equity-based co-man when they are facing sales challenges. Contract manufacturers do not care about the equity; it is a calculated play to double-dip into the work and success of the brand. They will continue to charge enough to cover their costs and still make a margin on top.

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE?

Let’s say the brand does well and has a difficult-to-make product. The co-man has 90% utilization and really is just trying to make a profit, takes the equity, and starts producing in their remaining time. The brand grows and starts projecting needing 20% of the line time. They have efficient, easy-to-make products that take up 90% of the line time and they can count on contin-

ued sales of that product. They will always prioritize that over the difficult-to-make, riskier products. So the brand outgrows the co-man and looks for another partner to manufacture with. Obviously the next coman doesn’t get equity, but they aren’t going to get the scaling efficiencies that the first co-man developed for the brand (co-man’s IP) so it will cost more initially to produce at the second co-man. Assuming that can be overcome, the first co-man loses all its volume, doesn’t have to do anything, and still owns a portion of the brand.

A Case Study (Based on a real client) Company X gave away 20% of their company in order to have a large manufacturer. Eventually, the brand’s primary investor tried to recoup their costs but they couldn’t sell their share of the company because they didn’t own 20% of their own company due to supermajority requirements. Additionally, the co-man had essentially locked them out and said they won’t make the product anymore because they have other products that made a better margin, so the value of the brand tanked. The co-man no longer saw a future for Company X, so they decided not to prioritize scheduling their products, because they had already agreed to lower their margin in exchange for the equity. Company X then had to change comans, which proved nearly impossible - the previous co-man still owned 20% of their company. They ended up having to undersell to the industry board to recoup the ownership of their own company and sell that 20% to another third party. That’s the nightmare scenario; you don’t have the freedom to leave a co-man, and the coman won’t run your product for you.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR IN A CO-MAN?

In early conversations with a contract manufacturer, the brand should be paying keen attention to what the co-man is asking them. A good sign of a good future partner is a co-man who asks things like “what does your brand stand for?”, “how quickly do you want to grow?”, and “what resources do you have to execute sales?”. These questions are a sign that the co-man is thinking about a future partnership, and that they have an interest in your success. If they’re not asking these questions and are focused solely on numbers (ie. cost to run), they are not going to be your partner,

just an agent of production. Of course, this partnership is a two-way street. The brand should also be asking questions like “how can I make my product work more effectively on your systems?” that will gain buy-in from the co-mans early on. Universally, equity should be exchanged for support now and ongoing support as you grow. It should not be transactional, but rather a commitment that that partner has value as you scale and grow and pivot for years to come. Most of the time they end in threats of litigation due to hurt feelings and mismanaged expectations, but rarely do they end up being litigated. If a brand truly thinks they have a forever co-man, and that co-man is asking for equity, ask for some in return. If you truly think your business plans are so well aligned, then swap equity, don’t just share it.

Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CFS, CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services, has 15 years of experience with early stage startups through Fortune 500 food companies. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a MS in Food Science from UW-Madison. His career has led him through the successful launch of over 500 products, the installation of $50M in capital equipment, and savings projects totalling more than $200M annually. He currently manages a team of 45 professionals spread throughout the US and EU to launch new companies and products around the world. To learn more about co-manufacturers, check out our past blog post by Matt Suggs of Partner Slate.

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By Jenna Movsowitz

DAILY CRUNCH SNACKS BUILDING AN OMNICHANNEL APPROACH WITH A MISSION

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hen Laurel Orley first tried her Aunt Diane’s sprouted and dehydrated nuts, she knew they couldn’t stay confined to the family kitchen. Her Aunt Diane had learned the sprouting technique from her sister, who had traveled to India and brought the recipe back with her. After soaking almonds overnight to optimize digestion, she dehydrated them at a low temperature to preserve nutrients and create the perfect crunch — and Laurel’s entire family, picky eaters included, couldn’t get enough of the transformed snack. Itching with entrepreneurial spirit and addicted to this new family snack, Laurel and Diane teamed up as co-founders to make Daily Crunch Snacks come alive. This past year, Daily Crunch brought their sprouted nuts to market — during a pandemic. Like many brands that launched during this unusual time, they had to think creatively about getting the product into consumers hands. Here’s how they have steadily grown Daily Crunch in a changing retail landscape:

BUILDING AN OMNICHANNEL APPROACH Amazon was an intuitive first step for Daily Crunch; while brick and mortar retail doors were closed during 2020, Amazon was booming. Daily Crunch launched with three flavors onto Amazon in June 2020. Though she was a firsttime entrepreneur, Laurel was no stranger to CPG and retail. Prior to launching Daily Crunch, she worked for 13 years on the Unilever business, and she knew that her product had potential to make it to the shelves. Luckily, Daily Crunch had an early partner on board to help expand their presence in retail. In November, they launched with the KeHE Elevate program, a 2-year accelerator program for emerging brands. Laurel is the first to admit that she didn’t know what to expect when this program began, but was quickly blown away. “Stores from Maine to Hawaii started to pull in our products. Some of these were individual natural product stores that we simply wouldn’t have had the bandwidth to reach out to as a small startup,” Laurel says. Daily Crunch is now in over 300 stores through KeHE, and the shelf space was only one part of this transformative program: “We regularly have sales calls with our category managers, who give us crucial insights into what’s working on shelf and what’s not. They open retail doors, but also share incredible advice and offer countless discounted promotions and access to trade shows. They both challenge us and cheer for us. KeHE Elevate has been nothing but a positive experience.” While KeHE Elevate earned retail space for the brand, Laurel was eager to further build out Daily Crunch’s omnichannel approach. It was one podcast with Kara Goldin of Hint Water that altered the way she viewed her new company’s retail strategy: “When Hint was in Target, Kara had asked Target to

communicate something to her customers, and Target said they can’t do that — the customers aren’t Hint’s customers, they’re Target’s customers,” Laurel recalls. “This single conversation with Target led Kara to restrategize completely. She knew then that she needed a direct-to-consumer platform for Hint customers to be her customers.” Inspired by this podcast and constrained by the pandemic’s retail limitations, Laurel took 2020 to sit back and rethink her omnichannel approach. Direct-to-consumer, as Laurel learned from Kara Goldin, allows for the most direct relationship with a customer. This relational piece is the main reason that Laurel shifted her strategy, but she also notes that it has had a great impact on the operations side as well. “If you’re just focusing on getting into as many doors and groceries as possible, you’re constantly spending money on each launch. Each new store requires a promotion, each new pitch requires raising awareness. It can take months before you’re paid back.” Laurel says. A solution is taking an omnichannel approach where the company can go direct-to-consumer. This allows for the highest margins and gets the company paid immediately, rather than waiting three to six months to get paid by another party. Then, Laurel learned, you can reinvest that money into stores so you can spend less time trying to raise funds continuously just to stay on the shelf.

BRAND CONSISTENCY + GENUINE MISSION = REPEAT CUSTOMER + DEVOTED PARTNERS Though Laurel knew from the get-go that direct-to-consumer (DTC) was going to be a key strategy for Daily Crunch, she also acknowledges the significant amount of work it takes to solidify a DTC purchaser, let alone a repeat purchaser or brand ambassador. “It’s crucial to put spending behind DTC to discover what your customer is receptive to. Do A/B testing, gain a pulse on what interests them, and stay consistent.” It takes three to five touch points for a consumer to make a purchase, so retargeting is imperative. But if you have one ad that doesn’t look like another ad, the consumer won’t connect the dots. “Stay true to your branding, call to action, and tagline in every promotion you do.” Consistency doesn’t stop at colors and promotions. Laurel

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IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOUR BRANDING HAS TO BE CONSISTENT ACROSS ALL FRONTS, SO DOES YOUR MISSION. notes that one of the most crucial pieces in solidifying a repeat customer is building a brand they can get behind. Daily Crunch is an incredibly sustainable brand, sourcing their almonds exclusively from Certified Bee Friendly farms with solar-powered irrigation. But they never wanted sustainability to be their core mission. Like nutritional benefits and innovative branding, Laurel and her co-founder Diane always thought of sustainability as a baseline component of any emerging CPG brand. Mission, on the other hand, was to be larger than the product or what it contained. Daily Crunch’s mission of mental health awareness has nothing to do with sprouted almonds — but everything to do with the people behind the brand. After Diane lost her college-aged son to suicide, she founded The Support Network to bring mental health support and awareness to college campuses. This cause is near and dear to the Daily Crunch team, who not only experienced this tragic loss, but also have their own personal stories and struggles relating to mental health. The team always knew that a portion of their proceeds would go to The Support Network, and that they would work behind the scenes to continue reducing the stigma behind mental health. Without a clear connection between the product and mission, however, effective communication and education becomes critical. On the back of all Daily Crunch Snacks’ packaging, it says that they donate a portion of their proceeds to The Support Network. But Laurel quickly realized that this declaration didn’t do enough work in communicating the “why,” or tying the brand to the mission. In the same way that your branding has to be consistent across all fronts, so does your mission. “We recently received feedback from a major awards program that they wanted to know more about our mission, but couldn’t find it on our website,” Laurel says. Currently, their mission is woven into the ‘About Us’ section of their website. But this feedback emphasized that the mission deserved its own section to explain the connection between the mission and brand, and share resources to get more involved. The team is now working to build this out as a separate tab on their website as well as incorporate it more in promotional materials related to the product. They also have been dedicating more space on their social platforms to share mental health resources and experiences. For Mental Health Month, the social team opened up the platform to share personal mental health stories from members of the Daily Crunch community. “We now share our own story at every single touch point, from suppliers to co-packers to buyers and investors,” Laurel says. “When you are finally able to speak to a buyer or potential partner, you may only have a few minutes. We are always sure to use our limited elevator pitch as an opportunity to start dialogue around our mission.” Integrating mission in their team’s rhetoric not only invites others to personally connect to the mission, but also ensures that all potential brand partners feel passionately about the cause.

“We were talking to a buyer for a large chain store a few weeks ago and brought up our mission. The buyer wrote to me a few days later not just to rave about our product, but to thank me for sharing my mission because it resonated with her so much.” For Laurel, it’s a grounding moment to remember that seemingly transactional relationships can be rooted in a meaningful mission. “It feels authentic because it is authentic. It’s something we can talk about on a personal level. It’s something that makes us memorable for more than our product.”

Laurel Orley is CEO and co-founder of Daily Crunch Snacks. With more than 15 years of media and advertising experience, Orley largely oversees the marketing, and strategy of Daily Crunch Snacks. After working 13 years at Mindshare on the Unilever business, she found herself loving the consumer-packaged goods world, but wanting to work for a brand she could create from the ground up. While on the Unilever account, Orley worked on flagship billion dollar brands such as the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and staple brands Dove Men+Care, Hellman’s, Lipton Tea and the Suave portfolio. While on maternity leave, she kept finding herself reflecting on how she was so inspired by Diane’s snacks and their differentiating factor in the marketplace. Orley then joined her aunt, and founder of Diane’s Snacks, Diane Orley, to launch Daily Crunch Snacks. www.dailycrunchsnacks.com @DailyCrunchSnacks dailycrunch_snacks

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A Guide

By Erin Fasano

TO BROKERS

Brokers are one of the most common topics on the Startup CPG e-commerce Slack channel. Founders looking for advice about who to hire, how Brokers help, and how to get the most out of the partnership. Look no further – our Startup CPG Spotlight Guide is here to get you started on your search for a Broker. 24

THE BASICS Before starting a search for a broker, it first helps to know what a broker is and what they do. A broker is effectively an arm of your sales organization, who will support your retail growth initiatives, both by supporting sell-in and sellthrough. Avi Kahn, Director of Business Development at B&A Food Brokers located in NJ, thinks about his brokerage as a fractional VP of Sales for his clients, with the added benefit that he and his team are going back to the same accounts and calling on a variety of categories at the retailer. This is one of the key benefits of partnering with a broker: they really know the retailer well.

But not only does a broker know the retailer well, they should also be able to guide you on your readiness for market. A broker maintains strong relationships with retailers by bringing them brands with real potential and the cash to support the demands of entering brick-andmortar retail. If you’re not ready, a good broker will maintain a relationship with you and help guide you to striking when the time is right. When you’re looking for a broker, know your own geographical needs. Are you looking for a retailer who specializes in a particular region of the country? Are you looking for a retailer who is strong in a particular channel? Or are you ready for

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big, national accounts? Once you know what you are looking for, it’s time to issue an RFP or start interviewing brokers. Finding a broker can feel daunting – try googling it and you’ll see why. Of course, you can visit the Startup CPG Slack community for advice and tradeshows are a great opportunity to see what options are available and how they work. To start, see if you can find out who similar brands use (ie. are all the natural and gluten free brands using the same handful of brokers?). If you’re lucky enough to already have retailer relationships, you can also solicit their advice – they might be cagey about it, but sometimes you’ll get lucky and they can point you in a good direction. Some brands wonder if a distributor rep can service their selling needs as well as a broker can. Jake Huber, a retail sales consultant, says that they probably cannot fulfill this role. Distributor reps are really focused on moving cases out of their warehouses. There will be times, like if you’re running a SPIF, that you can get a lot of attention from the distributor reps, but generally, they are really focused on the super-fast moving brands, and if you’re just starting out, that isn’t going to be you.

INTERVIEWING A BROKER When you’re interviewing brokers, you’ll want to try to get an understanding of just how well they know categories, too. Phil Gelinas of JOH Brokers has spent 35 years in the business and encourages founders to start by asking a lot of questions during the interview process to confirm that the brokerage knows which items sell, which don’t, what is the range of MSRPs, and what frequency of promotion is required. You want to feel really confident that they know the category you’re looking to enter and can guide you to success. You also want to make sure you understand the services the broker offers. Brokers offer so much more than the retailer relationship – do you need access to category data? Do they offer category management services? Do they have a merchandising team? And of course, how much of the broker will you actually get. How much time do they have to service your business? A typical account manager will have a ton of

brands on their desk. Find out how many brands the AMs manage so you can assess how attentive they’ll have time to be. When you ask every broker this question, you can make it an input into your decision for how much time they will actually have for you. How do they communicate? How do they manage tasks? Try to get a sense of their response time; 24 hours should be the standard. Finding out broker team structure is important too. More common in larger brokerages, sometimes there is a person who is brand facing, a different person who is retailer facing, and potentially even more in between. You don’t want to be too far removed from the retailer. Ideally, it would look like: You – Broker Rep – Buyer. Helping execute your promotions and strategy is a critical part of managing your brand once you’re on the shelf. How does the broker conduct strategic planning for brands? How do they plan promos, verify that they’ve actually run properly, and then report on their impact to your business (and the category)? A broker should also be able tell you the cost of doing business in their area of specialty. Do the retailers (or a specific retailer) charge slotting? Do you have to be on EDI? What are the promotional expectations in the category you’re looking to enter? What marketing programs are you expected to participate in? What is the cost to exit should your brand be discontinued? It’s absolutely critical to understand the cost and fees for the worst case scenario. Pierre Jamet, Head of Sales at Petit Pot, also shares key advice: Ask about brand conflicts. Does the broker service your competitors too? In some categories, there are so many brands that this is hard to avoid, but knowing who your broker is also working with is a key input to your decision. Do they work with the category leader or other brands just starting out? Is the category big enough that it helps to have a broker who is seeing the buyer for more than just your brand?

COST STRUCTURE Nearly all brokers make money when you make money; they charge you a % of net sales. Most don’t charge more than 5%, but the larger and more reliable your

revenue is, the better position you’ll be in to negotiate that number. If you’re pre-revenue or just getting started with a new broker who will help you expand your business, you may be asked for a monthly retainer until you hit a certain revenue threshold. This retainer investment varies widely depending on the size of the broker and the number of services you’re buying from them. The faster you scale, the faster you can move to a % of sales model. Brokers don’t want to hand you all of their relationships, data, and expertise, only to have you walk away once your foot is in the door at a retailer. So expect a contract, and come to an agreement you are comfortable with for at least the medium term (don’t run after 3 months!). You should consider an out clause so you aren’t locked in if the relationship isn’t working though, so do your best to commit to a partner without limiting your options.

BEST ADVICE You only get one shot with a retailer, so Gelinas wants founders to remember to prepare, plan, and leverage your broker to make your launch a success! Getting to the shelf is the easy part, turning off of it is the hardest – be prepared to spend money to deliver velocity. Jamet wants founders to remember that brokers are people, not machines. They’re busy too, and the stronger the relationship you can build with them, the more they’ll actually want to answer your call or reply to your email – don’t be the brand they dread dealing with. Be clear about your objectives, and then ensure they have everything they need from you to win. Your broker is only as good as the information you give them, so be clear and simple – give them 3 things you need them to accomplish and let them stay focused on doing those things. Have your materials ready to go: sell sheets, specs, samples, everything they’ll need to go sell! Ultimately, a broker should be a strategic partner in your brand’s journey. Ensure that you are asking the right questions upfront, take time to build out a contract you feel comfortable with, and be the brand they love to work with. Your success is their success — so long as you set yourself up for a successful partnership.

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Andy Kurtts WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO RE-DESIGN YOUR PACKAGING AND BRANDING?

by Andy Kurtts

HOW IT STARTED

HOW IT’S GOING

Hannah Hong By 2018 we had two seperate lines, fruit based Hakuna Banana and oat milk based Totes Oats. We are a small company and while our banana line had gained significant traction and visibility we saw there was a lot of opportunity for our oat line. We wanted to invest in building out those products but we had a hard time creating traction for them. A year and a half after launching Totes Oats we took a step back to strategize and

Must Love, Formerly Hakuna Brands

n the second installment of his series, "How it Started, How its Going," Andy Kurtts, Founder and Creative Director at Buttermilk Creative discusses the Must Love packaging evolution with Co-Founder, Hannah Hong. Best friends Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha came up with the idea for Must Love (formerly Hakuna Brands) in 2016 when they started experimenting with a non-dairy ice cream alternative recipe. Both women have been lactose intolerant since their early 20s. After spontaneously trying a banana-based recipe one afternoon after work, they

knew they were onto something special. After perfecting their creamy, indulgent recipe they dove head first into launching their fruit based brand Hakuna Banana. In 2018 they launched Totes Oats, an oat milk based ice cream. Then, in early 2020 they relaunched all products under the brand Must Love.

decided to rename and relaunch an umbrella brand for both lines to live under. In early 2020 we launched everything under Must Love. AK WHAT WERE YOUR GOALS FOR THE REDESIGN? HH First we wanted to combine Hakuna Banana and Totes Oats into one brand to eliminate confusion and to be able to refer to all products by the same

WWW.MUST.LOVE brand name. Second, we wanted to capture the same appeal of Hakuna Banana for Must Love. We wanted to make sure our new branding spoke to the emotional side of our brand which required some soul searching and strategy. The foundation of our company and brand comes from my friendship with my co-founder Mollie. It was important to us that our products feel like something you want to share with your best friend.

BEF

ORE

AF T

AK WHAT INSPIRED THE LOOK BEHIND YOUR PACKAGING DESIGN? HH Our friendship! We talked about the brand’s personality and really, Mollie and I inspired it. When you experience our friendship in person, you experience our brand’s culture. We also made sure that the patterns we used on the packaging were inspired by the ingredients. AK HOW HAVE CUSTOMERS RECEIVED THE NEW PACKAGING? HH We’ve received some DMs from people and they ask in all caps “WHY DID YOU CHANGE?”. We of course explain but that’s the most negative feedback we’ve received so far. Most folks are very positive, and those who didn't know about Hakuna Banana absolutely love Must Love. AK HOW HAS YOUR PACKAGING REDESIGN IMPACTED SALES? CUSTOMER REACH? WHOLESALE ACCOUNTS? HH For our wholesale accounts we already had good buyer relationships with Whole Foods and Sprouts. We waited until we knew what we were going to rename the brand and had it 99% ready to share and then brought these buyers into our rebranding and redesign discussions to gather their feedback. We wanted them to be partners on the jour-

ney and they immediately understood and got excited about it. At this time we expanded nationally with Sprouts. We were strategic about this and intentionally timed the packaging relaunch with the expansion so that we could start fresh with a new brand and packaging. We don't fully know the impact of the redesign on sales yet but we feel a lot more energy behind the new brand. Customers are really excited and we’ve gotten some great feedback so far. AK DID YOU USE ANY MARKETING RESEARCH OR DATA TO INFORM THE AESTHETIC? HH We sought out feedback from one of our mentors who used to work in the ice cream category. We waited until we were about 60% done. At that point we showed the design to her; she gave us some great real talk and advice. I’d definitely recommend tapping into your network. AK HOW DID YOUR MESSAGING ON THE PACKAGING CHANGE WITH THE REDESIGN? HH We were very mindful of putting product photography of the product on the packaging. We did this to increase taste appeal. We also sent out a simple survey to help us zero in on which claims to include on the packaging. The survey results helped us chose the ones that best served our brand and resonated most with consumers AK WHAT WAS THAT BIGGEST LESSON YOU LEARNED FROM REDESIGNING YOUR BRANDING AND PACKAGING? HH Our biggest lesson learned was to hire an agency to help instead of

creating the design myself. We knew we needed professional help. It’s a major process and a journey when you're undertaking a whole rebrand. It takes time to build trust and go through the iterative process. It was scary but you have to trust that your agency can handle it. We were scared in the beginning but quickly realized the only way out of it is through! AK WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE PROCESS? HH The end! Once we got through 80% of the design process we started talking about fun stuff like color families and really got to see everything come together. When you finally see all the proofs from the printer, it's so exciting. AK WHAT WAS THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF THE PROCESS? HH Because the Hakuna Banana brand had a strong POV with imagery, divorcing from that packaging and thinking about new imagery was hard. We had to completely detach from the old brand in order to create the new packaging and branding. We loved the old packaging which was hard to leave behind. AK WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER BUSINESS OWNERS CONSIDERING A REDESIGN? HH What really helped us was we had to be honest with ourselves. When we first decided to consider a rebrand it was very scary to rebrand both brands. But you have to really look at it and be honest with yourself with what is best for the brand long term. You have to do the hard work!

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Q&A

WITH BORIS DE SOUZA OF MERCHANT CANDY

Startup CPG WHAT IS MERCHANT CANDY? Boris de Souza Merchant Candy is the best-in-class AR platform for modern Shopify merchants. We started building Merchant Candy because we realized that there was a huge gap in the market: Shopify-integrated invoicing. Nearly every founder in the CPG space has set up Shopify and added a tool like Klaviyo to automate aspects of the business. But when it comes to invoicing, the process is extremely clunky and expensive to set up. Merchant Candy is a way of solving and automating

that part of the company's pipeline. QuickBooks is generally the chosen tool for accountants. We're aiming to be the chosen tool for founders. Typically, AR is messy. We focus on taking that off the founders’ plates. We receive payments on your behalf as a merchant, and we process those payments and remit those funds to you electronically. As we receive payments, we associate them with the invoices that they were intended for. This part of reconciliation is usually very time-consuming; for B2B payments, payments are predominantly in paper checks. You need to receive them, deposit them, and then

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update your system. We consolidate and streamline that entire process from end to end. SCPG HOW DID YOU REALIZE THIS PROBLEM?

Boris de Souza, founded Merchant Candy with the help of his long time friend, Zhuo Huang. Both having been early engineers at consumer banking upstart, Chime, strongly believed that emerging brands deserved a stress free payday as well. Prior to Merchant Candy, Boris was the Head of Treasury at Braintree (PayPal). www.merchantcandy.com merchant_candy

BDS Prior to starting Merchant Candy, I was the Head of Treasury at Braintree. My job was to work with banks to move money online, and then work with the merchants to figure out how to reconcile and create reporting. When I left Braintree, I quickly learned that similar services were being provided to larger corporations, yet no one was focusing on the emerging brands. I began chatting with these eCom brands to figure out what was broken in the space. More specifically, I reached out to Ori Zohar, co-founder at Burlap & Barrel, a rapidly growing CPG spice company. He expressed to me that AR was a major problem for his small business, which took me aback. Burlap & Barrel was an eCom business, so I’d assumed all customers simply paid with cards. In reality, while they started off as a DTC brand, their product took off and was quickly picked up by restaurants and grocery stores. Unlike a traditional eCom customer, these wholesale vendors wanted to pay by paper check and occasionally ACH. To put it bluntly, Shopify isn’t programmed to handle these payment methods. You have to copy an order from Shopify into QuickBooks to mimic an integration and it can get incredibly messy. On top of the clunky manual input, Ori also faced the challenge of sending reminders and managing checks sent to the wrong addresses. We started talking to other brands and found that the story was very much parallel: growth started out easy, then wholesale opportunities arose and they realized Shopify was no longer cutting it. Put simply, no app currently solves invoicing for you on Shopify.

While novel invoicing software may have beautiful user interfaces, very few actually solve the urgent problem of handling non-card transactions. The fact that this problem still continues to plague emerging brands is exactly why Merchant Candy exists, and why we’re excited to build out our platform. We believe that Shopify is optimal for a brand’s ops hub and Merchant Candy is the optimal platform for your financial ops. In addition, Faire can be great for lead gen, but it lacks the functionality to act as a brand’s core financial ops platform. As we chat with more and more brands, we’ve seen nearly every approach to integration. Ultimately, we want to see brands running their entire business ops on Shopify, while using us to expand into omnichannel. SCPG WHAT DOES MERCHANT CANDY LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE? BDS Last January, we had Burlap & Barrel jump on board as our first client. After moving their entire QuickBooks volume to Merchant Candy, the team was able to completely automate their invoicing across 3 separate revenue channels. These three channels required manual invoicing, often paid using paper checks. To make matters worse, antiquated invoicing platforms lacked the Shopify integration needed to make invoicing a seamless extension of their online store. Because the team was spending an increasing amount of time and cash flow on invoicing demands, it quickly became apparent that an automated solution was needed. We worked closely with Burlap & Barrel to integrate with their Shopify and simplify workflows between invoice creation and payments. Through this integration, the brand’s data was now always in sync and its invoices were up to date. Notably, the Burlap & Barrel team found automated credit tracking to be extremely useful - it

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immediately eliminated issues around underpayment or overpayment by vendors. In the process of onboarding with Merchant Candy, Burlap & Barrel was able to quickly streamline its core invoicing process which yielded faster payments and decreased overhead, all while completely removing bill payment cost centers. On top of that, the brand directly saved money through lower payment processing fees. When it comes to working with new partners, Merchant Candy is particularly adept at handling nuanced issues like applying a discount on a final invoice. For example, if a product was damaged during shipping, typically the merchant can’t apply a discount on the final invoice once it’s already processed. Merchant Candy tracks the surplus or the credit available, and when a new invoice has been created, it applies that credit automatically. This feature removes the need to have someone who retains the knowledge of which merchant is owed what credit when a new invoice is created. This allows founders to truly decentralize their AR and have more people work on it, without having to spend time maintaining this knowledge base. SCPG HOW DOES MERCHANT CANDY HELP FOUNDERS BEYOND AUTOMATING PAYMENTS? BDS At a certain point, you need

the data from your AR to make smart financial decisions. Using Merchant Candy means that you can keep track of your accounts receivable and understand what your invoices look like. This data is really helpful for these merchants because they can use that to make a smart, educated decision on whether they should go out and take a line of credit from a bank, or whether they should factor invoice for 8 to 10%. It's comparable to arming yourself with the data before you go out and sell a car -- you look up the KBB value. That's really where we're helping these emerging brands. They can tell what their DSOs look like and what they're ending balance will look like. If someone is willing to back their invoices, they know exactly where to challenge them on the risk and ask for a better rate. SCPG WHAT’S THE FUTURE OF MERCHANT CANDY? BDS Our mission is to be the financial OS for rapidly growing eCom brands. But, we're starting by tackling the hardest problem for merchants: accounts receivable. Today our focus has been very much on brands that use Shopify as a platform. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to automate workflows. We’re asking questions like: how do you operationalize everything so you don’t have to rely on two

different teams to handle your business's sales channels? We're constantly enriching Shopify as we uncover the answers to these critical problems. While eCom growth has risen dramatically over the past two decades, wholesale remains the critical unlock in scaling digital brands to a point of financial and operational maturity. The first wave of digitally native brands sought to upend traditional distribution channels, initially ignoring wholesale to focus on the online consumer. Yet this wave of brands is hitting a tipping point. To fully reach their potential, brands have had to shift their focus back towards traditional wholesale avenues.The second and third wave of digital brands know this, integrating wholesale into their growth strategy from day one. They launch online, iterate product offerings based on direct lines of communication with their customers, and then move quickly to expand into retail. To distill our long-term vision, we want to make expanding into wholesale or omnichannel as smooth as possible. Critically, we can grow alongside brands of any size, ranging from upstarts like Elavi to established brands like Blendjet. As teams start looking for solutions to scale their Shopify stores without the headaches, that’s where Merchant Candy comes in. Merchant Candy is a proud sponsor of Startup CPG

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THE SCOOP ON NATURAL PRODUCTS EXPO – EAST The Natural Products Expo put on by New Hope Network is back in person this year. The New Hope team graciously answered all of your burning questions to help you make the most out of the experience. Visit the website for registration information and more event details.

ARE RETAILERS ATTENDING EXPO EAST THIS YEAR? Absolutely! Over the past year, retailers have consistently expressed their eagerness to return to an in-person Natural Products Expo. Our most recent buyer and attendee survey demonstrates that our community feels confident that they will be ready to gather and are planning to attend Expo East in person. The survey data indicates that 81% of past Expo East buyer attendees, 83% of retail buyers and 86% of natural food store buyers plan to attend this year’s event. Additionally, we expect considerably more Expo West Buyers to join us in Philly. In a typical year there is around 40% overlap in the buyer audience between Expo West and East. This year, 67% of Expo West buyers have indicated they are likely to attend Expo East in Philly. We’re in regular contact with our retailer community and are grateful for the excitement and support we’ve heard thus far.

HOW WILL SAMPLING WORK? Sampling is a critical and core component of the Natural Products Expos

KEY FACTS & FIGURES Dates: Sept 22-25, 2021 Location: Philadelphia (Pennsylvania Convention Center) Exhibitors: Over 1,200 confirmed (at press time) Sampling: Will be permitted and we’ve been working closely with local authorities to ensure we’re able to return to sampling in a safe and productive manner. Moving forward and in partnership and compliance with the Philadelphia Health Department, we’ll have two different categories of food sampling. The first category is a manufactured sealed sample which will not require any specific provisions. The second is an open sample (prepared or cooked) which must be served in individual portions and will require gloves, a facemask, a hairnet, a sneeze guard or food cover, and hand washing and sanitation kits. Most of these guidelines carry over from our previous policy and we’ll be working closely with the health department for their implementation to ensure the continued health and wellness of our community. We’re

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all in this together and we must rely on each other to create the safest and most productive environment possible.

WHAT CHANGES CAN BRANDS EXPECT THIS YEAR, AND HOW SHOULD THEY PREPARE FOR THEM? We’re excited to provide a safe, smart, and sustainable Natural Products Expo East 2021. The show will be safe. In addition to the sampling guidelines, expect to see health and safety measures exhibited throughout the convention center. We’ll have enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices, safety ambassadors, all-digital badges for access, and distanced conference and networking room sets, among many other measures. The show will be smart! Moving forward, in addition to the in-person expo, we’ll have extensive virtual features that extend the value and reach of our expo events via our Natural Products Expo Virtual (NPEV) platform. The digital expo components include virtual booths, networking, education, and in-person show resources that create greater access and connectivity for all community members. Expect to see the official launch of Expo East around two

weeks prior to the Philadelphia dates of September 22-25 with valuable virtual content, as well as a post-show recap with on-demand access to the in-person education sessions and opportunities to easily follow up on connections made in Philly via NPEV. Finally, the show will be sustainable…even more so than before! This year, we’re eliminating carpet altogether which is a major source of waste at trade shows. In a time when PPE and other materials are being consumed at the most extreme levels, we’re doubling down on our efforts to prevent and divert waste, offset carbon, and bring about greater awareness and action regarding the climate crisis. Additionally, we are building new partnerships to highlight

CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR l Updated sampling guidelines l Enhanced cleaning and hygiene practices l Safety ambassadors l All-digital access badges lD istanced conferenced & networking sets

and elevate brands owned by Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other people of color, and we will feature conference programming, networking, and other initiatives to foster greater diversity and inclusion within the industry. This is a top priority for New Hope Network and something we will continue to build upon each year.

WHAT ARE YOUR 4 BEST TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF EXPO EAST AND THE RETURN TO IN-PERSON TRADE SHOWS? 1. Engage in our virtual environment, Natural Products Expo Virtual, both pre- and post-Philly. 2. Leading up to the show and onsite, check out and engage in our diversity and inclusion initiatives and partnerships. 3. Read the Exhibitor Services Kit and work with our client services team to make sure you have a clear understanding of vendors and policies in Philadelphia. 4. Plan and execute your presence at the show in a safe, smart, and sustainable way!

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WE ALSO CAUGHT UP WITH PIERRE JAMET, THE HEAD OF SALES FOR PETIT POT, WHO HELPED US UNDERSTAND HOW TO PREP FOR VIRTUAL TRADESHOWS EARLIER IN THE YEAR, BEFORE THINGS OPENED BACK UP. HERE’S HIS BEST ADVICE 1. Bond with your team Take this opportunity to reunite your team across all functions (Sales, Marketing, Ops and more) as it will be the first time for many that they will be able meet in-person. Beyond the trade show being a major sales opportunity, it is also an opportunity to strengthen your team and provide opportunities to network and elevate their knowledge. Prepare a schedule so each of your team member has a chance to walk the show, attend educational sessions and of course go to the fun happy hours and dinners. 2. Retailers there is so much uncertainty if a substantial number of retailers will attend Expo. Avoid being stuck on a specific retailer that confirmed they are not attending, and make the most of the show. Remember: sometimes buyers hide their badges so they can go incognito, so always make sure to treat every attendee equally! Prepare a short list with confirmed retailers and schedule booth meetings to ensure that you have time to talk to them. Additionally, take the opportunity to meet in person with your brokers, share your

2022 objectives and work on your 2022 promotional planning, and provide training for their teams. 3. Samples Find a way to provide COVID-safe pre-packaged, portioned sample items. If it is not intrinsically feasible because of the product itself, offer to send samples prior the show to make the most of the in-person interactions. 4. Booth Take the time to build the booth beforehand and make sure it pops. Replace any outdated assets and showcase your brand in the best way possible: The brand name, value proposition, branding/packaging and merchandising should appear clearly when someone walks by your booth. Think of 3 key points that you absolutely want to convey even if they do not stop or engage with you. Additionally, make sure to have updated your sales sheets, decks, coupons and swag items. 5. Online COVID accelerated the growth of the e-commerce ecosystem. Look beyond traditional brick & mortar and elevate your pitch to explain how you are taking advantage of a more digital connected shopper and how your products appear on the digital shelf. Additionally, be opened to agencies, contractors and service providers that can help you achieve your goals in this channel: • Own DTC (Shopify, Woocommerce) • Pure Play (Amazon: FBA, FBM, VC) • Grocery Membership & Delivery (Thrive) • Grocery Delivery (Good Eggs, Fresh

Direct, Amazon Fresh) • Mission-driven Grocery Delivery with an emphasis on produce (Imperfect Foods, Misfits Market) • Dark Store Delivery (GoPuff, Dashmart, Gorillas) • Retailers with ecommerce (Walmart, Target, Kroger) • 3rd party service providers (Instacart, Shipt) • Meal Delivery (Hello Fresh, Sun Basket, Purple Carrot) 6.Foodservice the channel was severely impacted but as the country re-opens, there are many opportunities to be selected in the assortment. Dial in your foodservice offering with the right pack size and understand the plurality of the channel: • corporate offices • college, universities • QSR • coffee shops • hotels/resorts/country clubs • airlines • airport micro markets • hospitals • concessions (Concert venues, sports stadiums) • school cafeterias • catering companies Good luck at Expo this Fall, and be sure to look out for an invitation to the Startup CPG Expo East part on Sept 23, 2021. The impacts of COVID-19 are being continuously monitored by the New Hope team. To stay updated on the status of the event and their commitment to health and safety, visit https://www.expoeast.com/en/ health-safety.html

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LOCAL BRAND COMMUNITY FEATURE

#COMMUNITY_LOSANGELES

MEET HARDPOPS

WWW.HARDPOPS.COM WHAT ARE HARDPOPS Boozy ice pops for grown ups. These aren’t the pops from back in the day. We said “thank you, next” to the artificial flavors, dyes, and the infamous blue tongue. Hardpops are made with 100% natural flavors and colors, and premium wine.

ABOUT HARDPOPS Friends turned business partners, we’ve been making boozy ice pops since the idea struck us one hot summer night in 2017. Both of us born and raised in Vancouver, BC, we’d watched and participated in our fair share of “Silicon Valley of the North” tech startups. While exciting, we had a craving for something different: something tangible, nostalgic, and delicious. Hardpops. Our backgrounds in technology, digital marketing, and project management allowed us to keep pretty much every aspect of the business in-house from the get go. There were days, of course, when this felt like a bad idea (especially on the 6am production days, or when the machine would break down). Looking back, some of our best and funniest memories took place on the production floor. Pro tip: beet juice concentrate will in fact stain concrete. And drywall. And pretty much everything. In the Spring of 2019, we hit the road with an SUV full of samples, and took off to *Alberta, Canada (*Alberta being the only Canadian province to approve the “ice pop medium” for alcohol products). Though a bit disappointed that we were restricted from building our business at home in Vancouver, we were excited by the opportunity that Alberta was offering. Ultimately, our goal was to launch Hardpops in the USA. California, for many obvious reasons, had caught our eye as the perfect place to focus our new venture.

Alberta had given us the perfect opportunity to get our feet wet, test the product/ market fit, and learn the ropes of the alcohol industry. Our guerilla-style early days propelled us into 140 Alberta retail locations. This took place over the course of four months. We spent the off-seasons planning and strategizing our US launch, which is now just around the corner. Hardpops has a new look, new flavors, new packaging. All fit for a new country!

OUR PRODUCT Hardpops are 6.9% boozy, and 100% naturally coloured and flavoured. Just the good stuff, because you deserve it. We have two super juicy flavours for you to try: Mojito (a classic, of course), and Yuzu Mango (ooooo!). We certainly didn’t invent the Mojito, but we did take it up a notch. This frozen cocktail is the pinnacle of freshness, with hits of tart lime and aromatic mint. Born in Havana Cuba, legend has it the mojito was a favourite of the late Ernest Hemingway. The name itself stems from the word “mojo,” which means “to place a little spell.” Which makes sense, because quite frankly, it tastes like magic. Next up, our tart and punchy yuzu comes in to save the day with it’s citrusy-sweet taste that will tantalize your taste buds. Now there’s a tongue twister. Top it off with a juicy, fragrant mango, this super fresh and not-toosweet frozen treat has you in for a nostalgically familiar yet out-of-this-world experience. Sound like an exaggeration? Honestly, we don’t think so. We’ll let you be the judge. Hardpops will be launching online in late August in single flavor 8-packs or 24 mixed-pack options. Learn more and join their mailing list at hardpops.com.

Founders Gabby and Sheereen

The Spotlight Summer 2021 - Startup CPG

Articles inside

Q&A with Merchant Candy

Quokka Brew: Revolutionizing the Coffee Industry, One Campus At A Time

Los Angeles Community Feature: Meet Hardpops

The Scoop on Natural Products Expo East

A Guide to Brokers

Letter from the Editor

How It Started, How It’s Going

Daily Crunch

The Secret to Taking Over TikTok

The Importance of Ratings and Reviews

Building Community 101

What’s Really At Stake