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Welcome to the Community Call Podcast.
I am Melissa Travers, Director of Community here at BevNET & NOSH, here with my co-host Jackie Brugliera and Mike Schneider.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice.
Jackie, I follow you, I follow both of you on social media, of course.
And I saw yesterday that you had a ramen flavored popcorn, which I'm dying to know, was it delicious?
It was delicious.
I was eating it on the Taste Radio podcast yesterday with no hands.
It just ripped open the bag.
She was BoJackie Horsewoman.
She just put her face right in a feed bag.
It was pretty awesome.
I needed all the senses in the ramen bag.
It was delicious.
So it's called Nomad Snacks, and it's a line of popcorn, local to San Diego, and they have a ramen flavor and they also have a chimichurri flavor.
And the ramen is really, really delicious.
She ripped the bag half open and had eaten half of it before she even got to the show.
And the rumor is she finished the whole bag yesterday.
Yeah, that's why I don't have it anymore.
It's gone, long gone.
I need another bag.
I have two marketing people right here, two of the best.
What if we did BevNET Swag that was a strap, and it allows you to strap a bag of anything delicious.
Bag of snoods.
Right to your face.
Oh my goodness.
Please sign me up.
Bag of doosera.
Bag of doosera.
Oh yes.
I think that would be perfect.
I want a bag of doosera just hooked right to my face.
Okay.
Let's talk more about this.
We got to stop talking about such a great, innovative idea.
I know.
I know.
Right?
But speaking of great, innovative ideas, remember how we talked a little bit about you're thinking about perhaps taking a journey on sober curiosity.
I've got something for you.
This is Lapos non-alcoholic Negroni, zero proof.
Ready?
To hear everyone's favorite, this is everyone's favorite sound on the podcast.
There it is.
Cheers.
Is it carbonated?
It is carbonated.
Ooh, that is so tasty.
It's so good.
It is almost a Negroni.
Ooh, that is so tasty.
I would love to pour that over a glass with some ice, maybe an orange rind.
They've really upped the bitter pieces of the Negroni so that you don't really miss the burn.
I think it's really great.
And for me, the bitters, that's one of the flavors that I miss in alcohol because it feels adult, like it feels like you're having an adult beverage in the packaging design.
It's gorgeous.
It's only 80 calories too.
And I mean, if you're going to be drinking a non-alcoholic cocktail, 80 calories isn't terrible compared to what you're getting in most of them anyway.
Yeah, when I drink non-alcohol cocktails, I think I do gravitate to like bitter Negronis and things more often because like you said, like you don't really notice that it's missing alcohol as much as like a margarita or something that doesn't have that like bitter.
I think there's a time and place for the mocktails too, which a lot of them tend to be more sugar for it.
But anyway, I just wanted to bring this to you Melissa.
Thanks Mike.
It is so tasty.
I think I'm going to have to get a hold of some more of this.
Even if you trip on your journey, you can still stand up and have yourself a lapos.
You got to be careful when you say trip around Melissa.
Yeah, right.
I was like, what kind of tripping?
There's a big difference between stumbling and tripping.
I guess me as well.
I know.
It's a big happy family now.
Speaking of cocktails, we had Morgan Lockwood, the head of sales of Viva Tequila Seltzers into our Newton headquarters.
Just recently, they were debuting a new flavor, which is coconut, which was delicious.
They brought in everything else as well.
I think if it wasn't 11 o'clock, I would have gone a little deeper in my tasting.
I didn't want to be tempted because the packaging for Viva is so beautiful.
It's super inviting.
It's so clean, fresh.
It makes you want to go to the beach and drink tequila seltzers.
I love that they don't have any carbs, no sugar.
I also like that they don't have zero calorie sweeteners because I feel like oftentimes, that can really trip things up.
They're positioning themselves towards athletes, which makes perfect sense.
So they're doing some stuff with Spartan Race.
They have a partnership with Grant Holloway.
All good stuff.
Are you guys watching the Olympics?
I am.
Yes.
Yeah.
Of course.
When I was driving in this morning, I heard this story on the radio about Matt Dawson, who is an Olympic field hockey player.
He amputated his finger instead of letting a broken finger heal just so he could play in the Olympic games.
And from what I understand, that's not the first time someone's done that.
So every time I hear a story like this, that is regret for the rest of your life.
Nice work, dude.
Yeah, for this one moment, he was like, I'm just losing it.
Forget it, I don't need that finger.
20 years down the road.
He's gonna regret this decision.
I hope he won.
Maybe it's gonna be a good memory that he won.
It is the Olympics, but I have to say, I don't know if I would be that committed.
Was this his last chance?
Bro, there's another one, four years.
Right, right, right, right.
There goes another couple of fingers, you know?
Right, exactly.
I just recently spoke with Christian Pereira, who is a member of our Slack community.
Everybody else can join us there at slack.bevnet.com.
Christian is starting up a protein seltzer beverage.
He's gonna focus on Asian-influenced flavors.
He asked what our best advice was for starting up a brand, which made me want to ask both of you.
My advice to him was to make sure you know your competitors, because you're gonna be competing with them on the shelf.
And then know your cost of goods and the cost of doing business, of course.
What would you say your best advice is for somebody starting up a beverage brand in this climate?
Don't say...
No, you should.
I would say go deep and not wide.
Really focus on your market, where you can go into stores, check out the displays.
Really making sure that your brand is presented properly and where you can have face-to-face interactions with consumers, getting feedback.
So yeah, go deep, not wide.
Make sure you're not growing outside your means and growing too fast, kind of chasing the money and new opportunities.
I just had this conversation with a founder and similar advice to what you said, Melissa, which is it's really good to know who the primary competitor is.
And then you want to figure out who's going to be in your set because the ones in your set aren't necessarily your competitors.
Let's say you're starting a probiotic soda brand, you know, Poppy, Olipop, Culture Pop.
Are they your competitors or are they your frenemies?
Because the real enemy, in quotes, is like the Coca Colas of the world who have the lion's share of the market and are making billions of dollars hand over fist.
You take a little piece of that, there's enough for everyone to take a little piece of that and then eventually become, well, you'd love to become number one, but you might not have enough baloney sandwiches in your refrigerator, as my old economics professor used to like to say, to take them on.
Baloney sandwiches?
That's money.
I like that so much.
You don't have enough, he would say it like this, you don't have enough baloney sandwiches in your refrigerator to educate everybody.
He was cool.
That's some sage advice.
It's so tricky to dial in what makes you different from your competitors, because you have to be.
But that's the key.
That is the key right there.
If you have one small differentiator and you're using similar language to everyone, you don't want to go into a market and be like, well, if everyone's calling themselves a prebiotic soda, you don't want to be like, we're a Jackrabbit soda, which is exactly the same as a prebiotic soda, except better.
You want to be a prebiotic soda that has a differentiator, our Jackrabbit technology or whatever it is.
Whatever it is you're doing differently, our beverage teleports you.
Well, I would thank you both for that Jackrabbit technology, is definitely going on a bulletin board somewhere in my life.
Jackie, your advice is...
Right next to BoJackie Horsewoman.
BoJackie, your advice is exactly the topic of this Community Call that we're presenting.
GNGR Labs absolutely took going a mile deep in their own backyard to heart.
They started out selling direct out of their trunks to every Indie store and bodega in New York City.
This grassroots approach helped them build a solid base, eventually leading to investment, widespread distribution, and the kind of success that any emerging brand could find inspiration in.
Please enjoy.
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Today on Community Call, we have the GNGR Labs team, Namik Sultan, founder and CEO of GNGR Labs, as well as Daniel Chechelnitsky, VP of Sales, talking about how they bootstrapped a mile deep strategy in their own backyard of New York City, which led to investment in distribution gains.
So great to have you with us, Daniel and Namik.
You guys started in your backyard in New York City, which is something we hear everybody say is the right approach.
You're expanding to national distribution with the help of an infusion of capital led by gather ventures and participation from Bochy Investments.
This mirrors the goals of so many of the brands in our community.
And today we're going to find out exactly what it took to get you there.
So again, thank you so much for joining us.
And why don't we start off just hearing a little bit about you both.
Namik, let's start with you.
Was it always your dream to start a beverage brand?
I'm Elisa.
Thank you for having me.
It's an honor to be at the Community Call.
A little bit of background by myself.
So I have a background in finance and investment, but I always dreamed of building my personal brand, not personal brand, but brand, food brand.
Prior to starting GNGR Labs, I started another two companies in CPG.
Unfortunately, they didn't survive, and this is my third lucky charm company.
So that's a very, very quick background by myself.
But I think also starting other companies really helped me to learn about the industry, about the product, about the placement of your product.
So I think that's greatly contributed to building GNGR Labs.
I think that's inspiring.
We were talking a little bit before we went live about how your story is certainly going to be inspiring to so many founders out there who are truly bootstrapping their brands.
But I think also for people to know that the business that you have now may lead you to something down the line.
So never give up hope.
Was ginger always going to be the key ingredient in this beverage brand?
How did you decide on ginger?
So the idea for the product came from my mom recipe, which is ginger, lemon, honey paste that I use as a natural remedy against cold and flu.
And I've been in the industry for some time.
Obviously, I was thinking about the next product.
And I just kind of came to real realization that we have cold and flu season forever.
And summer 2019, I really thought this kind of great idea, want to provide this alternative solution for traditional medication and kind of like a past war where 2020 COVID happened.
So it was just kind of like one in a lifetime opportunity, right time, right product.
So that's kind of like how it all started.
Couldn't have been better timed.
Daniel, how about you?
From everything you told me about the way GNGR Labs rose to the place where they are now, it would seem to me that you've been selling since you were born.
Have you always been a salesman?
First and foremost, thank you for having us on today.
Funny enough, I didn't really have much sales experience in my background.
I was always like a hands-on learner, hands-on worker.
Right prior to joining GNGR Labs, I did do some phone sales, but I never really had any experience in doing B2B or face-to-face sales.
But as Namik touched on, the company launched around COVID and I was at work at the time.
And I said, you know what?
I have this opportunity.
Let me try my hand at it.
I always like speaking to people.
I always enjoy interacting with people.
I feel like that's where relationships are built.
Not over the phone, but face-to-face.
And we just put our heads down, got to work, and here we are today.
Is the correct pronunciation GNGR, ginger?
What's your preference?
It's funny.
People ask that all the time.
We're used to saying GNGR.
That's just how we say it.
But majority of people do call it ginger.
All right.
So now we have sort of an understanding of what your backgrounds are.
When you started up the business, was it all self-financed?
How did you secure the financing to start up the business?
So when we first started, essentially a couple of friends came together and they invested approximately $150,000.
So that's kind of like our first initial investment.
Yeah.
So that was kind of like the friends and family.
And how did you approach your first manufacturing run?
How did you secure your formulator?
And how big of a run was that first production run?
So we started early, essentially around September 2019, we started looking for a callbacker and we identified several callbackers.
One were in Brooklyn, New York, and then there was a couple of them outside Connecticut.
And we already worked with several formula developers who helped us to create the formula.
But essentially, we took formula that I already used and we gave it to them so they were able to pretty much make the same formula.
I think the good thing that we were ready to launch the company, because if we start looking for callbackers time of COVID that would probably be almost impossible because no one would take any new products.
All right.
So you've got your production run done.
Where were you able to store the manufacturer?
Where were you storing?
Right.
So going back to that, our first production we produced about 800 cases and also, you know, our product gets a call back juice, which needs to be pasteurized with the HPP process.
And our HPP facility is a Door Naturals as well based here in New Jersey.
So essentially once we produce our product at the callbacker, they send this product to HPP facility where it was processed and obviously was stored there as well.
And then when we started first, we literally bought this like a small fridge, commercial fridge, and we would go there, pick up the pallet and bring it to our office and stock the whole fridge with our product and distribute it.
All right.
So you've got the product, you have it at the ready, it's time to hit the streets.
How does hitting the streets work when you're just getting started?
What do you do?
So as I mentioned before, I had some experience working within the streets of New York.
So I had some relationship with some of the stores.
And for us, it was maybe a little bit easier because of the relationship that I had built within my previous beverage company.
So essentially, we would go from store to store to store and offer our product.
At the time of COVID, obviously, this type of product were in very high demand, and pretty much every store would take this product.
And I think adding to that, when we launched in 2020, a lot of CPG brands, they went to direct to consumer.
And I think we probably one of the, if not only brand, actually went in the retail and hitting those stores.
And I think that also was a great thing because no one else was going there.
So usually in New York, if probably hundreds, if not thousands of brands going to the stores presenting their products.
So it was kind of like a great opportunity, like a great timing as well.
So those initial accounts, you said you had a pre-existing relationship with a lot of those folks.
Was it a mix of bodegas, better-for-you chains?
What kinds of accounts were they?
So when we first started, our main target were Williamsburg and also Manhattan.
So that's what we thought.
We thought this product is pretty expensive, so we will try to hit more high-end neighborhoods.
And so that was kind of like an initial goal.
As we start expanding, we start taking this product to different type of neighborhoods, pretty much everywhere.
Whoever would say yes, will sell to them.
So that was kind of like strategy.
And it was a mix of bodegas, coffee shops, bagel shops, independent supermarkets, pharmacies.
Like I said, we would just go to every possible store.
We would take our product.
Who did you think your customer would be when you first started out?
What demographic did you think you'd have the most success with?
It's really hard to say, because like I said, I think during COVID, everyone was like super conscious about the health.
So I think a lot of people would buy this type of product, but I would say probably younger generation, anywhere from 20 to 35.
I think that was kind of like initial consumer base.
Obviously, as we start expanding, different type of people start buying this type of product as well.
Were there any surprises as far as who your customer actually was as you expanded your distribution?
As I mentioned, at first, we start targeting more high-end areas.
Some of them hadn't, as we thought, there's a consumer that have more income, but then we actually start expanding to a very variety of different neighborhoods that at first we thought it's probably not a good idea because it's expensive product, $4, $5 per shot.
And surprisingly, some of those neighborhoods became our best-selling count.
We just realized that any type of people wants to be healthy, so health doesn't discriminate.
And if it's truly product that beneficial to you, people will spend that $4, $5 per shot or per beverage.
And as we're moving further away from the pandemic, goodness, are you noticing any changes in buying behavior, either in the accounts that you were successful in, that maybe you thought you wouldn't be because of, you know, maybe the economics of the region or the accounts that you thought that you would be successful in?
I would say first and foremost, before the pandemic, this was a niche category and a niche product.
What happened during the pandemic is, you know, your regular, everyday consumers became educated on the benefits of including this type of product into your day-to-day life.
So to answer your question, I would say that, you know, from the pandemic to now, sales have actually rose across all markets that we're in.
Because people now, and I think, you know, the pandemic in some ways changed the course of things, that now everybody wants to implement something into their life to just stay at tip top, you know, health and just always be ahead of the curve, right?
Always be ahead of something that might happen.
So I would say since the pandemic to now, we've definitely just seen a trend upwards, at least within this category of sales, really across all of our areas that we sell in.
And so we're talking about hitting the streets and going into almost every store that there is just to see where it would work.
How do you track conversations with the owners of these stores or the decision makers of these stores?
Because I have to imagine the first time you walk in, either the person you want to talk to isn't there, or they are, and they're like, no, we're good.
How do you keep track of this when there are so many different accounts?
Initially, we used spreadsheets, right?
But the approach that we took was load the truck up, hit the street, and start selling product.
Meaning, if I get to talk to the decision maker once I'm in that store and they want the product, I say, give me two minutes, and I come back in and I hand them the product, right?
So it's much easier in the sense of you didn't have to track it.
On who wants product, and then when you delivered it, did they take the product?
Did they not take the product?
So what we did was more or less, we created a route of, and we broke it up by neighborhood.
So let's call it Williamsburg, Brooklyn, right?
We created a route and a spreadsheet of all the stores by simply pulling up Google Maps, typing in deli, grocery, supermarket, created a route.
And as we would hit those stores, we have a section for the name of the store manager, a phone number, and then a comment, right?
So if the store said they didn't want product, we would mark it and say, this store denied product, let's revisit it.
And we never took no for an answer.
So it was easy for when we did get the yeah, because we sold it in simultaneously after getting the answer.
But when they said no, we just marked it as, okay, next time we're in this neighborhood, we need to revisit this account.
And when you get the no and you go back in, do you tell them about the success you had with their competitor down the street?
How do you win them over?
I mean, absolutely.
You need to always, it's a nonstop game of selling.
You need to always prove to them why they do need this product.
Luckily, during that time when we started selling it, it was like lightning in a bottle.
It was pretty easy to convince a store why they should carry this type of product if they don't already.
And if they already carry this type of product, then we just use our branding and our messaging to say, hey, I understand you have these ginger shots, but these will speak to customers much more than what you currently have in the shop.
Ingrid Hansen has a question for you.
Why did you go to the stores versus sending an email intro to your brand?
And did you have appointments with buyers before walking in?
So that's a great question.
The New York landscape is very different than I would assume any other market in the country where a lot of these stores are privately owned.
A lot of them are grocery stores, little mini supermarkets where almost all of the time the owner is present at the location.
And they don't operate through like planograms or anything like that.
They're not checking emails.
They want you to come into the store.
They want to see the product.
They want to feel the product.
They want to taste the product.
And New York is so dense that, especially at the time during COVID where there was really no traffic or anything, we were able to visit 30, 40, 50 stores in some days because you could go down a block that has four or five stores on it.
And there's no better way than to have that interaction face-to-face, right?
Through email, it's easy for someone to say no and then never answer an email again.
Do you ever find that somebody had taken your spot on the shelf?
You go into one of these independent stores and the place where GNGR Shots was, there is no more.
How do you save that space for yourself?
So when it comes to independent stores, that just happens over time.
It's a very competitive market, but they don't dedicate any particular shelf space for any particular brand unless that brand is flying off the shelf, right?
So initially, almost every time we'd revisit a store, if the product was sold out, that space was replaced either with another shot or in cans, water.
You know, they never exclusively held that space for you.
But that's also indicated in the product sold, right?
So if they were to turn around and say, oh, well, I don't have any space, I said, well, you had my product right here a week ago and you had four cases, now you have zero.
Yeah, I think that's a reason for you to make some space and let our product back into that shelf.
But when New York, like I said, there's no slotting fees, you don't pay for the space.
It's kind of the wild, wild west of CPG when it comes to securing space on the shelf.
How do you get paid in the wild, wild west?
Is it upfront?
Is it after you sell through your initial round of product?
How does that work?
Most of our data are willing to pay COD.
There is the bigger supermarkets that would like, some of them would like terms, some of them, we had agreements.
We were so eager to sell product that we did agree with a lot of stores, hey, try it.
When I revisit and the product sells, which I know it will, you pay me for the first order on the second order.
It just worked for us because we wanted to be aggressive.
And it's really, again, it's like store by store.
It's different.
It's a different story every door you walk through.
So sort of the same question in terms of how do you track conversations?
How do you track payment when so many, I mean, almost every store maybe does it a little bit differently and has a different system?
As messy as it might sound, but we just put it all into a Google spreadsheet, right?
This store owes us this much.
This store paid on this day, revisit this store because they were supposed to pay, but they didn't.
And now we have a CRM platform that we use, simply Depot.
But at that time when we first started, we probably didn't even know these platforms existed, right?
And we were just so eager to sell product that the most logical way seemed to create a Google spreadsheet that we understand because we created it, and just put all the information in that.
I mean, you're making sense out of chaos here, the way it sounds to me.
Is there anything that you learned that might help other brands kind of figure out how to navigate the jungle of New York City, whether it's in terms of keeping track of conversations and keeping things moving, making sure you're getting paid?
Are there any sort of tips that come to mind that you've sort of figured out as you've made your way?
Absolutely.
Use a CRM system.
Because you won't be able to keep track of thousands of stores through a Google spreadsheet.
But now there's many platforms that help kind of streamline those processes and add those store nodes and pictures, so forth and so on.
So I wouldn't suggest the Google spreadsheet way for anyone because it becomes messy.
At 100 stores, you can maintain it.
200, you can maintain it.
Once you go to 500 plus stores, it's very hard to keep track.
And you're talking to 20, 30 different buyers each day.
You think you remember what he said, but you really don't.
And there's only minimal information you can put into a spreadsheet without it just becoming messy.
So definitely find a way out of the gate to have a structure.
All right, noted.
What CRM do you like the most?
Simply Devo.
I mean, they have, I would say it's a one stop shop for really all your, from your merchandising to your order taking.
I mean, it's very cohesive.
Everything's in one place.
It's easy to use.
It's user friendly on the front end for the person that's visiting the stores.
It's user friendly on the back end to keep track of everything.
It compiles all the data information.
I would highly suggest for anyone starting out to look into a platform.
All right.
That's a great tip.
And how many people did you have out in the field selling?
Sells myself, Namik, and then we had the help of two others that kind of were part-time.
One would go to the city three days a week.
One would go to Queens here and there.
At some point, it became too much work where Namik needed to handle all the invoicing and pricing and making sure we have enough product.
So it was really, you could say, two and a half people.
And then as those two people fell off and we started working with a DSD distributor, it was kind of just me maintaining, going to all these accounts, maintaining those relationships.
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Well, that's a great segue into your first DSD.
How did you choose your first DSD partner and who was it?
Like Namik mentioned in the beginning of the conversation, our HPP was being done by Dora Naturals, and they're also a DSD distributor as well.
So I would say roughly like six to eight months into business, we were able to open up about 800 accounts.
We retained about 500, four to 500 of those accounts as like buying customers that are ordering on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly basis.
And of course, Dora being our HPP partner, they saw the volumes coming out of this two man team, right?
And they were very taken aback by it and surprised.
And we were selling to a lot of stores that they were in.
So they were hearing from their salespeople and the reps about this product.
And it kind of sparked the conversation for possible distribution.
And really we thought they were going to be a great fit, right?
We already have a working relationship with them.
The products already be HPP'd at that facility.
So it just simplifies everything from where it goes to one warehouse where it's HPP'd to the house next door, right?
Where it's being distributed at them.
And that it's hit in the street.
Sounds so simple.
It sounds simple, but it's not as simple as it sounds.
That's what I thought.
You know, you and Namik and maybe someone else are out there selling, and then you have a DSD.
How did you map out your territories when you brought on a DSD?
Or did you just hand it completely over to the DSD?
So funny enough, again, like Namik touched on a little bit before.
Initially, we targeted, let's say, a quote unquote, a fluid working class, neighborhoods like your Williamsburg, Midtown, Downtown.
So we had a good presence in those areas.
But what we learned quickly is our product sells and works everywhere.
Right?
So we were in South Brooklyn, we were in the Coney Island area, in the Brownsville, Canarsie areas, and our DSD didn't work in those areas at that time.
So when we initially on-boarded with them, we said, hey, we'd love to partner up with you guys, but some of our best-selling accounts are in areas that you don't service.
How can we map out a game plan to say, okay, we're going to continue building on and focusing on the areas that you do service, but how can we also add these stores and areas to your DSD?
And there was a lot of back and forth conversation, and then they agreed to allocate a rep to these areas.
So we could continue building on those areas, as well as the areas that they've already had an established footprint.
I've heard so often that it's really important to build a strong relationship with your DSD, and you want to empower them as much as possible because they're the face of your brand when they walk into an account.
How did you kind of educate the Dora's team on the brand?
And did you run sales contests?
What did you do to motivate?
I would say in New York, it's very important to not only rely on a distributor and their salespeople, it's to have your own person working alongside them that's visiting the stores, just as much as they're visiting the stores, because you got to remember, and this is, I would say, all distributors across the board, they have plenty of brands, right?
They can't be focused on one brand because it just doesn't work that way.
So the way we empowered them is initially over-communicating and building relationships with the actual reps that are on the street that are selling your product.
And then we did a lot of route rides where you tag along with the rep, you work with them all day, you see the route, you see the stores they're in, you see the relationships they have, and you can kind of bounce off of that to say, hey, I see you have a great relationship here.
Why don't we run a promo in the store?
And why don't we see if they're willing to take instead of their typical three cases, maybe they'll take 10 cases and put it on sale.
So I think with New York at least, you have to be very involved.
You have to be in those stores, on the street, alongside those distributors, because that's how you're going to build a relationship, not only with the distributor, but with the store as well.
And when you say over communicate, do you get everyone on a call and you're telling them the brands?
What are you telling them and how are you telling them?
When I say over communicate, it's a nice way of me saying be annoying, right?
Call them nonstop.
If you have a question, if you have an issue, if you're unhappy with something, pick up their phone and give them a call.
Don't be afraid because it's our job to work with them and be on top of them.
And it's their job to work with us and help us as brands, you know, continue to develop and grow within the areas that they sell in.
So when I say over communicate, if I will walk into a store and there was any slight issue, the first thing I did was pick up the phone, call the sales rep and say, hey, why is this?
What was the issue?
How do we resolve it?
How do we work together moving forward?
Let's work with the store.
Let's make sure they're happy.
And let's resolve the issue right here, right now, rather than sending emails back and forth.
It's just not my approach.
We're gonna call you, we're gonna figure it out, and then we're gonna move on to the next store.
Let me ask you this.
So you had a great tip for CRMs.
Don't wait.
Do you have a tip for working with a DSD, something that you learned along the way that everybody maybe should know out of the gates?
Yeah, don't be scared to ask questions, right?
Don't be scared to reach out if you're confused or you don't understand something.
Don't be scared to get as involved as you possibly can because it's our job as the brand to build the brand and to sell the product.
You know, they're essentially are helping selling and delivering your product, but as a brand owner or a salesperson for a brand, your job is to be on top of the day to day, what's happening in the stores, what's selling, what's not selling.
You can't fully rely on a distributor for that.
You had mentioned you would run promos with accounts that were really strong with the product.
There are a number of guerrilla marketing tactics.
You guys employed, but running promos is a pretty standard way of marketing.
What was your strategy around that?
Again, working with accounts that are so many and so varied across New York City.
Yeah, so we had a very limited budget, right?
So our biggest thing was the guerrilla marketing, like you mentioned in the form of just simple things like, hey, let's order 10,000 stickers and put them on every store, door, window, wall, whatever surrounding the areas you sell in to kind of burn that image of our product into the consumers.
Like they see it four or five, ten times.
Now they think they're familiar with it.
They might even feel like they've tried it in the past.
So that was really the heavy lifting that we tried to do when it came to marketing.
With promos, it's very difficult in New York because, again, there's no planogram.
It's a handshake agreement.
And you don't know if the store is actually...
You're going to give them the discounted price.
You don't know if they're actually going to put it on promo.
And this is going back to you absolutely need to have a team in place that has their hand on the pulse of what's happening.
Because if you do agree to run a promo with a one-off store, you absolutely need to revisit that store.
A day or two after they receive that discounted product, to make sure they put it on promo.
You know, it's funny because you would think that working with big distributors and big retail chains is less of a Wild West scenario.
But it's the same thing with distributor promos.
You have to go to those accounts and make sure that the retailer is actually offering the discounts to the consumers.
So I'm sure that that's a learning and a strategy that will transfer over to your more widespread distribution.
So with the stickers in the stores, do you ask first?
Do you just slap a sticker on a store door?
What do you do?
It depends.
If you walk over to a door that has 20 stickers on it, it's safe to say that they don't mind if you put a sticker on it.
But if they don't, it's always nice to ask.
You never want to upset a store.
I would say 100 out of 100 times you should ask.
Because you don't want to ruin your relationship.
If you might have a store and the product is selling great, and you decided to put some promotional material somewhere in the store without asking, and they turn around and say, hey, why did you do that?
Now you've kind of soured that relationship a bit.
So I would say ask all the time.
And just to touch a little bit on what we were talking about, distributor.
Distributor is a great partner, right?
They're amazing.
But again, when it comes to promos and all these other things, they can't, you know, the sales guy can't keep up with 10 different brands running 10 different promos at 10 different times, right?
So you as a brand need to always make sure that you're on top of that.
And as you guys expand across the country, would you envision yourselves using a third party?
Because I mean, you guys are amazing, but there's just no way that you can be, you know, in every account across the country.
Do you have any initial thoughts on how you'll keep an eye on that when you're in so many different locations?
I think take the same approach as best as we can, meaning the only difference is going to be we can't physically get in the car and go to the store, but I think we learn how to communicate properly.
And I think we would also take the same approach, it would be to hire somebody in all the key markets that you work in that works for you and for you only, that doesn't have a portfolio of brands that they answer to, they answer to your brand, your brand only, and then turn their laser focused on making sure things are happening for you.
So I think, knowing what we know and the way we were able to be successful in New York, I would say that's really the only approach, is to have your own person in every key market that you're in.
How are you building that community in New York and Brooklyn, so that folks in every borough know who GNGR Labs is?
So I think for us, what we also learn, probably one of the most cost efficient way to introduce your product to people, it's actually participate in different type of events.
It could be your fashion show or running club, because when you go there, you give away your product.
Let's say your product costs one dollar to produce, to manufacture, and then when you give away, let's say, 100 units of your product, it's only cost 200 bucks.
But at the same time, you have hundreds of people can try your product, which, for example, you work with any kind of influencer, it can cost you anywhere from $500 to $5,000.
But this way, it's also like best way to do it.
But at the same time, we have a lot of people from New York, different organizations, they reach now to us to sponsor some of their events.
Obviously, just with the products, sometimes it costs involved.
And I think what we have learned, that's the best way to actually get your product out there in front of the potential consumers.
And oftentimes, you go to those events and people already know your product or they are the consumer.
So we have learned that's like the best way to get out there.
And also we did some small private events that we created as well, where we introduced different types of people and influencers to those events.
So I think that was our main strategy.
Are there any specific events that you found to be super successful?
I think running clubs that were great because essentially that's our potential consumers, right?
As a runner, one of the main issues with them is the running need, right?
So they need to help them recover or reduce the pain.
So I think that was very successful.
But we did different types of events such as yoga classes, for example.
But I think most of them were related in some way related to sport.
And then obviously we did some of the fashion show as well, when people loved our ginger shots, too.
So you wouldn't think about it.
But that was kind of interesting, kind of like an interesting experience as well.
Still pretty grassroots stuff and fairly easy to replicate.
You mentioned the cost of influencers, which can be incredibly high and the return is, it's certainly not guaranteed.
I noticed that you have really high engagement on your Instagram posts, for example.
How have you approached social media?
What we have learned that working with, not per se you work with someone that has hundreds of thousand followers, but sometimes you might have someone that has a couple of thousand followers, but they are real.
They are friends or co-worker classmates, whatever it is, but they are more engaged.
Oftentimes, when you work with someone that has a lot of followers, but they are just probably not as active.
So I think collaborating with smaller influencers help us to really get those posts in front of the different communities.
And also, I think that's also led to huge engagement rate as well.
And do you ever send the product to an influencer just to see if they'll talk about it because it's really good?
Yeah, we do that often.
And like I said, I think influencer marketing has been very saturated.
And I think with the point, there should be a new wave of influencers.
But I think, like I said, the smaller the influencers, it's better because I feel like it's more...
It doesn't feel like a commercial, right?
It feels like it's a genuine and people actually drink in this type of product.
Right, I put Daniel in the hot seat a couple of times with his asking for a tip for folks.
Do you have a tip for people in how to approach things like social media, influencers, events, something that you learned along the way that you wouldn't have known without sort of engaging and trying and failing and trying and winning?
So I think when it comes to events, what we have learned, it's very important to actually go to those events.
For example, if you're sponsoring some sort of event and sometimes you might spend close to $1,000, right?
And then if someone doesn't go to those events, oftentimes those organizers, they wouldn't post about their product, the engagement wasn't great, they wouldn't take the images that they promised.
But I think when you send someone there, it's much better because you have representation of the brand there and they can talk to people, they can talk about the product, and obviously you can create the content and take some pictures.
So I think if you're sponsoring big events, I think it's very important to be there as a brand.
Three for three.
No wonder you guys are doing so well.
I mean, that's something that sounds so simple, but so many folks don't do it.
So thank you for that.
All right.
Well, I really appreciate you talking about how you got to where you are.
What's next?
I know you have big West Coast plans with AeroOn, Bristol Farms, Jimbo's.
You know, I know that, you know, you've secured some really significant investment.
What's on the horizon for GNGR Labs?
Obviously, our next step is to take our product nationalwide.
We spent the last almost four years to really build a brand here in New York.
And I feel like we built something that people love and consume on a daily basis.
And our next step, obviously, is to become a national brand and sell in every possible outlet within the country.
Danielle, any parting words for our Community Call to our audience, or about what you're hoping to see in the future for GNGR Labs?
Yeah, we just hope to take all the knowledge we've gained in our backyard, and just apply it to the rest of the country, right?
And slowly but surely roll out in one area and then another and then another, and hope to see that snowball effect, right?
And we can use New York as a case study to, hey, this product will work.
It's worked here in the, I would argue, the most diverse city in the country, right?
If you're able to be successful in New York, I think you're able to find success in any other market or part of this country.
So I just hope to be able to replicate that success, which I'm sure we will, taking the same approach we took and taking everything we've learned in New York and just applying it to other regions.
I'm sure you will, too.
It's been so impressive to see what you've done, and we're all rooting for you over here at BevNET.
So thank you so much for joining us, Namik Sultan, Daniel Chechelnitsky.
Thank you so much for taking us behind the scenes and explaining how you've done, what you've done.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call Podcast.
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