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Why Great Products Fail in Retail (And How 7 Summits Snacks Got It Right) · Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Selling on Giants, the podcast where we explore how brands grow across digital channels, marketplaces, and retail.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode of our going retail series, I'm joined by Kristen Carrier, co-founder of Seven Summit Snacks.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Seven Summits is a functional chocolate energy bar brand built for people who love the outdoors and have active lifestyles.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The idea for the product came from Kristen's background as a food scientist and her sister's experience as a high performance athlete, where they realized that there was an opportunity to create a better performance snack that combined great taste with real functional nutrition.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Since launching, the brand has expanded into retail while continuing to build its digital presence.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, Kristen shares how seven summits approach retail, the lessons they learn once their products hit store shelves, and what digital brands should understand before making the leap into retail.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dance, guys.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump in.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Kristen, welcome to Selling On Giants.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's really gay to see you again after the Chifa event.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited to have you here to talk to our audience about your experience going into retail.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But before we even discuss that, I'd love to learn a bit more about you and Seven Summit Snacks.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: What does the brand make and who do you guys serve?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so my name is Kristen.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the co-founder.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I started this business with my sister just over five years ago.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we make a functional chocolate energy bar as our flagship product.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're both coming from a sporting background.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: She was Canada's first female decathlet.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was a marathon runner, but I'm also a chocolate scientist.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a food scientist who's really worked for some of the big giants in their research and development teams.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And she really came to me with this idea.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, she started getting into endurance sport and was training with like carbohydrate gels and the snacks that people typically eat for fuel.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, I really don't like eating these.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: They make me feel awful.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Can we eat chocolate instead?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I thought about that critically, I was like, Yes, that's a great idea.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Chocolate has a great nutritional profile for sports.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've a functional chocolate energy bar, and we target it to people who love being active, who love the outdoors, and who are really just looking to prioritize taste and function uh in their journeys.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I love any type of chocolate that's good for me.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that is awesome.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So actually, uh it's really interesting.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: What is like structurally, what's different about your guys' chocolate compared to like like a Hershey bar for somebody who's completely uneducated in in food science?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it all comes down to ingredient sourcing.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so chocolate at the end of the day is like a higher fat product made with sugar.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: The sugar gives its structure.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're thinking about sugar, which is glucose and fructose from an endurance sport perspective or just from even an athletic perspective, your body needs that fuel.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so chocolate as a whole still does make a good make a good performance fuel.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have higher quality ingredients, so higher quality cocoa that that we use, you're gonna have a better source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in there.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Our chocolate and cocoa that we source is got more, I call it bean power to it than a typical like bar would have.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have we're using a 64% dark chocolate that has more cocoa in it than a linked 70% bar.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So it's the cocoa, the brown stuff that gives you all the excellent benefits.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're using superfoods to flavor the bars.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting an extra pack of like antioxidants and vitamins and minerals in there from like goji berries or goat or golden berries.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so, really, the like high quality ingredient sourcing is what sets us apart from having just your typical everyday chocolate bar.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it tastes great.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was lucky enough to try some at the event.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I do like the fruit that's in there, and the chocolate tasted really good.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I did give my wife the dark chocolate bar, she approves as well.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, not only does it have some bean power, it sounds like it has some good taste appeal as well.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, last question before I kind of start picking your brain about retail.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Before you actually got into retail, where did you guys start?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did you launch retail first or did you launch uh online and kind of make your way over to retail?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: We had thought when we started this business that we would start in stores, but we started during the pandemic.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that forced us to start online, which was great.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: We started our business through a crowdfunding campaign, like an IndieGo or like Kickstarter, but through a local, like our just provincial bank.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that allowed us to get all the pre-orders sold for our bars.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: We were 111% funded for our first production run.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it really focused it, like it made us get a really great website from the beginning.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And um, e-commerce is really still only been a small part of our business, but it's an area where we really want to grow.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And once we had that e-commerce traction, we were able to go into stores and then tell them, hey, we we know people want to buy our products.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And since then, like 75% of our business is in retail stores and not online.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome though.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, that's pretty typical.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I find a lot of digital brands that end up going, or if we work with retail brands, most of their business tends to come from retail.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think that's crazy.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: What was the um what was the signal, or like what um at what point did you like realize like we gotta be in retail?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like we had the pandemic, things were down.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Was it as soon as doors open, you're like hit the ground, running, let's get these bars on shelves, or was there like um, was there a sales number?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Was there like feedback?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like what was the it was there multiple signals?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Great question.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And for us, we really listened to our customer.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And when we before we launched this product, we did some in-depth surveys to understand where people would want to purchase.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And they gave us a list of stores that they wanted to go in and purchase at.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we contacted those stores to see if they would if they would take us.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: What we quickly realized was that there's a lot of people who are still, especially in Canada, that don't want to pay for shipping.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Amazon's kind of like destroyed, like anyone wanting to pay for shipping or recognizing that shipping in Canada is very expensive.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so there we do have customers who only want to purchase in store.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And when we've spoken to them about that, it's because maybe they only want to go buy two or three at a time.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want to buy on our online store, you have to buy a minimum of six, and even like in a box of 10 or 12.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so some people are just not committed to purchasing that much of our product up at once.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so they want to be able to go in, see what's there, buy some of ours, buy some of something else, and then have that for their for their month or so.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so when we really understood that customer journey and that customer behavior, uh, it really told us to focus on on stores and really to nurture the stores as well.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: That actually makes a lot of sense.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody who like I buy protein bars and I do like protein shakes and stuff, before I go and buy a whole case online of something I like, I usually go to a store and pick out three or four and I try them.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then once I find a few flavors I like, then then I'll buy them online.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that happen with you guys as like retail has been expanding?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have you found like uh it spills over and you get more multi packs purchased online?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a typical user journey or is is my case a little unusual?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think that that when people do, and I we know some customers, oh, we do a lot of our marketing like in person at events.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so we do have the opportunity to talk to our customer when we do that.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we do have folks who tell us, hey, like again, on a I'm gonna go to my running shoe store, I'm gonna buy uh a new pair of shoes, some socks, and I'm gonna pick up some of your bars while I do that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: But when I have an event and I know I'm gonna need like if I'm doing an ultra marathon or I'm going backcountry camping and I know I need a lot of bars, then we know we have customers who will buy uh buy online at both packs.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So there is some spillover there, but we do just find in general that people who are new to the brand are purchasing their one or two bars in their in their local uh store that they can purchase.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And man, so that's it, probably actually a pretty good tip.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So would you recommend digital brands now if they're selling well to like how did you survey your customers?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just sent a cold email out to everybody's purchase today.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: What do you where do you buy us?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's like so many different survey tools you can use online to do that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's also if you're uh my background allowed me to know the science and how to put a good a good uh survey together.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I was able to do that in-house, but there's a lot of agencies that you can use that pretty like flexibly that can help you build those surveys in a smart way.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, leverage your email list, leverage your customer online, and just ask them, hey, are you do you also buy in store?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Or uh what makes like understanding that buyer journey is really important and uh just yeah, just hit them up for a question.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with it.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, you can win like a hundred dollars or whatever, then usually the feedback is pretty good.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I bet I bet it sweetens the deal for sure.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very cool.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's jump into retail.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So entering retail.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um do you remember your first store placement and kind of what that what that was like?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, so we had a very specific and still to this day have a very specific strategy for retail, which works in one avenue, but really doesn't help us in another.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think this is important for like people to understand who listen to your show, is that we designed our product to go in a sports store, and so the pricing, the way the packages uh created and the way the shelf box is created is all in the context of something going into your renting store, your bike store instead.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so, um, because we believe that when we're trying to market this product, there's less competition there, and so our our product would naturally stand out against the other options that are there.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you put yourself in a grocery store and you go down the energy bar aisle or even the chocolate aisle, if you think about like how many boxes are on those shelves, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And orientation of those boxes is a lot different.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: So our orientation is a portrait orientation because we were benchmarking against carbohydrate gels who all have a part like oh, interesting.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is that way as well?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So when you go to a sports store, it fits perfectly.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: But as we got into grocery stores and we really delayed our launch into grocery stores by about two years until we had more brand recognition, we very quickly realized we're so lost on shelves because our box is narrow compared to everything else.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I've really noticed in the last like year that other energy bar companies are even changing their whole box their offer that in that aisle, they have a single serve option that's in the landscape, but they're also making a multi-pack pack box that stands up straight like a grow, like a granola bar box, if you can imagine.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So really understanding like what your competitive set is, what the shelf is going to be look like, and then designing to that shelf is really important and a huge lesson that we're learning as a business.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's really interesting too.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now that you say it, yeah, your your ball, your bars stand vertically portrait style, and the fact that you're mimicking the gel packs and not a protein bar, you'll wow, I had a light bulb moment right there.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so it's it sounds like there's a lot of science behind.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm preparing to go into retail for the first time, like and uh let's just say uh I got really lucky at Whole Foods was like, let's rock and roll.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the first things you would do is you would look at the shelves, the packaging, and just see how your product might stand out.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And are there any other kind of considerations for somebody first getting into retail as they're maybe going down this rabbit hole for the first time?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: We used to call it product safari.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go into the grocery stores.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: You need to go to more than one grocery store and see uh you need to shop where your ideal customer is going to be shopping.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So if it's whole and then they go to their yoga studio and then they go to their cafe, but they might also go to uh a different grocery store.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: On top of that, um, go to all those places and see how what products are overlapping and how they show up.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, also understanding the price range flexibility is really important.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so really challenged in this industry of food to um to price as low as we possibly can.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because again, uh the consumer behavior of going into a grocery store, you're looking for a deal.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're not ready to spend the most amount of money possible.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you like you have to be price competitive, and that often hurts like it hurts us with our margins, and it'll hurt a food brand in particular that's trying to build from the bottom up.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's really important to pay attention to that price range uh so that when you do go to sell it into the buyer, you can offer your pricing and say, hey, like like we're not gonna be the most expensive on shelf.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are gonna be the most expensive on shelf, giving them a reason why it's gonna be incremental to their to their category growth is that's interesting.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially you bring up the buyer.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So like as you're approaching these buyers, you're considering price points, and then you're it sounds like you're positioning the product to be make his his or her life easier if they ended up putting it on shelves.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is that I like I guess if you give any tips or thoughts on how you how you engage buyers for the first time, and I guess how you put yourself in their shoes for our digital brands that this may be completely foreign to.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what you have to do is you have to put yourself in their shoes.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be empathetic to what their challenges are.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: And there's some great resources online that you can follow to um help you like put your space your head in that space.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if it's like if you're getting into your local like grocery store program, it's going and having a conversation with the manager.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like there, you can try and show you can try and call them or you can show up.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Either way is gonna be challenging.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not there's nothing easy about it.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to put your best extroverted hat on, get out of and go talk to people.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's just the best way to get into the stores these days.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: People are inundated, inundated with emails.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and once you do that, it's understanding hey, um what's challenging for this category?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: What do you what really works for you?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: How do you like to work with a brand?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And what distributors do you like to work with?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the kinds of questions you should ask the buyer of that category.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that you're set up for success when you can then pitch.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it could be two two pitches.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: One, it could be an intro, and then two, it could be um, it could be yeah, what first in sorry, first meeting is gonna be just about getting to understand the category, what their motive motivations are, and then maybe you pitch your product in the second the second time because whatever you can do to make their life easier is gonna help you.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is solid advice too.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I like that it I didn't know.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's it's sales, like you guys are doing, you guys are knocking doors down.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: They say that doesn't happen anymore, but you know, hey, retail it does apparently.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty solid.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, uh, what surprised you most once your product was actually on shelves?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Was there something, was there like a moment that that really stood out as you're expanding your retail footprint?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's that like you can't take it for granted that people are gonna understand what you're selling, and that's still to this day one of our biggest challenges.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have our packaging designed in a certain way that works for us and that we think works, but we're looking at redesigning it to make it more um intuitively understandable to the consumer.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it could be as simple as putting the product on the front of the pack, as much as like you people say like they don't like it from like a um a visual perspective, if that's what's going to help you sell your product, and then that's what's important.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so again, looking going down the aisle, looking at the shelves, seeing what's out there, seeing what other companies are doing and how they're presenting their product is important for you as you look to design your your product and your packaging for retail.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do any testing with that?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny you mentioned that I had an interview earlier, and the person mentioned that uh they ended up moving the uh protein quantity from like the bottom corner to the top corner, so it stood out more and it it actually resulted in more sales, which was pretty surprising that like that small shift made that much of a difference.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: But do you find similar results with some of your experimentation?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: As a small brand, um, we haven't done too much of that yet, but we also only order small amounts of packaging at a time to allow for that to happen.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we are about to do a bunch of like testing like that because we're redesigning a new product.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so exactly like leveraging test uh testing to do exactly that.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Should we have the product on the front or not?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Where does you know the credentials go?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Where does the hierarchy of the brand versus the flavor go?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's all like really subtle cues that are important to test, and you don't realize how um how quickly someone's gonna like they're gonna subconsciously make those decisions.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you make it easier for them and they don't have to think about what are they or question what they're purchasing, then they're just gonna think it out.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: The your smaller brands are able to experiment, you guys do in small quantities, and now you're you're gonna roll out and do some testing here pretty soon, maybe in the next couple batches that come up.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we do.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: We have uh tinder changes that we're gonna be rolling out kind of uh week after or month after month here.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So very exciting.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so last question that's kind of on topic with this.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a digital brand thinking about going retail, what's one of the first things I should pressure test before actually starting to line up buyers and going that way?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that you would recommend?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Two things.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: One is understand if your customer wants to buy you in store.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: So giving again, like send your current list of customers and subscribers uh an email and just say, hey, we're thinking about doing this.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Would you buy us in store?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: How likely are you to do that?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of stores would you like to see us in?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then just getting that information up front.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: So any digital brand already has a great customer email list to leverage.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely start with that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then as you do that, just you have to go into the store and see what that shelf looks like for you.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh making sure that again, your offer is gonna stand up to the competition that you're gonna be up against.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, solid advice.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this, Kristen.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think our audience is gonna find it really helpful for those of our digital brands looking to branch out into retail.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a quick wrap-up.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, really quick questions and no wrong answer.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Retail in one word is hard.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you say hard?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think again, you can't take anything for granted.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: You have like you have the best tasting product, the best price.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's still hard to sell it.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then last question what's next for seven summit snacks this year?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're launching a new product format, something that is nothing like we're making right now.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, we're trying to decide do we launch it on um online first or do we put it right into retail?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so these kinds of questions I'm really thinking about right at the moment.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty exciting.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to try it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, can you share any information?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is it this?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's still chocolate, right?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are staying within your chocolatey niche.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, so it's gonna be an it's chocolate is our hero ingredient.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna be wrapped in chocolate, we're calling it.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, is demanding protein.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have added protein in any of our products right now, and so we're using this new format to really launch something that's crunchy, very super snackable, wrapped in chocolate, and has the health credentials of a protein that people are looking for.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So stay tuned.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, follow our email list because you're gonna have taste testing opportunities and you'll be able to get on our pre-launch campaign for that as well.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we're really happy and excited to share that with our audience.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, very exciting.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And man, protein's so trendy.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not surprised you guys are getting into it.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's an awesome addition to your guys' current catalog.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: What I will say for all our listeners, inside the show notes, I've linked Kristen's website and all her social media for seven Summit Snacks.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I highly recommend checking it out and signing up to her email list so you guys can maybe get access to some of these treats that are coming out.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I tried it earlier.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: They are very good, so I highly recommend.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Kristen, thank you so much for taking the time and joining us on the Selling on Giants podcast.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your insights, your time, and everything and the energy you've brought to this interview.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for joining me.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for letting me share my story, and it's great to chat with you, Wilkes.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was Kristen Carrier, co-founder of Seven Summit Snacks.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that retail success isn't just about having a great product, it's about understanding the shelf, the customer journey, and how your packaging, pricing, and positioning compares to the competition already in the category and already on shelves.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Kristen also shared a valuable lesson for digital brands considering retail.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Before expanding into stores, take the time to understand where your customers actually want to buy your product.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the best signals come directly from your existing audience.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to learn more about Seven Summit Snacks, you can find their website and social media channels inside the show notes, all linked below.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend signing up for Kristen's newsletter.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Selling on Giants, and we'll see you in our next episode of our going retail series.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Stay classy, people.