Brand founders are continuing to demonstrate their courageous mindsets in response to the postponement of Expo West 2020. “Pivot or Perish” and “Make Lemonade” may well be the overlying themes of this unprecedented occurrence as scrappy brands take pain points and address them with creative solutions. The ways they are interfacing include online virtual appointment calendars, visual simulations, easy ways to request and receive samples, and providing the contact info for founders themselves. We share ten examples here. These resolute mindsets and measures may well upend the business infrastructure in a lasting way. Effectively implementing Build/Test/Learn experiments, we are eager for these brands to succeed and also to share what they learn from opening windows when a significant door closed. How might your brand reach out and connect virtually and solve for pain points consumers are experiencing?
JTBD: Help me reach potential customers with ways to experience my product even when we can’t meet face to face.
HopTea The founders who invented a new category – tea brewed like craft beer – are reaching out to potential customers via a dedicated page on their website and a video invitation across multiple social media platforms. Making it easy for people to reach them, they have an online calendar to set up a chat and a dedicated email address for requesting samples.
Dang Foods The B Corp makers of snack foods and nutrition bars shared a rendering of their Expo West booth design which was inspired by South Asian street markets. In addition to reaching out, the founding brothers offered a health-conscious alternative to the handshake greeting – “putting hands together in a traditional Thai ‘wai’.”
Suja Juice set up a virtual Expo West booth and shot a video to share their new consumer-centric packaging design; core line of juices, shots, and kombuchas; two new functional shots; and their just-released Elevated Nutrients brand.
Earnest Eats The makers of inventive breakfast foods created a mock Expo booth experience in a video outreach to introduce their newest innovations – Pro Toasty, Hemp Bar, and Pro Instant Oats – and had fun in the filming. Buyers can request samples directly via email.
Hormel’s Applegate Shared a pithy, informative video to introduce consumers and buyers to its Well Carved product line. The chef-crafted burgers and meatballs combine meat with whole organic vegetables, legumes, and grains.
Amazing Grass offers products that deliver the goodness of greens and plant-based protein. The brand took to LinkedIn to share 3 new products and extend its show specials through March 12.
Simply Straws is a woman-owned B Corp producing reusable, glass straws. Within hours of the postponement announcement, the brand reached out to their community with an email offering their show specials through March 13, proving that email addresses are elementally reusable themselves.
Tolerant Foods was set to launch a new product line, Riced Red Lentil Pilafs. Naturally Chicago has been leveraging its network and community mission to share the launches of many new natural & organic products brands.
Munchy Pops is a new superfood snack brand that had planned to introduce its popped water lily seed snacks in Anaheim. The brand took Naturally Chicago upon its “Expo Next” offer to assist challenger brands in reaching consumers virtually.
Whole Earth Sweetener makes zero-sugar, no-calorie sweeteners and baking mixes from natural ingredients such as monk fruit, stevia, erythritol, and allulose. They also utilized the networking power of Naturally Chicago to share the news of their launch of Whole Earth INFUSIONS – a line of Stevia and Monk Fruit sweeteners infused turmeric and collagen peptides. INFUSIONS with MCT will launch this summer.
