Kind Laundry

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. This is the podcast to discover stories behind your new favorite CPG brands. Each episode brings you behind the scenes of the brand and founder story, learn what sets them apart in the marketplace, and their strategy going to market. We talk about plans for growth, practical advice for an emerging brand founder, and where to shop products that are making waves in food, beverage, wellness, beauty, and beyond. You'll also hear from industry experts, brand builders, investors, and operators you should absolutely have on your radar if you're building a CPG brand today.

0:44I'm your host, Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist with a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out. Whether you're building a brand of your own or love supporting what's next, you're in the right place. This episode was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands that drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and captures competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients that you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details.

1:27Now, let's dive into the new episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, we're mixing it up. I love to feature CPG brands in food, beverage. I've been adding in more wellness, beauty. Today, we're going into laundry, which could sound kind of boring, but Angie Tran, the co-founder of Kind Laundry, has a really cool, fresh perspective on something that we all need to do. We all need to clean our clothes. So Angie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast to share more of your brand.

2:07Angie Tran:Thank you so much for having me. You're so welcome. Yeah. So let's just jump right into it. What is Kind Laundry? What are you doing different in this space? so as you know um or many people know most laundry products on the shelves today are still dominated by big cpu brands so when we looked at the aisle in the grocery store we just saw an opportunity to kind of make it more fun safe but also enjoyable to do because everyone has to do it versus other aisles like you mentioned beauty or supplements there's it's very saturated there's a lot of different options. So at Kind Laundry, we wanted to create something that was sustainable because unfortunately, the majority of detergents are still in plastic jugs, mostly liquid, even pods consider liquid, but it's just highly concentrated.

3:00Angie Tran:And that's safe for human health, but also for the environment too. People don't really think about the human health aspect in the environment because you don't put it directly on your skin or you ingest it. But after doing a lot of research with chemists and also getting confirmation, most naturopaths did say when people come in with skin conditions, the number one question, at least in the US, they would ask is, have you changed your detergent recently? So we just thought that was interesting. That's super interesting. Okay. So what got you, so you were down the aisle of laundry and had this moment of, okay, there should be some better choices, some cleaner choices.

3:42What was your background while you were walking that aisle, just to give people a perspective of the point of view you're coming from as a co-founder?

3:52Angie Tran:Yeah, so me and my other co-founder, who's also my husband. Love a husband and wife team. Yeah, it's great, but also like, yeah, there's lots of ups and downs for that. That could be a whole other podcast. yes exactly but we do really enjoy doing this together we love it so much but our very first venture together was a healthy fast food franchise company it's called freshie yeah i think they have some locations in the u.s but it's across canada and um it's pretty much like a salad bar so you go in you make fresh food and working in the back at like the back of house you have to like use a lot of plastic bags and you put the vegetables and you have to shake it so there's a lot of like even though it's healthy for you it's not very environmentally friendly and then so from there we started dabbing into like e-commerce and we just traveled to Asia to like look at like different innovative products and we actually had a bunch of websites that sold sustainable kitchen products as well but it wasn't our brand it was just us sourcing and curating a lot of sustainable options.

5:02Angie Tran:Got it. Yeah. So what happened? So you were building your career in e-commerce. Sounds like you were interested in connecting the dots with more sustainable choices, better for you choices. What really led you down the laundry aisle out of all of the different areas that you could have gone down so the great thing about flying to asia because a lot of the things are produced there everyone knows that you get to see really cool innovative products so we came across detergent sheets so we didn't invent it it's want to be clear like clear um if anyone were to look at our website it's like our detergent is made from a different format is and a sheet that dissolves into soap when you put water on it it was actually um started in japan and korea and that part of the world they're so innovative right but there could have been a lot more we would say like the way the packaging could have done was done as well as the formulation could be better so it was like packaging like all these like little plastic packaging when you open it up there's a little plastic tray and a plastic tweezer it's kind of unnecessary and then number two the formulation wasn't the best when we read the reviews so because we're in e-commerce and e-commerce ideally there's a few criterias if anyone were to you know start a brand via online is you kind of want your product to be lightweight because shipping can be very expensive that's a great idea you want to be yeah so that was like a criteria for us when we're looking for like a brand to create and then also the second component was recurring revenue so it's so expensive as you know to get like that one purchase but how do you increase your AOV and like your LTV AOV is average order value so maybe they can buy different scents over time or different types of formulations or LTV scents for like lifetime value so we were trying to find a criteria that hit all three so like oh this could be perfect because everyone in the world does laundry for the rest of their lives um and most people now they buy household products on amazon or online because it's just easier you don't have to think about it it's like auto ship so we took that we spent like maybe close to a year to redesign a packaging um and if you if you saw our packaging is like in craft paper with a tray so it's 100 recyclable um and then number two we had to reformulate the entire thing and make sure that it had high performance as well.

7:34So what was the next steps from there? Because you're based in Canada, you're looking at innovation in Japan and Korea, you also sell in the States. So it sounds like a lot of working parts right from the beginning. Could you break it down of how you started that process of building kind laundry?

7:56Angie Tran:Yeah, so the beginning, we want to make sure we have like product market fit um i think everyone hears about that too yeah so we didn't order a lot we didn't invest too much on innovation yet because we wanted to test it out um so we filmed so we ordered a small like batch like maybe like a thousand units negotiate with a supplier in china so we found a supplier in china that's able to kind of create exactly what we wanted the design the packaging and the the product and we shipped it to canada and from Canada we shipped it to the U.S. because there was a close relationship there so it's easy to before the de minimis was removed it was easy to ship across the border yeah right okay then that's a whole other conversation of how you're navigating which I would love to just touch on in a moment so how did you then start building the brand and getting people aware of kind laundry because laundry could be one of those products that people just pick up, maybe think a little bit about, but not too much about.

8:58How did you get on people's radar of making this better, more sustainable choice?

9:05Angie Tran:It's interesting because we thought in the beginning we had to do a lot of like education. Right. So our very first ad that we did ourselves was filmed in our kitchen. It was just me standing there with two bowls showing how the product worked. So I just take a sheet, dissolve into water, and then just cleaning off like different types of stains. But surprisingly, when we launched that ad, it did very well. People were sharing it. It kind of went viral. And I think it's because it was also during COVID where people were kind of like at home looking for like better swaps. Yeah. Right. So that's an interesting time too to be launching a business.

9:44And it sounds like actually laundry would be a good one because people are at home and just trying to, you know, make everything feel a little bit more interesting. So you did that first ad, showed the difference of your product, got some traction from there. And what did those next steps look like?

10:04Angie Tran:So adding more products. So the second best product was our vegan stain bar. Okay. So because, you know, the Tata Go pens or like any stains, it's very, very chemically, it's very strong. There's a lot of like harmful ingredients in there that could be very harsh for the skin. And because during COVID, I think we believe that a lot of families, like a lot of babies were being born. So a lot of like stay-at-home moms or families are just looking for just safer alternatives for their home. So it's just perfect product. were just introducing at the right time the perfect products for their family.

10:42Angie Tran:And that was our biggest base. Do you, from now getting some traction, still early on, but you've done a lot in a short time. In the years of COVID too, it feels like it was one day, but also like 30 years at the same time. It's a weird chunk of time for us. What do you feel like was resonating the most or what you've found to be resonating the most even to today? Is it the sustainability or sensitive skin market? Is it the fact that it's a vegan, like you said, a vegan stain? Like what do you feel is resonating the most with consumers in the U.S.? That's such a great question because when we started launching, our very first messaging was sustainability.

11:28Angie Tran:And that's what resonated with a lot of people. But as we dug deeper and built our customer list and started serving them, a lot of them. And so we gave them like different reasons why they purchased kind of laundry. And it started so health benefits was actually the number two. And it became number one. Yeah, so just better ingredients because a lot of people are hand washing their baby clothes. Or when they go on vacation, they're hand washing their undergarments and bikinis. So they want something that's going to be long lasting. Also, there's also a trend where like thrifting was also very, it's very popular still too.

12:05Angie Tran:So people are trying to buy higher quality garments and make it last longer as well. That's an interesting connection of buying secondhand or vintage, but nicer quality that will last longer and how your laundry soap can impact that. Correct, yeah. So was that something that you just realized being in the trenches and talking to people that that was coming up? yeah we had like different avatars when we launched i'm like okay it's like the mom the mom or like the family oriented person but then when we dug deeper into customer list we realized we had like other segments so we had like the older 60 plus woman that's like retired but she loves to garden and she's very into like organic clean products and then we also have someone called Ava who is like I would say kind of like you like entrepreneur very tech savvy eco chic like nice aesthetic yes I am honored really nice packaging but also a quality high performance product another thing too Ashley that we know this in our surveys is it needs to be high performance it needs to work it needs to work I would say that for me I love the better for you eco clean but it also still has to have the performance right and it still has to land so was that a big push or motivator of showing like yes it's better for so many reasons but at the end of the day too it's going to really clean your clothes yes exactly yeah because Because when we were looking at the commons, my experience with lawn detergent historically in the past is that even though it's more eco-friendly and safer, it doesn't clean as well.

14:02Angie Tran:Right. But that's why they stay away from the more natural detergents. So we really, really had to reformulate and make sure it had the ingredients that it does today. Because we add enzymes in there to other technology in there over time when we had a bit more resources. Right. To make it actually better. Yeah. As far as messaging content and showing people that it's more high performing, what has been really helpful for you to help people change their perception of what they think, quote unquote, a natural laundry detergent would perform like? We're still testing that right now, especially with ads.

14:44Angie Tran:Right. So depending on the segment that we're trying to go after, we have different messaging for each one um and speaking of messaging so performance is one of them with clean ingredients and sustainability is always going to be a messaging for a certain segment but the last the last one messaging that's doing very well for us is scent oh interesting tell me more okay so people think scent is bad and it's not because we actually work with the biggest fragrance house in the world. They're based in Switzerland, but they have offices all over the world. So we went to their offices to learn more about like fragrance and why fragrances is not necessarily bad for your health.

15:27Angie Tran:It's because cheaper fragrances have chemicals that have phthalates, formaldehyde, all these things that can be potentially harmful for your health. But if you source ingredients properly to a specific standard, it can actually be quite beautiful so we work with them and it's kind of tricky too because our format was so unique is detergent sheet so it's quite new and then we had to figure out how to put high quality scent that's clean into a detergent sheet format and then another thing too is most detergent when you wash the clothes it comes out the scent goes away unless you use tide for instance like a big company it's very strong right overwhelming right so finding that balance so we found a technology is kind of it's called encapsulation that locks in the scent so when you wear your clothes and you make movement it bursts and you can smell the scent so um so we launched our scent boosters and it did very well because not only was is it in sustainable packaging like it's um not plastic but like the beads itself it's only one ingredient which is corn and then we infuse the luxury scents in there so it smells like a luxury hotel in new york when you're walking in you know that musk yes like yes that's like my favorite smell yeah so like that's called woodhaven we have a smell it's inspired by lalabo centel but then we have another one that's inspired by like it's called neroli zen but by joe malone orange blossom so it's more like floral and then we have a classic ocean breeze so that messaging is like doing very very well surprisingly so we're testing so in the future we're gonna have like a lineup of scents.

17:07Angie Tran:You'll probably see on our website when we do launch it. But it's gonna be fun. Noah's doing it right now in the owner format. But like it's gonna be a box that represents each color. It's kind of like a perfume. Oh, that is cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Because we want to make laundry fun. And then you look forward to it, right? So you can just pick and choose your mood for the day. So gorgeous. I love that. And something that you have also touched upon is making it a ritual, making it a self-care, making it feel elevated because usually no one looks forward to doing laundry. So I love how you're integrating the scent and making it feel more of an enjoyable experience and not something that you're like pushing to the end of the day and dreading.

17:57Angie Tran:yeah exactly but at the same time not being guilty about it too because the package is recyclable it's safe for your human like it's human safe and also in the environment so you're washing down these chemicals into the drain like it's not gonna kill the fish in the ocean and stuff yeah which is great we love to hear that um as far as what else you have planned for this year I know the cents are coming out, but also navigating such interesting times, we'll say, of selling to the U.S. from Canada. is there anything that you would suggest to an entrepreneur who's maybe navigating these interesting times or doing something different in a category that hasn't been done yet or needing to basically re-educate people on a use of a product or how a product can be used?

18:54I know that was quite a few different things I threw at you, but you've just touched upon so many great different aspects of building a brand, anything that comes top to mind that you would want to share with an emerging brand founder?

19:08Angie Tran:Yeah, I would say don't wait for the perfect, and it sounds cliche, perfect moment, because when we launched and even like four years into the business, we're constantly testing. So like you just, like before we spent so much time, resources, making sure that the website's perfect, the copy's perfect, like all these packaging is perfect but then we realized that like just launch and continue to survey people and test it out because a lot of the times some of the ads that we launched and messaging that did very well was unexpected and the ones that we thought for sure is going to be like a home run did not do very well interesting yeah be open to adapting and just launching what you have I think that's a great great piece of advice where we could put so much pressure on ourselves and we see all these brands doing amazing things and you're like, okay, I have to do everything at the same time.

20:04But what you're also coming back to is testing, launching, listening, talking to your customers and not just making assumptions, but really taking that time to see what's actually motivating people to buy your product and doubling down from there.

20:24Angie Tran:exactly yeah exactly that's what matters the most so like a lot of our best performing ads and even landing pages are the most not aesthetically nicest but somehow the messaging that we had in there was really resonating with customers because we took the time to like speak to them that and understood them from the core yeah i love that where can people shop kind laundry They can go to www.kindlaundry.com or we're also on Amazon. Amazing. Well, Angie, thank you so much for your time and sharing behind the scenes. I love what you're building and I love your perspective and making laundry sound cool and something that, you know, you would look forward to doing.

21:10I think it's a really interesting take that you're building and bringing to the table.

21:15Angie Tran:Well, thank you so much for having us. You're so welcome. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye. This episode of the Emerging Brands podcast was made possible by our sponsor, Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is a platform that connects everyday small creators with brands to drive user-generated content, build buzz at specific retailers, and capture competitive market share. It's a tool that I recommend to all of my clients and one you should absolutely check out. Head to hummingbirds.com for all the details. If you're new here, hi, I'm Kelly Bennett, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist working with first-time CPG food and beverage founders.

22:02I have a front row seat of what makes an emerging CPG brand stand out because you're not just building a product, you are building a brand. And you want to make sure that is one that consumers love and retailers remember. That's where I come in. I've recently advised brands like Frankly Good Coffee, She's the Sauce, a new non-alcoholic cocktail line that's coming to market soon, and a hormone-conscious deodorant because food-adjacent brands count too. If you are bringing a new product to market, please reach out at withkellybennett.com. Thank you so much for listening and sharing. You can follow me on Instagram at withkellybennett and you can follow the show at Emerging Brands Podcast.

22:50Thank you again and I'll see you on the next episode.