HU Kitchen

HU Kitchen’s journey to disruption in premium chocolate began in 2011 as a paleo/primal restaurant concept. When the founders struggled to find a delicious chocolate that met their restaurant’s strict health criteria, they decided to launch their own line of chocolate. By 2013, HU chocolate launched into Whole Foods, coinciding with their Union Square (NYC) restaurant launch. From 2016 to 2018, their retail penetration grew from 400 to 3,000 stores. Today, the brand applies a unique test-and-learn model with its in-house test kitchen and insights lab to cultivate a loyal following through both retail and DTC.

JustFoodForDogs

As a dog parent himself, Shawn Buckley felt compelled to disrupt the $30 billion pet food market by offering human-grade dog food beyond a can or bag. He went to market with a bang as the first-ever public kitchen for dogs! The kitchen was not only an efficient production facility, but also a unique marketing tool that attracted a loyal pet owner following. After its success in the DTC landscape, JustFoodForDogs partnered with Petco in 2019 to open a 1,350-square-foot retail activation kitchen in Petco’s Union Square (NYC) store. By expanding to over 1,000 Petco stores and embracing DTC and Amazon, JustFoodForDogs has reached $80 million in revenue.

Public Goods

Public Goods, a membership-based online home goods store, was founded in 2016 to combat the paralysis of choice faced by consumers at retail today. Offering just one type of product per need, the site touts minimalism and pleasing aesthetics across its portfolio. In 2020, Public Goods announced a CVS retail partnership where consumers can forego the annual membership to access the brand’s products, albeit at higher prices. CEO Morgan Hirsh views this as a strategic move to expand reach among new consumers who primarily shop B&M, with the aim of introducing them to the brand, building their loyalty, and increasing Public Goods’ membership numbers.

Sumo Citrus

Available for just 4 months a year, the “dekopon” varietal of mandarins known as Sumo Citrus are a highly coveted seasonal fruit. Celebrated for its sweetness, distinctive top knot, and ease of peeling, the Sumo Citrus brand benefits from its digital presence and sense of exclusivity. Eager consumers can sign up to receive a notification when the varietal becomes available, and in season, consumers can purchase gift boxes of the fruit to be shipped nationwide. Sumo’s real brand value creation comes from its in-store staging. Leaders like Whole Foods, Wegmans, Target and Publix allocate large displays and signage to capitalize on the fruit’s seasonal excitement, demand, and premium ring.

Cocokind

Cult-favorite skincare brand Cocokind launched in 2014 with a mission: to make clean, efficacious skincare more accessible. The brand became an early hit with influencers and bloggers, with their hero Collective Sticks (like MYMatcha) being shared frequently on Instagram personal pages and routine videos. CEO Priscilla Tsai has personally taken charge of Cocokind’s social media, creating posts that relate to the skincare challenges of Cocokind customers. What started primarily online quickly expanded with retailers like Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Target.

Pillar #1: Relevance to my values

Next generation consumers want to spend their money on more than a product; they use their beliefs to direct purchasing. Winning brands position themselves as relevant to contemporary values and empower consumers to use their purchasing power to support a greater purpose.

Brands aligned to consumer values (e.g., ways of eating, environmental stewardship, donation of proceeds to various causes) also command a price premium as consumers are willing to pay more for the enhanced benefits delivered by a values-based brand. We see this justified premium as a growth unlock across categories.

Unlock: Use forward-looking insights to identify emerging values that drive purchase decisions

Prioritize leading-edge consumers (those creating change in the market) and identify what they value most when selecting products. These consumers portend where purchase decisions are trending, and brands that deeply understand these values-based decisions can better delight this group and remain ahead of broader market trends.

A few examples include:

Pillar #2: Cultural relevance

Brands often struggle to appeal to next generation consumers in today’s ultra-competitive landscape. Successfully creating stickiness in consumers’ minds requires talking to consumers through mediums and situations that are relevant to their culture. Connecting to the next generation’s culture in an authentic way while remaining true to the brand’s heritage will allow the brand to build relevance with a spectrum of consumers.

Unlock: Link your brand to contemporary culture As consumers see advertising everywhere, from subway ads to Snapchat stories, it has become more difficult for brands to capture mindshare. One way to stand out authentically is to leverage borrowed interest from pop culture, making smart, relevant connections to your brand and what it stands for.

A few examples include:

Pillar #3: Lifestyle relevance

As the next generation builds careers, families, and homes, they seek solutions that fit meals, snacks, and personal care and household occasions into busy schedules, spurring a resurgence across categories from home cleaning to frozen meals to dairy and pasta. Brands can win by updating old standbys for evolving needs as consumers seek better ‘job’ solutions.

Unlock: Connect with trending values as a ‘way in’ to today’s lifestyle

For the next generation, food values are about more than just nourishment; they are integrated into consumers’ sense of self and wellbeing. Brands whose products better fulfill evolving consumer ‘jobs’ associated with changing lifestyles will earn greater market share.

A few examples include:

Pillar #4: Budget relevance

With college tuition increasing 500% since the 1980s and cost of living more than tripling, the next generation of consumers is accustomed to living on a budget. In the consumer goods space, they are seeking an even greater value equation. Low prices alone are not the answer. It is more important than ever to identify and deliver on the aspects of the value equation that matter most to them.

Unlock: Over-deliver on the value equation

Offering exceptional value through the right benefits at the right price requires a deep understanding of where value lies for your consumer. By offering exactly what consumers value most and not investing in what they don’t, brands can be highly relevant while saving on areas that expand profit margin.

A few examples include:

Pillar #5: Relevant availability

Today’s consumers expect brands to be seamlessly available for purchase in their flow of life outside traditional retail channels, whether offline or online. However, brands must still stand out in the traditional brick and mortar retail environment while expanding omnichannel through availability online, in foodservice, and/or in unexpected UDS (up-and-down-the-street) channels such as apartment buildings, workplaces, and gyms.

Unlock: Develop breakthrough availability

As social networks expand in-app purchasing capabilities, brands can capitalize, reaching younger consumers where they already browse and removing the friction to purchase online. In real life, brands can break through by ensuring their in-store presence is unforgettable (or better yet, Instagrammable) and by increasing distribution in grab-and-go locations that accommodate the next generation’s on-the-go lifestyle expectations.

A few examples include:

What space, practice or convention are you challenging?

Mand: This company was founded first and foremost on the principle of constructive capitalism. In traditional capitalism, the founders or investors might benefit from a company’s growth. In a constructive model, everybody along the value chain should benefit – farmers, harvesters, employees, consumers, investors – everyone.

Our founders (Justin Guilbert and Douglas Riboud) started the company with this business model in mind, but no idea what they were actually going to make. Justin and Douglas found themselves in South America, sampling different types of fruits they could commercialize as juice and bring to market. To help balance the taste, they tried blending them with coconut water, but they found all the coconut waters were nasty! They realized that despite coconut water becoming increasingly popular, no one was doing it right. The other manufacturers were all using the same factories and the same sub-optimal processes that included concentrating or thermally processing the water. This resulted in a product that was so far from what coconut water should be. Justin and Douglas knew they could do it better.

Today, we are challenging the way that business should be done and the way that consumers think about paying for products. Consumers in the US spend a smaller share of their income on food compared to any other country in the world (note: American consumers spend 6.2% of their household income on food).¹ However, what we eat is so foundational to long term personal, environmental and societal health.

I believe it’s my job to help more people understand that it’s worth it to spend a little more on what they eat and drink in order to better support product quality and responsible business.

Harmless Harvest coconut water is quite a bit more expensive than shelf stable, but we are more than worth it in terms of taste, purity, and impact.

What has challenged you along the way?

One of the key challenges is to really focus not only on getting your leadership team right, but also setting your entire organization up for success. You have to understand the organization, assess the current capabilities and make sure you have the right plan in place. If not, you’re hampered in your ability to build and deliver against a bold plan. Do you have the right people, capabilities and metrics in place to support your priorities? I joined the company in July, and we delivered our strategic plan to the board in November. This gave us essentially 5 months to re-work the leadership team, assess the business and organization, determine the organizational priorities, and write the plan – all while building out the teams across the organization. It was a sprint, but it let us hit the ground running on our biggest priorities.

As we look ahead, I am most excited for this team to tackle our biggest supply chain priorities and launch our new phase of innovation. Those two areas are true unlocks from a topline and profitability standpoint.