From a Startup to a Standout Brand - Vanessa Dew (Marketing School Live 2019)

Hi everyone. Wow, such a pleasure to be here to round out your Marketing School Live event. I had no idea what to expect, so I'm really excited to be here with you guys and be your ending talk. So raise of hands, who knows what kombucha is? Just curious. Okay, I forget I'm in LA. It's a microcosm of kale and kombucha. Okay, well then I'm in a room of friends then. So I'm here to share a bit about our story. startup story in the farmer's market and how we are a standout brand now, just not in beverage but just across the board. And really proud to share that of that $800 million that Eric shared of the category, we're a $100 million brand today with over 200 people on our team and with only really 5 years in distribution. And so I'm excited to share a little bit about the ups and the downs as to how we got here on this kombucha crazy journey. And hopefully you guys can glean something from it in whatever you guys are building. So as I think back on what really built our brand, I can say it's 3 things. The people, the liquid in the bottle, and how we've been able to evolve the brand over time. And I'll start with the people. And the people really has started with our founder story. So that's me. It was me, my best friend, and her husband. We were in our mid-20s where we were feeling unfulfilled with our corporate jobs. You could say it was a quarter-life crisis where we were just thinking, how are we gonna make our mark in this world? We decided to start an entrepreneur club back in 2012. It was at this entrepreneur club where we were brainstorming different business ideas. One day, Justin, the male of our crew, came home and He was utterly depressed because his hairdresser said he would be bald by 30. And we thought, aha, we have our company. We're going to create an all-natural hair loss product. So Dinah had been brewing kombucha for years as a nutritionist, and we decided to make kombucha, not the beverage, but the culture that you use to ferment our billion-dollar idea of hair loss. So we're brewing kombucha in our closets with glass jars that we used to buy Remember that because that's important for the liquid piece. And we started really testing this hair loss product on Justin. Needless to say, we did not create a hair loss product, but we had amazing kombucha that our friends and families were drinking because that was a byproduct of what we were creating. So we decided to give it a go in the farmer's market in Brentwood, just down the 10 freeway. Long time in LA traffic time. But so we started selling there March 25th, 2012. That's right. And we brought 5 cases that day and sold out. So we kept on going back to the farmers market, kept on selling out. And fast forward to today, we are in all 50 states, just started selling in Canada. And as I mentioned, $100 million in retail. And I have to say, it was really the feeling, the characteristics of how we started that really made a difference as to how we built our company. As we started to scale our business, we knew we had to scale beyond us, the founders. We needed to put words to what that meant as we started to form our culture that Eric talked about. For us, conveniently enough, it spelled out the word GOAL. We like to hit our goal. We're a winning team. What GOAL meant to us were these 4 words here: grit, optimism, authenticity, and leadership. And as we started to hire people and really start to build our team, whether it be in marketing, sales, production, operations, finance, everyone was reviewed and offered a culture interview to come into our company, our tribe, if you will. And we've seen people thrive that really exemplify all these values. And it's been really a testament to what our team does out in the market. And I can say this has not only been a strong internal marketing tool, but it's really been the way that our people stand out amongst those CPG people out that we're competing against. And I'm proud to say again that we have not just a team of 200 carrying it forward, and it's not just— and I think it was Yaniv who said it, but it's really these people who are brand ambassadors. They are manifesting our brand today. It's no longer us driving it forward. solely. It's actually the team. And this is our special sauce, guys. Like, this is how we are showing up in stores, talking to our consumers, talking to our investors. And it's them actually making a difference out there for us and building our brand. Next is the liquid. So when we started, we were brewing in 2.5-gallon glass jars in our closets because we could. That's the only thing we knew. But at the heart of it, we always knew that we wanted to start brewing the— and put on the market the best tasting and highest quality kombucha one can buy. And I can say that we've done just that in a slightly crazy way, which I'll get to in a second. But we really think it's meant the difference to our liquid, where it's second to none in the market. I dare anyone to do a taste test of kombuchas out there, and I've been hearing a lot of feedback that ours is the best. So for me, That I think we've achieved our goal in fulfilling putting out the best kombucha. How we do it is pretty unique. It's a couple things. One, all glass. So we use all glass fermentation to prevent against plastic leaching and metal corrosion. It's really important to the quality of the brew. The glass lends to a really clean ferment. We are the only commercial brewer to use all glass, in fact. And we do that with the smallest batches possible. So that 2.5-gallon glass jar I mentioned in the farmer's market is still how we do it today. And it's crazy because we're servicing all 50 states, just entered Canada, and our output's about 100,000 cases a week. Third piece is we flavor with the highest quality ingredients. So we source all our produce locally where possible. It's all organic produce. We're we're pressing our juice from. And this has really made a difference to the taste profile of kombucha. And if you've ever tried kombucha and had maybe a bad experience at first, you know what I'm saying, that vinegary taste. Health-Ade is very different. It has that subtle sweetness with the fruit juice. Try it, and if you haven't, let me know because I would love to understand what your— what what your feedback is. And the last piece that makes us different in terms of our liquid is that we're handcrafted. We are making real fermented food at the heart of it, and we are advancing the idea of real food on the commercial shelf. So if you're trying to imagine what is kombucha brewing, how— what does it look like? This is what it looks like, guys. So 2.5-gallon glass jar fermentation. surrounding us. This is us surrounded by our jars down in our brewery in Torrance. And we have hundreds and thousands of these suckers where we used to buy them at Bed Bath Beyond with a 20% off coupon. Now we've gone a little smarter and we go direct. But some of you guys, actually a lot of you guys, and in fact our investors and our board thought we were crazy. But it also makes awesome kombucha. So we were crazy enough to stick to our values and stick to our guns here, and we've been able to successfully scale this not just from the farmers market to where we are today, where we're having hundreds and thousands of these jars output weekly. So it's really exciting for us to be able to stay committed to what we know makes the best kombucha out there, because consumer feedback is saying just Next in kind of this idea of what's allowed HealthAid to grow so fast is our brand. And seeing as this is marketing school, I thought I would break down a couple of the strategies that allowed us to get to where we are today. So I could say that there's 5 pillars or verticals that we've really focused on over time. It's evolved over time as well, so I'll get— I'll break down some of those. for you guys today. First is our digital footprint. We're not digitally native. We didn't start out selling online. In fact, we're refrigerated and we're heavy. So it's quite cost prohibitive to do that. But we understand that having a digital footprint is important. We have a strong Instagram following. And I would say the most important thing about us on social and digital is that we're present. We're highly responsive. And we've been able to really evolve this over time where this will be how we scale and touch our consumer going forward. Next is our press and influencer vertical. Even when we started in the farmers market, this was pretty strong for us. We're lucky enough to be in LA where going to the farmers market in Brentwood, you have many a celebrity come by. So we've had a very grassroots Roots level of influencers support us very early on. And I remember in the beginning, it was whatever opportunity came our way, we said yes to. And I remember it was Zac— not Zac Efron. Who's the vampire? Edward Pattinson. Pattinson. It was his birthday, and he asked us to supply the kombucha but also be the bartenders. And we said yes, although we had no idea how to make a drink except in our kitchen with a heavy hand. So we said yes, and that was our first foray into an influencer event. And we really focused on this over time because we knew that we could be the it brand of kombucha, and we really focused on this. The only word of caution here is making sure you're not speaking to your own echo chamber. And what I mean by that is, you know, very early on we started to gain impressions from the foodie bloggers and kind of the sea of sameness in farm-to-table content and the influencers who really cater to that as well. And we realized that we're only talking to the— to one type of consumer, and all the other kombucha brands were also competing for this consumer. So we didn't realize that though until we started to talk to other agencies, talk to our consumers, and notice that they're into different things. I can say that we had one influencer, Jackie Aina, and she is Not the opposite of that, but she reaches a whole different demographic, and it's been really cool to see our customer demo evolve over time. The third is field, and field is really important. It's how we got our start. I'm sure a lot of you guys here probably have a digital type company, I imagine, but in the world of CPG and selling a hard product, There's nothing like a live sample. The only thing with that is that it's expensive. It— the cost to get that sample out is so high, and it's really hard to scale. So for us, this is how we started. This is how we made our name for ourselves. This is how we educated people around what is kombucha, how is Health-Ade different. But I can say that this has definitely taken a smaller lens as we've grown our availability over time. It will still be an important piece, but it really comes down to targeting those field marketing events in the right stores, in the right events to make sure we're targeting who we really need to talk to. The 4th piece is our trade marketing. Again, being a hard, live, tangible product, we are sold in grocery stores and cafes So for us, this really means retail excellence and how we win within those 4 walls of a location are just so important. Whether it means extra displays, whether it means kind of a store contest or a blitz where the whole Whole Foods store is wearing all of your t-shirts and swag. Or maybe it's just a giveaway to the LA Dodgers game and a consumer gets to take part in not only a healthy giveaway but in to win a set of Dodger tickets. So those are just some strategies in trade marketing. And lastly is our brand voice. We have an authentic founder story. We have a unique product. And I think for us, we've really had to understand what that message has been to our consumers and that connection that we're creating with them. And we've had to find that over time. And I'm sure each of you guys have had to find that over time as well, not just for yourself, but for your brand. And it's really the customer connection, the emotional connection they have to your product, to your brand, that really goes the extra mile. And we really— we realised that it's not the data that's gonna tell us how to grow our brand. It's that intangible soft stuff that's really gonna get us there. And instead, we use data to track and not to create it. And with that, I think it's the most important thing to leave you with the idea that it's not the what or the how that you're doing. It's more about the why and what consumers are connecting with. That is ultimately the most important thing. And for us at Health-Ade, we are the champion of the driven dreamer. It's really a culmination of our self-made story. It's a manifestation of all that we are, me, Dinah, and Justin. where we've been able to put our heart and soul into something, and we've been able to drive it forward to reach our dream. And this has now come into form of our manifesto. So I'm going to read this to you because it's very special and close to our heart. Our Self Made Story. We are the self-made, the start-from-scratch, against-all-odds, driven dreamers. We use our hands, our minds, and grit to get things done. Nothing is easy. Hard is our journey. Failure is way too familiar, but we get up and become superhuman all over again. HealthAid is proud to be along for your ride. We support your dream, your drive, especially your days that you want to quit. We support you because we're one of you. Your health is on us. Getting shit done, that's on you. Here's to the self-made. So with that, I hope that all of you can follow your gut in business, in health, and I hope that our story has really helped you see there's not just one way to skin a cat. And hopefully you have a great day and a great time after this Marketing Live School event. Eric, should I take questions or is that it? All right, well, thanks guys. It's a pleasure to be here and thank you to Neil and Eric for having me and to the whole team here.