Kuli Kuli Moringa, Sambazon Acai, Mamma Chia Chia Seeds and Zico Coconut Water all represent superfoods recently pioneered in the US.
Kuli Kuli
Just a few years ago, Americans thought of chia as a “pet” with funky green grass-hair. Açaí used to be a strange purple goop with a name reminiscent of a Japanese beer. Coconut water was a rarity consumed at Thai restaurants. Yerba mate evoked an image of hippies sipping out of carved gourds. Now chia, açaí, coconut water, and yerba mate have created multi-million dollar businesses and become household staples for thousands of Americans.
These food trends didn’t happen by themselves. Behind each new superfood is a passionate entrepreneur and a hardworking team that has convinced millions of Americans to change their buying patterns.
This is no easy feat. I know this firsthand from my own journey with Kuli Kuli as we’ve sought to pioneer the super green moringa. On the eve of our launch into 2,500 Walmart stores, I decided to ask four food pioneers about how they took their products from unknown to $20+ million businesses with distribution around the world. Four key lessons emerged:
Sambazon sampling acai
Sambazon
Free samples!
Few people want to purchase a food product they’ve never tasted. Ryan Black, founder of açaí company Sambazon, says that the number one way to introduce a new superfood is to make it taste good and get it into people’s mouths. “For the first few years of Sambazon, we used to joke that we were a demo company because we did so much sampling,” said Black. Janie Hoffman, founder of Mamma Chia, spoke of how when she launched her company in 2010, less than half of the people she met knew of chia. Like Sambazon, Mamma Chia focused on building awareness through a national sampling program with the intent to “have as many souls as possible experience the magic of chia.”
Focus on Your Core
Though these entrepreneurs wanted to bring their products to as many people as possible, all of them agreed that it is critical to focus on one target customer. Mark Rampolla, the founder of coconut water company ZICO, spoke of how they tested their products with multiple consumer segments before finding their home with hot yoga fans in New York City. ZICO focused so intently on these hot yoga studios that Rampolla believes at one point almost every yogi in NYC had tried ZICO’s coconut water.
Mamma Chia found similar niches among yogis and runners, focusing many of their sampling efforts on yoga festivals and marathons. Chris Mann, co-founder of Guayakí, found that early adopters of yerba mate beverages were the same type of consumers who attended reggae festivals and shopped at small natural food co-ops. Mann’s co-founders spent two years driving across the country in a large van, sampling product at every festival and co-op they could find.
Ryan Black of Sambazon quickly realized that the target customers for açaí were juice and smoothie affectionados. Sambazon focused closely on these juice bars, partnering with frozen berry distributors to get them to bring açaí to their customers. Each of these businesses had many customers they could have pursued. But by honing in on their target consumer, they were able to refine their product and marketing to be successful in the long-term. As Black explains it, “As an entrepreneur, there are going to be lots of different opportunities. Strategy is about the things you say no to.”
An influencer with Mamma Chia’s Chia Squeezes
Mamma Chia
Influence the Influencers
A turning point for Sambazon was when legendary skateboarder Bob Burnquist showcased his açaí bowl making pulp on MTV cribs. Suddenly açaí was the hip item that every millenial wanted. Mamma Chia, ZICO and Guayakí all mentioned influencers as a key part of their marketing strategy. Many of these companies were founded before the rise of Instagram, when reaching out to influencers meant trying to network in Hollywood and mailing samples to the address of any celebrity who might be open to trying their products. Today the game has changed with many food startups focusing their energy on reaching out to Instagram “micro-influencers.” These influencers typically have a strong, loyal following but aren’t large enough to demand huge payments for posts. Clearly, pioneering a superfood isn’t just about finding your core audience. It’s also about finding the people who influence your core consumer and getting them to sing the praises of your product to the world.
Make it Accessible
Yerba mate company Guayakí started out selling yerba mate in loose leaf tea, which is how mate is primarily consumed in South America. However, they quickly discovered that Americans wanted their mate boost in an on-the-go format. Guayakí’s launch of ready-to-drink yerba mate teas had a profound impact on the company, tripling sales almost immediately. Similarly, Mamma Chia found that once Americans learned of the benefits of chia they also sought convenient ways to incorporate chia into their diets. Mamma Chia launched onto the market with ready-to-drink beverages packed with hydrated organic chia seeds suspended in organic fruit juice, enabling shoppers to enjoy chia on-the-go.
Not only is it important to make sure that you have a product that fits American’s convenience-minded lifestyle, it’s also critical to make sure that the product is placed in the right space within the store. ZICO saw a huge uptick in sales when they got their coconut water merchandised in the cooler with other waters, as opposed to sitting on the shelf in the ethnic aisle. It’s not enough to influencer your core consumer to go into the store and look for your product. Your core consumer needs to be able to find your product in the store, and that product has to fit into their busy lifestyle.
Build it for the Long-Run
Starting a food company is not for the faint of heart. Pioneering an entirely new category requires a whole new level of courage. As Mark Rampolla of ZICO put it, “Be ready to spend a decade of your life, to dig deeper than you ever knew was possible, to give until it hurts and then give some more and still, you may not succeed. If you are still willing to go for it, then you’ll be amazed at the impact you can make on the world.”
Dedication in the face of adversity is a prerequisite to starting a new food category — and even that’s not enough. Ryan Black of Sambazon and Chris Mann of Guayakí both advise against taking on too much money in the early days of the business, cautioning that it takes time to build new categories and venture capitalists are notoriously lacking in patience.
Younger brands like mine can learn a lot from these pioneers. Tucker Garrison, the Founder of a new superfood brand called Imlak’esh Organics, says one of his key strategies for getting his business off the ground has been to surround himself with “people who have walked the road I’m trying to walk.” Creating a supply chain from scratch and eliciting behavior change will feel like a lonely road. Kuli Kuli has been lucky to call many of these superfood pioneers mentors and friends.
The world needs more superfood pioneers who aren’t afraid to start something new. There are more than 30,000 edible plants that exist, but the majority of the world’s plant-derived calories come from just three foods: wheat, corn and rice. As our climate changes, our diet must change with it. Creating supply chains based on nutrient-dense, climate-smart, edible plants is imperative to human health and the health of our planet. These changes will be challenging.
At the same time, the shift to new climate-smart crops represent an opportunity to create new supply chains that benefit small farmers in developing economies. One of the things I love the most about these superfood pioneers is that the products they’re pioneering aren’t just trendy, they’re game-changing for our food system.