Snoop Dogg’s Ice Cream? Here’s the Strategy

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1:29Sam Rockwell:Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. When I met Snoop for the first time, it was where Cordell is right now. There had to be, what, Cordell? 30 people gathered around. and it's us talking about this concept, this brand, this idea. And I said, that's great, but you're one of the most famous people in the world and you're going to be busy. Am I going to have to work with these 30 people or am I working with you? Running a business means solving problems.

2:04Sam Rockwell:I tell you how the smartest entrepreneurs do it. Hi, I'm Jason Pfeiffer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, and this is Problem Solvers.

2:15Sam Rockwell:A few years ago, I had this fascinating conversation with a CEO who had paired up to build a brand with an international celebrity. I will not mention this person's name. And he said, you know, when they first got going and they were trying to raise money, it seemed amazing because every investor wanted to take the meeting with the CEO and, of course, the celebrity. But then they discovered that there's a downside to working with a major celebrity. And that downside is that everyone will take the meeting, even if they're not actually very serious about the company. And so they wasted tons and tons of time with all these meetings with people who were not actually interested.

2:52Sam Rockwell:And they had to figure out how in some way to get past the appeal of the celebrity in order to find the right partners. And then that kind of translated throughout the entire journey of the business. And ever since, I've just had this thing in my head about how interesting it is to have one of the greatest assets available to any entrepreneur who does not want a known face, a person that everybody knows and trusts attached to your brand. But also, that doesn't mean that it suddenly becomes easy street, that every business problem is solved, that everything is just laid out before you. You still have to execute great strategy and great strategy as it applies to utilizing that personality.

3:36Sam Rockwell:So today I want to talk to two people who are doing that live with one of the world's most beloved personalities that I am going to name because I've got two guys who are working with them right now. So today I am talking to Sam Rockwell, CEO of Dr. Bombay, which is Snoop Dogg's ice cream brand, alongside his co-founder, Cordell Broadus, who is also Snoop's son, and speaking to us from The Mothership, which is one of Snoop's recording rooms, or you can explain it better than me, but I can see it and it looks really cool. Well, anyway, guys, I am so excited to talk to you about Dr. Bombay. Been in market for three years, available at Walmart, 7-Eleven, and I know more to be announced soon about what you've been doing, what you're learning, and how to build a brand with a personality, especially someone as large as Snoop.

4:23Sam Rockwell:Sam Cordell, welcome to Problem Solvers. Great to be here. Thanks for having us, Jason. So guys, why don't you take me to the beginning of this, and then we'll dig into the strategy and things that you've learned over the past three years. But Sam Cordell, how did this all get started? Yeah, let me just start off with, you know, this isn't just Snoop slapping his name on a product.

4:45Cordell Broadus:This is something that actually started before Snoop. Our great-grandfather in Mississippi, he owned a dairy farm. So growing up, we would hear all these stories about how the family was in ice cream. And my grandfather used to milk the cows early in the morning before he would go do lawn care. In the South, in the 50s at the time, that was unheard of. So fast forward to 2021, we ran across an IP, which was a Bored Ape NFT. And when I purchased the NFT, I was like, this kind of looks similar to Rainbow Sherbert, which is me and my father's favorite flavor. And at the time, we were getting an approach to do food and beverage, but all the ideas weren't really sticking.

5:30Cordell Broadus:So I sat down with my dad and I was like, let's just start an ice cream brand. That's something that me and you've been bonding over for years. After football practice, we would go to the ice cream shop, me, him, and my brother, and we would eat rainbow sherbet. And just remembering that and all the nostalgic memories that come with the ice cream man in the city of Long Beach, L.A., and just how it was so aligned with the culture. It just felt like something that we should do.

5:56Sam Rockwell:And my side of this story and equation was that I've been in the consumer product space for over 16 years. I'm not a rocket scientist, I'm not a doctor, I'm a consumer. And so that's what drew me into the space. And as we got more involved in the space and started to build our infrastructure, we're up against some behemoths, big, old and dusty companies, but strong companies. And our thesis has been that there's white space ripe for disruption in a lot of these legacy categories, Ice cream being one of them. 95 % of the ice cream space is chocolate, vanilla, caramel, or cookie dough. There hasn't been a lot of innovation and thought behind how do we mix flavors, mix textures, bring some excitement into the space.

6:45Sam Rockwell:And there's a lot of hesitation because most of the space is controlled by two to three big legacy players who we don't need to name them. We know them. And they own 90 % of the brands. And so as we built out our infrastructure and got more opportunities and seats at the table with the largest retailers in the world, they would look to us for disruption and innovation and newness and recruiting new customers. the challenge in that is that the big boys will go out and pay for a billboard in times square or have an arena named after themselves as an emerging company and brand we're scrappy we're we're able to adapt to the environment we're partnership oriented and we're innovative but we don't have the wallet that these big guys have and so what we have is the ability to identify the right partners, to build things the right way, to do things differently.

7:41Sam Rockwell:And recognizing that finding the right partner, as Jason, you kind of teed up as a start, is critical in terms of reach and authenticity and voice. But if you find the right partner and you structure the right way, everybody can come together, I think, to not only tell the world about a brand, but to deliver on a product that's truly disruptive and different. But in that thesis, through mutual connections and network, I met Cordell and his dad. And the thing that struck me first about them is that they're business minded and business oriented. This wasn't an I, me show. This was a we, let's partner together show.

8:23Sam Rockwell:And that was the foundational piece of this partnership. And I think why we're here talking to you at year three about growth versus, hey, that was a fun run we had. Yeah. You know, Sam, I want to pick up on what you just said there. Being mindful of the very first thing, Cordell, that you said, which was this isn't just Snoop slapping his name and face on something. I assume that the reason you say that is because you've come to learn that that's what the marketplace often assumes about celebrity-associated brands, because there's so much of it out there, right? And so you want to tell the authentic story.

9:05Sam Rockwell:You want to show that this really comes from you. And then I assume that you have to figure out how to constantly communicate that in the marketplace, right? Because otherwise, the second that you're not making the case that this is not just some other thing that Snoop has put his face on is the second that the consumer maybe takes a extra half a second look at it because they recognize his face, which is right there on the carton and it's fun, but also just thinks like, ah, whatever, like he doesn't, he surely doesn't care about that. So how do you, how do you number one, identify the partner and the opportunity that you feel like really can travel in the marketplace?

9:47Sam Rockwell:And then number two, how do you tell that story in a way in which the consumer actually believes is authentic? Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready. Because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition, 100 % whole grain oats, and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious fuel to start whatever's next quaker official sponsor of fifa world cup 26

10:25Cordell Broadus:um for us it was really just like i said what fit like a glove we didn't want no extra space and ice cream was just something that my father knows very well um if i was to go in his back room right now you would see all our competitors in his freezer and we call that market research yeah we call that market research but that's just how he he's always thought like that even when i was a kid i remember before school i would see a bunch of leftover snacks the night before and the entrepreneurial in me i would put them in my backpack and sell them at school so like it just felt like something that was like natural and authentic so when when we had the chance to really turn this IP of this Bored Ape into an ice cream brand.

11:13Cordell Broadus:It just felt like the right thing to do. And then obviously partnering with Happy Foodie who can really deliver on the operational side. That's another thing. Being a celebrity and having the reach is one thing, but you got to have the right operators who could deliver with your credibility.

11:30Sam Rockwell:So Happy Co. is a company that I started 16 years ago. And as I've referenced in that journey, we've developed a number of consumer goods in primarily in the frozen section within a grocery store, club store, convenience store, but also outside with ambient consumer products, products as well. In that journey, though, as I mentioned earlier, you start to recognize who you're playing ball against. And so infrastructure is one thing, reach, accessibility, brand voice, and authenticity are a whole nother. And that's where Happy learned and realized the ways to not only penetrate the market, but to expand a particular market or to reach a new consumer is to partner with somebody like Snoop and Cordell.

12:19Sam Rockwell:And I think a big lesson in that too is, as you've again pointed out, it's not just partnering with Snoop and Cordell because they have reached. It's about defining what a brand stands for, to really infiltrate into culture, to have stickiness, to be here in a hundred years from now. When Snoop, Cordell, and Sam are, those were great founders of the brand, but the brand lives on. And that's kind of been a driving force and a conversation that we've had every time we meet, every time we talk, is how does this stick? How do we make this a better experience for the customer, not just today, but also for tomorrow?

13:00Sam Rockwell:How does Snoop use what his superpower is to get people to know about this brand, to try this brand? But then how do we use unique flavors, the right availability from a store distribution standpoint, the right cost to get people to want to come back, not just one and done. Right. Examples, because we haven't given any, you've got a blueberry muffin ice cream, you've got peanut butter jelly time, which for a certain age of internet user immediately conjures peanut butter jelly time. That's just what I thought as soon as I saw it. So yeah, you've got a really interesting combination of flavors there.

13:39Sam Rockwell:And I hear you on leaning into this. Let me throw a devil's advocate argument at you, which is you look at the marketplace and it's whatever the number was that you just gave me, it's primarily the basics, the standards, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. And, you know, that's not exactly for lack of trying. There are lots of brands out there who bring all sorts of wild things to market and either struggle to get traction or it just becomes a nice regional attraction. And maybe, maybe somebody might say, hey, that's the market speaking. The market primarily wants plain ice creams. And if you get too crazy outside of Ben and Jerry's, who has happened to pull it off, you're just going to reach a cap in market interest.

14:25Sam Rockwell:What do you say to that? I would say that when it comes to vanilla ice cream, nobody's going to dethrone vanilla ice cream. But there's 50 different offerings when you go into a store for vanilla ice cream. And so how do we create something that is different, yet understood and approachable in a form that people haven't seen? So peanut butter and jelly, as an example, is something that most all consumers understand conceptually, but have not seen in the form of being a frozen dessert. And so how do we bring, again, that approachability to a category that is ripe for newness? Why? Not taking anything away from vanilla.

15:06Sam Rockwell:But we're trying to grow share, not steal share. We want to be incremental to the basket. And I think that's a value that we can not only add to a consumer, but to a retailer, too, who's trying to reach new people, who's trying to add to the basket of, you know, an average purchase cycle. Cordell, I'm curious how you and Snoop think about utilizing him to promote the brand, knowing that he's associated with so many other brands. I mean, I've seen Snoop in all sorts of commercials for all sorts of things. And I know that he didn't create all of them, but he's still associated with them. So how do you think about how to engage his fan base with something that is authentic to him, but knowing that he's out there pitching a lot of stuff and therefore you also don't want to overwhelm the consumer?

16:01Sam Rockwell:You don't want to turn him into just an endless pitch man. How do you think about that?

16:05Cordell Broadus:you know and that's a uphill battle for us because he's so just all over the place and you know we took it upon ourselves to wait three years to put him on the packaging we wanted to get brand credibility on his own wanted dr bombay to be his own name obviously we're still growing and getting awareness up but we didn't just put snoop on the package in the first round like it took us three years to really think about this and understand who we are as a brand so we can accommodate his reach and his popularity around the world. And it just felt like the right time. It was like a culture shift within the company.

16:45Cordell Broadus:And we just wanted to kind of like revamp everything. We wanted to focus more on Fruit Forward flavors. We wanted to focus on putting Snoop on the packaging. And we got a couple other little gems that we're doing where we can really differentiate ourselves and stand out as a hip hop ice cream brand. And when I say that, I mean, like, we want to target the nostalgic community. We want to target those hip-hop fans. That's Snoop's core audience. So just pulling from that, I think, is more authentic than us just saying it's ice cream for everybody. It's obviously for everybody, but we want to go after that core demographic of Snoop's fan base.

17:23Cordell Broadus:And even beyond that, it's not just America, which is why we strategically launched in Europe, which is why we're looking at other markets, because Snoop is bigger outside of America than he is there. And we have the data to prove that. Yeah.

17:38Sam Rockwell:And I think to add to the points that Cordell is making is that Snoop is not only the co-founder, but the curator of this brand, which is a big difference between him smiling and saying cheese and, you know, just using his NIL. This is truly a product of his brain, of his creativity. You know, this makes me curious about something with the positioning of Snoop. If we can just take one step away from ice cream for just a second, because I'm curious for the answer. I can't remember what was happening. We might've seen Snoop on TV somewhere. And I started talking to my wife about this and I said, you know, Snoop occupies this really interesting, almost completely unique space in American culture right now, where he is widely beloved across category far transcends where he originally came, right?

18:32Sam Rockwell:Like you don't have to be a hip hop fan to know who Snoop is and feel good about him. And I really can't think of other players in American culture right now that are doing that across demo. And I just, maybe Cordell, you'd probably have the answer here, but like Cordell, was that a conscious thing? Did you and Snoop talk about almost positioning of him as a just beloved all demo person and and or did that

19:05Cordell Broadus:just kind of naturally evolve I think it it starts even before I was born you know I'm born in 1997 he was already in the industry for about five years so just my whole upbringing just seeing the fans at his shows and seeing that it was kids, it was grandparents, it was all types of ethnicities. I just always was like, man, why do everybody love you so much? And then just over time, you just see he's kind of like the Black Forrest Gump. He's been in all these different rooms along all these memorable people. And it's kind of crazy to see his journey starting in hip pop to now the Olympics and The Voice and all these places.

19:49Cordell Broadus:And it's like, I think he sucked himself, like how far he's came. And obviously as a kid, you want to dream big. But I think it's just truly him being himself. Like he's not doing things where he's like pretending everything you see him on. He's truly himself, whether it's a Corona commercial, whether it's with us at the ice cream convention centers and meetings and whatnot, or just being a sports fan watching the Olympics, he's truly himself. So, you know, I can't take credit for it. And I know, you know, the way he thinks it's kind of like mind blowing to see how far he's taken his career.

20:28Sam Rockwell:As you're talking, I'm just trying to think, and I'll just spit this out to see how it resonates with either of you. But hearing your answer, Cordell gave me this little formula that I'm just going to run by you, which is, the word I'm looking for is more specific than authentic, because that's such a bandied about word, but let's just go with it. Distinctive, he comes and he embodies a distinct culture and talent, and he never strays from that. He never isn't Snoop. There are a lot of people who are known for being extremely good at the thing they do, but they also seem deeply unapproachable.

21:06Sam Rockwell:And there's something about the combination Maybe it's the way in which he's like playful and funny. He seems to be able to be lighthearted about himself while also taking his like roots and talents very seriously. There's a really interesting combination that's very hard to replicate. I don't know. How does that resonate with either?

21:25Cordell Broadus:I think that's you hit it on the head. And especially you got to give credit to, you know, his upbringing. Him growing up in a city like Long Beach, California, which is a melting pot. He grew up around all these different ethnicities. He grew up around all these different walks of life. So he knows how to just blend in with anybody. And I've seen him go up to people and introduce himself. You know, he's very humble when it comes to people he look up to and, you know, people he idolize. It's not like a, you know, I'm better than you type of vibe. It's always been, I'm a student. You know, he's very curious about just life in general.

22:01Cordell Broadus:And I've seen him be a student and very open with just all all walks of life, whether it's sports, food and beverage, entertainment, you know, he just truly himself.

22:15Sam Rockwell:Yeah. Yeah. And I would also add to that is that he doesn't get involved in things that he doesn't believe in. And he's involved. And I think this goes back to the the origin of this brand in this company. When I met Snoop for the first time, it was where Cordell is right now in his studio. Cordell. And there was, there had to be what Cordell, 30 people gathered around. And it's us talking about this concept, this brand, this idea. And I said, that's great, but you're one of the most famous people in the world and you're going to be busy. You're going to be busy. And am I going to have to work with these 30 people or am I working with you?

23:01Sam Rockwell:And I said, what do you mean? I said, do you call the shots? Good on you, by the way, for asking that question in front of these 30 people i want to i want to make sure we're in a place to be successful and honestly if the answer was yeah these are the people you're going to talk to for this for that for the other thing as much as i respect snoop and i'm a fan of snoop i would have maintained my status as a fan not as a partner he looked at me and he said i call my own shots and you call me here's my phone number and after that he stuck out his hand as did Cordell and I shook both of their hands and the rest is history honestly all the paper and everything like that that goes with it has been beyond exceeded by the people that we partnered with and I think that to me that was one of the biggest most authentic cues that anybody in business could ever ask for as far as like differentiating yourself as a celebrity brand like one celebrity versus another he knows about our flavors.

23:59Sam Rockwell:If you talk to him, he'll tell you about all the flavors. He'll tell you about all the tasting of the flavors. He'll tell you which one he didn't like and why, but why we're in market with it. He's involved in it. This is, you know, really his, Cordell's one of his children, but this is another one of his children.

24:15Cordell Broadus:Yeah. And another thing too, Jason, we're not afraid to go to those buyer meetings. Like we, we travel to Bentonville. We travel to Seattle at Costco we we go to the place of business that we want to get into and we know how to pitch ourselves it's not a bunch of guys in suits speaking on our behalf it's the three of us Sam myself and Snoop and we go down and we go understand who is our competitor how can we fit in what what is the demographic what is the data telling us like we very hands-on so I just want to throw that out there too.