Conquer The Noise

Karen Schnelwar, VP, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing of OXO, known for innovative kitchen and home goods, joins us for this week's episode. She has been a strategist for 20 years and now combines her experience in strategy with marketing as a leader of OXO’s marketing. 

Empathy is a big theme in this episode. They talk about how the brand started out of an act of love when Sam Farber, the founder, made a potato peeler for his wife Betsy, after seeing her struggle with the metal handle due to arthritis. Karen is tasked with keeping their messaging empathetic while showing how their product provides solutions to problems customers didn’t realize they had. 

Listeners will learn what empathetic marketing is and how they can weave it into their marketing initiatives as well as how to take a strategic approach to reaching their potential customers. The two talk a little about what her previous career as a strategist consists of and how it’s helped her success to date. 

OXO’s mission is to make the everyday better through a restless search for improvement. Part of their improvement is joining 1% For The Planet. During their conversation, Karen talks about the pillars they are supporting and how it all ties back to their business. 

Jonathan speaks with Sid Sharma, co-founder of Wild Kombucha, a Baltimore based kombucha company in this week's episode. The two talk about how COVID has affected business and what they are doing to pivot in a time when sales are down and staff has thinned out. Sid also speaks to their partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and how the bay is close to his heart and product. 

The two jump into marketing and how Wild Kombucha has saturated the East Coast through a grass roots approach. Their product quality has been a big part of how they have differentiated themselves. Sid talks about how Kombucha is a living product and that the quality can deteriorate by the time it reaches the customer so they came up with work arounds to deliver the best product they could. 

Community was a theme in the episode and Sid spoke about how they want to create passionate work culture. “Anyone we bring on we want them to be passionate about something. It doesn’t have to relate to kombucha in any way; can be photography, improv, stand up - it fosters creativity. Creativity is all perspective, the things and perspectives and experiences they bring in can bring a different approach to the way they do things.” said Sid. 

Jenni Tilton-Flood  joined us this week to talk about life as a dairy farmer and being a part of the Cabot Creamery co-op. “For me as a dairy farmer and member of Cabot Cream co-op, it means our farm is an owner. We are one of 800+ farm families that own Cabot. It provides us the opportunity to be a group of owners that are steering a ship in very, very difficult waters as opposed to one small boat alone. It's a comfort and salvation and opportunity.” said Jenni. 

Cabot Creamery is a certified B Corp. and is the first dairy co-op to be a B Corp. Jenni said, “The way our farms are rooted in communities and society and focus on sustainability - the way our co-op can do that, was to be a B Corp.”

Jonathan and Jenni talk through the stereotypes of being a dairy farmer and what it’s like to be a woman in the farming industry. 

The two cover a variety of topics including balancing the business financials  with market fluctuations while keeping milk affordable for consumers. Dairy farming requires lots of resources and supply chain disruption can be felt across industries. As the conversation progressed, they talked about learning from previous generations, how to work with family and making sure farm to plate foods are being done correctly.

Anne Marisic, Head of Marketing and Events at Maine Beer Co. and Jonathan dig into the founding story of the company and how their slogan, “Do What's Right.” is at the heart of everything they do. They have been a part of 1% For The Planet since the company began in 2008. “We’ll take care of our people, our communities, and our planet and make great beer while doing it.” said Anne. Anne reveals that their marketing is tied up in nonprofit work instead of doing advertisements, unless tied to nonprofits. The two talk about how Maine Beer Co. takes care of their team through a scholarship program and allows them to choose a nonprofit that they’re passionate about to give back to.

As the conversation progresses, the talk about how Maine Beer Co. has not followed trends and sticks to what they are good at. Known for classic hop-forward beers, they have a robust R&D program for their staff to experiment with different recipes and processes. Diversity and inclusion was also talked about as they are evaluating our hiring practices and have focused on what makes someone great for the job vs. having experience doing it.

Oliver Tomalin founded The Love Brand & Co. ten years ago with sustainability and impact in mind. He connected with Jonathan from his home in the UK, where his business is based, to talk about early inspiration and how he found his passion for elephant conservation. A trained architect, Oliver designs the clothing and retail stores. “There was an entrepreneurial spirit in me that wanted to create something new, be more adventurous." siad Tomalin. 

Oliver’s early years of travelling exposed him to a variety of cultures and experiences that live on through The Love Brand. As he developed the brand in the early years he knew he wanted to do something positive. “It was rather serendipitous, I walked out my front door, saw painted elephants raising awareness for endangered elephants, and that was the beginning of the last 10 years, and every day since I've been passionately pursuing this brand and saving endangered elephants" 

Passion is a clear theme in their conversation as Jonathan and Oiver talk to how that’s the driving force of what keeps it all going. Oliver noted that his passion is what keeps the business sustainable and has allowed him to get through the hurdles and mistakes while developing a new brand in a crowded marketplace. 

"I define [sustainability] as a willingness, and caring, really. If you can start with caring and generally looking at any situation and having a responsible, caring objective, and have the willingness to improve it, that's my anecdotal thing I've tried to employ, a step at a time.” said Oliver. 

Janie Heuck is the managing director at Brooks Winery in Willamette Valley, Oregon and began her winemaking journey after taking over her brother’s winery in 2004 when he suddenly passed away. Jonathan and Janie speak about the evolution Brooks Winery has taken and how the sudden loss of her brother has caused her to place a bigger emphasis on living and loving life and the people around her. Brooks Winery is currently offering Wines blended by sommeliers & wine professionals where proceeds are being donated to different charities.  

Janie talks through how taking care of their team, land and customers is at the heart of their brand. They are certified biodynamic by Detemer as well as a B Corporation, practicing environmentally sustainable farming to bring the best of the grapes and land. Biodynamic wines are thought to have greater purity and clarity in the wines and the most honest expression to terroir, which all about a sense of place. The two talk through this and what it means to their production and growing season. 

As the conversation weaves in and out of wine nerdom, they talk through the current response to COVID 19 and how some brands are practicing  shortsightedness and selling hard instead of brand building and deepening relationships with their customers. 

In this episode Jonathan speaks with Kat Nouri, founder of Stasher Bags, a maker of reusable silicone bags. Jonathan and Kat had a very energetic conversation that explored how her cultural background combined with a focus on food and health helped her become an inventor and entrepreneur. 

The conversation weaved in and out of sustainability and the different forms it takes, including running a sustainable business model, while connecting the dots between embracing failure and how it relates to entrepreneurship. 

The topics evolved to COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter moment as they discussed questioning the status quo. 

Mark Abrials, CMO of Avocado Mattress, talks with Jonathan Hanson, Chief Creative Officer at Unconquered, about his role at Avocado Mattress and how they are creating non-toxic, organic healthy mattresses using natural materials that they believe are better for you and for the planet. With 20 years of marketing experience, including founding his own agency, Mark talks about the journey that led him to found the company with five other founders who all are responsible for specific parts of the business. As the business has grown, Avocado Mattress has taken on a greater responsibility to green initiatives and undergone a series of certifications to help create accountability. There is so much green washing, it's really hard to believe what truly is green or whether that you're getting what you're paying for. They have joined 1% for the Planet as part of their giving program, became climate neutral, and then they recently became a B-corp.

As the company has grown, Mark talks about how making bolder moves start with focusing on the core product and is a journey of 1,000 steps.

As the conversation progresses, Jonathan and Mark talk to the importance of brands taking a position and having an opinion. In being safe, you really end up not saying anything with your brand and that can have an impact on sales. Part of having an opinion is talking through what it means to be sustainable and socially responsible. The two weave in and out of what those mean to them and how they support each other, but are not necessarily the same. 

Robert Koenen, CMO of Boxed Water, and Jonathan get to the heart of brand values and talk through how they can ripple through a business in the form of give back programs, decision making and how customers relate to your brand in this week's episode. A former executive at Timberland, Hushpuppies and UGG, Robert speaks to his early experiences in fashion to help frame his current role at Boxed Water is Better, where he is responsible for all marketing initiatives. 

During their conversation, they talked through the role brands need to take in aligning with social issues as well as taking responsibility for their environmental impact. “It's a matter of time, we have some laggards, but the majority of people understand that a brand needs to do something to help the community in one way or the other.” said Robert. 

Listen in as the two discuss how companies must take a stand on issues because consumers are going to find what aligns with them and support those businesses. Boxed Water is Better, has taken the stance of reducing plastic waste by providing an alternative to bottled water using renewable resources in their boxed water. 

In this episode, Jonathan speaks with Liz Miller, director of marketing at Divine Chocolate about how her early experiences in life set her up to give back and think beyond herself. Her work at Divine Chocolate is all about supporting the farmers that own the brand which has taken big strides in defining the different forms sustainability takes. 

Forty Four percent of Divine Chocolate is owned by the farmers that grow cocoa in Ghana making it the only chocolate brand that is owned by it’s farmers. Liz talks about how empathy has helped her grow as a person and helps move business forward, challenging common views about running a business in a capitalist society. 

She is a mentor for young women and has worked with women facing violence. During her conversation with Jonathan, Liz said, “Sometimes women are placed in situations where they lose power. Power is really important for understanding how you can move forward in the world - can be interpreted in many ways, but when you feel like you can make choices yourself, and you feel supported in those choices, you can go a lot further and have opportunity to take yourself places in a way that you don't have to rely on other people.”

The conversation was packed with insights as Liz talked through finding ways to help others make their own growth, being a bridge between the lack of understanding between issues and recognizing that there is a lot of inequality in the world and in a position like hers, she has the opportunity to shed light onto situations.