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- [00:00]
Host
So on this week's episode, we're talking about Yerba Madre. It's gone through sort of a brand identity refresh over the last couple of years. It's a brand that's been around for 25 years. It started off originally as being in a loose leaf form where you could add hot water and drink it. It was like an herbal tea. And it was incredibly popular and remains incredibly popular as a traditional drink in Central and South America. Now, the brand used to be called Guayaqui. That was the original brand name. It then changed to Yerba Madre, which is what we know it as today. But in between it was known as Yerba Mate. And I wanted to bring this up because in the conversation it was confusing me. And you may sense that confusion because we're throwing these names around in a bizarre way that didn't fully make sense to me in terms of brand identity. But it was an interesting. I think you need to know this in advance so that you understand where we're going. So there's three stages. There's Guayaqui, then to Yerba Mate and then to the current name of Yerba Madre. So before we get started, you may know this drink, this can, it's in a very distinctive yellow can with the yerba leaves in the form of a wreath on the front of a can. It's a really good looking can. It stands out great at retail. They used to be in that hot form that I talked about, but it evolved then to being in cold drink formats in cans. And that's where they've seen significant growth and they're on the way to sort of, you know, mainstreaming in terms of mass volume. That's their goal and that's why Emily was hired. So I wanted to first share with you their sort of manifesto video. If you're seeing, if you're on, if you're watching the show on YouTube or on our website, you'll see it in all its glory. If you're listening to it on the podcast, I think you'll still get the gist of it. I still think that because it has a narration that makes sense. So I want to play first play you this, what do you want to call it? A manifesto video. Then when we come back, we're going to hear from Matthew Herbert. He is the co founder of Tracksuit, the modern day affordable brand tracking system. And he's going to talk to us about the state of the Yerba Madre brand today. Then we're going to hear from Yerba Madre CMO Emily Court Lang. And we're going to hear all about the refresh of the brand and the work that's in the marketplace. It's a terrific. You can see all of the work on our website@onstrategyshowcase.com and you can actually connect with Emily there also. Enjoy.
- [02:46]
Emily Court Lang
We know it starts with a spark, but it's been brewing this magic for centuries. The difference between feeling awake and feeling alive. Gone. Find your spirit. Come to life.
- [03:10]
Host
The conversation I'm having in this episode with Emily, she's talking about this, this, this brand kind of creating a new category. What do you think that category is and how does the data look for the brand?
- [03:23]
Matthew Herbert
Yeah, so we're monitoring the better for you energy drinks category. It's a growing category in the US it's at 37% penetration nationally and that's about 100, that's about 100 million adults.
- [03:35]
Host
So that's, that's a lot of people. It's great to hear, it's great to hear data, it's great to hear percentages converted into population numbers which I love that you guys do that. But speaking of that, I mean this brand has been around for 25 years and we're going to hear Emily talk to that and about its, about its overall growth. But do you find that there's certain demographics that are more open to it, places where they're seeing more noticeable growth?
- [04:01]
Matthew Herbert
Totally, yeah. Yerba Madre is Californian founded and headquartered brands. And when we filter down to the Pacific Census division, we can see that that category penetration's at 42% compared to 37% nationally. And so the Pacific region has got that higher category penetration. And then if we cut that even further, the categories over indexing or skewing towards kind of that 25 to 34 year old age group and the category growth there is even more. A significant 8 percentage point increase for 25 to 34 year olds. That's another 4 million people who have entered the category in the last six months. So they're doing something in the Pacific region. The category leaders right now, Celsius, 65% awareness ghost, 43% awareness. Celsius has that lead on preference. And so that's the job is continue to fight in that niche but then at some point continue to break out. And I think we've seen that with poppy and Olipop going from better for you soda into the soda category. Now you have these better for you energy drinks, whether it's caffeine, whether it's not as a brand. We know our specifics or the niche that we're going after. But then you take an objective view as what's the share of wallet that we're looking at and there's different ways.
- [05:21]
Host
Of tracking and monitoring it is Matthew Herbert, co founder of TrackSU. Thank you, Matthew. We're going to be hearing now. This is my interview with Emily Cortlank, cmo Yerba Madre. She's in Los Angeles. Enjoy. It's great to have Emily here to talk about this brand. I actually Emily just tasted the brand, the product for the first time. I was in Hawaii about a month ago. I was thirsty and I normally don't sort of reach for things in the beverage case because I have this thing with caffeine that freaks me out, gets me all jittery.
- [05:58]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah, a lot of people.
- [05:59]
Host
But I had one of yours and I drank the whole thing and it tasted great. And then I looked at the can and it actually had a little bit of caffeine in it, this variety of it, but I didn't feel a thing. So that was the first time I got to taste the product. So it gets my endorsement. So it is great to have you here to talk about it.
- [06:17]
Emily Court Lang
Do you know which one you had?
- [06:18]
Host
I don't remember the flavor, but it was really good. But you know, the thing is everything tastes really good when you're really thirsty.
- [06:27]
Emily Court Lang
Everything tastes good in Hawaii.
- [06:29]
Host
Yeah, it tastes good in Hawaii. Let's talk about the business. Tell us about Yerba Madre business and the background.
- [06:39]
Emily Court Lang
So the history of the brand is like 30 years old. And I think it was way before its time when the founders started this business to have a mission, purpose driven business. At the core of it, I think it's more relevant and more true today of businesses. Either they're post rationalizing and becoming more impact driven or businesses are truly like conceptualized or initiated from a mission position of purpose. But 30 years ago this was like before Facebook, you know, like that. That's how long ago it was. People weren't even using emojis on their phones yet.
- [07:12]
Host
And is that the way people refer to it? Do they skip? Because I read something that said that people just talk about it as yerb.
- [07:18]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah.
- [07:19]
Host
Is that shorthand now?
- [07:21]
Emily Court Lang
It is. It's like the cultural term the kids use for yerba mate. So yerbs, Yerba. And I think it's evolved because of the lack of affinity to our original brand name, Guayaqui, because it was hard to pronounce, hard to remember. You know, people have to fill the missing gaps with words of their own. And they just came up with yerbs and yerba.
- [07:43]
Host
Yeah.
- [07:43]
Emily Court Lang
And that's a benefit to us as a business because it becomes a category term. It's kind of like bandaids.
- [07:48]
Host
What is the category that you're in?
- [07:52]
Emily Court Lang
It's a very good question. So we're in the yerba mate category. So we are creating a new category within the beverage set. And this is a shift in the caffeine paradigm. And this is a way for people to experience like the six forms of caffeine in the world and we're one of them. And so this is, you know, its own new category. But yerba mate has existed for centuries, so it's not new, but it's new to the US market in terms of the beverage set.
- [08:20]
Host
So if for people who are listening, what would you say or whom do you, whom do you compete against?
- [08:27]
Emily Court Lang
We sit in the tea set in terms of the aisle that we sit in, beverage. And that is our closest kind of metaphor from a product perspective, as again, because I said it's brewed, but scientifically we aren't from the tea product. But who do we compete with in terms of if we're going to grow this category, who do we still share from? Caffeine's huge in the US nine out of 10 adults are probably consuming caffeine on a daily basis and getting it from various sources. You're either using energy drinks or you're drinking tea, or you're drinking coffee, you're drinking matcha, you're drinking green tea. So I guess we're another source of caffeine. It's an all natural product with all natural ingredients. Everything's grown, it's all organic. We're also working on regenerative organic, which is like the gold standard of organic. And I think that people understand organic in food and they look actively look for organic in the stores and are willing to pay more for it. I don't think yet consumers are looking for organic in beverage.
- [09:27]
Host
So you've come from great pedigree. You've worked at Red Bull, you've worked at Apple, you've worked at Beats by Dre. So you understand how to inject a brand into culture or to make a brand culturally relevant. Right. What about some of those lessons? How are they being applied to this brand?
- [09:46]
Emily Court Lang
I think I come from brands, yes, you're right, that want to build like lifestyle and insert themselves into culture. So be bigger than a beverage or bigger than the category in which they play like Beats. Was bigger than headphones, Red Bull was bigger than energy drinks. And as I said, the mission of the company is to prove that the regenerative business movement works, but also use yerba mate as a way to protect deforestation. Yerba mate is this amazing plant that can grow in shaded conditions, meaning you don't need to deforest. And so those missions of the company lead us to kind of different marketing tactics that you would do at a different business. But a lot is true, like associating with music and sport, the things that drive culture, remaining grassroots as you scale, creating dialogue with consumers, meeting consumers where they are in terms of sampling and trial. All those lessons have still come through.
- [10:48]
Host
So how do you mainstream a brand that's professing these aspects of sustainability? Because I'm personally a little skeptical of that. I think that that younger Gen Z population and that cohort group tends to say things we all do as human beings. We tend to profess that we base our behaviors, our consumption habits on these types of factors. But in real, I don't think we do. I mean, so my question is how do you mainstream this? Taking it out of being for that more of a values based buyer into a mainstream buyer. Do you have to sort of go beyond the sustainability story to get there?
- [11:36]
Emily Court Lang
You do. And I think the challenge is in a way to do that without alienating your core consumer. So how do you become a mainstream brand and welcome new people in that may not be as inspired by the impact or purpose story, but still maintain your core? That's like the thing that keeps me up at night. I think the product itself is the answer in that, you know, we're a.
- [12:03]
Host
Society, it's got to taste great or.
- [12:05]
Emily Court Lang
One it needs to taste great, which it does. And I don't know. We launched Watermelody yesterday and the feedback has been phenomenal in terms of the taste. Like we're getting better tasting drinks all the time because we know that taste drives consumption, drives trial and it drives repeat purchase and it drives loyalty. But we also need to remember that when you come into a beverage brand or any brand, there needs to be something that is sticky, that makes you stay, that makes you come back. And that's where I think the sustainability or impact story can come in. Do I think it's going to drive first point of trial or awareness? Probably not. So we need to lead with brand and then the impact story is what can drive loyalty and retention. But then there is this subset of consumers. So you can divide your mix where you can target them Specifically with an impact story because they are voting with their dollars, they are label readers and they are choosing products that are B corp and that are fair for life and fair trade. But yeah, they're under 30% of the overall demographic.
- [13:05]
Host
You mentioned that brand is a big part of driving yourself into the mainstream. How would you define and describe the brand in terms of comms?
- [13:14]
Emily Court Lang
So for us, it's made up of three things. We've got our product proposition, which is about being alive versus awake. That for us means that like who we're competing with and synthetic energy drinks or the other ways to get caffeine. As you talked about yourself with your, your. How your own body reacts to caffeine. You've. You've got the jitters. Sometimes it affects your sleep, sometimes it affects your stomach. You've got this high and this low. Our product is altogether different. What? There is caffeine, but it's a different feeling. It's more euphoric, it's more Zen. You're kind of tuned in, but zoned out.
- [13:50]
Host
And what does that mean, though? I love that distinction between alive and awake. That's great. Help me understand. It's more euphoric, it's more Zen, meaning that you wanted to mean that in terms of a image or doesn't have. Oh, it has a physical or almost. So tell us about that feeling that people claim to get.
- [14:09]
Emily Court Lang
Well, you tell me, how did you feel?
- [14:11]
Host
Well, I had no idea. I just felt good. I just felt yourself.
- [14:13]
Emily Court Lang
There you go. You felt good.
- [14:14]
Host
But I would have felt the same way with water or with a pot.
- [14:17]
Emily Court Lang
That's unfortunate. You know what I mean? Yeah, but you just take that bit out.
- [14:22]
Host
Yeah, but I mean, is that the truth, that the ingredients.
- [14:27]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah, there's a compounding effect of ingredients. There's polyphenols, there are antioxidants.
- [14:31]
Host
It really will impact how you're feeling mentally.
- [14:34]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah. So people will talk about, and we're working through what the claims are around this, both from a scientific perspective and from a consumer claims perspective. This is the next frontier, I think, of product marketing and project evolution. But people say it's the euphoria of chocolate, it's the antioxidants of tea, and it's the caffeine strength of coffee. And those three things are the compounding effects are what makes you feel like a euphoric feeling.
- [14:59]
Host
And then I assume then it doesn't have the highs and lows of a typical caffeine experience. So you guys went through a repositioning, I think, at the Same time you joined. Right. Or was it before that? And I just wanted to hear about why they're repositioning and how significant the repositioning was.
- [15:20]
Emily Court Lang
Well, I don't actually think it was a repositioning. I think that it was.
- [15:24]
Host
Or a rebranding, should I say?
- [15:25]
Emily Court Lang
I think it was an evolution or evolution. So yeah, we rebranded. Yes, it was. Yeah, I initiated the conversations. It was already been talked about for years inside the business. I think they always knew they needed to because, you know, Guaiki as a name just wasn't adopted by consumers. You know, like brand awareness was really low. But when you track Yellowcan Europe, so Yerba is much higher. People actively avoiding saying the name for fear of getting it wrong.
- [15:56]
Host
And I'm sitting here right now thinking I'm going to get it wrong.
- [15:59]
Emily Court Lang
Exactly. Forgive me when I do fear. We had people join our company and didn't say it for the first three weeks because they thought even internally they would get the name wrong. And so as a brand led marketeer, like kind of like even when I was approached for the role, they were like, had you heard about a brand called Guayaqi? And I was like, no, but they need to change their name. Didn't even know what the business was.
- [16:21]
Host
Yeah.
- [16:22]
Emily Court Lang
So you know, coming in, when you learn about the mission and the vision and the history of the product and you then look at the scale of the ambition, you're like, well, that name just ain't going to get you there. It could get you there. It would just cost you a lot of money and you maybe you're investing in the wrong things. Like you can make G famous. Like marketeers can do it anything. They can pull rabbits out of hat and make magic. Like you can create consumer demand for things that they don't want and don't need and I can can make G famous. But it would have been really hard and it would have cost a lot of money. We'd be investing in the wrong things because it wouldn't be telling the purpose story or the product story or the category story or the, you know, it wouldn't be doing all the things that we need to do as a brand in a business. So there was appetite because I think they'd had these conversations before but never had the impetus to do it. And I think I created the spark which said a new name will lead us on a new path.
- [17:19]
Host
So at that time was there a. Because I look at the cans before and after. Is Guayaqui gone and Yerba? Because the way I see it is. It's gone from Yerba Mate to Yerma Madre. Am I wrong in that?
- [17:35]
Emily Court Lang
Okay, this is a journey, so I'm glad you brought that up. So when I arrived, we obviously were called Guayaqui and.
- [17:42]
Host
And that was the. That was the brand name and the product name.
- [17:45]
Emily Court Lang
That was the brand name on the can. Guiki Yabamate got it. When I arrived, we knew that we would rebrand. Like, that was what I was working on. But rebrands can take anywhere from 18 months to two years. And so as a marketeer, I don't really want to build any equity or invest any marketing dollars in building anything around Guayaquay because it would become redundant and it would become an investment that doesn't pay back. So we also made the choice to do an interim step which was also about taking the consumer on a journey to say, well, let's move to Yerba Mate in between Guayaquay and whatever the new name would be. It was an interim step which allowed the product to stay the same inside the can, but also the outside be as similar as possible to the old can. So it was like a staged exit of the name. So we moved to Yerba Mate in between finding our new name. One, said we couldn't build any more equity in Guarqi because I thought it was wasted dollars. But two, to take consumers on a journey. And so it also gave us category leadership and category ownership in them in the meantime, because you become synonymous with the category.
- [19:01]
Host
How did you guys initially break into category college campuses? Because my understanding is that's where you made an awful lot of progress in the early years. How was that done? Was it through partnerships? Was it through sampling? How did you do that?
- [19:20]
Emily Court Lang
I think it was through the consumer. I think the consumer there adopted us and then we just fueled it. I think that there was an affinity towards the mission and the vision, especially on these campuses in the west coast with the environmental studies, etc. That they were the consumers that do vote with their dollar and that, you know, those kids all go home for the summer and then they take the yellow can with us. And it created this move movement. And when we. I think back in the day when they saw this movement, they wanted to create a community out of it. And so the team started an app, which was called Ambassadores. I just call it Ambassadors because my Hackney Company accent just can't do the Spanish thing. And they started an app where these Yerba fans, Yerba consumers, could live online and hang out with each other and create shared experiences and Then how do.
- [20:14]
Host
You leverage that community? Carefully, because, yeah, I would think so. Right. Are you able to leverage it or how do you try and extend that is it.
- [20:24]
Emily Court Lang
And so my conundrum is, do you want it to grow? Like, do you want quantity to go up but love to go down? And I think my answer is no. So I think the amount that we've got at the moment feels right. Our job is to leverage them in a way where they feel like it's true to the intentions of the community. Like, they help us with flavor naming, they come up with ideas for, you know, packaging. They design merch. They design the merch that they make that, you know, that's for them. And so they really want to be involved in the brand. But we also take big strategic challenges to them. Like, we. They were thoroughly involved in the rebrand. You know, these are the consumers that are passionate. These are the ones that can pronounce gwaiky and write it and say it. And so to change the name for them is a big deal. And so we actually launched the brand with them before we launched at retail and before we launched with press and before we launched with the consumer. So they were involved in the process. They voted on names. We did small focus groups with. With cohorts of them to tell them the options and get their feedback. And then when it came to actually, like, telling them the name, it was about sharing, not convincing. So we did family meetings, which is, like, very much in line with how you'd experience the gourd. You know, families get together every day and have a gourd circle and talk about their feelings and what's going on in the day. And the gourd really brings people together. So we had gourd circles across two weeks prior to the launch, the national launch, where cohorts of like 20 to 30ambassadors could come meet our founders, talk about the evolution of the name, talk about the reason behind it, talk about what we mean by yerba madre, and answer any of their questions. And some people turned up to two or three seminars because they wanted to learn more and answer more questions. And I don't think I've ever seen a brand launch 30 consumers at a time, but we did. And then we did a final gourd circle with, like 300 of them before we did the Forbes article, before we went to Whole Foods, before we went to Sprouts. So that community is really important to us.
- [22:35]
Host
Yeah, they're like super fans. Yeah, I want to go back to Alive vs. Awake, and I would love to understand, have you created advertising or comms around that proposition and what form have they taken? And you gotta send it to me because I'd love to put it on the website. It seems like that could be a brilliant, creative platform to work off of.
- [22:59]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah, we're excited about that one. I think it's also got an affinity to come to life. You know that the end line of this brand for the last 30 years has been come to life. And my challenge as a marketer coming in with the rebrand was to keep the DNA, the soul, the history of the business, but allow it to move forward. And you don't want to throw away everything you need to take what's been really successful about this business. Keep the DNA, keep the soul, keep the vibes. But that meant keep come to life. My job as a marketeer is to make it make sense internally so that our marketeers can use it to create things like you've talked about, like comms. And Alive vs. Awake is obviously the platform that makes come to life make sense. So, yes, we have started to make comms. There is a great video pinned on our Instagram, which we think encapsulates what the brand is and means, which I can send to you.
- [23:48]
Host
And the other thing is, how have you gotten. Because it seems to me that you've gotten massive. Maybe massive is the wrong word. You tell me if I'm wrong. You seem to be ubiquitous. The stores that I visit, you're always in there. How have you gotten there? Without what I think of as a big brand campaign or a big marketing campaign, it seems that you've grown through distribution and sort of a presence that you've gotten with either the promise of a huge audience or maybe the reality of a huge audience. How would you describe it?
- [24:30]
Emily Court Lang
I think it's threefold. I think, one, we've got an amazing chief commercial officer and chief distribution officer. Both came from Red Bull, so built brands quickly with distribution. Two is the actual product itself. Like when you meet the buyer and they try the product and they taste it, tastes great, they have the feelings and you talk about the benefits, and then that fits into their insights of the way the categories are moving in terms of better for you, better for the planet. Low sugar is moving. Functional beverage is moving. We're playing in all the right places. So the conversations with the buyers to open new doors are easier. Not saying they're always easy, but they're easier here.
- [25:18]
Host
I get it. And then third, you got a good hit rate.
- [25:21]
Emily Court Lang
It's the velocity, you know, you Put this thing on the shelf and it sells. It's a yellow can. It stands out. It's got like a beacon within a store. It's also within sleepy tea. So it's igniting a stale category. Our product can also sit within functional. It can also sit in better for you alongside like poppy and olipop, etc. So, yeah, where you've seen us in multiple places, it's because our product spans multiple categories and can, from a consumer standpoint, sit in multiple aisles, also can sit alongside Kombucha.
- [26:00]
Host
So when you look at the sort of the rebrand and tracking the progress of that rebrand, how do you go about doing that and what are the most important attributes that you track that mean the most to you in terms of signaling the progress that you want to see?
- [26:19]
Emily Court Lang
So we use all the traditional things. Like I look at brand awareness pretty much every day. We're working with a new provider called Tracksuit that I really like. It's a dashboard that's constantly updated. So we're looking at how brand awareness is going from a top of mind perspective. And actually something's happening that I've not seen happen before. I've rebranded a couple of business and usually it goes down before it goes up because you're kind of going backwards because you're starting with a new brand name. Ours has just continued to move forwards and I think that's because people are post rationalizing Yerba Madre and this affinity to Yerba Mate and been like, well, I didn't know the old name Yerba Madre. I remember and it's close to Yerba Mate, so I've always known that.
- [27:06]
Host
Has it always been a yellow can or is that always a yellow? Okay. It's always had the same basic look as the distinctive red yellow can.
- [27:16]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah. So awareness is up 5% year on year, which I haven't really seen brands move that fast. As I said, most brands, if they rebrand, go backwards before they go forwards. So, yeah, we're tracking brand awareness from a brand health perspective. What I'm personally looking at is like other things that make me know that it's successful. So social commentary is really important to me in terms of sentiment. So what are our consumers and our fans saying? We also get a lot of fan mail, so I think it's quite a new form letter.
- [27:51]
Host
A written letter?
- [27:52]
Emily Court Lang
Yeah.
- [27:53]
Host
Wow.
- [27:54]
Emily Court Lang
So I look at the letters every week and we respond to them.
- [28:00]
Host
What do you think drives that sort of behavior?
- [28:04]
Emily Court Lang
I've worked in brands that people love for years and I've met our consumer. I've never seen anything like it. I look at the letters and I guess I want to see what the letters are telling us about how our core consumer groups really feel. But also the social sentiment.
- [28:19]
Host
We'll be right back. Want always on brand metrics that deliver value to stakeholders this episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, a beautiful, affordable and always on brand tracking tool that helps consumer marketers and agencies answer the question is what we're doing working? A not so secret fact is that companies pay $100,000 or more for brand tracking, which is out of the question for many modern brands whose budgets are under pressure. Tracksuit provides enterprise level brand tracking without the big price tag. Their in house research experts do the heavy lifting using best in class practices to craft and launch your survey and get you results. F Tracksuit is fast becoming the common language for marketers and agencies to measure and communicate the value of brand building. Check it out@gotracksuit.com that's gotracksuit.com now back to the show. So my last question is why was the name change so subtle and were you sort of at that time going God is this even different enough to have done it in the first place.
- [29:34]
Emily Court Lang
But as I said, I think if we'd come up with a different name but we thought it was the right name for the brand and the business but wasn't subtle we would have chosen was just an add on that it was subtle. The reason we chose it is the strategic comparatives for me when trying to come up with a new name were one, we wanted to keep Yerbs and Yerba because in lieu of having a brand name that people could pronounce or remember, they'd started to call us Yerbs and Yerba. And so to give up that, giving up quite a lot of Equity1, from a loyalty and fan base perspective you would need your core to all learn a new name. But two, it has a category ownership perspective. You become like Band Aid or Google or Vaseline. So Yerbs was important to me and that's the product. And we had names that either lent like product benefit or we had names that lent purpose. And it's really hard to choose from a brand that has, you know, both things are whole held in highest regard. Your product led brand, your purpose led brand. We're literally like two coins. You know, both sides of the coin are equal for us.
- [30:40]
Host
Yeah.
- [30:41]
Emily Court Lang
When I saw you have imagined it was one of the first names that the agency presented to us, I kind of looked around the room because I kind of got goosebumps and looked around, like, did everyone feel what I did? And I got a few eyes like, oh, interesting. But it was like straight out the gate, we saw 10 as an initial starter to be like, they were using our feedback to really guide the brief. But I saw that one and it was on black text in Helvetica on a white sheet of paper. And I was like, that's the one.
- [31:06]
Host
Right? Right.
- [31:07]
Emily Court Lang
It answers everything I need it to do. It keeps your, keeps your moderate Mother Earth. That's what we're all here for, to save the Atlantic rainforest. It's doing both in harmony. It's Hispanic. So as a brand that comes from South America, we have permission, but also invitation to come into this American market and be bilingual. Because this product isn't from here. It isn't, you know, English. So I thought that that was remarkable as well. So our connection to South America, it puts in place, keeps yerbs Duff. Mother Earth does product and purpose in perfect harmony.
- [31:46]
Host
Yeah.
- [31:47]
Emily Court Lang
I could also see, I was instantly seeing, like, ideas. I was instantly seeing it was a platform for, for communication. You know, not all names lead you to great marketing ideas, but sometimes they lead you to a place, whereas a brand and a business, it holds you to a higher purpose. Like Uber. Everything has to be awesome, right? It's called Uber. Whole Foods, you know, they can't sell anything other than Whole Foods. It says it in the name. And so, you know, our name holds us all to a higher purpose because we've literally put Mother Earth into our, into our name. And I could instantly see the marketing, I could instantly see the ideas. And my job then was to convince the business that it was the one. Because I, I, I'm like, I make really quick decisions, often too fast. And sometimes it's a blessing and sometimes it's a curse. But on that one, I was like, I could just feel it. And, you know, my next 1112 weeks were to try and convince the business that that was the one to go for. And we had to consider, we had to put, like, parallel path, other options. You know, you need a plan B. But I was willing to hang my job on that name. I knew it was the one.
- [33:01]
Host
You can see for the listener, you can see in the viewer, you can see all of the work. And we will make sure to post all of it on our website on strategyshowcase.com where you'll also be able to watch this episode. It is Emily Cortlang, CMO of Yerba Madre in Los Angeles.
- [33:17]
Emily Court Lang
Thanks for having me.
- [33:18]
Host
Thanks a lot for this. This was really interesting and I'm excited to continue to drink this beverage. Maybe you'll. Maybe you guys will get me back on the caffeine and I'll feel better about it.
- [33:27]
Emily Court Lang
I mean, yeah, I want to take you on the full journey. I want to take you through, like, the can, then I want you to try the glass, then I want to take you through the sparks and then the loose, and eventually I'll see you on a podcast in like three months time and you'll be there with a gourd, with a Bombay good gourd, because you don't expect it to happen. But I see this, this journey that through all the time. They have a start on the gourd and then migrate to the can, or they start on the can and they migrate through the products. Because when it becomes, like part of your life, people are willing to, like, give it a go.
- [33:58]
Host
Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for doing this.
- [34:01]
Emily Court Lang
Awesome. Thanks for having me. Sorry about the bin mess.
- [34:04]
Host
Oh, yeah, sorry about the bin mail, but that was okay. We can. Hopefully our genius editor can pull out some of that. Thanks for doing us. Appreciate your time.
- [34:11]
Emily Court Lang
All right, thanks. See you later.
- [34:12]
Host
And we'll see everyone on the next episode.