Peppered: A Food and Beverage Marketing Podcast

How Appetite Appeal Can Help Grow Your Brand

On this episode of the Peppered Podcast, we will be discussing Appetite Appeal. Not only is this one of my favorite topics in food and beverage marketing, but it’s a critical component in growing brands.

The LOVE of FOOD is one of the strongest human emotions.

Food fantasies—anticipating that special moment. How our imaginations can just run wild.

It doesn’t just happen. Appetite appeal has two fundamental driving forces: Science and Art.

The Science: Our metabolic need to eat. We need food and liquids to fuel our bodies. Humans have powerful mood-altering neurotransmitters in our brains that activate these senses, which ultimately drives us to eat. To crave.

The Art: Unlike the science behind your appetite, the emotional aspect of eating is often driven by art and creativity. We eat with our eyes, ears, and imagination long before we actually taste anything. This is the artistry of creating appetite appeal.

Join me as we discuss:

The metabolic need to eat

How our brains create the impulse or desire to eat

Why most hunger and thirst is purely emotional

The dopamine effect

The artistry tapping into the emotions of appetite appeal

We eat with our eyes and imagination

Using words and imagery to mimic real-life eating experiences

And much more

Tara-Ann Dugan is the Director of Consumer and Marketplace Insights for the National Pork Board and has more than 12 years of food marketing and research experience, spanning across McDonald’s Corporation, Nielsen, IRI, and Hammacher Schlemmer. She has some great insight not only in the protein category but eating occasions in general.

On today’s show we will be taking a deep dive into the wonderful world of pork, meat, and protein.

Join us as we discuss:

- Changing consumer needs

- 9 dinner occasions identified in the new Dinner at Home in America research

- Do Millennials and GenZ know how to cook meat?

- Perceptions of pork and meat

- The role of Retail POS

- How has “plant-based” impacted the pork category?

- What’s new and innovative in the pork industry?

- Transparency

Krishna Kaliannan is the founder of Catalina Crunch, a better-for-you cereal brand that could be equated to “healthy version” Cocoa Puffs.

Hailed as a breakthrough in cereal science, Catalina Crunch has that same “light and crunchy” texture and delicious sweet taste that we all grew to love in our favorite childhood cereals—but, with none of the bad ingredients—and it’s low in carbs. In addition to an exciting brand, Krishna also has an incredible story behind his product, including his health journey with Type 1 Diabetes.

On this episode of the podcast, we’ll be discussing:

- The story behind Catalina Crunch

- Functional foods that taste delicious

- Transitioning from online to retail

- Competing in a mega-category

- And more

This episode of the Peppered Podcast is with Loren Brill, founder of Sweet Loren’s. Sweet Loren’s is a fast-emerging brand of refrigerated cookie dough—self-described as a clean food company transforming what it means to be convenient and delicious.

I love the fact that Sweet Loren’s is extremely indulgent, deliciously sweet —and made with clean, simple ingredients. But more importantly, I love the story behind the brand.

When founder, Loren Brill, was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, along with her treatments, she also knew that she needed to change her eating habits. But the one thing she just couldn’t give up were SWEETS. This began her journey on how to satisfy that sweet tooth—with quality, better-for-you ingredients—but without comprising on taste; which ultimately resulted in Sweet Loren’s cookie dough.

On this episode of the Peppered Podcast, we’re going to dig deep into food trends, discussing:

- The story behind the brand

- The challenges of starting a new brand

- Scaling-up—quickly!

- Why core principles and values matter

- The importance of clean, simple ingredients

- Why consumers rally behind this brand

- And more

This episode of the Peppered Podcast is with Dan Follese, executive chef and founder of both Follese Consulting and the Food Trend Translator. In the food and beverage biz, innovation is a powerful influence with consumers and can be a strong driving force for brands. And, most innovation is driven by consumer trends. Knowing what the current trends are and hitting them at the right time, can make or break a food or beverage brand.

On this episode of the Peppered Podcast, we’re going to dig deep into food trends, discussing:

• The differences between Macro & Micro trends

• Translating trends for CPG brands

• How foodservice trends inspire retail

• How trends impact marketing professionals

• Current hot trends

• And more

This episode of the Peppered Podcast focuses exclusively on digital marketing and features Nate Bachynski. It seems like everyone today is an “expert” in digital marketing. So many of the food and beverage brands that I come in contact with simply don’t have their digital and social strategies buttoned-up.

If you want to learn the basic framework for a digital strategy, on how to grow your brand, tune in to this episode where we discuss:

• Consumer Acquisition—the path to purchase

• Reach & Frequency

• Consumer Targeting

• Geographic

• Lifestyle

• Category

• Micro-Targeting

• Retargeting & Sequential Messaging

• Performance Analysis

• And much more

My guest on this episode of the Peppered Podcast is Jeff Metzger, President of Best-Met Publishing and publisher for Food World, Food Trade News, and the Mid-Atlantic Grocery Industry Directory.

Jeff has been a “go-to guy” for decades for manufacturers, brands, retail executives, buyers, brokers, or anyone who needs to be in the “know” for the grocery biz.

If you want to know what’s going on in food and beverage retail, tune in to this episode, where we discuss:

Adapting to how and what consumers are eating

Where they are purchasing

The new role of e-commerce

Meal kits and their impact on brands

What categories are growing

The Millennial and Gen Z effect on retail

How private label is affecting brands

Who are the hottest retailers?

And much more

In this episode of the Peppered Podcast, I’m having a conversation with Jim Low. Jim is the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Schuman Cheese. He’s also worked at Enjoy Life Foods, a popular better-for-you snack brand and global food giant, Mondelez, where he worked on the Ritz Crackers, Wheat Thins, and Trident Gum brands.

On this episode we discuss:

• Working with a 4th generation family brand

• Innovation within a mature category

• Why creativity is so important for brands

• The benefits of distinctive packaging

• Gaining distribution for new products

• Driving trial with consumers

• And, a little shop-talk on some of the hottest brands

On this episode of the Peppered Podcast I’m talking with Patrick Wells about online culture. Patrick is a social expert and the creative genius behind MoonPie’s incredible success on Twitter.

On this episode we discuss:

· Relating to online culture

· How to create a viral moment

· What most brands are doing wrong on social media

· Can social media really drive sales?

· What’s next for brands on social media?

· And much more

On this episode of the Peppered Podcast I’m speaking with Chris Kirby, founder of Ithaca Cold-Crafted, the first ever, cold-crafted hummus. This is not just another “me too” hummus. They use a cold pressure process instead of heat pasteurization, which keeps their ingredients raw, full of nutrients, and incredibly flavorful.

On this episode we discuss:

• The Ithaca Cold-Crafted brand story

• How small brands can compete against category giants

• Gaining distribution for emerging brands

• Production scale-up challenges

• Maintaining profit along the journey

• The role of social media