Why Her 'Cheeky' Strategy Is Paying Off

19:35April Wachtel:Oh, a thousand percent. Okay. I think this is a real inflection point for this conversation and also for your own business strategy, which is that if you're putting the future of the company, if you think the future of the company is based here in this tonic, how do you make sure that you're giving this the fuel it needs to grow, giving it the amount of time and resources that you think it will need to grow while maintaining what's getting you there in the first place, which is your syrups and your energy. in Juice's business. I mean, this is like the hardest thing. I don't think I knew when we launched this, this was basically going to add a second brand.

20:15April Wachtel:Like I thought it was going to be like, oh great, it's a line extension. Like it just fits into the rest of the things that we do. And indeed it doesn't because we manufacture almost everything in-house for the syrups and juices. So I run a full-time manufacturing facility. This is co-manufactured, which is more easily scalable for us for a million reasons. But essentially, we have like all of the model and the infrastructure from the old product. And we're in a, basically, I did this skew rationalization process where we are winding down some of our skews from the old product. And we are obviously launching this, we have two other flavors that I'm going to call them coming out next spring, they're supposed to come out this fall, I just don't think it's the right decision right now.

21:03April Wachtel:And indeed, it's basically like running two completely different but related businesses at the same time. So not recommended if you can avoid it, but you know, I don't think we could have avoided it either. It's almost like you're running three businesses because if you're running your own manufacturing, that's one business. Sales and marketing for the primary lines, that's one business. This tonic line or brand, that's another business. I think this also speaks to intuition as an entrepreneur and going with your gut, no pun intended, but you know, how much has your intuition informed you about this company and how to market, how to innovate, how to lead?

21:41How much does that play into where Cheeky is today? And how much did you have to learn about all those different things? How much did you source guidance about all these different things? So intuition absolutely played a huge part in the idea behind why these products matter or like why I should have launched them in the first place.

22:06April Wachtel:So it was based on, you know, the original syrups and juices was based on my experience as a consumer, as a professional, you know, throwing huge cocktail events and not being able to source the high quality ingredients that we would make from scratch. We would always have to make them like on the nightclub floor or at the hotel, you know, and we never had enough refrigeration. So that informed that product line being shelf stable. And then as well as, you know, when I was a cocktail instructor and all of my students said, I want a better quality cocktail at home, but like none of these ingredients exist.

22:34April Wachtel:So that informed that. And then, you know, I realized too, I actually didn't tell the listener what's actually in this tonic, but Cheeky Lime Tonic. So it's a, we believe it's the world's first functional tonic water with fiber. It's 40 to 70 % lower sugar than traditional tonics. And when you look at the actual tonic and mixer markets, U.S. It's$3.7 billion total addressable market. And the vast majority of products are loaded with sugar. They're filled with artificial flavors, colors, preservatives. And there's very few options and they're all new with functional benefit of any kind. So I think the idea about the consumer need and in this particular case about my personal needs, that came from intuition based on experience.

23:14April Wachtel:But then, you know, you need to substantiate it with other things as well. So, you know, had I explored this and said, oh, you know, the tonic market's actually really low, or like, had I said, oh, every product in the mixer space is functional. Once I encountered that data, I would have done something different. I probably would have just been like, it's too saturated or like there's not enough demand or whatever. So I think ultimately, like you have to follow your gut when you're starting these things. And then I also would say, and again, I know we're sort of joking about the gut reference, but like probably over the past five years, when things have been wrong or, you know, the idea for a product has come up and I feel like in my gut a bad feeling or like not excitement, something that's like a signal that this ain't it, I follow that.

24:03April Wachtel:And so I think it is very valuable when you start, but also I think in the editing process of like deciding what you're going to pursue, what you're not going to pursue. I think it has been essential there because staying focused and not going off on 8 billion tangents and getting involved in other projects is really critically important. And there's all these distractions at all times. So I think it's been really helpful keeping us focused on the things that matter and hopefully offering something where the portfolio makes sense to the consumer. I think that there's so much growth potential for Cheeky in general.

24:39The brand just screams premium. I remember when we first saw it in the office. I think you either sent samples or brought samples way back in the day. And again, that's one of those things where as soon as you see it, you know, folks like us in the office who are always looking at new products and always focused on consumer brands, that was something we're like, wow, okay, that's cool. That's something I could use. And it's clean. It's beautiful. It speaks to the ingredients that are in the product. I always had an inkling that of all the new mixtures that were sent to BevNet HQ, that Cheeky would be one of the ones that would continue to see for a long time.

25:16April Wachtel:Oh, thank you. No, I mean, it sucks to say it that I guess if you read between lines, what I'm saying is that I'm really happy for you. But it sucks because there are so many brands that don't make it. There's so many brands that launch every year and the failure rate here is so high that you're like, okay, here today, gone in a year, here today, gone in a couple of weeks. But there was always something about what you were doing. And I think folks listening and hearing not only feel the sense of passion and conviction that you have for Cheeky, but the thoughtfulness in your strategy. It's not something we're like, okay, let's throw it a wall and see if it sticks.

25:49If anyone got that from, oh, let's just go into a retailer or give it to consumers and see what they think. I think that's the opposite of what you're saying. It's like, we've got to go to market and make sure that our thesis was proven correct. And if it's not, let's tweak it here or there and make some adjustments here or there. But going to market quickly is going back to that point. Sometimes that's the opposite advice that we hear from entrepreneurs. but I'm glad that you brought it up today. And I'm glad that you brought up the fact that you need to know more, that you need to hear more from the people out there because that information is always going to advise you as to the next step for your brand.

26:27April Wachtel:I think when you talk to true entrepreneurs, this is my, in my humble opinion, they're never satisfied with the thing that they have. Like they might be happy with where they are and they might say, great, we've made some great progress, but there's always infinite opportunities to do better. You definitely do not want to, you know, put swill into the market. You want to give your absolute best first attempt, but you cannot live, in my opinion, I mean, maybe if you're Steve Jobs, you know, your first idea is right. And even with that, I'm sure they went through millions and millions of iterations for every product they ever launched.

27:00April Wachtel:And again, I think that each time you do it and, you know, we've launched, I don't know, 12, 15, 17 flavors over the years. You know, each time you do it, you get better at doing it and better at understanding where the starting point should be and what the bar for that should be. And like, are you proud enough of it that you're comfortable even asking people for feedback? And mind you, you know, I tasted the first versions of this when we did the SodaStream. I can tell you SodaStream is a wonderful product, but it does not keep the carbonation well. And so the first few samples I gave to like very qualified, experienced tasters in the spirits industry, again, they knew that I was like, I just gassed this up with my SodaStream next door.

27:43April Wachtel:But they were like, OK, the carbonation needs work. And we're like, OK, yeah. And that's, by the way, that's something that we're still sort of working through is like the proper, perfect level of carbonation for this. You can't do this in a vacuum. And I also think that people love being part of the process and love being asked for their opinions as well. And some people are going to judge you on the first version. And, you know, and hopefully if somebody is like intrigued in the journey and like appreciates their opinion being valued, you know, hopefully they'll be, you know, involved in the journey for a lot longer as well.

28:13April Wachtel:So there's also that sort of like side benefit too. Yeah. Well, you're not satisfied as an entrepreneur. You never should be. But I'm satisfied with our conversation. I'm actually kind of thrilled with our conversation because I feel like we covered quite a bit. And I'm just so happy for you, April. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us on Taste Radio today. Really appreciate it. This was such a blast. Thank you. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cratchy.

28:48Our technical director is Joshua Pratt. And our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smirlinski. And our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at tasteradio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

29:39Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with Luke Colson and Jonathan Siegel, the co-founders of Vibes Candy. Luke, it's great to see you. It's good to see you too, Ray. Thanks for having us on. Yeah, Jonathan, how are you? I'm doing great. It's a Friday. lovely vibes are in the air. Yeah, I love the way you put that because we are all about the vibes today. Vibes Candy, a fantastic brand that is playing in a space that is quite hot right now in CPG that is better for you, Candy. Let's kick things off with the origin story. Jonathan, tell us about how Vibes was created and what you saw as an opportunity to innovate in this space.

30:19So quick story, my hometown, Venice Beach, California, less than three years ago, I'm in a Whole Foods grabbing a little grab and go sandwich at the checkout line. In front of me was a surfer and a skateboarder. And they were grabbing a Smart Sweets from the rack. And they were both kind of grabbed it. They looked at it, looked at the back of the ingredients and then put it back on the shelf. And one of the guys was like shaking his head. So I'm just making a conversation. I'm like, hey, man, you're not feeling. He goes, no, man. I wish there was like a really cool, delicious, healthy snack that tastes really, really good.

30:54And immediately that's where the idea came into my head. I blazed out of it with my sandwich, went to the candy aisle and started looking at all the different competitors that were there. And that's where the journey started. Luke and I met in Venice Beach right after that amazing co-founder. We realized that the competitors at that time, it wasn't even called better for you. It was kind of healthy. Gen Z millennials really don't like the words healthy. They don't like the words dietary. They don't like supplements. And they loved looking at the back of chip bags and candy bags, looking for clean ingredients.

31:30However, at the end of the day, they also eat Skittles and red dye and all these artificial ingredients. And what we noticed that a lot of the competitors at the time didn't really have flashy, cool branding. The packaging were very kind of like matte, nothing really inspiring and aspirational. and we decided that there was a really opportunity to create a delicious product that was actually cool. So lastly, we think of Vibes as not a healthy candy that tastes good. It's a delicious candy that's cool and happens to be healthy. Luke, I love your packaging. It is fantastic. It definitely stands out among the other healthy, better for you candy brands out there.

32:13But let's talk about the better for you aspects. what is in the candy? What makes it special? What gives people permission to eat it and eat a lot of it? You're quite right. We are in a very kind of hot space right now. For us, it's about calories, it's about low sugar, and it's about ingredients that aren't on the back of all your regular candies that are quite frankly terrible for you. So we set about right from the get-go, Jonathan and I, figuring out how to make a candy that tastes like a candy. What we don't want, and to Jonathan's point, is a lot of the other candies or the best of you candies, they don't taste great.

32:51So we're very, very taste first. We've also got a little sprinkle of some nice ingredients, a little extra ingredient in each of our current four flavors. So we've got some chamomile in the sour watermelon, sour watermelon chill, we call it. We've got some MCT coconut oil in the sour blue raspberry boost. We've got some elderberry in the cherry. And we've got some amla fruit or gooseberry in the strawberry. And these are just little sprinklings, but not enough to make us a supplement. We never wanted to be a supplement. We always wanted to be a nutrition. We always wanted to be candy. But just a little bit of an additional offering, as well as taking out high sugar, as well as making sure we had a good content of fiber in there.

33:36High fiber is a big hot topic right now. People are clambering for a good snack that fills you up. So a pouch of vibes is going to really hit the spot. Well, if I'm a retail buyer hearing all this, I'm definitely interested. I'm thinking, okay, great packaging, great flavor, better for your ingredients, a functional component. It's a no brainer, but it's not always that easy. Jonathan, talk about the retail strategy and how you guys went about getting on shelf. Very good question. We have a fantastic partner. His name is Scott and he's the head of our biz dev. And he literally, along with Luke and I, for the past year and a half, before we got a broker and before we got Sprouts and other large independent distributors and chains, we went from store to store, state to state, 50 states, from Puerto Rico to Hawaii to Maine and everywhere in between, knocked on the stores, talked to managers, grocery people, customers, and they tasted it.

34:37The feedback was phenomenal. And we started going into local stores, getting word of mouth, which was our strategy going along and building it up. And that's where some of the brokers and distributors found out about us. And that's how we got into innovation with Sprouts initially. Now we're nationwide. We're also very, very big on social media. We did a lot of activations, obviously, in the surfskate snow community, which is our voice. Our ethos, Ray, is all about Southern California lifestyle, eating, drinking well, wellness. It's part of who we are, being in that community. And just lastly, which we're really, really proud of, if you think about it, one of the last truly American culture is the SoCal surfskate snow community.

35:25that's exported and imported around the world. You know, you could be in Amsterdam, you could be in London, you can be in Bangkok, and everything, cultures, you know, people kind of dress the same. But the uniqueness about Southern California and the aspirational way of life is really important to our brand, especially with our social impact and charitable partner, which we're so proud to be involved with. This was one of the first things that Luke and I wanted to do was to give back. And we're very big ocean people, marine life, and we partnered with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, which was started by Hannah Barnard.

35:59And she's an amazing woman, amazing Jedi for turtle conservation and Hawaii's coastline restoration, even before the fires and even before all the weather elements. So part of our proceeds for vibes on all of our flavors goes back to the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, which is super exciting. And we're so proud of our partnership. That's fantastic. In addition to all the traction you're having in brick and mortar retail, you're also picking up quite a bit of steam on e-commerce, specifically with Walmart. Talk about how you got involved with that chain. So we were, again, just word of mouth. Some stuff is through our brokers.

36:37A lot of stuff is, as Jonathan said, through ourselves and Scott, who is just incredible at getting the word out there. And Walmart came to us. And then they asked us if we wanted to start with e-commerce. us see how we do with you know the idea being we go into stores so yeah we just launched on Walmart literally a week ago and things are going great so we have all of our four main flavors on there and then subsequently we're doing great on Amazon Prime which we've been on for quite a while now we have just a constant stream of sales through Amazon Prime which is great we've just launched our TikTok shop and that's going great guns that's new of course that is the Wild West by the way, anyone who can tell you.

37:20And same with our Instagram, we've managed to garner thousands and thousands of followers on Instagram, and we're continuing to grow that. So Walmart.com is really just the beginning. We also have a great partnership with goodeggs.com, who just continue to reorder and reorder. Also fair.com, which is a wholesale website, which we're now on. People are purchasing for their independent stores as well. So that's just the beginning, the very tip of the iceberg for us. Pretty exciting stuff though. Very exciting. And it's also very exciting to innovate with new flavors and new products as well, which you are going full steam ahead on that front as well.

37:53Jonathan, how do you think about innovation from a flavor perspective? And, you know, given the fact that you also use functional ingredients, how does that also factor into your new product development strategy? Super important. We did a lot of market research. We did a lot of consulting groups, a lot of young kids. Again, when I mentioned earlier about, you know, what Gen Z and millennials are looking for in terms of snacks and fruit snacks and healthy and options like that. The first thing was important for them was flavor. And then obviously in the candy gummy space was texture. Some people don't like it too soft.

38:27Some people like it really hard, like a hairball. You can't please everybody. But we found our quote unquote sweet spot, which people really love the consistency. It's kind of like a fruit snack, but a little hardness to it. And then in terms of the flavors, obviously, we started with the most popular flavors doing our research and questionnaires like that. And we're very excited about our new flavors that we're going to be launching. We're doing our first spicy, sour, and we have some really great flavors coming up in the pipeline. And when people ask about what differentiates Vibes with some of your competitors, you know, we like to say that, you know, we're bringing dimensional flavor and innovation to the candy aisle, but also to the homes of parents and kids and tweens and teens and everyone in between.

39:14And we're always thinking about the holistic, spiritual wellness part of the product of the flavor, which is the most important thing, obviously the health part. But at the end of the day, people want to have fun, and it's candy. I learned to walk. For my mom bribed me with M &Ms out of the stroller. She lured me with plain M &Ms. And everybody has their own story about their favorite candies. And that's what Luke and I wanted to create, a really rich flavor and a story that's truthful and proud of where we come from. Well, you already have a consumer in me. I remember the first time I saw Vibes on Shelf, it was in a convenience store in La Jolla.

39:58And I was like, what is this? This is really cool. Great packaging. It was the chamomile and sour variety that you have. And I was like, wow, I hope I get a chance to talk to the founders at some point. And here we are on Taste Radio chatting about Vibes Candy. VibesCandy.com is the website. Definitely check it out, folks. Jonathan, Luke, this has been so great. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Thanks, Ray. Great to meet you. you as well.