The microbiome will not be fixed, so consumers must keep eating your snacks

Gut health is not a diet, the countdown to a big brand promise, milk sales, couponing, Amazon goes generic, and baby boomers as a target

3-min read

The pre-launch build up has been a lot.

Gosh, what if it doesn’t taste good

Peter Rahal (RXBar) wanted to make the most perfect protein bar ever, so he developed David, and gave us a big brand promise.

A brand promise is your contract with consumers that the product inside will deliver on the expectation you created. It’s tough to recover if the promise falls short. David better be perfect.

In case you are curious, here’s what’s in it (h/t Snaxshot)

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Don’t forget about boomers

Building on last week’s post on protein-ification, seniors are a fairly untapped audience.

If you have a protein fortified solution, and still working on who your target audience should be, think about the older crowd, says a recent study. The insight is, added protein should fit into existing everyday habits vs a new occasion (like forcing down a shake in the middle of the day)

And this demo has $$

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The Consumer Price Index came out today, and food is getting cheaper.

Amazon is launching new Amazon Saver brand, which touts most items priced <$5 and Prime members get 10% off. Not surprised Amazon is going with the Generic look for this new PL brand

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The latest on US retail milk sales

From IDFA’s Andrew Jerome as told to The Dairy Reporter:

• Lactose-Free milk was up +11.6% in 2024 (YTD May 2024) in retail

• Plant based milk is down -4.7%

• Lactose-Free has outpaced Almond in gallons and dollars over the past 5 years

• Almond has declined -0.8% per year since 2019

• Lactose-free is going so well, processors are moving it into gallon jugs at retail. Still, lactose-free is just 6% of all milk sales.

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Dietary changes do not seem to reliably alter the microbiome permanently

I read this 29 min paper, and here it is:

“[while] additions of things like fiber, polyphenols, probiotics, and so on do cause gut microbiome shifts in adult humans… the microbiome quickly ‘snaps back’ to its usual state even if the diet is maintained for over a year!”

This means people have to continually consume your high fiber products to stay healthy.

Gut health is not a diet trend that people go on and off of like Keto. It’s an everyday lifestyle. When explaining the long-term opportunity to your investors, show them this search term comparison over time

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Store activations to support your retail biz

Things are getting better for online grocery sponsored product sampling. Retailer Stater Bros admits their previous program didn’t work and is rebooting. I think this is a great way to get samples into the hands of your target audience and gain first-party data.

Couponing is back

I recommend printing coupons for your demo teams and retailer events. Coupons at sampling tables supercharge trial. If you are new to coupons (digital coupons too), here is a how-to on couponing including DIY steps.

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It’s almost apple picking season — Rex planted espalier 3-in-1s and look!

All my best,

Jennifer