June 28, 2022 • 34 mins
The Month End provides emerging inventory-based brands real life knowledge in the accounting, finance, and operational world. Our guests are not only similar brand founders and owners, but key stakeholders and contributors to the industry. Each episode provides a glimpse into the vast experience and insight from its guest’s unique background in a casual, conversational tone.
• • •
In episode twenty two, Accountfully's CEO and Partner, Brad Ebenhoeh, sits down with Miguel Leal of Somos Foods. Leal shares his story of bringing healthy, easy-to-prepare, authentic Mexican food and ingredients to a competitive market. This episode offers detailed insight into market positioning and the importance of relationships in the industry and across the supply chain.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brad Ebenhoeh (00:00):
All right, welcome to episode 22 of The
(00:02):
Month End Podcast. Today we haveMiguel Leal from Somos. He's the
Co-Founder and CEO. How youdoing today, Miguel?
Miguel Leal (00:09):
Hey Brad, thanks for having me.
Brad Ebenhoeh (00:10):
I'm very excited about this conversation. First
of all very cool brand. Veryexcited learn about, you know,
Somos, but also the journey thatyou came from, you know, big
brands like Kind snacks andthings like that, and how you
built a brand from nothing, andwhat your goals and your
processes and workflow in yourmindset is. So, super excited
(00:30):
about that. So, Miguel, let'sstart off with background about
yourself. Where did you comefrom? What have you done
previously? And then what madeyou want to launch Somos?
Miguel Leal (00:41):
Yeah, no, thank you. I was born in Mexico, in
Monterrey close to the border.
And my family is from a bordertown from Nuevo Laredo. So a
lot, I think of, of where I am,started as a kid going to visit
my relatives there, and thencrossing to the other side of
(01:02):
the border and going to the HEBand Walmart at the Laredo
border, and just beingmesmerized by the amount of
products and, you know, foodthat didn't exist in Mexico. And
even though, you know, I startedmy career as an engineer, and
working in the paper industry, Ikind of like I always felt like,
(01:23):
I was gonna end up in food. Andespecially in CPG, from a young
age, I was just obsessed, youknow, I love going with my
parents to show up and buygroceries. And, and I cook and,
you know, I think just one thingled to another. I came to the US
for my college degree. And thenfor my graduate degree, my wife
(01:48):
was from the Midwest here inthe, in the US, and then we just
stayed. And I think after thatit was easy. Like you said, I
started in big food, you know,Pepsi, PepsiCo, and then Dannon.
And then I did you know, threehigh growth brands, you
mentioned a couple of them, butin order Kettle, then Kind, then
(02:09):
Cholula. And we've had the ideaof Somos for many years, and we
just thought the timing wasperfect to start this company.
And, and yeah, I think again,you know, probably I was
predestined to be doing this. Idon't think I could have
(02:30):
connected the dots forward, butnow it's very easy to connect
them backwards.
Brad Ebenhoeh (02:35):
Yeah, definitely makes sense. Now looking back,
backwards. So you know, at Kind,at Cholula, you know what was
your role at those brands?
Miguel Leal (02:44):
Yeah. So, again, I'm an engineer, I started my
career in operations, supplychain, procurement. Then after
graduate school, I cannot likesound in on the commercial side,
I would say I've mostly donemarketing. You know at Kettle,
Kind, and Cholula I was the CMO,I was the head of marketing
(03:07):
there. I did a little bit ofinnovation and a little bit of
sales, sales planning, that'sprobably one of my favorite jobs
that I've had. But yeah, it'sbeen mostly you know, you know,
recruiting and assembling a bestin class marketing team and then
positioning the brand and, andhaving a good marketing mix that
(03:28):
you know, has a good return oninvestment and does a good job
promoting the brand.
Brad Ebenhoeh (03:33):
That's awesome.
You've done a lot, a lot ofthings, so very cool. So give us
a little background on Somosspecifically, what you're
selling, what you're doing,where you're selling, and then
we will dive into some moredetails.
Miguel Leal (03:44):
Yeah, so our quality natural offering has
chips, salsa, rice beans, andplant-based interests like
smokey chipotle mushroom andcauliflower tinga. We also have
a couple of variations of aMexican recipe called
peacadillo. It is a recipe thatis spicy you know taco ground
(04:09):
beef is based on but we do itplant-based with pea protein.
All these products are meant tobe mixed and matched and you can
do tacos, nachos, bowls,chilaquiles, tostadas or they
can be done by themselves. Thereis really no right way to eat
Somos.
Brad Ebenhoeh (04:28):
Awesome, awesome sounds yummy here as I'm taping
this around noon Eastern time.
All right, so sales channels. Soclearly I saw on your website,
great brand, great colors by theway. It's very vibrant and
popping but why did decided youknow direct consumer, are you
selling anywhere else? And thenwhy have you decided on your
(04:50):
sales channel kind of plan or goto market?
Miguel Leal (04:53):
Yeah, we really wanted to start with direct to
consumer, you know, the way thatwe thought about that was that
direct to consumer could be agreat trial generator engine for
the brand. And what we do ondirect to consumers is we sell
kits. So we put all theingredients that you need to
(05:16):
have a taco, or a chilaquiles,you know, at home, for family of
four for under 10 minutes. Allof our products are pre-cooked,
ready to heat, and we thought,you know, for people doing Taco
Tuesday or any night of theweek, that would be the easiest.
So we launched our beta programin September of last year, just
(05:40):
with chips and salsa, mostlyfriends and family, trying to
run water through the pipes,make sure that all the systems
were connecting with each other.
And then we open it up with 16different boxes in January. We
always thought that we wouldestablish the brand in direct to
consumer first, and make surethat everything, you know, we
(06:03):
were getting the right feedback,and we were getting the right
users and choices. What reallysurprised us was how much
traction we got that at retail.
We are gonna be in 4,000 stores,starting next month. We received
(06:26):
our first two customers at theend of February that were
Sprouts and Kroger. And now, youknow, again, we're going to be
close to 4,000 stores, includingall Albertsons divisions and HEB
next month.
Brad Ebenhoeh (06:47):
Well, that's awesome. Congrats. So two
questions, I'll start with theDTC. Like from a DTC standpoint,
as you kind of said, like, youknow, Taco Tuesdays and, and
people kind of, you know, mixingin Mexican cuisine into their
diets. Was there--this is just akind of general question from my
end--was there any like data onlike subscription, subscribing,
(07:08):
you know, where they get itevery two weeks, every week or
every month versus, you know,one time buys?
Miguel Leal (07:14):
Yeah. So there were a couple of things that
surprised us. And we're actuallypivoting our business model as a
result of that. We definitelydesigned the business to be
subscription. We looked at thistrend. And we had been looking
at it since I was working atCholula. People during the
(07:35):
pandemic, very interesting,Brad, you know, the amount of
consumers three out of fourhouseholds, during the pandemic,
either cook with a Mexicaningredient, or bought Mexican
food into their homes, surpassedItalian food as the number one
(07:55):
ethnic food in the country lastyear, and it was this phenomenon
of Taco Tuesday of people, youknow, figuring out something
that they could do that was easythat everybody liked, is just,
you know, we didn't feel likethere was a good entry point,
you know, everything in ouropinion, you know, was a little
(08:19):
bit clunky, you have to buy youknow, the ground beef in one
place the taco seasoning inanother, then you have to buy
the hard shell, you know, liketacos, and none of it was really
Mexican, like Tex Mex and CalMex did a really good job. And
nothing wrong with those twoscenes, but we wanted to bring
(08:41):
something similar that wasauthentically Mexican, and maybe
more convenient. And also betterfor you. All of our products are
non GMO, clean ingredients,plant-based gluten-free. So we
check a lot of boxes on thatregard as well. So that's that's
how we designed these thesedirect to consumer kits. And the
(09:03):
pivot. What surprised us toanswer your question is that
most of our orders became peoplemixing and matching their own
meals. Well, what what we areseeing a lot of is consumers
buying, you know, the chips, thesalsa, and the beans to make
(09:24):
chilaquiles, but then they addcheese, and they add a fried egg
on top of it. Or making a veryeasy pollo la plancha recipe
where you grill a couple ofchicken breasts and then you add
our smokey Chipotle mushrooms ontop of that. So we see consumers
using Somos kind of like, like Isaid at the beginning there is
(09:49):
no right way to use it. And weare pivoting our model to do
that. That's you know, thatrequires a different fulfillment
center when you are picking andpacking, you know, different
recipes, and things like that.
So, and the way that we promoteit online is also different
because instead of having adetermined way to do it, we are
(10:11):
introducing quick hacks withinstead of with celebrity chefs
with just like regular people onregular influencers, a lot of
people of Mexican descent, thatbring you different ideas on how
to use the flexibility of Somosis our new highlight in our
(10:31):
promotion, and also in oursupply chain.
Brad Ebenhoeh (10:36):
Gotcha. That'll make sense. Love it. The second
question I had around sales, sothen how did you position
yourself for retail? So you're,you know, clearly getting it in
the next 60 days having a lot,you know, 4000 stores? I think
you said like, how did youposition yourself? How did you
attack that space in that thatsales channel?
Miguel Leal (10:59):
Yeah, I mean, I am not a merchant. What we do
really well, is we createdelicious products, and
beautiful brands. And I think,you know, if you look at Kettle,
and maybe especially Kind, andCholula as well, you know, great
products, beautiful packaging,beautiful brand. Great story. If
(11:22):
I had, again another pivot, anidea of what I wanted to do, I
wanted to create, when I look atthe Mexican set in the store,
you see, you see two things, yousee sometimes a set that has,
you know, great authenticMexican food, but for first
(11:45):
generation Hispanics, and youknow, it doesn't really sell to
the mainstream market. Itdoesn't have the convenience or
the better for you credentialsfor that set. And sometimes
talking to consumers they are,they don't feel comfortable
shopping that set. And then youhave the opposite when it's
(12:06):
integrated. And most of thesection is really TexMex or
CalMex. And there is very littleauthentic Mexican representation
on that set. So what we wantedto do was to create a Somos
billboard, when you can come inand mix and match, you know, two
(12:26):
or three pouches, a couple ofpouches and salsa, and have a
very quick solution that you canconfirm for, for a really good
price and have a meal for peopleunder 10 minutes. And a
delicious meal as well.
Unfortunately, you know, again,to my earlier point, I am not a
merchant, and you know very hardas a new brand to come and
(12:50):
command that space, we've beenvery fortunate with a couple of
accounts that they've given usthe opportunity. With others,
we've gone to the Mexican set.
I'll tell you probably thebiggest insight came from one of
our retail partners. But whenyou go to the TexMex section,
(13:11):
count the number of taco shellsthat they have on the section. I
counted, you know, I'm here justoutside of New York, I counted
over 48 different SKUs of tacoshells, but nothing to put
inside the taco shell. And thatwas something you know, it's
(13:32):
like having the peanut butteraisle with no jelly or with no
bread, or having the salsa aislewith no chips, you know, and for
a lot of our customers, that'swhere Somos is coming in.
Because now you know, you canmix and match and grow the
Brad Ebenhoeh (13:49):
That's fascinating. You know, just to
category.
say that from just, you know,how I consume or you know, by
product you go in and to yourpoint to be very creative
because you're like this aislehas this piece of food and that
aisle and if you can justvisually see the six things that
are all complements or 10different SKUs, you can just mix
and match right there makes alot of sense so interesting on
(14:10):
that. All right, I want to moveon to the supply chain, kind of
you already mentioned you know,the the mix and match and pick
and pack different products.
Kind of give me a high level ofthe supply chain because clearly
you're dealing you know, withauthentic Mexican cuisine, so
you know, you're dealing with aforeign country, Mexico versus
you know, being in the US solike just kind of high level
your supply chain kind of whatyou're doing, how you're
(14:31):
operating from, you know,manufacturing to 3PL and kind of
then in from there then we canget into some, you know,
successes and some challengesand everything.
Miguel Leal (14:40):
Yeah, so I admire a lot, the Cholula brand even
before I worked there. When Iworked there, I just realized,
you know a couple of things thatyou know to have an authentic
Mexican brand, you need to beworking with farmers and
(15:01):
manufacturers in Mexico. Thatjust, you know, not only gave
Cholula a lot of authenticity,but I will tell you the
difference between using youknow, Mexican peppers versus
peppers, you know, from otherparts of the of the globe, you
know, make a big difference inthe taste and in the consumer
preference. And when I envisionsomos, I envision it very
(15:26):
similar, that we were going tobe able to work with family
farms, you know, for example,you know, where we grow a lot of
our vegetables, that family isin the fourth generation of
growing vegetables in theQueretaro region of Mexico, that
(15:46):
we were going to follow alsotraditional Mexican cooking
processes. So for example, oursalsas follow a cooking process
in which you fire roast thevegetables with the peppers
together. And you know, you doget those specs on the you know,
(16:10):
from the burn, and that kind oflike sweet and acidic taste that
comes from the tomatillos, butyou also get thickness in the
salsa that is very differentfrom the other products in the
market, it's almost pure pulp.
And that makes a big differencewhen you put it on your taco.
Because the tortilla doesn't getsoggy, you know, from the
(16:31):
separation of the product. Samething with our chips, our chips
use nixtamalization corn, whichis an old Aztec, you know,
process of treating the corn,you know, in water overnight, so
you get the flavor and all thenutrients of the corn, and then
we stone ground that, whichmakes it a lot thicker than the
(16:53):
rest of the products out there.
You know, and the same goes forthe rice and the beans, and all
of our products. So long storyshort, we had to do these
products in Mexico, we have togrow them in Mexico, we have to,
you know, cook them in Mexico.
And our biggest challenge, youknow, was not manufacturing, or
(17:14):
sourcing, because Mexicans arevery good at cooking. You know,
there is a whole industryestablished around food, there
is a culture of food, you know,we have great manufacturing
partners and suppliers. InMexico, the biggest issue was
establishing a supply chain thatwas plant-based, gluten-free,
(17:38):
and non-GMO. Because thosecertifications don't don't
really exist in Mexico. And wereally, you know, from our
background, you know, from thebrands that I mentioned, and our
vision for Somos we wanted toachieve that. So that became our
(17:58):
biggest challenge on how to getthat done. You know, rice is
non-GMO, I'm sorry, isgluten-free from the source. But
sometimes it can getcontaminated in transit. And
establishing all of those piecesthrough the supply chain, I
think was our biggest challengelast year, as we were, you know,
(18:20):
building our portfolio, and it'sprobably becoming the biggest
blessing this year, because wehave dedicated supply chains for
Somos now.
Brad Ebenhoeh (18:33):
Awesome, and then are you managing the, you know,
storing warehousing fulfillmentin the US or is it in Mexico?
Miguel Leal (18:40):
It is in the US. So that is that is something that
we learned, but, you know, wehave a lot of experience from
Cholula manufacturing, inanother country and here our
head of supply chain, you know,came from Cholula. So she, you
know, is a master and, you know,the sourcing, the manufacturing,
(19:02):
the distribution, and Mexico, Ithink it's gonna have a huge
benefit, you know, coming out ofthe last couple of years in
manufacturing full, because alot of times we can get to,
let's say, an HEB distributioncenter in Texas, faster that you
can get from California. So, youknow, it becomes an advantage
(19:26):
we, for a lot of our customersare actually, you know, within
one day of delivering theproduct.
Brad Ebenhoeh (19:34):
Gotcha. And I was just gonna ask, like, how did
you you know, build a supplychain out and you mentioned you
have a full time head of supplychain that comes from the
industry and working in thecountry. So I'm assuming that
really helped out in thatprocess. How are you managing
inventory, reordering, cashflow, just kind of the working
capital aspect of of Somos?
Miguel Leal (19:57):
Yeah, I mean, that is, you know, something that we
review, you know, probably everymonth formally with Equilibra,
who our partner in Somos. Andcashflow from the beginning has
been a big priority from us.
Something that we've, you know,learned is that terms, you know,
(20:23):
in Mexico sometimes are moregeneral than terms in the US. So
that has helped us with workingcapital. But also inventory has
been, has been a big piece. Alot of the categories that we
have just storing a lotseasonality, storing a lot, the
(20:46):
difference in velocities betweenaccounts, you know, is not the
same, to get an order, as youknow, in a mass merchant
reducing grocery than it is inthe Midwest versus California.
So I think all of these thingsbased on, you know, the
(21:07):
experience of our team has beeneasy to forecast. There's been a
couple of surprises, but becauseof the shelf life of our
product, we can err a little bitmore on the inventory side, and
be able to have, you know,really good fill rates in the
high 90s with our, with ourcustomers. So I think the
(21:30):
categories are great, becausethey don't have a ton of
seasonality, they do have a lotof variability, by accounts and
by regions. But because of theshelf life, you know, it would
be very different. Like Iremember, when I worked in the
yogurt category, you have aproduct that you have 45 days to
consume it from manufacturing.
(21:55):
So I think we are just, youknow, very blessed with this
with these categories.
Brad Ebenhoeh (22:00):
Yes, definitely much easier to operate in that
world versus the short timeline.
A few more kind of generalquestions. Number one, how did
you build out your team? Like,how did you visualize your team,
as you know, coming from abigger brands right to do a
start up? Right, an emerging CPGbrand? And how, like, how did
you identify the specific teammembers you needed in the
(22:22):
specific roles kind of, youknow, throughout that process?
Miguel Leal (22:27):
Well, I I've always had a blueprint in mind. And,
you know, I think, you know,Cholula was a great blueprint,
because of all the similaritiesthat I mentioned, we operate in
very different categories. So itcannot be the same. We also
wanted to, you know, Cholula,fantastic, you know, food
(22:48):
service capability. And we havemore of a DTC capability outside
of retail. But it was always myblueprint, I thought it was a
very efficient organization, theway that that was built, but we
were starting from scratch,right? Like we you know, Cholula
was built over 25 years. Sothat's where it became
(23:12):
opportunistic, more thananything. I think at the
beginning, we were very luckythat because, you know, I am
involved in the business andDaniel, my partner who is the
founder of Kind, he's alsoco-founder here, we were lucky
that we had people that wereCholula alumni, and Kind alumni
(23:35):
that wanted to join, that weknew were experienced work great
together, had the values that wewanted to do. So, you know, we
started with supply chain,finance, and retail sales,
because that was the talent thatwe could get. And, you know, it
(23:56):
has always been our point ofview that if you can pick up a
10, you should pick up a 10. Youknow, every hire makes a huge
difference in the business. Andthen, you know, we had an
opportunity to complement therest of the team with head of
e-commerce and a head ofmarketing. And then after that,
(24:19):
you know, all those, you know,team members, you know, we're
either Kind alumni, or Cholulaalumni. So we needed some
diversity. And we knew thatafter that we wanted to hire
people with differentbackgrounds so they can also
bring different points of viewand you know, at the beginning
for the first team, especiallyin COVID, it was great that all
(24:41):
of us had worked together, butnow I'm just loving you know,
getting people with differentbackgrounds, even non full, that
can help us you know, challenge.
You know, the beginning, yourblueprint is wrong, the day that
you put it together, you have tohave people with different
backgrounds come in and ask whyare we doing this this way? Why
(25:02):
don't we do this? A better way,just, you know, has been one of
my favorite things of doing thestartup.
Brad Ebenhoeh (25:10):
Yeah, it's definitely, talent is definitely
a finite resource. So like, it'sjust the power of relationships
and being able to, you know,have access to that talent
really helps any organization.
So, what is your day to daylike, look like?
Miguel Leal (25:24):
Yeah, so, I do come to the office every day. I like
to block time in the morning, Ilike to block time on Sunday
night to prep for the week, andI like to block time in the
morning, to go through the day.
So it's typically hit the gym atsay 6am, get to the office at
eight, at eight goe through thewhole day, make sure that I'm
(25:47):
prepared for anything that comesup. We do have a cadence in the
office, depending on the week ofthe month, we got an all hands
meeting on Tuesday, we got ourPMO on Thursdays, I tried to
split the one on ones with theteam to hit, you know, different
person every day of the week. SoI can be, you know, fully
(26:09):
prepared for them. And then, youknow, we don't have a big team.
So I tried to at least have aone on one with everybody on the
team every other week or everymonth. And a lot of my question
is, you know, what can I dotoday to help you? You know, we
just had our team off site acouple of weeks ago. And my
number one thing for the teamwas, what would you do
(26:31):
differently if you were CEO ofthe company, and you'd be
amazed, you know how many, Ithink of the 12 different pieces
of advice that I got, wereexecuting on 11 of them. So you
know, a lot of time, I think,you know, you are the farthest
away from the information. Maybenot necessarily in a startup,
(26:52):
but not necessarily right now.
But I do try to push a lot ofdecisions into the team when
possible.
Brad Ebenhoeh (27:00):
That's awesome.
That's very cool. Once you getsome feedback, you know, from
your team, and, you know, hereat Accountfully, we chat a lot
about upward feedback. Becausein upward communication, it's
always like down communication,upstream really is needed across
any organization, then you cankind of analyze and identify to
how to better support the team,I think it makes a lot of sense.
So the last question I had,before we get to the do's and
(27:24):
don'ts, what are the kind of twoor three KPIs that maybe you're
reviewing now across theorganization from, you know,
finance, operational accountingstandpoint, or that you're
planning on doing once you getinto retail?
Miguel Leal (27:39):
You know, I've been, I've been doing this for
over 20 years, you know, gettingcloser to 25 years. And I've
always had the same three KPIswhich are net sales, gross
margin, and share. That has beenimportant, because this is, you
(28:03):
know, my first startup or maybe,you know, at least my my first
one, in the last 15-20 years,we've been focusing a lot on
quality and OFT. The way that Ithink about it is, if a retailer
is willing to give us a space inthe shelf, we want to make sure
(28:26):
out of the bat, we're the top,you know, 10 percentile of
service, and on the top three ofvelocities. And if we are not
doing it, then you know, we justneed to go back and, and make
sure that we get it done. But,you know, when we have when we
are reviewing our progress, youknow, in big picture, it's
(28:49):
always are we growing our netsales, which you know, right
now, it's easy, because it's ourfirst year, are we growing
faster than our competitors? Andare we improving our our gross
margin? I think you know, infood, if you have a product that
tastes great, and people try it,and they repeat the purchase,
(29:11):
and you have a good grossmargin, then you can make a good
business. If people are notbuying you back, and you don't
make money when they buy youback, then you better do
something else.
Brad Ebenhoeh (29:24):
Ya know, it kind of gets relatively basic of
just (29:28):
is this a sustainable model? Like once you just kind
of look at a couple of those,those numbers. So net sales,
gross margin, and share. Right?
Awesome. All right. So for thethe other CPG kind of brand
owners that are listening tohere, you know, as we finalize
this conversation, asking youkind of two specific questions
that we ask everybody numberone, what is one CPG industry do
(29:48):
for the listeners out there?
Miguel Leal (29:55):
Yeah, so I think you know, I like to talk to a
lot of other founders, you know,most of the, for my benefit,
but, you know, this thisindustry is is very
collaborative, you know, I feel,you know, all, you know, all
the, I'm gonna call it littleguys, I might be the smallest
(30:15):
one but you know, let's say itall the brands under 50 million
in sales, we love helping eachother out. And the pieces that I
can that I have more experiencedthan than my fellow founders,
which is, you know, probably onthe marketing and sales and
commercial side is a lotseparating the decisions versus
(30:37):
growing the brand and growingthe business. Like I see a lot
of fellow founders doing afantastic job growing the brand,
being out there spending moneyin marketing, but then, you
know, when you look at thebusiness, the business still
needs a lot of love indistribution, or needs a lot of
(31:00):
love on margin, you know, likeyou and I were just discussing,
and you cannot need to do bothof them at the same time. On the
other side, I see businessesthat are fantastic to have great
repeat rates, great margins, youknow, great themes, but are not
promoting the brand enough. So Ithink, you know, when you give
(31:21):
yourself as a founder, or as aCEO, you know, your rating, you
know, separating it on those twosides, I think, especially in
food is super important. And thebrands that do it great, you
know, the Kinds of the world,you know, really separate
themselves from the others.
Brad Ebenhoeh (31:44):
Yeah, what about the industry don't.
Miguel Leal (31:45):
And the don't, this probably like, half of the
feedback that I give to otherfounders or other companies that
I've invested in is to use theright marketing mix for the
distribution that you have. So,what do I mean for that, I see
these mistakes done over andover again. We have a tendency
(32:08):
to spend a lot of time lookingat our competitors, you know,
what are our competitors doingand if they are doing this, then
if they are doing TV, I shouldbe on TV, if they are on
Facebook, I should be onFacebook, if they are doing
influencer, I should be doinginfluencer. And to make this
very simple if you're only in10% of a store, so roughly the
(32:32):
universe between mass groceryand natural is 25 to 30,000
stores, if you only have 2,000stores and during 10% of
distribution, awareness tacticsare not going to work out
especially when they arenational. Why because nine out
of 10 people that listen to itis going to be wasted on you.
(32:56):
What works great when you have asmall distribution, the store,
building displays, doingsampling if you have a product
of immediate consumption thatcan be sampled, doing geo
targeting, you know around yourstores like that is what is
going to give you the highestROI. And I don't know if I did a
(33:20):
quick math I think you know 25%of companies, one out of every
four do it right. And understandthat piece. How you should be
moving your marketing mix,depending on the distribution
that you have.
Brad Ebenhoeh (33:35):
That's awesome information makes makes a ton of
sense. Well, this was a greatchat, Miguel, I really
appreciate it. Loved learningmore about you know you, your
background and kind of howyou're running Somos and very
appreciative of your time. Canyou give us a little info on
where we can go find your yourproducts where we can buy them
again, just so the listeners cancheck it out?
Miguel Leal (33:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we're currently in Sprouts,Harmons, Kroger, Meijer, and HEB
and Albertsons next month. Andwe are also available on Amazon,
or you can buy our kits ateatsomos.com. And you can also
follow us on social media@eatsomos for more information
(34:17):
and our store locator is comingup soon as well.
Brad Ebenhoeh (34:25):
Awesome. Again, thanks so much for the
conversation Miguel. So again,episode 22 of The Month End:
Miguel Leal from Somos. Hope youall enjoyed the information and
we'll chat soon.
Bye, Miguel.
All right, welcome to episode 22 of The
(00:02):
Month End Podcast. Today we haveMiguel Leal from Somos. He's the
Co-Founder and CEO. How youdoing today, Miguel?
Miguel Leal (00:09):
Hey Brad, thanks for having me.
Brad Ebenhoeh (00:10):
I'm very excited about this conversation. First
of all very cool brand. Veryexcited learn about, you know,
Somos, but also the journey thatyou came from, you know, big
brands like Kind snacks andthings like that, and how you
built a brand from nothing, andwhat your goals and your
processes and workflow in yourmindset is. So, super excited
(00:30):
about that. So, Miguel, let'sstart off with background about
yourself. Where did you comefrom? What have you done
previously? And then what madeyou want to launch Somos?
Miguel Leal (00:41):
Yeah, no, thank you. I was born in Mexico, in
Monterrey close to the border.
And my family is from a bordertown from Nuevo Laredo. So a
lot, I think of, of where I am,started as a kid going to visit
my relatives there, and thencrossing to the other side of
(01:02):
the border and going to the HEBand Walmart at the Laredo
border, and just beingmesmerized by the amount of
products and, you know, foodthat didn't exist in Mexico. And
even though, you know, I startedmy career as an engineer, and
working in the paper industry, Ikind of like I always felt like,
(01:23):
I was gonna end up in food. Andespecially in CPG, from a young
age, I was just obsessed, youknow, I love going with my
parents to show up and buygroceries. And, and I cook and,
you know, I think just one thingled to another. I came to the US
for my college degree. And thenfor my graduate degree, my wife
(01:48):
was from the Midwest here inthe, in the US, and then we just
stayed. And I think after thatit was easy. Like you said, I
started in big food, you know,Pepsi, PepsiCo, and then Dannon.
And then I did you know, threehigh growth brands, you
mentioned a couple of them, butin order Kettle, then Kind, then
(02:09):
Cholula. And we've had the ideaof Somos for many years, and we
just thought the timing wasperfect to start this company.
And, and yeah, I think again,you know, probably I was
predestined to be doing this. Idon't think I could have
(02:30):
connected the dots forward, butnow it's very easy to connect
them backwards.
Brad Ebenhoeh (02:35):
Yeah, definitely makes sense. Now looking back,
backwards. So you know, at Kind,at Cholula, you know what was
your role at those brands?
Miguel Leal (02:44):
Yeah. So, again, I'm an engineer, I started my
career in operations, supplychain, procurement. Then after
graduate school, I cannot likesound in on the commercial side,
I would say I've mostly donemarketing. You know at Kettle,
Kind, and Cholula I was the CMO,I was the head of marketing
(03:07):
there. I did a little bit ofinnovation and a little bit of
sales, sales planning, that'sprobably one of my favorite jobs
that I've had. But yeah, it'sbeen mostly you know, you know,
recruiting and assembling a bestin class marketing team and then
positioning the brand and, andhaving a good marketing mix that
(03:28):
you know, has a good return oninvestment and does a good job
promoting the brand.
Brad Ebenhoeh (03:33):
That's awesome.
You've done a lot, a lot ofthings, so very cool. So give us
a little background on Somosspecifically, what you're
selling, what you're doing,where you're selling, and then
we will dive into some moredetails.
Miguel Leal (03:44):
Yeah, so our quality natural offering has
chips, salsa, rice beans, andplant-based interests like
smokey chipotle mushroom andcauliflower tinga. We also have
a couple of variations of aMexican recipe called
peacadillo. It is a recipe thatis spicy you know taco ground
(04:09):
beef is based on but we do itplant-based with pea protein.
All these products are meant tobe mixed and matched and you can
do tacos, nachos, bowls,chilaquiles, tostadas or they
can be done by themselves. Thereis really no right way to eat
Somos.
Brad Ebenhoeh (04:28):
Awesome, awesome sounds yummy here as I'm taping
this around noon Eastern time.
All right, so sales channels. Soclearly I saw on your website,
great brand, great colors by theway. It's very vibrant and
popping but why did decided youknow direct consumer, are you
selling anywhere else? And thenwhy have you decided on your
(04:50):
sales channel kind of plan or goto market?
Miguel Leal (04:53):
Yeah, we really wanted to start with direct to
consumer, you know, the way thatwe thought about that was that
direct to consumer could be agreat trial generator engine for
the brand. And what we do ondirect to consumers is we sell
kits. So we put all theingredients that you need to
(05:16):
have a taco, or a chilaquiles,you know, at home, for family of
four for under 10 minutes. Allof our products are pre-cooked,
ready to heat, and we thought,you know, for people doing Taco
Tuesday or any night of theweek, that would be the easiest.
So we launched our beta programin September of last year, just
(05:40):
with chips and salsa, mostlyfriends and family, trying to
run water through the pipes,make sure that all the systems
were connecting with each other.
And then we open it up with 16different boxes in January. We
always thought that we wouldestablish the brand in direct to
consumer first, and make surethat everything, you know, we
(06:03):
were getting the right feedback,and we were getting the right
users and choices. What reallysurprised us was how much
traction we got that at retail.
We are gonna be in 4,000 stores,starting next month. We received
(06:26):
our first two customers at theend of February that were
Sprouts and Kroger. And now, youknow, again, we're going to be
close to 4,000 stores, includingall Albertsons divisions and HEB
next month.
Brad Ebenhoeh (06:47):
Well, that's awesome. Congrats. So two
questions, I'll start with theDTC. Like from a DTC standpoint,
as you kind of said, like, youknow, Taco Tuesdays and, and
people kind of, you know, mixingin Mexican cuisine into their
diets. Was there--this is just akind of general question from my
end--was there any like data onlike subscription, subscribing,
(07:08):
you know, where they get itevery two weeks, every week or
every month versus, you know,one time buys?
Miguel Leal (07:14):
Yeah. So there were a couple of things that
surprised us. And we're actuallypivoting our business model as a
result of that. We definitelydesigned the business to be
subscription. We looked at thistrend. And we had been looking
at it since I was working atCholula. People during the
(07:35):
pandemic, very interesting,Brad, you know, the amount of
consumers three out of fourhouseholds, during the pandemic,
either cook with a Mexicaningredient, or bought Mexican
food into their homes, surpassedItalian food as the number one
(07:55):
ethnic food in the country lastyear, and it was this phenomenon
of Taco Tuesday of people, youknow, figuring out something
that they could do that was easythat everybody liked, is just,
you know, we didn't feel likethere was a good entry point,
you know, everything in ouropinion, you know, was a little
(08:19):
bit clunky, you have to buy youknow, the ground beef in one
place the taco seasoning inanother, then you have to buy
the hard shell, you know, liketacos, and none of it was really
Mexican, like Tex Mex and CalMex did a really good job. And
nothing wrong with those twoscenes, but we wanted to bring
(08:41):
something similar that wasauthentically Mexican, and maybe
more convenient. And also betterfor you. All of our products are
non GMO, clean ingredients,plant-based gluten-free. So we
check a lot of boxes on thatregard as well. So that's that's
how we designed these thesedirect to consumer kits. And the
(09:03):
pivot. What surprised us toanswer your question is that
most of our orders became peoplemixing and matching their own
meals. Well, what what we areseeing a lot of is consumers
buying, you know, the chips, thesalsa, and the beans to make
(09:24):
chilaquiles, but then they addcheese, and they add a fried egg
on top of it. Or making a veryeasy pollo la plancha recipe
where you grill a couple ofchicken breasts and then you add
our smokey Chipotle mushrooms ontop of that. So we see consumers
using Somos kind of like, like Isaid at the beginning there is
(09:49):
no right way to use it. And weare pivoting our model to do
that. That's you know, thatrequires a different fulfillment
center when you are picking andpacking, you know, different
recipes, and things like that.
So, and the way that we promoteit online is also different
because instead of having adetermined way to do it, we are
(10:11):
introducing quick hacks withinstead of with celebrity chefs
with just like regular people onregular influencers, a lot of
people of Mexican descent, thatbring you different ideas on how
to use the flexibility of Somosis our new highlight in our
(10:31):
promotion, and also in oursupply chain.
Brad Ebenhoeh (10:36):
Gotcha. That'll make sense. Love it. The second
question I had around sales, sothen how did you position
yourself for retail? So you're,you know, clearly getting it in
the next 60 days having a lot,you know, 4000 stores? I think
you said like, how did youposition yourself? How did you
attack that space in that thatsales channel?
Miguel Leal (10:59):
Yeah, I mean, I am not a merchant. What we do
really well, is we createdelicious products, and
beautiful brands. And I think,you know, if you look at Kettle,
and maybe especially Kind, andCholula as well, you know, great
products, beautiful packaging,beautiful brand. Great story. If
(11:22):
I had, again another pivot, anidea of what I wanted to do, I
wanted to create, when I look atthe Mexican set in the store,
you see, you see two things, yousee sometimes a set that has,
you know, great authenticMexican food, but for first
(11:45):
generation Hispanics, and youknow, it doesn't really sell to
the mainstream market. Itdoesn't have the convenience or
the better for you credentialsfor that set. And sometimes
talking to consumers they are,they don't feel comfortable
shopping that set. And then youhave the opposite when it's
(12:06):
integrated. And most of thesection is really TexMex or
CalMex. And there is very littleauthentic Mexican representation
on that set. So what we wantedto do was to create a Somos
billboard, when you can come inand mix and match, you know, two
(12:26):
or three pouches, a couple ofpouches and salsa, and have a
very quick solution that you canconfirm for, for a really good
price and have a meal for peopleunder 10 minutes. And a
delicious meal as well.
Unfortunately, you know, again,to my earlier point, I am not a
merchant, and you know very hardas a new brand to come and
(12:50):
command that space, we've beenvery fortunate with a couple of
accounts that they've given usthe opportunity. With others,
we've gone to the Mexican set.
I'll tell you probably thebiggest insight came from one of
our retail partners. But whenyou go to the TexMex section,
(13:11):
count the number of taco shellsthat they have on the section. I
counted, you know, I'm here justoutside of New York, I counted
over 48 different SKUs of tacoshells, but nothing to put
inside the taco shell. And thatwas something you know, it's
(13:32):
like having the peanut butteraisle with no jelly or with no
bread, or having the salsa aislewith no chips, you know, and for
a lot of our customers, that'swhere Somos is coming in.
Because now you know, you canmix and match and grow the
Brad Ebenhoeh (13:49):
That's fascinating. You know, just to
category.
say that from just, you know,how I consume or you know, by
product you go in and to yourpoint to be very creative
because you're like this aislehas this piece of food and that
aisle and if you can justvisually see the six things that
are all complements or 10different SKUs, you can just mix
and match right there makes alot of sense so interesting on
(14:10):
that. All right, I want to moveon to the supply chain, kind of
you already mentioned you know,the the mix and match and pick
and pack different products.
Kind of give me a high level ofthe supply chain because clearly
you're dealing you know, withauthentic Mexican cuisine, so
you know, you're dealing with aforeign country, Mexico versus
you know, being in the US solike just kind of high level
your supply chain kind of whatyou're doing, how you're
(14:31):
operating from, you know,manufacturing to 3PL and kind of
then in from there then we canget into some, you know,
successes and some challengesand everything.
Miguel Leal (14:40):
Yeah, so I admire a lot, the Cholula brand even
before I worked there. When Iworked there, I just realized,
you know a couple of things thatyou know to have an authentic
Mexican brand, you need to beworking with farmers and
(15:01):
manufacturers in Mexico. Thatjust, you know, not only gave
Cholula a lot of authenticity,but I will tell you the
difference between using youknow, Mexican peppers versus
peppers, you know, from otherparts of the of the globe, you
know, make a big difference inthe taste and in the consumer
preference. And when I envisionsomos, I envision it very
(15:26):
similar, that we were going tobe able to work with family
farms, you know, for example,you know, where we grow a lot of
our vegetables, that family isin the fourth generation of
growing vegetables in theQueretaro region of Mexico, that
(15:46):
we were going to follow alsotraditional Mexican cooking
processes. So for example, oursalsas follow a cooking process
in which you fire roast thevegetables with the peppers
together. And you know, you doget those specs on the you know,
(16:10):
from the burn, and that kind oflike sweet and acidic taste that
comes from the tomatillos, butyou also get thickness in the
salsa that is very differentfrom the other products in the
market, it's almost pure pulp.
And that makes a big differencewhen you put it on your taco.
Because the tortilla doesn't getsoggy, you know, from the
(16:31):
separation of the product. Samething with our chips, our chips
use nixtamalization corn, whichis an old Aztec, you know,
process of treating the corn,you know, in water overnight, so
you get the flavor and all thenutrients of the corn, and then
we stone ground that, whichmakes it a lot thicker than the
(16:53):
rest of the products out there.
You know, and the same goes forthe rice and the beans, and all
of our products. So long storyshort, we had to do these
products in Mexico, we have togrow them in Mexico, we have to,
you know, cook them in Mexico.
And our biggest challenge, youknow, was not manufacturing, or
(17:14):
sourcing, because Mexicans arevery good at cooking. You know,
there is a whole industryestablished around food, there
is a culture of food, you know,we have great manufacturing
partners and suppliers. InMexico, the biggest issue was
establishing a supply chain thatwas plant-based, gluten-free,
(17:38):
and non-GMO. Because thosecertifications don't don't
really exist in Mexico. And wereally, you know, from our
background, you know, from thebrands that I mentioned, and our
vision for Somos we wanted toachieve that. So that became our
(17:58):
biggest challenge on how to getthat done. You know, rice is
non-GMO, I'm sorry, isgluten-free from the source. But
sometimes it can getcontaminated in transit. And
establishing all of those piecesthrough the supply chain, I
think was our biggest challengelast year, as we were, you know,
(18:20):
building our portfolio, and it'sprobably becoming the biggest
blessing this year, because wehave dedicated supply chains for
Somos now.
Brad Ebenhoeh (18:33):
Awesome, and then are you managing the, you know,
storing warehousing fulfillmentin the US or is it in Mexico?
Miguel Leal (18:40):
It is in the US. So that is that is something that
we learned, but, you know, wehave a lot of experience from
Cholula manufacturing, inanother country and here our
head of supply chain, you know,came from Cholula. So she, you
know, is a master and, you know,the sourcing, the manufacturing,
(19:02):
the distribution, and Mexico, Ithink it's gonna have a huge
benefit, you know, coming out ofthe last couple of years in
manufacturing full, because alot of times we can get to,
let's say, an HEB distributioncenter in Texas, faster that you
can get from California. So, youknow, it becomes an advantage
(19:26):
we, for a lot of our customersare actually, you know, within
one day of delivering theproduct.
Brad Ebenhoeh (19:34):
Gotcha. And I was just gonna ask, like, how did
you you know, build a supplychain out and you mentioned you
have a full time head of supplychain that comes from the
industry and working in thecountry. So I'm assuming that
really helped out in thatprocess. How are you managing
inventory, reordering, cashflow, just kind of the working
capital aspect of of Somos?
Miguel Leal (19:57):
Yeah, I mean, that is, you know, something that we
review, you know, probably everymonth formally with Equilibra,
who our partner in Somos. Andcashflow from the beginning has
been a big priority from us.
Something that we've, you know,learned is that terms, you know,
(20:23):
in Mexico sometimes are moregeneral than terms in the US. So
that has helped us with workingcapital. But also inventory has
been, has been a big piece. Alot of the categories that we
have just storing a lotseasonality, storing a lot, the
(20:46):
difference in velocities betweenaccounts, you know, is not the
same, to get an order, as youknow, in a mass merchant
reducing grocery than it is inthe Midwest versus California.
So I think all of these thingsbased on, you know, the
(21:07):
experience of our team has beeneasy to forecast. There's been a
couple of surprises, but becauseof the shelf life of our
product, we can err a little bitmore on the inventory side, and
be able to have, you know,really good fill rates in the
high 90s with our, with ourcustomers. So I think the
(21:30):
categories are great, becausethey don't have a ton of
seasonality, they do have a lotof variability, by accounts and
by regions. But because of theshelf life, you know, it would
be very different. Like Iremember, when I worked in the
yogurt category, you have aproduct that you have 45 days to
consume it from manufacturing.
(21:55):
So I think we are just, youknow, very blessed with this
with these categories.
Brad Ebenhoeh (22:00):
Yes, definitely much easier to operate in that
world versus the short timeline.
A few more kind of generalquestions. Number one, how did
you build out your team? Like,how did you visualize your team,
as you know, coming from abigger brands right to do a
start up? Right, an emerging CPGbrand? And how, like, how did
you identify the specific teammembers you needed in the
(22:22):
specific roles kind of, youknow, throughout that process?
Miguel Leal (22:27):
Well, I I've always had a blueprint in mind. And,
you know, I think, you know,Cholula was a great blueprint,
because of all the similaritiesthat I mentioned, we operate in
very different categories. So itcannot be the same. We also
wanted to, you know, Cholula,fantastic, you know, food
(22:48):
service capability. And we havemore of a DTC capability outside
of retail. But it was always myblueprint, I thought it was a
very efficient organization, theway that that was built, but we
were starting from scratch,right? Like we you know, Cholula
was built over 25 years. Sothat's where it became
(23:12):
opportunistic, more thananything. I think at the
beginning, we were very luckythat because, you know, I am
involved in the business andDaniel, my partner who is the
founder of Kind, he's alsoco-founder here, we were lucky
that we had people that wereCholula alumni, and Kind alumni
(23:35):
that wanted to join, that weknew were experienced work great
together, had the values that wewanted to do. So, you know, we
started with supply chain,finance, and retail sales,
because that was the talent thatwe could get. And, you know, it
(23:56):
has always been our point ofview that if you can pick up a
10, you should pick up a 10. Youknow, every hire makes a huge
difference in the business. Andthen, you know, we had an
opportunity to complement therest of the team with head of
e-commerce and a head ofmarketing. And then after that,
(24:19):
you know, all those, you know,team members, you know, we're
either Kind alumni, or Cholulaalumni. So we needed some
diversity. And we knew thatafter that we wanted to hire
people with differentbackgrounds so they can also
bring different points of viewand you know, at the beginning
for the first team, especiallyin COVID, it was great that all
(24:41):
of us had worked together, butnow I'm just loving you know,
getting people with differentbackgrounds, even non full, that
can help us you know, challenge.
You know, the beginning, yourblueprint is wrong, the day that
you put it together, you have tohave people with different
backgrounds come in and ask whyare we doing this this way? Why
(25:02):
don't we do this? A better way,just, you know, has been one of
my favorite things of doing thestartup.
Brad Ebenhoeh (25:10):
Yeah, it's definitely, talent is definitely
a finite resource. So like, it'sjust the power of relationships
and being able to, you know,have access to that talent
really helps any organization.
So, what is your day to daylike, look like?
Miguel Leal (25:24):
Yeah, so, I do come to the office every day. I like
to block time in the morning, Ilike to block time on Sunday
night to prep for the week, andI like to block time in the
morning, to go through the day.
So it's typically hit the gym atsay 6am, get to the office at
eight, at eight goe through thewhole day, make sure that I'm
(25:47):
prepared for anything that comesup. We do have a cadence in the
office, depending on the week ofthe month, we got an all hands
meeting on Tuesday, we got ourPMO on Thursdays, I tried to
split the one on ones with theteam to hit, you know, different
person every day of the week. SoI can be, you know, fully
(26:09):
prepared for them. And then, youknow, we don't have a big team.
So I tried to at least have aone on one with everybody on the
team every other week or everymonth. And a lot of my question
is, you know, what can I dotoday to help you? You know, we
just had our team off site acouple of weeks ago. And my
number one thing for the teamwas, what would you do
(26:31):
differently if you were CEO ofthe company, and you'd be
amazed, you know how many, Ithink of the 12 different pieces
of advice that I got, wereexecuting on 11 of them. So you
know, a lot of time, I think,you know, you are the farthest
away from the information. Maybenot necessarily in a startup,
(26:52):
but not necessarily right now.
But I do try to push a lot ofdecisions into the team when
possible.
Brad Ebenhoeh (27:00):
That's awesome.
That's very cool. Once you getsome feedback, you know, from
your team, and, you know, hereat Accountfully, we chat a lot
about upward feedback. Becausein upward communication, it's
always like down communication,upstream really is needed across
any organization, then you cankind of analyze and identify to
how to better support the team,I think it makes a lot of sense.
So the last question I had,before we get to the do's and
(27:24):
don'ts, what are the kind of twoor three KPIs that maybe you're
reviewing now across theorganization from, you know,
finance, operational accountingstandpoint, or that you're
planning on doing once you getinto retail?
Miguel Leal (27:39):
You know, I've been, I've been doing this for
over 20 years, you know, gettingcloser to 25 years. And I've
always had the same three KPIswhich are net sales, gross
margin, and share. That has beenimportant, because this is, you
(28:03):
know, my first startup or maybe,you know, at least my my first
one, in the last 15-20 years,we've been focusing a lot on
quality and OFT. The way that Ithink about it is, if a retailer
is willing to give us a space inthe shelf, we want to make sure
(28:26):
out of the bat, we're the top,you know, 10 percentile of
service, and on the top three ofvelocities. And if we are not
doing it, then you know, we justneed to go back and, and make
sure that we get it done. But,you know, when we have when we
are reviewing our progress, youknow, in big picture, it's
(28:49):
always are we growing our netsales, which you know, right
now, it's easy, because it's ourfirst year, are we growing
faster than our competitors? Andare we improving our our gross
margin? I think you know, infood, if you have a product that
tastes great, and people try it,and they repeat the purchase,
(29:11):
and you have a good grossmargin, then you can make a good
business. If people are notbuying you back, and you don't
make money when they buy youback, then you better do
something else.
Brad Ebenhoeh (29:24):
Ya know, it kind of gets relatively basic of
just (29:28):
is this a sustainable model? Like once you just kind
of look at a couple of those,those numbers. So net sales,
gross margin, and share. Right?
Awesome. All right. So for thethe other CPG kind of brand
owners that are listening tohere, you know, as we finalize
this conversation, asking youkind of two specific questions
that we ask everybody numberone, what is one CPG industry do
(29:48):
for the listeners out there?
Miguel Leal (29:55):
Yeah, so I think you know, I like to talk to a
lot of other founders, you know,most of the, for my benefit,
but, you know, this thisindustry is is very
collaborative, you know, I feel,you know, all, you know, all
the, I'm gonna call it littleguys, I might be the smallest
(30:15):
one but you know, let's say itall the brands under 50 million
in sales, we love helping eachother out. And the pieces that I
can that I have more experiencedthan than my fellow founders,
which is, you know, probably onthe marketing and sales and
commercial side is a lotseparating the decisions versus
(30:37):
growing the brand and growingthe business. Like I see a lot
of fellow founders doing afantastic job growing the brand,
being out there spending moneyin marketing, but then, you
know, when you look at thebusiness, the business still
needs a lot of love indistribution, or needs a lot of
(31:00):
love on margin, you know, likeyou and I were just discussing,
and you cannot need to do bothof them at the same time. On the
other side, I see businessesthat are fantastic to have great
repeat rates, great margins, youknow, great themes, but are not
promoting the brand enough. So Ithink, you know, when you give
(31:21):
yourself as a founder, or as aCEO, you know, your rating, you
know, separating it on those twosides, I think, especially in
food is super important. And thebrands that do it great, you
know, the Kinds of the world,you know, really separate
themselves from the others.
Brad Ebenhoeh (31:44):
Yeah, what about the industry don't.
Miguel Leal (31:45):
And the don't, this probably like, half of the
feedback that I give to otherfounders or other companies that
I've invested in is to use theright marketing mix for the
distribution that you have. So,what do I mean for that, I see
these mistakes done over andover again. We have a tendency
(32:08):
to spend a lot of time lookingat our competitors, you know,
what are our competitors doingand if they are doing this, then
if they are doing TV, I shouldbe on TV, if they are on
Facebook, I should be onFacebook, if they are doing
influencer, I should be doinginfluencer. And to make this
very simple if you're only in10% of a store, so roughly the
(32:32):
universe between mass groceryand natural is 25 to 30,000
stores, if you only have 2,000stores and during 10% of
distribution, awareness tacticsare not going to work out
especially when they arenational. Why because nine out
of 10 people that listen to itis going to be wasted on you.
(32:56):
What works great when you have asmall distribution, the store,
building displays, doingsampling if you have a product
of immediate consumption thatcan be sampled, doing geo
targeting, you know around yourstores like that is what is
going to give you the highestROI. And I don't know if I did a
(33:20):
quick math I think you know 25%of companies, one out of every
four do it right. And understandthat piece. How you should be
moving your marketing mix,depending on the distribution
that you have.
Brad Ebenhoeh (33:35):
That's awesome information makes makes a ton of
sense. Well, this was a greatchat, Miguel, I really
appreciate it. Loved learningmore about you know you, your
background and kind of howyou're running Somos and very
appreciative of your time. Canyou give us a little info on
where we can go find your yourproducts where we can buy them
again, just so the listeners cancheck it out?
Miguel Leal (33:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we're currently in Sprouts,Harmons, Kroger, Meijer, and HEB
and Albertsons next month. Andwe are also available on Amazon,
or you can buy our kits ateatsomos.com. And you can also
follow us on social media@eatsomos for more information
(34:17):
and our store locator is comingup soon as well.
Brad Ebenhoeh (34:25):
Awesome. Again, thanks so much for the
conversation Miguel. So again,episode 22 of The Month End:
Miguel Leal from Somos. Hope youall enjoyed the information and
we'll chat soon.
Bye, Miguel.
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