Your parents’ generation thought coffee was only for the morning, but they’re wrong.

Ready-to-drink (RTD) hard coffee AKA an alcohol base mixed with cold brew, coffee extract, sugar, and other trendy ingredients is having a serious moment.

The popularity of RTD hard coffee is due to a variety of factors, notably the thriving coffee culture and growth of the RTD cocktail market.

It seems like every day there is a new RTD cocktail brand popping up, but this growth didn’t happen overnight. Matt Sanger, the CEO & cofounder of award-winning RTD cocktail company Curatif, reminds us that this has been a long-time in the making as the early 2000s marked the beginning of the “global cocktail renaissance.”

Sanger describes the global cocktail renaissance as a shift in consumer behavior to drinking less but drinking better and consuming more cocktails in the home.

Mwanza Lumumba, Brand Director at Kahlúa, shares a similar sentiment, “Within the RTD category as a whole we are seeing tremendous growth as consumers look for more sophisticated prepared cocktail serves at both home and the bar.”

Lumumba’s statement also shines a light on why Molson Coors, the brewing company that owns brands like Miller Lite and Blue Moon, decided to discontinue 100 SKUS and eliminate 11 economy brands in an effort to make its US portfolio more premium and invest in alternative beverages and high-quality RTD cocktails (FoodDive).

But how does coffee tie into all of this?

It’s estimated that 63% of Americans drink coffee daily. According to a report by Mintel, around 46% of Gen-Z drink RTD coffee (think brands like Pop & Bottle, Quivr, Wandering Brew ) making RTD hard coffee a serious home run.

Sam Madani, founder of hard-coffee brand BOMANI, says, “Hard Coffee products have grown exponentially because people love both coffee and alcohol. One can of BOMANI is the caffeine equivalent of a ½ cup of coffee and it’s 5.7% ABV (slightly more than a beer).”

According to Sean Zoka, the founder of RTD cocktail brand DELOCE, “At the time we founded DELOCE, hard coffee was growing by 11,000% YoY.”

It’s not just emerging alcohol brands that are investing in hard coffee. This past May PBR and Entenmann’s teamed up to launch a hard-coffee and donut package. In July 2020, Kahlúa launched a Nitro Cold Brew (4.5% ABV made with coffee liqueur and rum) and a Kahlúa Espresso Style Martini RTD, which has become one of the brand’s most popular offerings according to Lumumba.

Of course, you can’t talk about RTD hard coffee cocktails without mentioning RTD espresso martinis.

The resurgence of espresso martinis has been well documented, and while some may believe it’s another form of 90’s nostalgia creeping into today’s culture, alcohol brands disagree.

Matt Sanger points out that the espresso martini is one of the most popular cocktails in the world: Difford’s Guide lists it at no. 3, Drinks International ranks it at no. 6 ( moved up 21 spots in 4 years).

Furthermore, the R&D process for an RTD hard coffee cocktail, like the espresso martini, can take years.

Matt Sanger of Curatif says,”It took us over 2 years to get our R&D right — we use real coffee and no preservatives in our Espresso Martini. A lot of long days and late nights went into creating a proprietary coffee brewing method, and getting the formulation right so that our Espresso Martini does everything it should; it tastes like real coffee (because it is), it has a perfectly silky crema, and is an elegant masterclass in balance.”

Curatif’s meticulous attention to its Espresso martini formula paid off: it won the Double Gold and Gold at the 2020 SIP Awards and Silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Sean Zoka of DELOCE said it took them an entire year and 50+ iterations before they brought the DELOCE Espresso Martini to market.

The RTD hard coffee market isn’t a flash-in-the-pan, and the versatility of RTD hard coffee cocktails may cement its place in the at-home bar lineup.

Sean Zoka tells us that many people use DELOCE espresso martini as their ‘skinny espresso martini’ or as a base for their cocktail and add extra coffee liqueur and vodka.

Sam Madani of BOMANI shares, “One of our goals when creating BOMANI was to offer a blank canvas — a beverage that was ready-to-drink and ready-to-customize. Numerous bars and restaurants around the country that use BOMANI as the base to their coffee cocktails because it saves time & gets rid of the need to brew espresso.” BOMANI’s website also features a recipe page with 100+ cocktail recipes that anyone can whip up at home.

Matt Sanger mentions that CURATIF is experimenting with rum, whisk(e)y, and a tiki style coffee cocktail in its innovation pipeline.

The RTD hard coffee market is just getting started and will continue to grow as people search for new, exciting, high-quality beverages.

FirstLook Insider Tip: Keep a lookout for Cold Brooze by Bold Move Beverages.

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Community is the buzzword of the moment. It seems like every startup is hiring for a Head of Community (PS checkout our job board because maybe the startup of your dreams is hiring for a Head of Community!)

But what does community actually mean?

According to our founder Brian Folmer, “community is what happens when the brand leaves the room.”

With this definition in mind, we reached out to two people who built communities that fit this description:

Greg Ashton, the founder of GROW, a community for ecomm and DTC brands and Mattie Ellis, the Head of Brand Partnerships at Pop Up Grocer and Emily Schildt’s right hand woman.

Both GROW and Pop Up Grocer have serious traction.

Back in August, GROW hosted a sold-out, in-person event in NYC with hundreds of attendees and an impressive line-up of speakers.

In May, Pop Up Grocer wrapped up its Chicago pop-up where thousands of people walked through its doors to discover new and exciting products.

We know your time is precious, so we made a little TLDR to identify some key points on “community” 😉.

To read the full interviews keep scrollin’.

TLDR:

Scale your community with intention AKA have a set of standards

• Greg has 20K members in GROW. He looks at every application and asks himself a series of questions to determine if the applicant is the right fit.
• Pop Up Grocer showcases emerging brands. It’s Chicago pop-up had 400+ new products. Mattie vets every single one of these brands to ensure it meets Pop Up Grocer’s criteria on nutrition, founder story, packaging, and sustainability.

Community isn’t a one-off thing, you have to constantly nurture it

• In addition to hosting IRL events, Greg hosts a series of Google Hangouts where like-minded marketers can connect, share tips & industry expertise.
• Even in the pandemic, Pop-Up-Grocer showed up. Last June, it opened a 30-day pop-up in Austin. Through this activation, it donated 5% of all sales to All Together ATX, a COVID-related community fund.

Don’t forget about the power of IRL experiences. Every community needs a physical forum to meet and connect. It can’t all happen online.

• As Mattie Ellis says, “ From day one we have viewed the increase in online shopping as an opportunity for our business — not the threat. We’re excited to continue building on the complementary experiences we create, both online and off.”

Event planning starts a year in advance. As soon as the big event is over, planning for the next one begins.

• Greg is already well into planning the next GROW event in LA on Feb 24,2022
• Pop Up Grocer is gearing up for its next launch in 2022 that puts another spin on the traditional brick-and-mortar grocery.

Greg Ashton

• Greg is the founder of GROW and sustainable sock brand Inside Story
• GROW is a global community of online retail brands, technology providers, investors and agencies. GROW has 20K members, an active Slack group with 4K+ members, and a newsletter with ~17K subscribers.

I’m an alien who came to earth for a day. How would you explain GROW to me?

At its core, GROW is a community of marketers.

I believe we live in a time where most people lack a sense of belonging that comes from being a part of a “traditional” community.

With GROW, I’m trying to solve this lack of community, and I’m guided by these questions:

1. How do I build a true, authentic community that people want to be in?
2. How do I create a community where people are interested in what others have to say?
3. How do I build a community that people get value from and then tell other people about?

How do you define community?

Three years ago I saw a quote on Twitter that perfectly summed it up:

Every business today claims to have a community, but if you’re not actually Fostering Connections between your members, you don’t have a community. You just have an audience.

Building a community is not rocket science. The most crucial part of it is to get out of the way and let your members talk to each other.

GROW started as a Slack group with 15 members. Now the Slack has 4K+ members. How did you make that happen?

My background is in e-commerce. I ran a large, e-commerce trade show in Palm Springs for several years.

The initial 15 members were founders from emerging brands that were going against the grain and setting new trends.

It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get them to join. I wasn’t selling them a product or asking them to buy something.

When you offer something with value for free, it makes it very hard to say no.

When you started GROW what milestones did you set for yourself?

My first goal was simply to hit 1000 members. That first 1000 was the hardest to hit but growth was exponential after that.

Starting something is really, really hard in the beginning but it does get easier.

In the early days, many people said monetize the group as quickly as possible, charge a membership fee, add vendors to the group, include advertising in the newsletters, and so on. I was adamant that we should keep everything free, and it still is.

What was it like to throw the first GROW live event?

I created trade shows for a long time, so I knew how to plan & execute a large scale event.

I didn’t want to throw an event that felt like a typical trade-show. We held our first event in a converted factory. It was a big, raw empty space which was pretty cool.

However, the hardest part was figuring out whether or not people would show. I have this recurring dream that nobody shows up and I’m standing on a stage in a completely empty room.

It’s normal to be nervous about guest turnout because there’s a lot of money, sponsorship, and reputation at stake.

Also most people don’t realize this but the day we finish a big event, planning starts for next year’s event. It takes a full year to plan an event of this scale (GROW in-person events have 700+ people attending).

As your community scales, how do you ensure it keeps its value and intention?

I think you have to be very selective with who you actually admit to that community.

When reviewing GROW membership applications, I ask myself these questions:

1. Is this person an expert in a particular area?
2. Do they have a strong or different opinion?
3. Is this person shaking things up?
4. Is this person adding value to the world of e-comm?

It’s also important to give people a physical forum to meet and connect. I think Comic-Con is a great example of this!

What do the next 12 months look like for GROW?

I’m going to be hiring!

We’re going to throw more in-person events in Los Angeles and New York. I also want to bring GROW over to the UK.

Most importantly, I’ll continue to bring people together in unexpected ways that lead to lasting relationships!

Mattie Ellis

• Mattie is the Head of Brand Partnerships at Pop Up Grocer and she runs her own consultancy for emerging CPG brands.

How does Pop Up Grocer (AKA PUG) define community?

Community is an integral to our success and sits at the heart of our business.

And as with any community, ours is defined by shared interests and values (grocery/CPG, curiosity, small business, creativity).

It’s made up of the network of emerging brands we serve, our loyal visitors, and industry collaborators.

We act as a connector between key players in the CPG world — introducing early adopters and tastemakers to the most exciting, new brands, and vice versa. On the B2B side, we create a space for influential buyers and investors to discover new brands, helping them build their roadmap for future growth.

Does PUG work with brands that already have a strong community?

In curating our showcases, we prioritize emerging brands. Oftentimes, being very new-to-market, these brands are in the early stages of developing their own audiences.

Our selection process is focused more so on criteria like nutrition, founder story, packaging, and sustainability. If brands already have a strong following, that’s a bonus!

I’ve noticed a serious increase in attention to launch strategy, given the competition in CPG. From crowdfunding to celebrity endorsements, brands seem to be getting increasingly creative and community-minded at earlier stages.

How does PUG retain a loyal community as a pop-up?

On the brand side, we retain loyalty through successful activations, organized communication, and creative collaboration.

On the consumer side, we retain loyalty through consistency. Shoppers know that every brand on our shelf has been thoughtfully reviewed, selected, and received our PUG stamp of approval. They also trust that our shelves will always have the newest, most exciting brands, and that they’ll be some of the first out there to experience the products.

By consistently delivering on this element of discovery, we’re able to build and retain authentic engagement.

What do the next 12 months look like for PUG?

We’ve got some very exciting things in the works! We’re leveling up on all fronts. We’ll be introducing ourselves in an entirely new format, set to launch in 2022, that puts yet another spin on the traditional brick-and-mortar grocery.

From day one we have viewed the increase in online shopping as an opportunity for our business — not the threat.

We’re excited to continue building on the complementary experiences we create, both online and off. And, as always, I’m thrilled about the brands we’re working with. We always aim to outdo ourselves!

How do I get consumers to buy my product?

That’s the number one question every founder asks themselves.

In a space as crowded and competitive as food & bev, discovering ways to get your product into consumers hands that not only guarantee a transaction but also transform these people into loyal, repeat customers is easier said than done.

FirstLook decided to tap into its network and consult with the experts, who help established and challenger brands get in front of consumers online and in stores, on the tricks of the trade.

Spoiler: there are no tricks.

You need a good product and smart people around you like Doug Guyer and Cameron McCarthy.

Oh and by the way, you can thank FirstLook for giving you some new buzzwords to add to your food & bev jargon. If you don’t say the phrases Crowdstocking and Connected Sampling at your next happy hour then you’re doing something wrong… just sayin’.

Cameron McCarthy is the founder of WeStock , a platform that turns brand awareness into sales. Also he coined the term Crowdstock. Kinda sick, right?

How did you come up with the term Crowdstocking?

Crowdstocking was a term we coined from day one at WeStock. Due to the popularity of the term crowdsourcing, we believed people would understand the concept of Crowdstocking fairly quickly. We are excited to see that it has started to resonate with shoppers, and they are very engaged in the two markets we have launched in so far.

What is Crowdstocking?

Crowdstocking lets everyday shoppers vote on the products that they want to see at their local store. Shoppers can do this through our partner brands, retailers, or directly through our web app.

Which stores are your retail partners?

Right now we are partnered with Fairway in NYC and Choice in Denver. We’ll have another NYC retail partner coming soon that we plan to announce at the end of the month.

How do you get customers to interact with the platform?

Shoppers can make requests on a brand’s website, social media, or newsletter. We provide the brand with a plug-in that the shopper can easily put their request into. Shoppers can also make requests in-stores at one of our partner retailers or through our web app.

How do brands with a low following benefit from Crowdstocking?

You don’t need a huge following to benefit from Crowdstocking. We have seen brands open up new accounts with just a handful of requests.

We actually started our own fake brand internally in just 21 days to show that a brand with zero presence could get results. Check out the video below to see what happened.

What was the first brand that used your platform?

One of the first brands we pitched WeStock to was Nightfood Ice Cream. They have actually stayed on the platform for almost three years now and are always one of our top request receivers!

How have brands discovered WeStock?

We are pretty proactive with our outreach to brands. We try to become fans of the brands first so that when we reach out the pitch is genuine.

We work with 400+ brands at WeStock, and most of them we either tasted or are avid consumers of. Once a brand is on our platform it’s up to them to generate requests, and we then place the most in-demand items at our partner stores.

Who are your competitors?

We don’t really have competitors in the Crowdstocking space since we own that concept and are pioneering the community curated product set.

However, we often identify competition as what companies these brands are deciding between when allocating marketing or sales spend.

RangeMe and Social Nature are two names that pop up when we speak with brands. Although, both of these companies are solving a much different problem than WeStock.

What are some WeStock success stories?

We get stories weekly about how emerging brands are incorporating our data and opening up new accounts. Sharing in the success that our brands get is the best part of building this company. We recently published a white paper on one of our success stories.

What specific trends are you seeing in the food & bev space?

Coming out of COVID, I think it’ll be interesting to see what trends stick. I think the rise in home cooking is going to see some carry over post-pandemic so brands that optimize for that should see success. I also think brands that continue to blur the line between DTC and in-store will win.

You can’t view the two mediums as binary; they are one cohesive sales channel, and the brands that get that are growing quickly.

What will grocery shopping look like five years from now?

I think there will be a focus on smaller store formats that are focused on product discovery and shopper experience. I also believe that stores will have companies like Instacart pull from a dedicated warehouse and not from the store itself. Focusing on those two things would make the shopping experience much more customer centric which I think will be the focus for retailers moving forward.

If you want to understand the CPG industry, Doug Guyer is one of the first people you should speak with. His company Brandshare has been around for thirty-seven years and works with the most recognizable legacy brands and exciting challenger brands.

Doug also created the term Connected Sampling.

FirstLook’s takeaway: Great Minds Coin Terms.

What is Brandshare?

In the most simplistic terms, we put brand samples into the orders of other brands.

How do we do this? We have an e-commerce media network of 760+ online retailers who collectively ship over 84 million online orders per month, so we’ll insert a synergistic product sample that adds value to the customers initial order.

Additionally, we leverage QR codes so consumers can easily scan the product sample and purchase a full-sized order. We refer to this as “Connected Sampling”

How did you come up with the idea for Connected Sampling?

Brand advertisers came to us with a problem: they needed to make sampling more accountable from a “Return on Ad Spend” basis in order to prove to senior leadership that sampling is an effective way to acquire new customers.

Connected Sampling solves this problem by giving consumers a “scan and add to cart” capability on their phone.

How can challenger food & bev brands stand out among competitors through Brandshare?

We only include a single brand sample in each package so smaller, challenger brands automatically stand out.

Furthermore, when a consumer opens their packages at home and tries the sample, challenger brands aren’t competing with any key competitors.

How do you decide what samples to put in a specific box?

Our job is to make sure it’s a perfect fit for both the sampling brand and our e-comm retail partners.

For example, in a BedBathandBeyond.com e-comm order that contains bath towels and bed linens, we may include a Tide Pods/Downey Sample packette because the towels and linens are washable. Makes common sense, right?

What value can brands expect to receive when partnering with Brandshare?

The value is seen in the post-campaign Attribution Report, which shows the Trial and Conversion rates, the number of full size sku’s carted, and the total value of those carted products.

The indirect value, which many brands refer to as “the halo effect”, is the no-cost derivative of our Connected Sampling within our e-commerce media network.

Many consumers naturally post about a great product, service or experience, and our sample brands receive organic social posts/impressions when they get into the hands of this consumer.

As consumers return to shopping in-stores how does Brandshare adapt?

In-store shopping will always have a place in retail; however, many consumers transitioned to online shopping during the pandemic because of the ease and convenience.

When I think of e-commerce, I often use the analogy of the E-ZPass. Once people made the leap and started using an E-ZPass, they never again sat in the long, slow cash line.

E-commerce is all about ease, convenience, and cost savings.

What brand do you believe has done an exceptional job at innovating and staying relevant throughout the years?

Mondelez and Ferraro in the snacks and candy categories, respectively.

While creativity is their secret ingredient, Mondelez and Ferraro believe their new products will become major brands, so they jumpstart sales by giving out samples to millions of targeted consumers.This is a key part of their growth marketing playbook.

What will the food & bev industry look like five years from now?

The pandemic accelerated the food & bev industry’s adoption of e-commerce by 6–7 years. Consumers demanded their favorite retailers & brands be accessible online or else they’ll spend their money elsewhere.

At the end of 2021, e-commerce sales will top $1 trillion in the USA for the first time ever. That’s 24% of the $4.04 trillion Total Retail Sales. We weren’t supposed to reach that 24% mark until ’26 or ’27.

Many innovations are taking place as that 24% grows to 30%+, one being how food & bev brands are adjusting packaging so they can easily ship their products straight to consumers homes in the most cost-efficient manner.

Brands can’t just play around with e-commerce like they did prior to 2020. They need to be all-in on this in-home distribution channel or risk losing shares to brands that already are.

Congrats! You made it all the way down here.

We’ll end this with a question for you:

1. What will the food & bev industry look like five years from now?

2. What will the grocery industry look like five years from now?

Comment or tweet your predictions and make sure to tag FirstLook!

It’s now table stakes for food & beverage brands to have beautiful packaging that captures consumers attention on the shelf and on social media.

With many food & bev brands checking the “aesthetically pleasing” box, consumers — especially younger ones like Gen-Z, zillenials, and maybe even millennials — want these brands to step it up a notch and also consider the environmental impact of their packaging.

To those rolling their eyes and thinking: “These young consumers demand everything. They want to drink a pretty beverage that takes the edge off, is infused with the latest buzz-word ingredient and save the world at the same time without ever looking up from their phone.”

We say: what else would you expect from the people who came of age during the plastic straw ban?

Sarcasm aside, food & beverage products do contribute a significant amount of waste. Research conducted by the UN shows that 1.6 billion tons of food is wasted every year and 12 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year.

This is a serious global, environmental issue that governments and people across the world are trying to solve. You probably already knew that from listening to David Attenborough’s majestic voice in his Netflix nature documentaries during quarantine.

What you may not know is that 55 percent of people surveyed in the US are extremely or very concerned about the environmental impact of product packaging, and 60 to 70 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging, according to a Mckinsey report published in October 2020.

While consumers express grievance over the current state of packaging, actually changing their individual behavior is the challenging part. Shocker, right?

This means that companies need to make it easy for consumers to be sustainable without thinking about it.

IWANNA, a CBD sparkling beverage inspired by the beach & tropical flavors, understands how to incorporate sustainability into the design & marketing of its product.

Arie Modiano, founder of IWANNA, knew that he wanted to come up with an innovative & fun solution to make IWANNA recyclable, “Our labels are made out of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Unfortunately this means that our labels are not very friendly because they complicate recycling and can even reduce the overall recycling rate. This is why we added that cool feature on the labels that you can just peel them off and still be able to recycle the can entirely.”

These easy to peel labels make for great social media content that’s not only informative & satisfying to watch; it also creates a curiosity gap and increases the likelihood of acquiring new customers.

Arie Modiano says he hasn’t seen any other beverage brands doing the peel-able label but he says, “We invite all brands to join us in doing the little things that can help our planet.”

One of the companies that is already helping brands step up and be more sustainable is Notpla, a London-based packaging solutions company.

Pierre-Yves Paslier, cofounder of Notpla, was pursuing a degree at the School of Design Engineering at Imperial College when he realized, during a student project, that seaweed had potential to be a great packaging material.

After several iterations, Paslier and his co-founder were able to create edible packaging to hold a food or beverage like water.

To test the stickiness of their product, Paslier went to a local run and set up shop at the hydration station and it was there that he really began to realize the potential of this product: “We realized that this was capturing people’s attention. It’s edible packaging where you literally eat the packaging and can see the product. It’s not a fancy way to hide something. We took a video of the project and it went viral. We found ourselves completely overwhelmed from interest across the world!”

Among those interested were large companies like Just Eat Takeaway , who were looking for ways to curb their waste from its partner restaurants. NotPla worked with Just Eat Takeaway to create the “sacks or bubbles” for condiment sauces like ketchup, mayo, mustard etc and eventually went on to redesign takeaway boxes to be more sustainable.

However, Paslier points out that this is not a one size fits all solution, “It’s lazy design to have one material that is going to have an application for every thing. We don’t have a solution that is going to replace all packaging. Notpla is good for on-the-go consumption but not well suited for retail. We believe in new materials in the market and natural packaging. There’s a company in London called Aeropowder that uses feathers for insulation materials instead of polystyrene. We’re also excited about what people are doing with mushrooms, shrimp shells, and waste byproducts from other industries.”

During the darkest moments of COVID-19, if you weren’t indulging in at least a glass of wine per night and dessert, what were you doing? Please, don’t answer that. It was rhetorical. But now that we can see light at the end of the tunnel and the days of hiding your “COVID-15” in Zoom meetings may be dwindling, it’s time to revisit your pantry, toss out your junk sugary shit, and swap in healthy sweets that don’t taste like you’re chewing on bland, wet cardboard sprinkled with Splenda.

Now that we just eliminated half of the “DTC” “good-for-you” healthy sweets on the market, we’re left with a $30 billion-dollar category: Chocolate.

Breaking Down The Chocolate Market

In 2021, chocolate is no longer synonymous with The Hershey Co. There’s an entirely new chocolate market popping up and a surge in demand for healthy, snacking chocolate made with high-quality, premium ingredients, and legacy brands are catching on.

Mondelēz International, Inc, the publicly traded snacking company that owns brands like Cadbury, Oreo, and Honey Maid, recently acquired vegan, paleo-friendly Hu Chocolate for a reported $340 million per the Wall Street Journal.

This begs the question: What are the “must have” characteristics for emerging chocolate brands that want to be the next big acquisition?

Simplicity

We live in a hectic world. Consumers shouldn’t have to whip out a magnifying glass and dictionary to see & understand all the ingredients that are listed. The most popular CPG chocolate brands recognize this and use it as a selling point in their packaging and branding.

• Pascha “100% Cocoa Organic Dark Chocolate Bar with Cocoa Nibs has two ingredients
• Hu Chocolate’s “Snacking Dark Chocolate Gems” has three ingredients
• Barnana’s “Dark Chocolate Banana Bites” has five ingredients

Transparent Supply Chain

Having a clean product that is good for you, non-GMO, vegan, etc is no longer enough. If your branding boasts about the simplicity and transparency of the ingredients then your supply chain better follow that same logic…or meet the wrath of social media!

Although creating a sustainable supply chain is tricky and requires brands to dedicate time and research, if properly executed, these are major points toward acquisition.

Packaging

Remember that phrase, ‘It’s what’s on the inside that counts’ or ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.’

Those sayings mean sh!t when we’re talking about CPG.

The outside, better known as your packaging, is just as important as the actual product, and if done correctly, packaging can be a unique way to show off some brand values like sustainability by using recyclable or compostable materials.

Snacking chocolate like Barkthins is sold in a single-use plastic pouch. Candid made a small, yet significant change to the packaging by selling its product in a recyclable box and compostable inner bag, which drastically reduces consumer waste.

Sourcing

“Responsible sourcing” is not just a superficial buzzword adopted by the CPG industry.

It’s a practice that ensures the integrity of your brand, and if done correctly, it means that your brand has a nuanced understanding of how it affects the economic, social, and environmental impact of the country of origin/community.

Consumers value brands that have personal relationships with their suppliers, but many times brands gloss over this part using the trite phrase “we work with small, independent suppliers.” What the hell does that actually mean?

It’s time that brands got real. Consumers want to read and hear about the people who work at the small, independent factories or farms. Consumers want to know that the people along the supply chain are being treated fairly and paid correctly.

Creating Goodwill

In today’s world, creating goodwill for your brand (AKA bringing in sales), often means partnering with the right influencers or markets to build brand excitement & awareness.

New-wave “convenience stores” that have a strong online presence and experiential showrooms (often those highly-curated pop-up spaces that millennials & Gen-Z love) allow consumers to discover the next big thing. These stores include New Stand, The Goods Mart, Pop Up Grocer, Neighborhood Goods, Showfields and feature some of the most exciting names in CPG like Candid, Ghia, Sakara Life, and Magic Spoon.

Wrap Up

With people becoming more aware of what they’re putting in their bodies, legacy brands are re-evaluating their operations and discovering new ways to stand out among the competition — which means acquiring smaller, forward-thinking chocolate startups.

Are there any other trends in the chocolate market that we missed? We’d love to hear from you in the comment section below.

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