Stopping power is everything when you’re trying to compete in a crowded category — in the grocery store or online. How do you create a brand that jumps off the shelves and stands out from the rest?
Today on the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva sits down with Candice Crane, Founder and CEO of Petal Sparkling Botanicals, a brand that stops you in your tracks when you see it. In this episode, we talk about how Petal has been able to stand out in a crowded category and grow so fast in just a year and a half.
Focusing on Your Ideal Consumer
“I was actually able to create a brand from scratch,” Candice says. She noticed that there weren’t any products on the market that really emphasized botanicals. Most importantly, she realized who her ideal target consumer was: women ages 18 to 32. “I felt like Petal could be an inspiration to our consumer to radiate their inner rebel and live their best life,” she says. One way to do that was to highlight the botanical ingredients that made her products unique, so she collaborated with an artist she loved to create a design that really stands out.
Candice also backs up the promise her packaging makes with unique flavor combinations, including lychee rose, elderberry white tea flower, peach marigold with basil, and lemongrass dandelion. We talk about her unique approach to flavor and how everything follows from highlighting the botanicals. “As consumers are moving away from the diet sodas and sugary drinks, they’re looking for an alternative,” she says, “and where Petal stands out is that it offers more of a flavor profile than just your average sparkling water.”
Getting National Chains to Come to You
Getting good distribution is a challenge for any brand, and Petal was able to succeed by really focusing in on that ideal customer. “We want to make sure we’re placed on the proper shelf where our consumer shops,” Candice says. That laser focus on natural has started to lead larger national stores to seek out Petal for partnerships as they build out their natural and organic beverage selections, landing them placements in almost 700 locations nationwide in the past year and a half.
One thing that really helps is to get out there and gauge customers’ reactions to your product yourself. Candice likes to use demos to check out how people are engaging with her product in stores and have real conversations about what draws them to her brand. We get into all this and so much more, including how to maintain balance as a startup founder and the specific challenges facing women CEOs in the industry, so be sure to take a listen to the full episode because some of the best insights come at the end.
If you want more info on how to make your brand stand out, Katie is working with the Food Finance Institute team to create on an on-demand course Building a Valuable Food Brand on their learning platform Edible Alpha. Katie also leads Mastermind groups for food business leaders along with this group course and 1:1 work. Sign up for her email list so you don’t miss out on the details, or email her at katie@realfoodbrands.com if you want to get started right away.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
In This Episode:
- How Candice’s South African roots lead to her create Petal Sparkling Botanicals.
- The story behind Petal’s unique logo and package design.
- How Petal has grown to be in almost 700 locations nationwide in just a year and a half.
- Why there’s no substitute for talking in-person with people about your product to hear feedback first hand.
- How having a complex flavor profile serves a growing segment of people choosing to skip the alcohol.
- The joys and challenges of balancing life as a mom and a food startup CEO.
Quotes:
“I felt like Petal could be an inspiration to our consumer to radiate their inner rebel and live their best life.” – @DrinkPetal
“As consumers are moving away from the diet sodas and sugary drinks, they’re looking for an alternative, and where Petal stands out is that it offers more of a flavor profile than just your average sparkling water.” – @DrinkPetal
“It’s our generation’s obligation to deliver better-for-you products and really eliminate all the junk and sugar and all the so-called ingredients that we thought were healthy for us.” – @DrinkPetal
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