Munchkin

0:00Kristin Pagano:Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42Kristin Pagano:And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I'm really excited because we're going to talk about a brand that's been around for about 35 years, but they are launching a new product line and really expanding on their offering in CPG.

1:39Kristin Pagano:And I'm really excited to hear about the strategy and story behind that. So today I have Kristen Pagano. She is the general manager of infant nutrition at Munchkin. And Kristen, I'm so happy to have you on the show. Thank you.

1:57Kr:It's so nice to be here.

1:58Kristin Pagano:Thank you. So let's first kick off with Munchkin. Like I said, around 35 years in the biz, which is incredible. How did the company first originally get started?

2:12Kr:Yeah, Munchkin was started, as you mentioned, over 35 years ago by a dad, Stephen Dunn, who is still a CEO and founder here, who saw a better way to make infant products for his daughter. So for the past 35 years, we have spent innovating, problem solving and bringing solutions and trust to parents who are looking for ways to make parenting just a little bit easier. And so it's been around and developed over the last decades, really building trust as a foundational point of our brand.

2:44Kristin Pagano:That was something that I saw on your social, your website, and just the community feel around the brand. I got that feeling that trust and having parents trust the products and the community around it was a huge part of what you all have been building and continue to build.

3:04Kr:Absolutely. I think that's really important. And ultimately, your products have to deliver behind that, right? And so we really focused on how do we make a problem or how do we make a product that solves an actual real problem parents have? And I think through our innovation and through ultimately our patents, you've seen what we've done. I think we've got over 350 patents. Every time I talk to someone, I've got to do a little more research on that number because it changes and it grows, but really focused on how innovation drives those products that we built.

3:32Kristin Pagano:Wow, that's a lot of patents. Okay. I'm so curious. So what was the original product line 35 years ago? And what was that evolution like?

3:41Kr:It started with a bottle. Okay. And so we built from there. And I think, you know, today we're in over 12 different categories and always looking at adjacent categories. Where have we built that trust? Where do we have more permission to expand? And where do we ultimately want to grow as a brand? Which I think is one of those categories. Obviously, we've kept our eye on for a long time is infant formula is one of those categories as we built up so much knowledge and depth in infant and toddler feeding. This seemed like a natural place for us to grow.

4:12Kristin Pagano:That's so interesting. And I'm sure that that was one of the harder products to bring to market too. It's not an easy product to create.

4:22Kr:It is not an easy product. I think we have been working on this for over 10 years now. And it's, you know, it started with a lot of, it's a market with a lot of high barriers to entry and rightfully so, right? This is a very important product as the sole source of infant nutrition for a baby. A lot of barriers to entry. But we saw a category 10 years ago that really only had three dominant players, all big pharma. And then there wasn't because there were only three players and such high barriers to entry, not a lot of innovation in the market. So when we looked at somewhere where we could bring innovation, we felt like this was one of those areas and really spent a decade in developing what we believe to be the right product to bring to market.

5:08Kr:Obviously, things have changed in the last few years, but it takes a long time start to finish.

5:13Kristin Pagano:So over the last 10 years, what was like the North Star of what you all wanted to bring to market?

5:19Kr:It was innovation. And, you know, I think, you know, ingredient science had changed over that decade. Right. And wanting to bring what we felt was the closest product to breast milk and really focus on how we could bring more of those ingredients into a formulation. So ultimately, we came out with what we're calling the Nurture 10 Blend, which is 10 shared ingredients with breast milk, really focused on gut health and digestion and how you make that easier and happier for babies.

5:49Kristin Pagano:Interesting. So when you first started that 10 years ago, there was only, like you said, around those three big players. Now, there's many more players, right? But what is helping Munchkin stay innovative and stay ahead of the curve, so to speak, to really earn that new marketplace?

6:12Kr:Yeah, I think our formulation really is differentiated with those key ingredients. And I think we worked really hard on finding what the right manufacturing partner was. And we found our partners in Canada. It's the newest, most state-of-the-art facility in Canada and really focused on how we match our formulation, our factory, our safety and quality knowledge that we have internally and put together that right mix and all of those right pieces. It doesn't come together overnight. Right. But how we put together all those right pieces to bring the right product at the right time to parents in the marketplace.

6:48Kristin Pagano:And what was the engagement like prior to launching the infant formula? Were the parents saying, we love your bottles, we love your other products, but there's still a gap? Like, what did that sound like from your customers?

7:05Kr:absolutely like we were very well uh represented on all different sides of the feeding journey with this one kind of missing piece so what i would say is over 80 percent of moms in this country start breastfeeding by the end of that first year over 80 percent are at least supplementing with formula so you've got companies right now that are either supporting that breastfeeding journey or supporting that formula of feeding journey. When the reality is moms are doing all of that in that first year and no company was out there supporting her on both sides. You know, that journey takes a lot of twists and turns throughout that first year.

7:42Kr:And we are there with products to support them no matter where that journey takes them, which, you know, brought Munchkin with such a unique perspective to the marketplace where we can bring an offering and a full portfolio of products to support her throughout that first year.

7:58Kristin Pagano:That was something that really struck me as well, because you usually see either or either like breastfeeding brands or infant formula brands. But the fact that you all hit all of those marks and think of it as, again, a journey of products, and then it's not an either or. I thought that was really interesting, too. Yes, it's really an and, right?

8:22Kr:Right. It is both. And we talk about it by breast, by bottle, or by both, because that training is what that journey looks like. And having, like I said, those support anchors in all of those categories really helps develop what we're calling a full circle feeding solution.

8:38Kristin Pagano:And I know that you are the general manager of infant nutrition. What does that look like on a day-to-day basis?

8:48Kr:Absolutely. So I'm managing all things infant nutrition for Munchkin. I've actually been with Munchkin nearly 15 years now. Yes, I started my journey on sippy cups a long, long time ago and have grown with the company and had this opportunity to launch this new kind of division within the Munchkin portfolio. So all of the things that are involved in developing the infant formula from product development through quality and safety, all of that is run within the infant nutrition team. It operates kind of as its own little division with a lot of support from the broader Munchkin team.

9:23Kristin Pagano:And can you talk more about the testing and the quality control, especially currently, I know this is a really hot topic for good reason. Can you talk about how you all vet your products, test your products, and just the level of safety that goes into what makes Munchkin, again, a trusted product?

9:47Kr:Absolutely. I think, you know, quality and safety without a doubt is Munchkin's number one priority. We've got some of the most experienced quality and safety people on our teams that have been working on infant formula for, you know, decades to make sure we've got all of those right safeguards in place. You know, as I mentioned, we've got the newest, most state of the art facility in Canada. And so they are our partner in, you know, start to finish on this product. But as materials come in as raw materials, they go through a round of checks, you know, through the development process, still, you know, checks and checks before it goes out the door.

10:23Kr:So it is start to finish tests, you know, chronobacter, C-bot, you name it, testing in every one of those. If it doesn't pass any of those tests, it doesn't get out the door. and so really focused on how do we stay kind of one step ahead in terms of testing, in terms of what we're monitoring for because, you know, as we've talked about as a sole source of infant nutrition, that level of safety and that level of trust is absolutely critical in everything we do. And I think in what you've seen, you know, happening in the industry, those safe, the process is working, right? And they're finding things and they're stopping things and really working to how do we get better?

11:00Kr:How do we keep improving this process? Right.

11:03Kristin Pagano:And something, too, that really stands out with Munchkin is the community. And it is something that really struck me. Super active on social. You all have a podcast. Again, this whole full cycle of products and support. How does that work with just your team or just like the overall Munchkin brand? I would love to hear more of that strategy.

11:29Kr:Yeah, we have a great internal team that does all of our creative building, all of our asset building and all of the production of the podcast as well. So all of that is done internally at Munchkin and have a great brand design team. The goal is to bring content, bring support to moms, to parents, to the market as a brand that has so much knowledge and so much history in the parenting space. And I think we've seen that come through in our Stroller Coaster podcast in amazing ways and helping build that community and help drive that story. And we recently did a three-part formula series that we're really proud of and really excited of that was actually the most downloaded, most listened to series of the entire podcast, which shows that parents are craving this content, right?

12:16Kr:People want to learn more. People are really learning a lot and continue to grow. And I think, you know, fed is best. You hear it everywhere. But, you know, truly believe that and want to provide that support in that community to moms, which is what I think you'll find on our social, you'll find in our podcast and really bringing that support and that love to the parenting community.

12:38Kristin Pagano:So with also the shift in just, well, not even maybe shift, but just the amount of information consumers have access to now versus, say, 35 years ago. I mean, it's night and day, right? with social, podcasts, so many innovations with media. What are you finding that consumers are really wanting to learn more about? Because you said they, you know, the infant formula episodes were the most popular. Are they looking for more of the sourcing or the ingredients, the science behind it? Like, what do you think is really catching people's attention right now?

13:16Kr:Honestly, I think it's some of all of the above, right? They want support. They want to know and have reassurance that the direction they're going is okay, right? But they also really want to understand. And I think because, as you mentioned, the access to more information, want to understand kind of what they're doing, what they're choosing, how they're choosing it. If you think about how infant formula has changed over the last decade, historically, you've had a lot of moms importing formulations from Europe, right? And so they've really tried to figure out, okay, what are those key pieces that they're looking for.

13:51Kr:And so we've got a European blend and are matching European regulations in terms of the amount of DHA and the amount of different ingredients in our product. And how do we kind of merge those in an FDA regulated and improved environment? So really learning from parents as well, right? So it's a two-way street of listening to what they're looking for and seeing how we could bring that to our product as well.

14:13Kristin Pagano:Very cool. And I know that you're now in Target with your infant formula?

14:19Kr:We are chain-wide in Target and on Munchkin.com as well. So really excited to, you know, be able to meet parents where they are.

14:26Kristin Pagano:How did that launch go at Target? What was the strategy behind that?

14:31Kr:So, you know, when you think about infant formula, access to the formula is really important. Right. So having that chain-wide launch and that chain-wide support from Target was really critical to the success of this product. But then also, you know, being able to supplement that on our own site was really a strong way for us to build that channel too, in terms of subscription and in terms of different things that we can offer parents through that site. And in terms of our bringing support from our entire product portfolio as well.

14:59Kristin Pagano:Were you finding that consumers finding you at Target were new to Munchkin or was it people who were already familiar with other products of Munchkin then realizing that now you have an infant formula. Just so curious of, you know, cause it could probably hit two different types of consumers as well.

15:19Kr:Absolutely. And we've seen some of both, right? Obviously the Munchkin brand is very familiar with experienced parents, right? You know, they know us from all of those products, you know, they've got on average over 12 Munchkin products in every household in the U S. So they're very familiar with our brand in general, experienced parents, but it is a, it is a new introduction for some of those new parents and really excited to bring them into that Munchkin family potentially earlier than they would have otherwise to join us with a new product, new innovative product that they really consumed for that full first year.