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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-hosts, Monica Watress and Mike Schneider.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice.
Guys, I am feeling incredibly lucky.
In the last 48 hours, I've seen two rainbows.
Inside a market basket.
I wish.
Every time I go into a market basket, I see a rainbow.
You see rainbows anyway.
Yeah.
Rainbows and unicorns.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I don't know.
Seeing a rainbow in person is really amazing, but it made me think of how rainbows are this cliched thing.
But they're not though.
They're so cool in real life.
What's your favorite rainbow color candy?
Because when I saw that rainbow, I did think about tasting the rainbow, which is of course skittles.
Does it have to be a candy?
Because I'm quite partial to fruit loops.
Oh, yes, definitely.
I mean, I like starbursts.
Those are pretty rainbow.
Those are delicious.
They're rainbow-ish.
The nice thing, I mean, they get stuck in your teeth, which you could look at as a drawback.
But on the plus side, you get to eat them for a pretty long time.
Like you can go 15 minutes and then be like, Ooh, lemon.
And then there's the whole lemon controversy too, which people, don't be a lemon starburst, be a strawberry, be the pink one.
Like everyone likes the pink one.
I like them all.
Lemon's the best.
Well, yeah.
See, lemon is awesome.
Was there a controversy about lemon?
Oh, yeah.
Lemon starburst.
I didn't even know.
I'm aghast.
Well, rainbow.
But you heard it from Monica.
And you know what the best thing about fruit loops in general are, in my opinion, when you get like two or three stuck together and you get that like sugar glue holding them all together.
Do you like that?
Does everybody like those?
That's delightful.
I don't want to know anybody who doesn't like that.
I don't think they put prizes in cereal boxes anymore, but in my opinion, finding one of those stuck together fruit loops is a prize.
Imagine someone's like, I hate when I get a special anomaly that tastes amazing.
I love fruit loops.
Right?
That would be crazy.
Well, you know, it'll be interesting to see what brands who rely on artificial dyes are going to be doing in the near future.
Less than two months ago, California lawmakers advanced a bill to ban six harmful dyes from food provided in public schools.
And this is a year after Governor Newsom signed into law the California Food Safety Act, banning a list of ingredients, including red dye number three.
Why are we so why is this still such a big part of our food system?
Well, I want to be careful to call them harmful because there's no proof that those dyes cause bodily or health harms.
But I think California is always ahead of the curve when it comes to this kind of thing.
They've had their rules for a while, which makes it really challenging for brands to create products that are specific to California and then products for the rest of the country.
Whenever there's a patchwork of regulatory requirements for ingredients, it just adds to the challenges.
And in terms of packaging costs, you have to print special packaging if you're distributing to California.
So, yeah, I think it's just creating a headache for brands.
Monica, you brought up a really interesting point there.
You know, I mean, I've seen facts and figures kind of pointing the finger at artificial dyes, but certainly there's not enough research to get the FDA to make a move.
So, I don't know, what do you think?
Is this like, is this sort of similar to seed oils?
You and I talked a little bit about this on the last Community Call podcast with Amrie Richmond.
I mean, do you think that artificial dyes could be sort of put in the same category as seed oils, where we're not really sure what the harm is?
If, in fact, these ingredients are harmful, which, again, we don't have evidence that they are, then it's going to be more expensive to produce products without synthetic dyes or artificial flavors or colors or whatever else is being banned in California and beyond.
And a lot of consumers rely on products that contain these ingredients, and if they can't afford them, then that just creates more...
Strife.
Strife, yeah.
Yeah.
It's a really good point that it just makes access to food that much more difficult for people who are already stressed out about food if food becomes more expensive.
And wouldn't the Mars and the posts and the craft hines of the world have to figure out a way to incorporate more natural dyes, whatever that means exactly, into their supply chain in order to offer a product that mass consumers can afford?
Well, they figured it out because they do it in, say, Canada.
So some companies produce foods for the US and they produce foods for Canada.
And as Monica was saying before, just like you have different ingredients in different packaging for California, you'd have different ingredients, different packaging for other countries based on whatever their regulations are.
So it just becomes even more expensive to produce the foods if you have to, if you have different regulations for each state.
And 10 years ago, a lot of these big companies did try this.
So I know Mars and Hershey were working on confectionary items that were made with, quote, natural colors.
And cereal makers like General Mills and Kellogg were working on cereals that were made with colors from natural sources, like vegetables.
But consumers didn't want those products.
They wanted the vibrancy and the nostalgia and, you know, you eat with your eyes.
And the fruity cereals that were made with colors derived from vegetables were kind of dull and not as exciting.
And it just was a trade off that a lot of consumers weren't willing to make.
I wonder if that's still the case now with, you know, the better for you movement being in full force.
So, but now we're in a spot where it's a, you know, well-oiled machine to produce all these products.
And you're, like you said, Melissa, it's not likely that they're just going to go back for no apparent reason when there's no, for no apparent reason when there's no science backing it and just change all the formulas.
It will be interesting to see what brands do and how they follow suit after these new laws in California.
I heard that the maker of Peeps declared that this was going to be the last Easter with Red Dye number 3 in their Peeps.
So, waiting for all the other dominoes to fall.
Monica, you have a snack or two over there, don't you?
I do.
I got some nuts, these nuts specifically, from Live Loud Foods.
So, Keisha over there, she is a chef and she makes these really delicious looking seasoned nuts.
There's Caribbean Jerk Nuts, which are spiced with the flavors of the Caribbean.
And, scotch, bonnet, pepper, all-spice, cinnamon, smoked paprika, coconut sugar and maple syrup.
And then there are candied citrus pistachios.
So, I haven't opened yet.
Can I try them?
Can I try them right now?
Do it, yeah.
Try them on.
Try them on.
Try them on, Micah, and then try and then eat them.
I know a couple of tween boys who would very much enjoy the name of the nuts.
Yeah, I know.
Well, I went...
They're not called Deez Nuts.
They're called Live Loud Food.
I just referred to them.
Live Loud Food, but she meant Caribbean Jerk Nuts.
Caribbean Jerk Nuts.
Oh, that?
Oh, yeah.
Oh my God, the pistachios are fantastic.
Oh.
Yay.
What are the pistachios covered in?
Candied citrus.
Are they spicy?
Caribbean Jerk is spicy.
It's really freaking good.
Sweet Heat.
It's the swicy trend that people have been talking about the last year.
Sweet and spicy.
Swicy.
I love swicy.
Oh my God.
These are so good.
I feel like so often we're trying things here and you're not.
So I appreciate that I just have this intense, overwhelming FOMO that I'm missing out on these delicious nuts.
I'm sure Keisha would send you some.
I just interact with the brand on Instagram and she said, hey, we want to get some nuts over to you.
And I said, yeah, I love those.
I love these nuts.
These are really good, though.
Like both flavors are fantastic.
And there's no reseal on the packaging.
I don't know how many servings this is, but you're going to have to cookie monster them all.
It feels like this is one serve.
I mean, I could see this being is dangerous.
No, I'm not like one serving to me.
It's three point five ounces.
So I think that's three point five servings.
That's nothing.
If that that's the amount of like perfume you can take on an airplane.
That's like that's definitely one serving.
Mike, I see you sipping.
Could you wash down some swissy nuts with what you're drinking over?
I would definitely wash down some swissy nuts with some peach, ginger, or wild wonder.
That's what I'm drinking right now.
Earlier, I was drinking the Banana Queen Wild Wonder, which was made in collaboration with Asian drag queen Nymphia Wind.
It's the campaign is amazing.
You have to see all the bananas, the implementations of banana, the fabulousness of it.
And also, I mean, it just pays off when you crack that.
When you crack the Banana Queen, you can just the banana permeates.
It's got real banana puree in it.
It's got great ingredients.
I mean, Wild Wonders always has the good stuff in it.
This one, first ingredient, fresh brewed ginger.
Ooh.
Yes, please.
And what's the...
Can I see the front of the can?
What is that flavor?
Peach ginger.
Peach ginger.
Very nice.
Very good.
You know, a banana flavored soda, do you think that even if you're not a banana lover, you might like it or do you pretty much have to be all in on bananas?
You don't love bananas or even like bananas.
You're going to hate this because it's perfectly made with bananas.
I think banana is a beverage flavor that we usually recommend against because it polarizes everybody and it's not like a huge seller.
So, I mean, I'm not sure what the plan is for a Wild Wonder Banana Queen, but right now it's getting the press it deserves.
People who like banana are saying that they like it.
And, you know, I mean, we know Wild Wonder has been a brand that's, you know, had a little room to experiment now and then.
So hopefully it does well.
And if it doesn't, you know, they'll they'll find something else.
They'll celebrate it now and then they'll bring out something else.
I mean, that's just what they do.
I just got a glimpse of the nutritional panel.
Is that is it Jerusalem artichokes?
Is that what they're using for fiber?
There is Jerusalem artichoke in here along with ginger root, peach puree, agave nectar, lemon juice, ginger juice.
Oh, man, peach flavor, chicory root inulin, monk fruit, and some live probiotics.
And red dye number three.
Not even close.
Not at all.
Not even close.
Not even, not anywhere near the level.
What a twist that would be though.
I know, I know.
And blue number one in peach ginger.
Totally.
Well, it's going to take a lot of hard work and strategy to eliminate artificial dyes from our food supply chain.
And as you'll hear in this Community Call featuring Cedar's Hummus, hard work and strategy is exactly what catapulted Cedar's to be a national brand.
Hummus was a largely unknown product back in 1981, which is when their Hummus was launched.
Here how they educated retailers and consumers on their product and brand in the winning playbook that continues to drive their careful expansion.
Please enjoy.
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Today on Community Call, our guest is Aimee Tsakirellis, EVP of Marketing at Cedars Foods, talking about direct store delivery for food.
DSD is a commonplace function in the beverage industry where there are a plethora of direct distributors you can use, but it's a harder needle to thread with food.
So Aimee's gonna tell us how Cedars did it themselves, and the strategies brands can replicate when launching into a new territory, even if, you know, getting a fleet of trucks and 60 warehouses across the country isn't in the cards for you.
So very excited for this conversation.
Aimee, you know, we were talking before we went live here today, and I've known you for so long throughout sort of various positions in the food industry, and it's just such a joy to have you here and be doing this with you.
Thank you.
I'm so excited to be here, and thank you everybody for joining or watching later on.
Excited to dive in.
Absolutely.
So Cedars is a legacy brand.
I mean, I can't think of a store I've been in recently that didn't carry a Cedars product.
So this is going to be a really great conversation to help everybody understand how Cedars grew with a direct delivery model.
Could you start us off by helping us understand how and when Cedars started delivering direct, which I think is actually kind of the story of Cedars, is that right?
Yeah, absolutely.
So Cedars was established in 1981, and the founder of Cedars actually was working at DSD route and delivering bread in the local greater Boston area.
We're headquartered now in Haverhill Mass, just about 35 miles north of Boston.
And he had this idea, hey, I'm a Lebanese immigrant, we can't find hummus on the shelves here.
And at that point in time, it was very rare to find anybody that knew what hummus was.
I mean, we got questions well into the 90s.
Is this the cheese?
What kind of dip is this?
Chickpeas?
What are you talking about?
So he had this idea, what if I bring my wife's recipe with me on some of my trucks and see if I can sell this into some stores?
And he got those questions.
What is it?
Why are you bringing it with your bread truck?
What's going on here?
But eventually, he got enough traction and started to get some appointments with local retailers.
And the first retailer that we were in said, I'll give you a sample of stores.
I'll give you six stores out of my chain.
We'll see how sales go for the first two weeks.
And then if you sell okay, we'll expand to a couple more stores and a couple more stores after that.
So we made as much hummus as we could.
It's now 1982.
Made as much hummus as we could and brought it in coolers, literally with ice packs, and put them on the store shelves at that retailer.
And then the next day, went in to all those stores with a friend and purchased the product back off the shelf just to show some traction on that it was moving, so we would get more and more stores.
And we came across a lot of the employees and the dairy managers and the dairy buyers at the stores that really enjoyed talking to us and learning our story and love that personal relationship and connection.
We didn't tell them we were going back in and buying our own product off of the shelves, but that connection really, it became so vital to our success.
So once we gained a few more retailers, we just kept broadening our reach and hiring more and more family members to go and approach retailers in Greater New England all the way up to Buffalo, New York.
And at that point, there was only about 10 employees here.
So everyone had a job.
Some people were driving some trucks to the Buffalo, New York or Vermont or upstate Maine.
Some people were making the hummus.
Some people were doing the books.
But as we gained more and more retailers and kind of started spreading our wings out, it became unrealistic for one person to drive a truck.
At that time, it was a van, one of those weird looking vans in the 80s.
It became unrealistic for somebody to drive a truck up to Buffalo, New York and then the next day drive to Vermont.
So we ended up hiring more people, establishing a couple of warehouses.
In tandem at this time, Whole Foods started picking up some local retailers, acquiring them in New England.
And those local retailers we were already in.
So we were just kind of transitioned right into Whole Foods.
And what a better customer demographic for the Mediterranean diet and all of our products.
This demographic had an awareness about it.
And we had this aha moment.
Hey, Whole Foods is expanding all over the country.
This is our perfect demographic.
We've got to follow them.
So essentially, what we did was we followed wherever they were popping up new regions and buying retailers.
We'd establish a warehouse out there, get set up so we could say, hey, you know, we're here too, and we can service the stores.
And that's kind of how we started making baby steps across the country.
And then once we were in regions like Chicagoland or like Texas or like Florida, and we were established, we were able to use Whole Foods as our anchor account and start expanding and broadening our reach and getting into more and more retailers.
And it's still so relevant how we started our approach at just delivering our product into the small handful of stores that we had.
That's so relevant now to a brand new brand that is just getting into a couple of test stores at Whole Foods or another retailer in any region of the country, bringing your products into the stores to test them to see if they work.
And there's such an emphasis on small brands and brand culture and regional brands today that what I've been learning is a lot of brands are getting test stores and what a better way than to bring in your own product and create these relationships just like we did in the early 80s.
I'm curious, I think that the struggle Cedars had at the beginning with helping customers understand what Hummus was.
And it sounds crazy, right?
Like there's a chickpea and everything nowadays, but like in the 80s, people didn't necessarily know what Hummus was.
But I think that that's also a problem that so many brands now are having, whether it's a special ingredient, a functional ingredient, whatever.
Is there a way that delivering direct helped with the education piece?
Like, how did that sort of help both the store employees and then the customers understand what Hummus was?
It's such a great question.
The most important piece of our DSD model and the most emphasis we put on is our customer service, customer relationship and culture.
So we're a family-owned business.
We're in our third generation.
And at the root of everything we do is we have this idea that everybody has a seat at our table.
So whether you're a dairy manager, or just somebody stocking shelves at a store, we want to know you.
We want to put emphasis on that face-to-face relationship.
And part of that is educating.
Who's this brand?
Who am I bringing this brand into your store?
How can we help you?
What do you not know about the product or where's the awareness?
And that did start and originate in the 80s when we originated.
And we just kept going with that everywhere we went.
And our family just kind of kept growing and growing.
But while customer service and relationships are such an important piece of DSD, there's also this aspect of demos.
And demos can run into field marketing and part of marketing budgets.
But what we were doing in the 80s was a lot of our family members of the supervisors, the people setting up the warehouses and the new regions wanted to help promote the product.
And even the people who were setting up the regions wanted to help promote the product.
So after they were delivered to a store, they'd set up a demo table and just demo the product to get trial and motivate people to stop by, to come back in for repeat purchases, just give a generalized awareness of what the product was and what the brand's mission was and who we were.
And that is still relevant today.
Again, I work with so many smaller brands, especially in the New England area, brands that are bringing back new processes that have gone away for many years.
And they're trying to reinfigurate those processes because there's added health benefits.
I have chatted with brands that are bringing grandmother recipes of pierogies from Poland.
I mean, it goes on and on and on, but everybody has something special to talk about.
And there's a story and there's a way to communicate that story through these direct relationships and through GSD.
You pointed out a couple of really important key marketing functions in your opening a new region.
So, touching base with the folks who are working in the store and educating them so that when you leave, they can share that information with consumers and then doing demos, of course, not only to introduce the product to customers, but I'm sure also to get feedback on what people like and what they don't.
How do you see brands doing that?
Like if you launch in your home region, of course, you're probably going out and doing the demos, maybe have a family member, whatever.
Are you seeing ways that brands are doing that if they're launching in a subsequent region that, I mean, maybe it's across the country?
How do you see folks do that?
So I've seen it in two different ways.
One way is if you've got a playbook that really works for you in the region or the area or the retailer that you started with, and then your brand becomes successful and just somehow you've had a connection and you're across the country now and entering a new retailer, you can take that playbook and do a road show and set up demos for a launch period, set up demos for a hot promo period, or set up just FaceTime and walk the stores, get to know the people that work at the stores, chat with customers on the store level, like just really get involved and have some FaceTime there.
I've seen brands like, I'm sorry to name drop, but WellMuddyMill does this really well where they will go and do road shows when they need to.
Even the founders, John Alindo, he'll go in there and he'll chat with retailers, he'll post live Instagram stories.
And that's how you ignite the flame of your brand.
And you can still do it today with a small budget.
But hey, that's not going to work out because there's too much to be done.
And there always is.
Five organizations, everyone wears 20 hats and there's so much happening, especially when you're trying to grow so quickly.
There are demo companies and demo programs, and there are ways to still create demos.
But if you really want to get people to know who you are and know more about the brand and you really are passionate about sharing your story, nothing's better than it coming from the faces of the brand.
And we truly believe that.
Pre-COVID, we had a demo team of brand ambassadors that it was upwards of 65 people across the country, sharing the Cedar story and that's huge to handle.
But it was so effective and it really helped us gain more awareness, popularity in the store levels.
But it also allowed us to provide an extra element of customer service.
So if there was a team member appreciation week or barbecue or some type of event at the store, we would know about it.
We'd be able to support the store.
When you start supporting the store and partnering on a different level, the return on that is just so great.
The roadshow makes perfect sense and you can name drop all you want.
We love One Mighty Mill and I'm sure everybody else that you work with.
Cedar has just recently opened the Pacific Northwest.
So is there a certain amount of time that you think is really crucial to be in that area?
Like, is it a couple of weeks?
Does it depend on the number of stores?
It totally varies on the retailer, how broad the geography is.
I mean, getting into a retailer chain in Rhode Island is certainly different than getting into a new retailer chain in California.
Traffic patterns, what the size of the opportunity is, what the culture of the retailer is, they might not allow downloads.
So you might have to do some back-of-the-house lunches to really get employees on board and generate some awareness and champions of your brand.
But it truly is unique.
And that's kind of the great thing about DSD too, is it is unique.
If there's a promotion happening that we have to support the store, we can do that really quick and nimble and effectively and efficient.
If there's a store that runs out of product on July 4th, they can call us.
We're on call 24 hours a day.
We're going to be there the next day to make sure we restock the shelves.
But it's really unique to each situation, what the time period is, to really build a footprint.
That makes perfect sense.
And then after, let's say, you finish the road show, you leave the Pacific Northwest, what do you do to stay in touch with those folks if you and your team are in the Boston area?
So we can take Pacific Northwest as a case study there, right?
Yeah.
We set up that region, we became established there because we were entering a new set of stores with an established retailer that we hadn't been in yet, and we needed to be able to service them with our own DSD team.
We'd go in there, we would scout for a warehouse, which takes some time and a couple of trips, probably from Boston.
We've got to scout for a warehouse, we've got to scout for cold storage, we've got to send out a fleet of trucks, we've got to set up routes, and that could take months at a time.
Once all of that is set and our drivers are delivering to the stores, we've got demo set up, the best thing that we can do is continue demos if we've got a brand ambassador that's local to the area, or if the store has demo programs that we can participate in, that's a great way just to continue momentum.
We've got to make sure that we've got contact with the stores.
So a lot of stores have marketing managers, they've got store culture, team member culture teams, they've got front of the house, somebody that's a connect at that store.
Send them product, free samples, t-shirts, get to know them, know when events are happening, make sure that we're always top of mind, that everybody that works there knows who Cedar is.
And there is no time limit to that.
It just keeps going.
That was our last major region that we had to set up and that we had never been in before.
And that was right before COVID in 2019.
So we're still marketing to that region.
Since then, more competitors are entering into retailers.
And there's really no timeline to say like, okay, hey, now it's time to kind of step off the gas a little bit.
You've got to always be in touch.
And again, we go back to that culture of DSD.
It's all about relationship building.
So there's really, I wouldn't say there's a time limit, but upfront, it's definitely, there's an investment and there's a time investment, no doubt.
Let's in fact use the Pacific Northwest as a case study, if you don't mind getting into the nitty gritty details.
So it sounds like there was a retailer that was going to take Cedars in, and that was the impetus for you launching in that region.
What's the process and what's the strategy for a launch like that, understanding that this is probably a set of processes and strategy that an emerging brand could use, whether they're launching into their first region or a subsequent region?
Yeah, so the first thing we really have to do is our EVP of national DSD has to start strategizing and scoping out that region.
So we've got to understand what the size of the opportunity is.
The size of opportunity also is size of how many retail doors are there, how far away are the stores, what's the scope of the root structure, how many different routes do we need?
Because you may just need one truck, one route to hit all of those stores.
But if all those stores are in a big city, that means the velocity at those stores is going to be a lot larger than something in a rural area.
So he's really got to go in there and strategize and make a game plan.
Once that's kind of set and he's got objectives set out, then he starts to scout for a location central that works and makes sense because you can't be delivering to a store 10 minutes away.
And then the next day, your next route is four hours away.
It doesn't make sense.
So there's a lot of logistical planning that needs to happen up front.
Then the warehouse is secured, cold storage.
If it's a cold product perishable, if not, it's much easier.
If it's cold storage, frozen storage, or just dry warehouse, you send a fleet of trucks out there, and then you end up sending a supervisor or somebody who is already established in another region to go and help set up and make sure that the region operates as effectively and efficiently as it can.
And once that's set up, that's really where we start to branch out and say, okay, now where do we go from here?
Set up a demo team.
Do we set up merchandisers?
Because there are high-volume stores with super high velocities that cannot only be maintained by a DSD driver.
It's also going to have some type of merchandising there.
So somebody's always in the stores touching the product, bringing product forward-facing, making that set look really great.
And that's really how we start establishing that.
But I will tell you, as a small brand, it's almost the same thought.
You get a retailer that says, hey, we want to send you to a new region.
Let's say you're in New England already.
They're bringing you down to a mid-Atlantic area.
It's the same type of deal.
You've got to understand what's your velocity, what's your opportunity down there, where are the stores located, what's the best way to get into those stores, it's most cost-effective and efficient.
And sometimes it's through a distributor, it's not DST.
But then what can you do to supplement whatever that distributor is doing?
Go and do a road show, go down there and make friends at the store level, figure out a way to support them, get them samples, get them to know who your brand is, educate them first.
They're going to champion your brand.
Even if you're not self-distributing.
And then think about how can I maintain this momentum?
Is it through demos?
Is it through hot promos?
And keep going back and checking and keeping a pulse on those retailers and on those stores.
It's a lot of work, but that's how you build a legacy brand.
And that's how you start to gain more and more success in different retailers and regions.
You mentioned merchandising, and I think it's helpful to understand that your drivers aren't necessarily able to do it.
Do you hire your merchandising team internally?
Do you use external teams?
Is it a little bit of both?
It's a mix.
So it's always, there's the most important thing to always remember is you've got to be, you've got to be nimble and allow room for unique situations to come up.
So there's situations where we're merchandising, there's situations where brokers are merchandising for us, and then there's situations where nobody can go into the store except the distributor on the back end.
So it's really, it varies on who that retailer is, what the region looks like.
Sometimes stores don't need products to be merchandised.
It just, you just need to make a delivery once a week.
So it really, it truly varies on case by case.
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You also mentioned that there are some retailers that have great demo programs.
Whole Foods certainly does.
Are there any other retailers that stand out in your mind as having demo programs that our audience should know about?
If they launch in that retailer, definitely make sure you get involved with it.
Sure.
Demos were pretty major pre-COVID, and I ate that through COVID.
They kind of lost their fire a little bit, but they're reemerging because consumers want to go back into stores.
They want experiences.
They want those connections.
They want to try products again.
They're spending more time in stores.
So we're seeing more and more retailers put more emphasis on in-store demos and sampling programs.
I mean, the BJs and the Coscos of the world will always have that as part of the overall store experience.
And then there's some other retailers like Sprouts, the contracts with an outside third-party demo company, and you engage with that demo company to demo your products in stores.
Kroger does a great sampling program.
Many retailers, even if they don't have a demo program, and you say, hey, you're giving me some stores, can I set up something and come and demo into these new locations?
Most especially independent retailers are going to say, come on in, we gladly welcome you in.
All right, I want to go back to the Pacific North, opening a new region.
When we think about strategy, what do you do for competitive analysis, brand awareness, marketing, social?
What are the things that you get started before you launch into those stores, and that you then continue once you're in store?
Now you're speaking my language.
We have to do a competitor analysis first because there are always national brands, there are always regional brands, and in a lot of places in the country, regional brands are like pop cult hits.
They've got such a loyalty behind them.
So we've got to kind of understand what are those unique relationships with regional brands, especially hummus is such a personal product because there's so many different recipes and ways to make it.
So people really have favorites.
So we had to do a competitor analysis, and especially Pacific Northwest, there were some legacy brands up there that had owned the marketplace for quite some time, for decades.
So we had to see what are their flavors, what do they do well, and of course, most of them were also DST accounts.
We were also competing on that front too.
How do we create those relationships or disrupt relationships that were decades in the making?
And once we know when the launch date is, what we did was we invested in a pretty hefty media campaign to generate brand awareness, get people to know our story, know that we're on shelves.
And in conjunction with that, we also ran heavy intro promotions and demos.
So we hit them on three different layers.
There's brand awareness, we're driving product trial at the stores and motivating sales with these promotions.
And we did that for a couple of years.
We pulsed on and off with our brand campaign.
We'd be on for six months, off for six months, back on for six months.
And then we maintained a level of awareness with social media.
And then we just added that region on to our always on brand awareness campaign that we run year long.
And we've done that ever since.
Social media is an often evolving platform, certainly.
I'm just curious, how do you look at social media opportunities?
And how do you decide what's worth investing in and what isn't?
Social media is endless with the opportunities, but the more targeted and refined you can be, and the more return on each conversion, the better off you are.
I see a lot of brands throwing a large budget out to try to generate brand awareness, but don't.
Find a way to really target the consumers that you know you can convert to your brand in the best way, and that's how you're going to make your budget the most effective.
There are so many store and retailer programs with digital marketing and e-comm, and so many different elements of marketing to bundle on with all these new technologies that are emerging.
And there's a way to integrate all of these to create kind of a blueprint for your brand that you can say, okay, this is what worked for us when we get into a new region, or when we get into a new retailer, here's what we're going to do here too.
And that goes hand in hand with DST also, because when you do have a level of a marketing campaign or a media campaign, your DST team needs to, or whoever is distributing your products to the store, they need to know that there may be a bump up in sales.
So there's going to be a way for them to also support the brand.
It's really like a well-rounded hand-in-hand relationship.
This is something that came up in our conversation when we were preparing to have this discussion, which is working with a retailer to find out what's most important to them.
Can you tell me what that means and how Cedars does that?
Yeah.
And again, this varies and is unique to each retailer.
Some retailers just want you to come in, bring the product on the shelf, and make sure that the product, that shop space always looks great and is always full, and you've done your job.
You leave.
Other retailers want you to have that relationship with back of the house.
And they thrive on that culture.
Just something so fun to me is that one of our sales presidents used to stock shelves, and then he used to be one of our DSD drivers, and he's actually head of the Whole Foods account right now.
But he made so many friends back in the day with dairy buyers and people who were working at Whole Foods that also kind of grew with him and rose in the ranks too.
And we'll be at Expos, we'll be at Expo West and they're all just hanging around the booth chit chatting and having fun.
And that culture was important to Whole Foods and is important to Whole Foods.
And that's unique to them.
There are other retailers that don't want DSD, but that's okay because you can still find a way to be in the store somehow, still find a way to merchandise or just talk to customers, set up a demo program.
There's elements of DSD even if it's not obtainable or it's not within reach or doesn't make sense for you.
There's elements of DSD in that model of customer service and partnership that you can continue on even if you're going through another distributor.
I mean, your points about building relationships with the folks who are working in stores and bringing sweatshirts or freezer gloves or whatever, it's funny because it may not seem such a big deal to us necessarily, but it makes a really big difference to them.
And I've just seen time and time again how you really can build a relationship with folks with a hello and a nice little gift.
It's so true.
This is what we were doing in the 80s.
We were bringing t-shirts or coffees, just bringing them coffee, dropping off a couple boxes of pizza to say thank you for supporting the brand.
And just today, I received four retailer requests, all different retailers saying, hey, we're having a barbecue literally in our parking lot for our team members, or we're having a culture event to build culture just within our store, or we're having a team member appreciation.
Another one was having a store anniversary, just asking us, do you have any swag?
Can you support us in any way?
But the door is open for them to ask us that.
We have that relationship and they know that they're talking to real people.
They know it's a family here and this family really supports and values our partnerships.
So 40 something years later, we're still being asked for T-shirts and coupons and stickers and we love that.
And it's family members, sometimes even me, packing those up and sending them out to the stores and saying like, hey, send me a photo, have so much fun, enjoy the event.
But how cool is it that stores feel that they can still lean on us for all of that?
It's so cool.
It's impactful to them and it's so easy for us.
And I think sometimes maybe it's not at the front of everybody's mind that the folks in those stores, they're planning these events.
It's not like they necessarily have a Rolodex of brands if they've seen you come in a few times and they have, they're going to call you first because they know you.
Exactly.
Exactly.
We're top of mind.
And like I said, it's a partnership and they don't just see us as a brand that's like as a no name or no face brand in their stores.
They see us as a true partner.
And that starts at the DSD level or merchandising or just introducing your brand to the store, just sending them some free samples and a note, hey, thanks for supporting us.
Here's some goodies for you guys to take home.
This industry is so unique and so cool and leveraging that to leverage the success of your brand.
These are the people in the store that consumers are asking what brand do you recommend?
I've never heard of this.
Somebody's asking for me to pick this up for them.
These are the people saying, oh, you should pick up Cedars.
Cedars is a family-owned brand.
They're local.
Why aren't you buying Cedars?
They've got 20 flavors of hummus, but these are the people that we're educating to love and support our brand in the same way, and you become champions.
Let's say that you're in a region and you're delivering direct to some stores, but then you have to use a distributor for others.
How do you coincide those two methods of delivery?
So we treat it as separate tracks.
So we've got our DSD accounts that have unique promo structures, have unique programs that are all set up, and then we've got unique retailers that are strictly warehouse through distributors.
We may not utilize all of the DSD elements in those non-DSD retailers.
However, we may have a brokerage team that has people that merchandise in stores will utilize that, or there may be a demo program that we can participate in.
There may also be, if the retailer is huge with 1200 stores and we're in all of those, obviously that's a little bit different.
So we've got to play into marketing a little bit to figure out how can we build relationships.
But if it's obtainable and you can get into the stores, introduce yourself or just send coupons or whatnot, that's what we do.
It's using all these elements of that DST culture throughout, but it is separate tracks.
And often it's just complete separate programs.
And we've just, again, you've got to be nimble and figure out how to use your budget wisely.
You mentioned that Cedar has seen what happens when you move away from a direct store delivery model.
Could you tell us about that?
Yeah.
So it's happened to us.
We've had DST relationships with retailers that have been acquired by larger conglomerates or larger retailers that have decided that the DST model doesn't work for their store.
And sometimes it just doesn't.
Sometimes their stores are spanned too far across one geography, or it's just the model of their store.
It could be a small store, or they just don't allow it.
And that's okay.
But what we've seen is when we own a space and somebody is turning every single one of those products forward-facing and it always looks full, it's like the image of perfection, and it's always stopped, and we know what's happening, and we're supporting that store in a specific way.
When we lose that element, we don't have full control, and we're not a true partner in the same essence that we are as DST.
So if the store is out of stock, they might have to wait for a delivery.
If there is a promotion, and there isn't any back stock or enough back stock, the delivery is not going to happen until next week, so we might lose sales for that promotion.
So there are so many different pieces where we might lose a sale if we're not in control or touching that product.
And it's okay, it happens.
It's part of our business and part of our industry, but staying on top of that retailer and making sure products are merchandise, or knowing like, hey, we were at a stock last time, what can we do to avoid that next time?
That's all important.
You've done such a great job laying out how direct store delivery can work, even if, again, the plan isn't to do it on a broad scale.
How many accounts now does Cedars have, and how many warehouses and how many trucks about?
So we're in 15,000 doors across the country.
That's just a little over 150 accounts.
We've got 62 warehouses almost in every state and 200 trucks.
I had to write all those down.
That is incredible.
Well, just to recap, and I think really, again, you've done such a good job capturing the essence of why DSD works.
What should brands keep in mind, even if direct store delivery is only an option at the beginning until they turn it over to a broad line distributor or if it's not an option at all?
Relationships are so important.
Knowing what's important to your retailer, understanding what the corporate culture is there and what opportunities they might have for you to participate in to really establish and maintain that relationship.
It's hard to do in our business because a lot of times we are too busy or focused on growth.
But maintaining a partnership and introducing yourself and becoming a face and making sure that those connections are all there, that is so important to brands.
You can go to any grocery store.
There's thousands of brands on shelf.
And there's only maybe 50 workers in the store.
But if your dairy manager or your center store manager knows your name and who you are, they are going to remember you wherever they go.
And that is irreplaceable.
And that is just, that's a thread from those roots of DSD with that relationship building customer service partnership.
Aimee Tsakirellis, EVP of Marketing at Cedars Foods.
Thank you so much.
It's been such a pleasure to watch Cedars grow and achieve national hummus domination.
And it's been such a pleasure to have you on here explaining just how you did it.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call podcast.
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