Every single trend in one can

0:00Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer. I'm Nate. I'm Jenna. And we really need a recorded intro so I don't have to keep doing it. Oh shoot, we really do. Next week, you're not going to hear us in real time in the intro. No, it's going to be even crispier somehow. Somehow. But welcome everyone. Before we start, I want to share with the world that I got the new Dunkin' protein latte. Hot, not cold. And it is far better than the Starbucks one. Why? What makes it better? Taste-wise, I also like Dunkin' better than Starbucks. That's a take. I think you like the coffee better. I like the coffee better.

0:43I like the chill suburbs of Boston vibe about it. You love Ben Affleck. I love Ben Affleck. I feel like I'm really departed when I'm drinking a Dunkin'. Wow, they should really sponsor us. That was a good non-ad read. Seriously. And when you're drinking a Starbucks, you more feel like you're in a simulation. It's just different. Yeah. And Dunkin' just seems humble. America runs on Dunkin'. I don't know. That's a pretty non-humble statement. Also, all of the Dunkins are franchises, which makes me feel better I'm supporting somebody. I had no idea. I literally did not know that. Wow, that's great.

1:25That's why they're all slightly different. How much protein is in it? When did it launch? Because this is new, right? Within the past few weeks, and it's 15 grams of protein. Okay. And in like a latte? I did a latte. I'm pretty sure they're all lattes. It's protein milk. Yeah. Is what it says on the little thing. And I did three pumps of caramel swirl. Of course. Sweetened caramel swirl. The dichotomy of man. Like 30 grams of sugar, but 15 grams of protein. Well, I have to try it still. But yeah, I mean, that's different than Starbucks was the protein foam, but they also have protein milk. It's a little different, which I can't imagine is like texturally very exciting.

2:07Interesting fact about Starbucks starting to include protein in its beverages is that I was talking to a founder recently who has a protein oatmeal brand. and there's whey protein in his product and his suppliers having insane shortages because Starbucks started to include whey isolate in their drinks and Starbucks has a lot of money to get really, really large orders that a small business can't do. And so now he has to source his protein from like the underground protein market. I'm working on a story on it. I just got put in touch with his supplier. I'm very excited. But yeah, once these big guys get their paws on protein, the small protein brands are going to struggle.

2:54It's so surprising that it's like Starbucks that's getting in the way, not some other big protein brand. It's Starbucks. It's Starbucks. But imagine the purchase orders for a Starbucks. Like that's like - Oh my God. I mean, the volumes. Oh my God. Yeah. And they just move so much product, so consistently. I mean, you walk by any Starbucks, even in the city when there's a ton of normal coffee shops, they're packed. Yeah. I'm dying to see some data on how many people have been buying their protein drinks since they've launched. Are there people who have switched their routine latte to a protein latte?

3:27Would be interesting. And now you can like protein max at Starbucks because Cloud launched in Starbucks stores. Cloud. Yes, it did. The protein popcorn. They launched in Starbucks. So that's where all the way it's going cloud and starbucks seriously it's crazy wow yeah you could get a lot of protein in one sitting at your next starbucks visit but on that note we have a lot of protein lunch i can't believe that it's another week i i was telling nate before we started recording that yesterday a friend asked me what i was writing about this week in the newsletter and i was like oh protein launches which like what did i write about last week protein launches week before protein launches.

4:08There's always going to be more. This week was a little fun. We had a little bit of spice, I would say. Biggest spice being that Beyond Meat launched a protein drink called Beyond Immerse. Beyond's new protein drink comes in three different flavors. Each flavor has two different options of 10 grams of protein versus 20 grams of protein. So you could choose. And it's plant-based protein, it better be because it's a plant-based company. Be wild if they were like, yeah, we're doing whey. We're doing whey. Yeah. It also features other hyped ingredients. So there's antioxidants, there's fiber in it, there's electrolytes.

4:52So they're like, what can we put in this beverage that makes Beyond relevant again? And people were mixed, I would say, on the launch. Yeah. Very mixed. I would very much like to try it. I think a lot of people are a little bit confused with it and not really sure what's going on. A lot of the discourse was all around just like the fact that, okay, Beyond is just trying to like, they're grasping at straws here. They're like doing their best to stay relevant. But arguably, like they did make a, this is a trendy, an on-trend product that if it tastes good, it's like, okay, you got 10 or 20 grams of protein.

5:35you got a bunch of fiber you got low sugar you got hydration maybe it turns out to be good yeah i think if it like i wish they launched it under a different name yeah i think what's really putting people off is seeing the beyond logo which they now associate and fake meat not just with fake meat like beyond worked so hard to make consumers be like this is the closest fake meat to real meat. And so I have this very visceral, like beyond equals very meaty fake meat, not like plant forward, which I think you could kind of get around a little more easily if you're innovating outside of meat, but they were like, we want you to think of meat when you think of beyond.

6:16And now there's a beverage. It's really hard to dissociate that flavor profile that kind of comes to mind, which you don't want in a beverage. No. And I got a comment on one of my videos was like, is this made from processed fake meat? Like what is, what is the base of it? So I think you're spot on that people are like, whoa, wait, is it a, is it a fake meat shake? What is this here? I think people are a little confused. And also just like, I think there's just a bad taste in consumers' mouths from, from that brand. It raised so much money. It was everywhere. And then it kind And it just fell off.

6:54Yeah. Yeah. I think if they had launched under a different name, it would have done a lot better. But what's actually interesting to me beyond the product level here is it launched on something called Beyond Test Kitchen. It's only on Beyond Test Kitchen's e-commerce site. That's the only place you can buy it. The fact that that site exists and this is an innovation that's being sold on it makes me think that they're going to be doing a lot more innovation in the plant-based protein product space, whatever that might mean. Probably not a lot more meat alternatives. Probably going to be more playing in, I would guess, beverages, snacks, supplements even maybe.

7:28And I am excited to watch what they do. Because one thing that's cool about it is they do have – this product features a clear plant protein, which so does another product that we'll talk about this week. But the fact that that was achieved is a really huge feat. It's not easy to make a clear plant protein. which is, as we mentioned in last week's episode, like the most filtered version of protein. So it's really just protein. Like there's no, none of the fat or carbs or whatever that usually comes with some of these protein supplements. But yeah, I think if they could just launch even a powder, that was like their clear pea protein and cool flavors or whatever.

8:10And maybe with a different logo that doesn't have a cow in it because that isn't really resonating. They could do well, is my point. And I'm excited to see the future of how these plant-based meat alternative companies pivots. Right. Because they have money, they have scientists and facilities and distribution. They could pivot to maybe just the beyond company and it's all plant-based alternative ingredients, innovation. Like they could really like lean into them, their tech and their ability to make really solid plant-based foods and final product and drinks in this case. Oh, and quite literally be beyond meat.

8:53Like move beyond meat. Like lean into the name, although I do think they should use a different name. They should just go with the beyond company. I think that's a bit more. I want to see some sales data, though, if they do get some meaningful sales. Hopefully they do. Public company. Yes. I want to see on the 10 gram versus 20 gram skews of the beverage because I think it's really cool that they launched in two different protein amounts. But we are in such a protein maxing culture right now. I actually can't really imagine someone reaching for the 10 gram when 20 is an option. And I'd love to see some data on how that performs.

9:35Yeah, me too. Well, hopefully it'll be in their public company filings and we'll know exactly what's going on. That would be fascinating. Another, of course, protein beverage that launched, and this one really covers every damn trend except maybe electrolytes. Koya, plant-based protein company, they launched a prebiotic protein pop soda. Pop being soda, yeah. Pop being soda. I call it soda. Other people call it pop. I get it. But this one has 10 grams of protein. It's got a bunch of fiber in it from chicory root fiber. It comes in four different flavors. This is not what I was expecting from Koya.

10:17It feels like a little late to the game to launch another prebiotic soda. Yeah, but not a prebiotic protein soda. Sorry, excuse me, a prebiotic protein soda. I'm very curious to try this one, especially the Rocket Pop flavor. I just love that kind of flavor. and I love a rocket pop. It's not, was not on my radar for them whatsoever. No. Yeah, so Koya's known for their just ready to drink protein shakes, which are more like a milkshake vibe, and definitely didn't expect them to launch a prebiotic soda. Them pairing, though, the prebiotic soda with the protein soda trend is interesting. I do think it's like trend maxing, for lack of a better term.

11:01It's like they literally were like, how do I put every trend in one can? but I don't know anyone else who's done that yet. So it is kind of interesting on a biological level. I'm like confused how it works. I'm like, how does your body process the prebiotic fiber? Your body's so confused. Yeah. What's going on? Yeah. Your body's, I don't know how that all goes down. And if they just kind of all cancel each other out in some way, but love seeing fiber paired with protein. That's something that we'll be seeing a lot more of this year. So that's exciting. The thing that's interesting about this launch to me was it's sold exclusively on TikTok shop.

11:43Koya has national distribution in major retailers. And I feel like that is just showing that this is seen as a more like experimental line extension of we'll see how it performs in the Mecca of trends, which is TikTok. because this is the kind of thing that someone probably could sell me on TikTok. But it has to communicate so much because it has so many things in it on shelf that it actually would probably struggle to launch on shelf. Yeah, they must have thought about that because they've been in the market for so long. They're very successful. Those protein shakes are everywhere and they have so many different SKUs.

12:25They command a lot of shelf space. So like to your point, they could have easily put this on shelves. I'm sure retailers would have been like, sure, yeah, that sounds great. But I think, yeah, the education piece is a really good point that it's probably easier to get across and get someone to just be like, sure, I'll just buy a case of this on TikTok shop. No problem. I get a 30 % off discount, whatever it is. Because they didn't do a lot of promotion for this. Kind of an interesting launch. So we'll see how they do. And then there was another protein drink launch this week. Another can also.

12:58From your favorite content creators. Oh, yes. So Prime, which is a brand created by, is it both of the Pauls? No, so it's Logan Paul and YouTuber KSI. Jake Paul has a body care company called W or Dubya. Obviously. If you remember him. Sure. Two content creators that are somewhat controversial and have gotten in a little bit of trouble in the past for this brand, Prime, which was marketing energy drinks to kids, essentially. that are really high caffeine content. They just launched a ready-to-drink lactose-free ultra-filtered protein shake. And you're probably having deja vu because two weeks ago, there was a slew of ultra-filtered protein drink launches.

13:47Now there's another one. It's, again, surprising it took them so long to launch a protein skew because, I mean, they've dominated in energy and hydration for a few years now, I would say. Only a matter of time they got in the protein game and followed every other beverage company suit. And it does make sense that to me that they launched something in a can that's closer to like a chocolate milk because they are reaching a younger audience. And I think something that feels really like fun and young would do well with their audience as opposed to a premier protein competitor, you know? Right, yeah.

14:26I mean, the brand, like, despite them having done well historically, they also have been declining in the past few years. So this does feel like another potential cry for help. Yeah, I mean, this could do a lot better than their hydration, potentially. Like, it's all fitness. They're all fighters, and they're jacked and protein-aligned with this stuff. I don't know. I'm not really the target demo. I would like to try it. I'll pick up a can if I can. A lot of protein news. There'll be protein news next week. There'll be protein news every day of the year. Kill me.

15:06We love protein. So much protein. Let's get a little bit away from protein. Let's also talk about the retailer where some of these brands end up. Target. Target, if you will. If you will. I don't know if people are still saying Target, but Target has become a real destination for emerging and specifically digitally native brands. Yes. Yeah. Huge place. This past week, we saw a few launches. ButcherBox, this is their first ever retailer. they're a direct-to-consumer meat subscription box which love they're incredibly successful business online and they just launched their own packaged meats in targets and this is part of the target wellness expansion that we talked about last week as well and yeah this is their first retailer ever yeah and we had two other target launches this week from direct to consumer first brands so this is again their first retailer ever rise mushroom coffee and then we also had not in every target location but in 70 stores in the midwest factors chef prepared meals pre-prepared ready to heat meals factor is another meal subscription company that now their meals are available at target stores in the midwest and so we're seeing this trend obviously factor and butcher box fit into the same i was gonna say box again but i'm gonna say it anyway fit into the same box of subscription-based, more meal-oriented, digital-first companies.

16:59And then Rise is also a subscription-based company, a little different, it's not a meal. But these companies that really thrived from being part of consumers' day-to-day routine in some way, and a lot of their value, it seemed like, came from the fact that they ship these products to your door. Now they are being launched in Target. And so we were kind of curious, first of all, like why, why Target? Why is Target the destination for so many of these brands to be the very first place that they launch in retail? And also how do they communicate value or stand out for the first time in retail when they've only been an online brand?

17:39There's a lot there. Yeah. There's a ton there. And it's like, I mean, Target has always been, I think from a consumer side, a destination for exploration. like yes you often go without a list you kind of just want to see what's there because like target all of a sudden we can we'll dive into this we dive into this more in the newsletter but all of a sudden like target was this destination for newness and excitement and fun upscaled brands and even you know target has sort of stumbled over the past few years they've had their own struggles, but it's still this great place for newer, emerging, and then to our point earlier, digitally native brands to launch because the consumers also expect it and they're willing to discover it.

18:27And I think you can go into this a little bit more is Target is the retailer is very open to working with the brands to showcase this newness and put it in front of people where where it's a little bit less chaotic and consumers can actually find these things and look at them and hold them. In a typical retailer, it's so easy to get lost on the shelf in a launch. And there are a lot of ways that you can avoid that. There's something called shopper marketing, which can entail so many different things. I think one of the most visually familiar elements of shopper marketing to consumers is what's called an end cap, which is when you're going through the aisles of a store.

19:07It's the thing, the end of an aisle. Sometimes there's a display for just one brand. Oftentimes in a traditional grocery store, that's the store's private label with some seasonal special might be in an end cap. But in a store like Target, they do a really, really good job of having branded end caps for their new brand launches that aren't just like, these are the products, but do really great storytelling. And so that is very conducive to a digital first brand launching because one of the biggest challenges that a digital first brand faces when they enter retail is they lose so much of that real estate that they had on their websites where they could explain like, what is this product?

19:52How does it benefit me? And if they're only relying on what can be on pack, so like on the actual packaging of the product, they often miss out on a lot of opportunities to educate consumers. And so something like an end cap, there's usually a lot more room for information about the brand so consumers can understand why they should be picking it up. So that's a big piece of it. That's also just visually compelling and people are like, oh, what's this new thing? And to your point, exactly. People enter Target, not just without a list, but truly in that mindset of I'm just kind of like stroll around and let Target tell me what I'm getting today.

20:25Yeah. It's kind of like an excursion. And it's been that way for years. I think they've really solidified their place as that destination for consumers, partly by having so many new brands all the time. So it's kind of like a chicken or egg thing. Like, yes, consumers are more willing to buy new cool products at Target because they go in with this mindset. But also that mindset is developed because there are always cool new products to discover at Target. There's a lot of exclusive launches too, which the brand does a lot of work to also get somebody into the store to go find that product that has just launched.

21:01Like Bronco is a good example. They just launched. They're doing a lot of marketing. They're driving a lot of traffic into the store that obviously Target is supporting them, but they're also supporting Target. It's a very mutually beneficial arrangement. And I think the other side alongside the merchandising note is that Target stores are also nicer. Like they're lit pretty well. They're very clean. They're organized in a pretty nice and succinct way. The aisles are pretty large. Like you can browse, you can discover, you can find the fun thing. And also Target also does a really good job at building their own in-house brands that make you kind of want to go and stay as well.

21:43Which will of course make you look at the other brands, not just the cheaper but still beautiful private label brands. But yeah, the stores are designed for discovery and designed for lingering. It's like a little warmer. They have Starbucks inside. They're a nice destination. You kind of want to go and explore. And there's nothing better. There is nothing better than a brand spanking new Target. I mean, they also benefit too from it not just being a grocery store. Because again, people go in knowing they're going to find things that are not on their list. Even if you are a list person, you are open to seeing all of the other things because there are so many different categories within one store.

22:24And obviously there are other stores that do that also. But I think where Target stands out – so Walmart is another example of a store that also does that. They have a ton of scale as well. They're literally everywhere. But they are still working their way out of being seen as the value option. The store experience isn't necessarily as pleasant and people just associate it with value options, with more inexpensive options. Target has maintained this affordable but still like culturally legitimate sense. It feels like Target has good taste. And I think Walmart doesn't have that. But at the same time, on the total other end of that, Sephora, for example, is like too prestigious.

23:11and again Target somewhere in the middle so it makes sense they would do so well with these digitally native brands and it's exciting to see I think the one I was most interested in seeing launch was ButcherBox because Factor Daily Harvest already launched in Target and like we've kind of seen something like Factor play out yeah Rise Mushroom Coffee like we've seen mushroom coffees play out that didn't feel as surprising to me ButcherBox the whole reason that they've taken off is because they offer really high quality meat products delivered to your door. And that delivered to your door piece is, again, a huge value offering.

23:51And so how are they communicating? We still have this huge value proposition of being high quality meat, even if we're not shipping it to your door, I think is something I'm curious about. Yeah. I'm curious to see how it's going to play out and how consumers go to it. At the same time, I think maybe the value of we're shipping it to your door isn't there anymore, but there's a new value of you don't have to subscribe to try this subscription product that everybody's been talking about. So they've gained all this name recognition and there might be people who are like, oh, I've heard of ButcherBox, but I don't feel like doing a meal subscription.

24:27Well, now there's a lower barrier to entry because you can just go to Target and pick up one ButcherBox product. And I talked to Eleanor, who's the founder of Verity, which is a shopper marketing agency who helped with the ButcherBox launch. And she had also in 2021 actually launched Magic Spoon into Target as their first retailer. Magic Spoon used to be a D2C-only high-protein cereal company. And she was saying one of the things that was selling the product to customers at Target was that they didn't have to buy six boxes. They could just buy one. And that was the first time that you could just buy one of this digital native product.

25:05So I think that's really where the value comes in. And I don't know. It's just really interesting to think about. And I think there's two things here. Like one, a lot of the digitally native products, they tend to be newer, emerging, exciting brands. They might be a little bit more expensive, like a magic spoon, for example. And to your point, like, yeah, I don't want to spend 90 odd dollars on four boxes of cereal. So I'll overspend on one, but I want the one. I don't want to spend it on all of this. And Target 2 is really starting to lean a lot more into grocery as well and taking a lot of the learnings about how to spruce up the beauty and skincare section, the home goods section, bring that into the grocery world too and just have this like 360 view of anything you need all in one.

25:58And like, I think ButcherBox and Little Spoon and even a lot of the other like snack brands and ingredient brands that we're seeing launch and go to Target and launch and go to Target exclusively is very clearly part of their strategy to make sure that all of the aisles are to Target's standards of quality. Yes, 100%. And all of these aisles are talking to each other. it's no isle is a second no isle is a second thought and i feel like in a traditional grocery store there are some isles that are second thoughts the oh i can care and beauty sides of like just going to a regular local grocery store it's like sure you have it but it's like you have poorly merchandise and it's exactly and i think what target does well is no isle has a is a second thought to them yeah that's a really good way to put my brain's like no aisle left

26:56oh boy anyway well beautiful target love her love to not love her sometimes yeah she's yeah contentious figure if i talk about target on my tiktok i get a lot of comments being like we don't shop at target anymore and i'm like you know what okay fair fair vote with your dollar Go with your dollar. It is. And you can always support these brands on their own websites because they literally are all D to C first brands, it feels like. Anyway, we have some more news. We do. I was going to be like, now on to Innovation That Excites.

27:38Let's go with that. Well, okay, the first one being, like, a bit facetious of innovation that excites. Because Cheez-It's just launched a gluten-free version. And we're not going to spend much time on this because how has that not existed? Like, I feel like I'm reporting live from 2016. Like, how did this sit so long? No, it's insane that it took them this long. And people are loving them. The videos I've seen, people are like, this is great. Good. People who are gluten-free deserve good food. And they deserve Cheez-It's. specifically yeah i really want to try the the the like overly baked ones the burnt ones so good okay so good because i totally was the person that was like i always was searching through the box for the one that was the most burnt and then they made a whole box of them the fact that they came out with that before they came out with gluten-free like that's a nice to have this is like a need to have i'm not really sure who was decision making here at mars which also put this and put this in the newsletter mars literally is a 65 billion dollar business and they just made this huge splash of like we have gluten-free cheese it's now like yeah i could have done that a while ago so that's innovation that excites innovation that actually is exciting to me right now though is food berry's new partnership with bell group so bell group is the people behind baby bell Those little cheeses we all know and love.

29:05Oh, love them. Oh, they're incredible. And Go Go Squeeze is also owned by the Bell Group. So the applesauce pouches. Foodberry is a platform company that turns real fruit puree and actually just produce. Generally, they're working on a few other options into coatings that can actually wrap around other food products so that it's like a no-mess bite-sized snack. So for instance, it would be like strawberry fruit puree that is wrapped around peanut butter. And it would be like a peanut butter and jelly bite. This actually exists. They have a product in-house called Trailberries that isn't really distributed.