John Roulac of Nutiva
In this Brand Innovator Spotlight, John Roulac, CEO of Nutiva shares how the brand is on a mission to revolutionize the food world. Founded in 1999, the CPG has experienced a 41% annual growth rate since 2006. In 2009 and 2010 Inc.magazine named Nutiva a fastest growing company in America and the company is tracking to win the honor for a third year in a row in 2011. With a projected sales growth of 70% in 2011 (or about $20M), it seems Nutiva is breaking out as the new organic “it” brand.
Brandon Gutman: How has Nutiva been growing at a 41% annual growth rate since 2006?
John Roulac: We are fortunate to be in organic foods which is a growth sector. Plus Nutiva’s core offering of Organic Coconut Oil, Hemp and Chia foods happens to be the fastest growing sectors in food. It’s part good planning and perhaps a bit of luck. On the sales side we have focused on hitting where others aren’t. Health food stores are obvious but there are many other channels of distribution we seek to capture. We are also doing about $1.5M in annual sales at Nutiva.com and expect this to double by 2012. Last Thursday alone we did $12K in web sales. Also TV celeb Dr. Oz is a fan of these types of foods and whenever he mentions hemp, coconut or chia foods, our sales increase dramatically. Martha Stewart last year only had to say “I think I am in the mood for some hemp” while pouring the seeds onto some yogurt and sales of Nutiva Hempseed doubled for months. I look to the great consumer brands of Amazon.com, Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos to name a few. We study their strategies and see how we can apply them to our brand. As they say – “why reinvent the wheel?”
How does Nutiva separate itself from other food brands?
As marketing guru, Seth Godin, writes, what is the “free prize inside?” For Cracker Jacks it was a free toy that made kids buy the product. For Nutiva it’s about creating a better world. While I know that is a bit of a cliché these days, at Nutiva it’s baked into our core mission of “nourishing people and planet.” We demonstrate this with donating 1% of sales (not profits) to non-profit groups promoting sustainable agriculture. This ranges from planting fruit trees in inner city California schools to helping fund movies about protecting bees. Our Health IQ Surveys via Nutiva.com, FB, and Twitter have tips on eating better food to the upsides of solar versus nuclear energy. Bloomberg recently featured Nutiva and its historic legal victory with the US DEA to insure the rights of all Americans to enjoy non-drug hemp foods. Our core fans love this in your face, speak truth to power. As marketers understand, whatever you do, just don’t be boring.
What does Nutiva’s social media strategy look like?
As Zappos has proven, firms which do cool things in unusual ways, reap brand praise via social media. We did a YouTube pantry make over with a mother and daughter and obtained over 40,000 viewers. We never did a press release or bought an ad on it but the word spread. Our YouTube channel has over a 100,000 views of a dozen or so clips from why chia is a super food.
We ask our Facebook fans how they use coconut oil and we get 30 replies in a few hours. New customers ask questions and our hard core fans answers it before our team can even reply. We added a Facebook game where consumers can win free product and obtain discounts by sharing Nutiva articles and recipes from our Nutiva Kitchen. We tweet about the dangers of GMOs to the healing power of yoga. Social media is ideal to showcase Nutiva as a ”lifestyle” brand. Anyone can pour oil in a jar or seeds into a bag. The question we ask is – How can we not only offer high quality organic foods, but do it in a way that customers perceive us as being part of the solution versus a faceless corporate entity with a passion only for ROI. Social media is like a sword that cuts both ways. Marketers need to understand this and get ahead of the curve on issues and concerns. One of our own challenges is our packaging and we know we need to move to a greener offering.
John Roulac with two of Nutiva's leading products
How did Nutiva transition from Whole Foods and co-ops to the Safeways and Walmarts of the world?
Many younger businesses understand that selling to major mass market accounts is a great dream or goal. Yet going to market too early can cause issues. At Nutiva we held back until the mass market was ready to accept organic coconut oil and hemp or chia seeds. Yet we don’t forget the ones who brought us to the dance and we try to work with the mom and pops and hippie co-ops who started the whole organic movement in the first place.
Where is the brand heading over the next decade?
We have set up a few simple annual sales and donation goals to guide our tribe along our journey to shake up the food industry:
$100MM sales and $1MM donations by 2015
$500MM sales and $5MM donations by 2020
$1B sales and $10MM donations 2025
Our plan is to bulk up to $100MM annual sales quickly and then challenge the largest food brands in the world such as Kraft and Nestle. We plan on educating folks on nourishing organic foods and gather as much market share as we can. Making a buck doing it helps spread the wealth around while attracting the best and brightest to join the Nutiva tribe in challenging the Goliath’s of the food world.
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