The Optimizely Podcast

When Maurice Tebele and Martin Hoffstein were out for a drink, they noticed the same thing when looking at the bar -- all of the bottles were bland, boring, and not very colorful. So they decided to do something about it. 

The duo crafted JAJA (pronounced ha-ha), a tequila brand inspired by their trip to Jalisco, Mexico that doesn’t take itself too seriously. JAJA Tequila has only been around for a year, but the silver and gold spirits are already sold in 28 states in over 2,000 locations across the US. 

As a Graduate Gemologist and fourth-generation jeweler, Olivia Landau has always had a passion for diamonds -- they are a girl’s best friend after all.

She started The Clear Cut as an educational platform where she provided guidance to friends on how to buy diamonds and pick out engagement rings. But with her extensive experience in the industry, it was a natural progression from content into the world of ecommerce. Now, Olivia has cracked the code on reaching modern, luxury buyers in the ways that are most accessible to them and has even sold engagement rings over Instagram DM!

How do you make food and beverage products stand out, both online and on store shelves?

With consumer’s tastes and preferences changing constantly, you always have to keep up with the latest trends to help your clients succeed. Luckily, David Lemley has been in ecommerce since its inception, which means that he’s also seen the space evolve in the last few years. 

Because of his passion for natural food and beverage, David founded his own marketing agency, Retail Voodoo. He’s known for helping natural and organic brands like KIND, Essentia Water, and Sahale succeed both online and on shelves. 

He focuses on building brand longevity that transcends the trends. But it’s not always easy to make a snack or beverage stand out when there are so many others fighting for consumers’ attention.

Launching a new brand from scratch is incredibly challenging. No one knows who you are; no one knows the value of your products; and you have to acquire an entirely new audience of buyers. But it can be done, and done well. 

We’ve all seen the digitally native vertical brands appear out of nowhere and dominate the market. But what does it look like when one of those brands is just getting started? Tracey Wallace has been in the ecommerce world for nearly a decade, but she’s a first-time founder. She launched Doris Sleep, an ethically-made pillow company, just last year while still working at her previous role at Big Commerce. But she had years of experience working at Naturally Curly, an early content and commerce haircare company, as well as Shoptiques, a YCombinator fashion company. 

Despite that, Doris Sleep was a whole new ballgame. However, Tracey explains that the business was really in her blood. 

As surprising as it may seem, some industries still haven’t fully adapted to the digital world. There are still industries where purchases are made via signed contracts, not through a smooth ecommerce checkout process. But that is changing. Veronica Armstrong is personally looking to infiltrate the wedding industry with an ecommerce mindset.  She is the head of marketing at Mayflower Venues, an online marketplace that helps you discover and book unique wedding venues. And Veronica is no stranger to building a brand from the ground up. As employee #4 at Lovepop cards, she saw that brand go from unknown to Sharktank to dominating the specialty card market.

Customer research is the core of every good marketing strategy. Finding product-market fit is nearly impossible if you don’t talk to a ton of people about your product, test it out, and find the audience who truly loves it. 

This is exactly the method that helped Josh Zloof find the right customers for Sudden Coffee. He faced what seemed like an insurmountable challenge -- how do you change the bad reputation of instant coffee? To most people, it’s seen as cheap, fast, and pretty tasteless. In comparison, Sudden Coffee offers coffee snobs everywhere a fast and delicious cup that you can buy today on Amazon or at Whole Foods. 

But it wasn’t an easy path to get there! After working at Groupon, Josh was determined to start a company in the food space, but couldn’t settle on the right idea. It took him tons of experimentation, a lot of customer research, and a complete re-brand before Sudden found its identity and core market.

Amazon is a behemoth. So much so, that sales on Amazon accounted for a staggering 68% of all ecommerce sales in 2018. And a large portion of Amazon’s massive sales go through third-party sellers that are Fulfilled by Amazon, or FBA sellers. This is exactly the market that Brandon Hendrix focuses on. He’s the VP of Marketing at Thras.io, a fast-growing acquirer of Amazon FBA businesses. Formerly head of acquisition at LovePop, he's now focused entirely on the wild world of Amazon. 

Marketplaces everywhere always have a two-sided challenge. You have to both engage your target audience of buyers, and find and engage the right sellers who are a good fit for your specific market. It’s far from easy! Even if what you’re selling is as delicious as food from Uber Eats. Jessica van Rooyen is the Regional Marketing Lead for Uber Eats Canada, the massively successful offshoot of Uber that delivers food to your door. She’s tasked with growing the service not only into new markets, but also with new restaurant partners. 

The Empowered Marketer was at Shoptalk 2019 in Las Vegas, along with more than 8,000 smart retailers and eCommerce experts. We were there with an eye out for trends, interesting new marketing ideas, and original observations. Whether you attended or just wish you could have made it, this very special episode of The Empowered Marketer is all Shoptalk, all the time. 

Charlie Hustle did something incredibly difficult: they created a t-shirt that became the symbol of a city. Specifically, Kansas City.

The shirt with a simple KC heart design went viral when the Royals won the World Series in 2014, but the brand hasn’t slowed down since. Greg Moore, the Chief Operating Officer at Charlie Hustle, explained that one mega success is not enough for a sustainable business. So today, the vintage-style sports clothing brand puts out a new product every two weeks, expanding into college gear, exclusive licensing deals with pro athletes like Patrick Mahomes, and much more. And Greg is there helping the brand grow and scale.