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- [00:00]
Sri Rajagopalan
Retail media is rapidly becoming the go to channel for brands, aiming to engage consumers with measurable performance along the path to purchase. Retailers are increasingly empowering brands to accurately target meaningful audiences based on their longitudinal purchasing behaviors and execute media impressions across on site, off site and in store channels throughout the entire marketing funnel. For brand marketers, effectively incorporating retail media into their marketing budgets is essential for growth in today's omnichannel landscape. To address this critical need, Cornell University has partnered with the CPG Guys, along with leading industry executives and visionaries from around the world to launch the first ever retail Media Strategy Executive Education program. This immersive four day program at Cornell Tech May 5th to the 8th, 2025 brings together industry thought leaders and renowned faculty to share best practices for building compelling retail media platforms. You'll discover how to collaborate on creating best in class tech stacks, measure performance to ensure brands Access the necessary KPIs based on Campaign objectives and establish strong partnerships between brands and retailers. In addition, the program covers optimizing brand strategies using AI driven campaign design at scale to achieve marketing goals. By the end of the Retail Media Strategy program, you'll have gained a deep understanding of the retail media ecosystem and how both brands and retailers can accelerate organizational transformation to thrive in the future of performance marketing. See the link in the digital liner note to this episode to learn more about the Retail Media Strategy Executive Education Program at Cornell Tech May 5th through the 8th, 2025.
- [01:40]
Katherine Bricken
Hi, I'm Katherine Bricken, the founder and CEO of Dolicious and you're listening to the CPG Guys Podcast.
- [01:50]
Sri Rajagopalan
Welcome to the CPGuys podcast. Your host hosts Sri Rajagopalan and Peter V S Bond explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.
- [02:10]
Peter V S Bond
Hello folks and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys. I'm of course sri, co founder and co host of the CPG Guys and also co founder and partner of Think Blue Consulting is Builders, Connectors and Amplifiers. We shape the future of commerce to drive your growth. Please do listen to my older daughter Rhea Raj's music. That's www.r e a r H that Carmen and new song Hot Couture which has just been launched. And my younger daughter Lara Raj is a member of the global Geffen Records Universal Music Group. Cat's Eye, the hit song Touch has crossed 250 million streams and is now nominated for two I Heart Music Awards. Not joining me today is my fellow co founder Peter Vs Bond and when he's not co hosting this Podcast. He serves as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the E Commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. Before we get to our guests, I will ask you to consider following us on Apple podcasts and leave us a rating. But rating tells me and Peter how we're doing as a podcast. We have the right conversations with the right guests. Now, the main events. This is of course Women's month on the CPG guys, March 2025. Every year when we do Women's Month, we always feature one startup and today we're happy to do just that. So on this episode our guest is someone across the pond from London uk, but originally from Miami and a mom of three who has started a brand with an interesting take on baked goods that's delicious and it aims to be inclusive. Every cookie dough flavor is 100% gluten free thanks to its unique blend of gluten free flours. They're also dairy free, organic and vegan flours flavors. Everything is made with the finest ingredients and there are no artificial additives or preservatives and we're going to discover that and a whole lot more. Let's welcome Kathryn Brick into the show. Katherine, how you doing?
- [03:54]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, I'm great. Thank you for having me. And I'm super honored to be part of your international Women's Month and the only startup so. Wow.
- [04:04]
Peter V S Bond
That is 100% true. That is 100% true. At the time of this recording, you are headed to Expo West. I wish you the best because I know how important that conference is for you. But before we get started with our Q and A segment here, Catherine, can you give us a quick overview of Dolicious and your role?
- [04:21]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah. So. Well, I found it delicious in 2017 because I'm obsessed with food, love food and wanted something that I could snack on all the time but that had that was made with better few ingredients and and it just happened to become gluten free because we found an amazing oat flour supplier. But it, it just started as as a hobby and grew into this amazing brand, global brand that just makes people happy.
- [04:50]
Peter V S Bond
So awesome to hear me making people happy. That's. I, I some days I wake up and I wish that's what life is about for everybody to make others happy in the life and the world would be so much better. Thank you for that overview. In the digital line of this episode of course we'll include links to your LinkedIn profile, delicious corporate websites for listeners to and access your product on the go while we continue on with this conversation. So the first thing I'd love to ask you is, let's get to know Katherine, the human being. Who are you? How did the idea for Doughlicious come by? How did you actually one day wake up and say, I'm going to convert the idea to an actual physical product, which is now in distribution in the United States at quite a few places?
- [05:31]
Katherine Bricken
Well, in, in 2000. Well, I always, like I said, I was always obsessed with food. And my mom was an amazing baker. Everybody would come to our house to eat all the. The baked goods. And I think I learned from her that food is not just to nourish the body, it's to nourish the soul, too. It makes people happy. It's something that we sit around and we communicate around food. We talk about food, we watch food in TV shows. And so I always knew I wanted to do something with it and create a product that everybody could enjoy any time of day. And so if it wasn't cookie dough, it probably would have been donuts. But I started making cookies and I started with these really decorative cookies. And then a friend came to me one day and said, oh, my gosh, can you just make really good chocolate chip cookie? And so I said, sure. And I, I made it with oat flours, coconut sugars, maple syrup. So really healthy. But also it had to have that indulgence. It had to have that, that I want you appeal, not just another hard cookie. And I wanted them to be thicker. So using my own oat flour blend, I was able to make a thicker cookie that stayed soft and chewy in the middle and then slightly crispy on the outsides. So I, I set up a little shop in her art gallery, and I would send out an email and people would come and get their dough and they would bake it. And I. And I like to sell just the dough because that was a way for people to bake what they want in moderation. I'm a. A big supporter of less food waste. I feel like there's just too much that goes in the. In the. The. I was going to say rubbish bin, but that would be like trash can for Americans. And so anything I could do to prevent that. So that's how it started. And then in 2017, I put it in a food show that was a lot smaller than Expo west. And I didn't even have barcodes and just wanted to test the waters with, with what people would think. And they absolutely loved it. So Whole Foods came to me and they're like, how do we get this and, and then some other smaller retailers in the uk. So at that point I said, okay, I've got this product now I need to take it to the next step and continue to grow it. And first I started with a contract manufacturer and I wasn't happy with the product because it just lost its, it lost its, its life. I felt like it was, it didn't have, and baking is so, so full of chemistry. So it just, it was missing something. So that's when I decided to start my own factory, which is, is really crazy because not many people open their own factories when they're starting a brand too. So I, I, I don't do anything small on small scale. I decided just to take it on.
- [08:35]
Peter V S Bond
It's kind of interesting that you refer to baking as chemistry. You know, my daughters are much older now. They're both musicians. One is part of a global girls band called Cat's Eye, well known internationally. But my younger one, Laura, and I used to bake when she was a child all the time. And I would never use precise measurement and I would always flop, but she would always tell me it's about the chemistry. And you must use two teaspoons means two teaspoons, not one drop more. And that a hint of vanilla essence means a hint, not a quarter teaspoon. And I remember that, I remember that distinctly. So congratulations on getting started. You know, when you referred to art gallery, did you mean in, at Miami, back in the days?
- [09:24]
Katherine Bricken
I'm sorry, can you say that again?
- [09:25]
Peter V S Bond
The art gallery, when you first put it out, was that at Miami?
- [09:28]
Katherine Bricken
Oh, that was, that was in London. So I, I started the business when I was in London because there's, there weren't American style cookies.
- [09:38]
Peter V S Bond
Gotcha. That's how, that's how ideas are born. Right. White space. So before we, before we talk about scale and where it is. I'm sorry, were you saying something?
- [09:49]
Katherine Bricken
Oh, I was just gonna say like to, to be a, an entrepreneur or a creator of a brand, you don't need to create something new. You need to take something that's out there and make it better.
- [10:00]
Peter V S Bond
There we go.
- [10:01]
Katherine Bricken
And I think that that's, that's what I did. So I had grown up with Pillsbury, Nestle, all these different cookie dough brands, and, and I felt like what I could create myself would be so much better.
- [10:15]
Peter V S Bond
I am an alumni of General Mills. I was recently the chief customer officer for North America before I decided to go independent. Very familiar with Pillsbury, and you're 100% right. But before we get into scaling Distribution, you know, advertising, marketing, all that stuff. I'd love to ask you the question. Tell us about the portfolio of Doualicious. What all can. What. What all can one of our listeners expect to find in the portfolio?
- [10:43]
Katherine Bricken
Well, I started it as purely ready to bake, and I. Of course, you have to have your chocolate chip, because your chocolate chip is always going to be. It's traditional. Yeah. And everybody loves chocolate chip. But then I created my other parts of my collection that I created was a matcha white chocolate. And I was playing with matcha before matcha even became popular. And. And then we made a blondie. But our blondie is. Was. It's. Well, it was. It was. And it is. It's really unique because we add some miso in it. So. So the miso paste makes it very deep and rich with flavor, and then you have the sweetness of the white chocolate. So we're always looking for ways that we like our traditional, but then we also like something a little more interesting for the customer. And then in 2019. So those are what we launched in 2017. Then in 2019, we launched the cookie dough and gelato bites, which are what in the. Are in the US Right now. And I was obsessed with wrapping cookie dough around ice cream. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. And I had a machine that would. Would do it, but it was getting the cookie dough to stretch. It was getting the right temperature of the ice cream and making it all work. So basically, I would say a Hail Mary before it happened. I was like, okay, it's gonna work. It's gonna work. And then we would go. We'd get it all ready, go through the machine, and it would tear. It would not look like a ball. It would look like things like kibbas or twister tops. So I worked really, really hard on it, and finally one day I got it, and then I said, oh, my gosh, it's. It worked, but I don't like the look of it, so what am I going to do? So then we went back into product development, and we decided that it had to roll in a cookie crumb. So because we're a cookie dough platform, so we trialed different ways. So now what we do, which is our. Our profile of this for the cookie dough and gelato bites, is everything is gelato instead of ice cream because gelato is a little less fat and creamier. And then we roll it in our cookie dough, and then everything has a cookie crumb. So we do the flavors, those flavors are from mint chocolate chip, chocolate chip cinnamon churro and we have chocolate raspberry. So really fun flavors, something for everybody. And then we've recently in the UK and launching on different airlines in Europe. We just came out with a ambient cookie which is flow wrapped. So something that you can take on the go that you can, you know, have in your handbag when you want a snack, eat on, in a car, on a plane. And, and if it all goes well, then hopefully on your next trip to Asia you might be eating a delicious cookie.
- [13:40]
Peter V S Bond
So when you say in airlines in Europe, are you talking British Airways, are you talking airports?
- [13:47]
Katherine Bricken
Well, we just launched on a Spanish airline with this cookie and yes, we are launching on British Airways.
- [13:55]
Peter V S Bond
Well, congratulations to you. Good luck for those launches as well. And in terms of any new innovation, are those the ones specifically the ambient cookie is the big one for the year?
- [14:05]
Katherine Bricken
Yes. Well, I'm. Well, we just also sent some products to, to Whole Foods so we'll see if they take some of our other new products which I can't tell you specifically what they are, but let's. This is our first foray into functional.
- [14:21]
Peter V S Bond
Awesome. I wish you much luck in that success of scaling there. But all that talk about cookies and chocolate and miso is obviously making me hungry. I'm going to have to find samples of your product pretty quickly. But speaking of innovation, speaking of Whole Foods etc. Let's talk about how dualicious is actually scaling. Where are you in distribution? And then let's talk about why it's actually a better brand than others.
- [14:47]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, well, we've been really lucky. And we grew, we started in the uk, then we grew into Europe and then into Australia. And then we had the opportunity to host the new incoming CEO of Whole Foods at our factory. And, and he tried our products and loved it. So he said we need to get this in the US And I, and me being an American, that was one of my, my lifetime goals was to put this product in the US So we met with some, some of his helpers and his staff and four months later we were in four regions with Whole Foods. And that was last October or sorry, October 2023. And then April 2024 we launched nationwide in Whole Foods and but we gave them exclusivity because we are so thankful for the opportunity. So exclusivity end on ended on June 30th. And then we now are in Target. Yay. And we are in 1600 stores of Target and we're also in Harris Teeter launching in Albertsons Fresh Direct and a lot of other different retailers throughout different states. So Dearborg Schnucks, I'm not sure if those are in more Illinois, Missouri.
- [16:14]
Peter V S Bond
And if someone wanted to get the product online, could they do that directly from your website or because it's frozen refrigerated. That wouldn't be possible.
- [16:22]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, no, yeah, you can't get it from our website. We, we tried that and during COVID we sent out a lot of direct to consumer but frozen delivery is a nightmare. And even now we send out a bunch from Chicago when two different customers or influencers and I can't even tell you how disturbing it is because it's expensive the product. You know, I don't like food waste, but there's so much that goes to waste if it doesn't get there on time or if they don't put it in the freezer, the recipient, it all melts. So it's just really, really difficult.
- [16:59]
Peter V S Bond
I can understand and I got to imagine even in transit a lot of it, you know, the shapes change and they break, etc. So I totally get that. But also tell our listeners why your product is a better choice for them versus the rest of the competition in the marketplace.
- [17:16]
Katherine Bricken
Well, first off, it tastes just absolutely indulgent and fantastic. But it's also, we take such pride and care in our ingredients. Like I said, everything is an oat flour based and we, we will look at different suppliers will come to us and we'll look at. But the grain that we use is so specific to the quality of the, of the cookie and the, the cookie dough on the gelato bite. If I, it's just like it's the chemistry where if I go a little finer or I go a little thicker, the whole product changes. So the attention to detail in the ingredients makes us different. The, the cap, the caloric value. So all of our gelato bites are about 100 calories. The, the uniqueness of our flavors, I don't think there's anything like it where somebody is wrapping cookie dough around gelato and calling it a cinnamon churro. And they're not all dairy free, but we have some dairy free options. So we have something for everyone which is, I really, I think is really important. And then on top of that, we run our factory on renewable electricity. We are peanut free and nut free. So not only being able to cater to the masses, we also cater to people that the celiacs or people that want something that because they're, they're intolerant to dairy or they just don't want to eat dairy. And all our products are vegetarian.
- [18:45]
Peter V S Bond
Wow. Quite an impressive list of the. Why I'm very intrigued by renewable electricity. Can you tell us more about the factory producing with renewable electricity?
- [18:56]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, so we. We pay extra. So we get all of our electricity from wind Farms.
- [19:00]
Peter V S Bond
So that's 100% of your electricity is renewably sourced?
- [19:04]
Katherine Bricken
Yes, 100%.
- [19:06]
Peter V S Bond
Let me take a second to applaud you first for. For understanding and recognizing the importance of doing this and for understanding that on the P and L, sometimes it can be a burden, but the way you claw it back. I'm guessing Katherine is commanding a premium because the quality of what you put out, the taste of what you put out, and all the various forms and factors you just put out actually commands a premium. So congratulations.
- [19:31]
Katherine Bricken
Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I know we're always trying and it's really awesome that you acknowledge that because it's. A lot of people don't understand the, you know, the burden, but the importance at the same time.
- [19:44]
Peter V S Bond
Having sat in boardrooms, coming from some of the largest brands in the world, myself, we would always hesitate or take a step with caution because it's capital. And we'd be like, consumers don't want us to invest it because they will not pay us back in capital. I believe your quality is good enough and you distinguish yourself. You can make up that capital in the actual value of the product that they will be willing to raise it to premium. Speaking of which, take us to the price points of where your products are. And do you consider yourself premium in the category you're in, or are you more mass market? Are you seeking to keep it premium? Just love to learn more.
- [20:22]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, so we're. The category we're in is the handheld ice cream. So the novelty, which is a growing category right now because people are so busy, people want to eat less. They want to eat on the run. They want that, you know, that. That small bite of something, which I think is, you know, I'm guessing that's why True Fruit has taken off. I mean, I think it's a fantastic product, but I think that's was kind of the beginning of people want small and poppable and easy to. To eat. But so I forgot your question because.
- [20:57]
Peter V S Bond
I was thinking premiumization, you know, price points.
- [21:02]
Katherine Bricken
So our price point. Well, in Target it's less because we go direct. So our price point in Target is, I want to say 599. And in Whole Foods it's 699. So depending on which store it will fluctuate, just depend on the, depending on the logistics and how we get there.
- [21:22]
Peter V S Bond
Gotcha.
- [21:22]
Katherine Bricken
And as you know with, with Whole Foods we have to go through unfi, which is always challenging.
- [21:28]
Peter V S Bond
I work with all the retailers, wholesalers and distributors at some point in my life. So you're talking about a category where there are brands and competitors with deep marketing pockets and distribution. So tell others and inspire other startup founders. How do you compete from a consumer outreach perspective with those that have deep marketing pockets and distribution?
- [21:56]
Katherine Bricken
It's really hard. It's. I can't even tell you the challenges every day with that. And we are, we are scrappy. We have a really scrappy team and we find ways to, to get attention and, and I think it's just starting, it's starting to work now. But we just came out of a Collab in the UK with PepsiCo and you know a lot of people find factories to be a, an annoyance and expensive but what I find beautiful about a factory is the, the capability to innovate and to, to control. So PepsiCo came to us and they said would you like to do a collab with our extra flaming hot. We're putting 3 million spend behind it and influencers and a pop up tick tock shop. And because we could think fast and we can create the product, we did this, this collab with them which brought us a lot of different attention. It was only in the UK but we had our, some of our buyers in the US contacting us saying oh my gosh you did this, this fantastic collab. Can we get some in the US so TBD if PepsiCo will want us to do it in the US also maybe. But so just finding ways to have ourselves stand out. We, we do a lot with, I think our Instagram is great TikTok. We send out packages to a lot of influencers hoping that they'll post about us but we're always trying to be scrappy because we, we need to watch our spend. As you know everything's expensive and, and it's all keeping those margins where they are which will help us become profitable. And especially as a startup it's hard.
- [23:41]
Peter V S Bond
We have a lot of followers from PepsiCo. We know you're listening to the show. Catherine just talked about a success out there in the UK. Hello PepsiCo. If you're listening do reach out to Catherine in the United States and hopefully you all too can build a epic set of outcomes from an innovation perspective in the US Reminded to our audience that I'm speaking To Katherine Bricken, founder and CEO of Dolicious UK based company now in distribution in the U.S. first thing, I want us to come back to challenges as a startup. You know, it's, it's. I'm now a entrepreneur myself in consulting and through this media company we call cpg. Guys, it's very different than being in a corporate setting where a paycheck showed up every two weeks. You could have failures, learn from them, adapt much harder as an entrepreneur. What are challenges you face every day as an entrepreneur?
- [24:32]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, I think every, every day I face keeping, keeping people happy. The culture, the culture Positive because you have to be a boss, you have to get things done. We need to be profitable, so we need efficiencies, we need to move fast. But you want, if there's not a good culture, then you're not going to achieve any of those other things. So, you know, I have to always be positive, which I love my staff. I think everybody who, who is an employee of Delicious is fantastic. And I've had people with me for five years, so I guess we're doing something right with the culture. But I think that that's, you know, that's always a constant thing in the back of your head because without happiness, people are not going to, to execute and, and work hard. So you, you need to, to always maintain that, that high level of culture. Then the other thing I think that's really hard is shoot. I created and founded a frozen product which is the most difficult thing and getting it logistically anywhere is a nightmare. It's so hard.
- [25:46]
Peter V S Bond
I gotta imagine, Katherine, when you're a startup founder, you built this, you're a mom of three, which you proudly said multiple times, you know.
- [25:55]
Katherine Bricken
Yes. So twins that are 27 and a 25 year old.
- [25:58]
Peter V S Bond
How awesome are they helping you in the business? Because I do believe family matters. Deep believer in that. You know, I talk about my kids music every single episode. I get to travel the world and see my younger one perform as a member of Cat's Eye. What about support? I think it's.
- [26:17]
Katherine Bricken
Wait, can I, can I send, wait, can I send her some Delicious?
- [26:20]
Peter V S Bond
Absolutely, you can send it, send it home. So we'll figure that out after the, after the episode. But I think a family affair is the best affair. What do you think?
- [26:30]
Katherine Bricken
Yes, well, my children are super supportive of Delicious, but they've chosen other careers. So one is at Blackstone and she's doing hotel private equity. And then both of my boys are in artificial intelligence, so they work for Anthropic, which is a big artificial intelligence company. So sadly, they love to eat delicious and they are very discerning about the flavors and love to give their opinions and are and are actually quite cute though because they one lives in New York and well, he'll have a lot of dinner parties and he always has delicious and actually.
- [27:10]
Peter V S Bond
So there we go. There we go. That's what the CPG guys want to hear. And if you're an AI, the CPG guys are here. Not here to tell you what to do, but you got to support the brand AI. You got to send the trends over to Katherine and then private equity. When Katherine is fundraising. The CPG guys will come back and check. Did Blackstone participate?
- [27:30]
Katherine Bricken
I love it. Oh my gosh.
- [27:32]
Peter V S Bond
Yeah, we'll come back and check. Don't you worry. So let's go back to teams. Right. While I say that in jest, I think my point is, you know, the importance of family. I love that on the website you proudly said mom of three. Congratulations for doing that. Not enough people are confident enough or feel this pressure that they shouldn't talk about the world outside, just the job they do or the brands they curate. You have done that. So I want to say congratulations. If you look at my headline on LinkedIn, it doesn't say I'm alum of General Mills and PepsiCo and Johnson and Johnson or I was a president of sales or anything of that sort. It actually says I'm father of Rhea and Lara before I do. And then CPG guys, life is so much more bigger. And that's the point. But let's talk about your team, right? It's not easy in a startup environment. While you're scaling and you're not an early stage startup anymore, you do have a team, no matter how big or small, and you have to motivate them every single day. Other than the fact that you're in a fun category and you have a great product, which I'm sure they all love to eat and sample all the time. How do you motivate them? How do you keep them engaged? What do you tell them every single day? And what is your approach to just leading humans and people in general?
- [28:45]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, I am, I think, being thankful and treating people with kindness. Sometimes I play this little game. I'll, I'll go into the office and I'll, I'll just kind of be like, oh, good morning. And I'll just do my own thing and to see the reaction. And then other day, another day, I'll go in and I'll be like, oh, my gosh, it's Friday. Hey, can you believe it? And, you know, we. This. The week has gone so, so fast. And I start engaging them in conversation, and I see their attitudes change. Because if I come in and the first thing I say to them, if it's kind of. If it's straight on, it's kind of just quiet. If it's negative, they go into a negative downward slope. But if I come in and I'm super happy, then I see motivation and I see excitement. So depending on my personality, which is quite large, and I'm not a very quiet person, that I see a change in their attitude, which. So I think always being positive, having positive energy, being happy, just like I want my customers to be when they eat our product, but also being thankful. And I. I have heard other managers ask people to do things without saying please or thank you, and I stopped them, and I actually did yesterday. I said, wait, hold on a minute. Can you please start with the word please and then end with thank you? Because we're all people, and we're all doing our best. So I. I just think that. That it's important to also treat people of all different positions, treat them equally. So we try to do a couple fun things at Delicious. We go bowling twice a year, which is a fun activity, and everybody's on each other's teams, and I'm on a team with somebody who is, you know, working in the warehouse. I have people on my team that literally cut ice cream. But there's, you know, I think that it's important for us to build that camaraderie and to. To talk and be friendly. And then when we. And they're so cute because they always call me ma'am. Oh, man. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, am I that old? I'm not a man yet. But just try to constantly build. Make sure that everybody's building friendships and. And being kind to each other.
- [31:13]
Peter V S Bond
So the funny thing about you saying ma'am is I went to school at Virginia Tech. It was my first arrival in America. Now we're talking decades ago. As a result, to the day, coming from the South, I say ma'am and sir to everybody. And I found. Really, I found younger people actually like ma'am and sir. It's just bizarre. Gen Z loves to be called ma'am and sir.
- [31:37]
Katherine Bricken
Wait, so you call, you call, you call, but you call younger people ma'am and sir too?
- [31:41]
Peter V S Bond
No, I just called people that I don't know and I interact with for the first time. I don't know their name. It's a habit. Now. I say ma'am or I say sir. And it doesn't matter what you do. If I, if I meet you, I have to ask you for something, you give, I say, thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. It's just for me it's about respect. That's what I say. But I have noticed if they're young, they actually appreciate that. As funny as it sounds. As funny as it sounds.
- [32:07]
Katherine Bricken
Well, I'm a man, I'm a ma'am at work, so there we go.
- [32:11]
Peter V S Bond
I'll say mam Bricken. So let's talk about mentorship. To obviously do what you've done, start a brand, you know, bring it to distribution, get it to Target. And I hear the passion in your voice to keep this thing growing, you know, put more innovation out. You're coming all the way to the west coast for Expo West. You're, you're in the early stages of still building, but you're going to make this something epic, large. It's going to take on some of the largest brands in the world in that frozen novelty category, but it can't be done on your own. So who have been your mentors and advisors? What is the importance of mentorship? And let me flip that and ask you, what advice would you give others who want to wear your shoes and say I can do it too?
- [32:54]
Katherine Bricken
Well, I love other women founders. I just think they're, I mean, I love all food founders, but I think that when you're a woman in a, in a man's world, it's, you need to stick together. And I'm, and I'm, you know, I'm not one of these like women's lib or anything like that, but I do think that sometimes it's harder, it's harder as a woman. And I mean I had, I was, had three children, I was at home and then I've, I basically started Delicious when I was 50 years old. So it's pretty crazy what I've done and I'm really, really proud of myself and I, I don't think a lot of, and again, no disrespect for men, but I don't know if a lot of men can feel that way because they didn't leave their career to do something, you know, raise children and then start a company at 50. I mean, maybe a lot have, but not, I don't think it's the norm, but. So I'm really lucky to be part of this group called by Women Built. And the woman that started it, she started a coffee chain called Coffee Republic in the uk, sold it and decided that she really needed help and wanted more women to be able to support each other. And it's everything. Like, the advice is from, you know, should I raise money on Crowd Cube or should I do angel investment or questions like what, you know, which buyer should I focus in this retail chain? Like, any type of information that you need, you know, what should I be spending on marketing? What percent of, of my budget should I allocate to. To marketing, to shopper marketing, to out of home. Like, there's all these questions that you just don't know the answers to. So you need to have a core group. And what's, what's fantastic about Buy Women Built is I don't have to rely on one person and their experience when I put something on that chat. I have about 300 women that are, that see my, my question and answer me. And so I get all these great opinions. I mean, it's the most simplistic thing from like, is there a good food photographer, is there a good food stylist? To, you know, the more important things about fundraising and hiring, insurance, anything.
- [35:19]
Peter V S Bond
No doubt about it. This is precisely why we have Women's Month on the cpg guys. Sorry, bros. In March every year. You can't come on the show. And no offense to anybody, but this is precisely why we do it. For those of you listening, a reminder that we also had Anna and Laura, who have started up the Women in Retail media collective. We believe it's important that you voice your opinion as a female in retail media and help shape this industry with the amazing leadership you bring every day. Speaking of Catherine, you know, leaving careers and doing your own thing at the ripe old age of 50. That's your words. I've done it middle of last year and I'm determined not to go back to a corporate role. But what I haven't done is I haven't left my career to raise two kids. My wife sacrificed hers for doing that and now she runs her own record label. And I learned from, I learn from her every single day. And I'm actually a little bit jealous. And I'll tell you why. We have three cats. The love that they show her as a mom is different than the love they show me. And I'm jealous to the day. They'll sleep by they'll sleep on her chest they'll sleep on right, right on top of her they will only sleep on my feet but it's A little learning lesson in mother nature to me that as men are nurturing abilities or we don't just demonstrate the same nurturing to offsprings that women can. And I'm actually jealous of that. But kudos to you for coming back a whole circle, starting the company and actually getting it scale here on the CPG guys. We always welcome conversations like that. We want you to come here and tell your story and inspire other women to also becoming amazing leaders like Catherine. So let me wrap it up with a mandatory question we always ask here on the CPG guys. It's called fast forward. Look forward. What trends are you following these days? Everyone tells me artificial intelligence, that's like par for the course. It's technology. But I'm also curious, do you read books? Is it articles? Is it word of mouth? You just mentioned going to a collective with other women where you're what an amazing thing. How do you fundraise what a great thing to share with others. But how do you learn? What are you following? What are some trends you'll pass on to others?
- [37:39]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, the trend that I think right now is entertainment. So you want food that excites that you can talk about that.
- [37:49]
Peter V S Bond
Hold on, hold on. You can't say a word like that and just continue. Born on the CPG guys. Thank to. Thanks to Katherine. Today, the word entertainment, we're going to shamelessly use that again and again. Katherine, with your permission. Is that okay?
- [38:02]
Katherine Bricken
Yay. I love it.
- [38:04]
Peter V S Bond
All right, let's so eatertainment. Tell us more.
- [38:06]
Katherine Bricken
So entertainment, you want food that excites. So I'm always looking for things that it's like, you know, you're being entertained with your food and it can bring on conversation, it can bring on excitement, it can bring on these, these different feelings that you would get as if you were going to a, a theater or a show. So that's what I'm always looking for.
- [38:30]
Peter V S Bond
And so so how. So let's talk about that for a quick second. Right? So let's say I'm at home, I'm watching my favorite show, Netflix, you know, whatever could be BBC in your case because you actually have access to a chronicle of shows that here in the US we just don't know about and actually. Awesome.
- [38:48]
Katherine Bricken
I still watch Netflix though.
- [38:50]
Peter V S Bond
Is it the, is it the art? Is it the experience of eating a meal while watching that show and all different pieces? Or is it more about the frozen novelty and the premium kind of, let's say the treat category? How would you, how would you describe entertainment?
- [39:09]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah, I think it would be. Well, for me it's the, it's the snacking, so the snacking treat. But for when I so the, the gelato bites would be the layers, so the crunchy exterior which then leads to the, the soft, chewy cookie dough and then the creamy gelato interior. So these different textures that when you bite it, you feel something. You want to talk about it? So oh my gosh, I didn't know that had a little crunch on the outside or ooh, was that a chocolate chip? Oh wow, that raspberry inside is so tart. So you're creating conversation and I guess it would be almost thought provoking.
- [39:50]
Peter V S Bond
No doubt about it. What a fabulous conversation we've just had. Let me remind our audience that you can find all of our content by going to a web browser and simply typing cpgis.com as the URL. If you think you or your company has some thought leadership to contribute to our community discussion, drop us an email@contactpgcuys.com and maybe you can join us on the podcast just like Katherine did today. Don't forget to drop us a reading my humble Request either@cpguys.com on the navigation bar up top or on the Apple podcast. The rating tells us how we're doing. The review tells us whether we're having the like the right conversations. To all our followers, Peter and I cannot thank you enough. Coming to our dinner events, downloading our episode clicks, likes, comments, DMs, all the love you show us on the trade flows trade shows as we go about, we cannot say thank you enough times. We wouldn't exist without you. Katherine, thank you for joining us during Women's Month inspirational conversation here. All the way from founding a brand from scratch, competing with the ones that have deep pockets, inspiring teams, people, how you keep them motivated every single day. Then your general thoughts and overview on being a female founder in general. So thank you so much for coming on the CPG guys. We love this.
- [41:11]
Katherine Bricken
Thank you for having me. I had a great time and loved.
- [41:14]
Peter V S Bond
Chatting with you at the time this episode's released. You have already come to Expo west and back and you have already know the results of your new innovation with Whole Foods. We wish you the best and we will check back in a year's time to see how you're doing. Come back on the show, tell us about what's new, tell us about how things went and most importantly, if the innovation actually scaled at Whole Foods, we'll be looking forward.
- [41:38]
Katherine Bricken
Yeah. Thank you.
- [41:39]
Peter V S Bond
That's a wrap of this episode. We will see you soon on another episode. Wait for it of the CPG Guys.
- [41:46]
Katherine Bricken
Foreign.
- [41:57]
Narrator
The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGuys LLC where the individual author, hosts or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPG Guys llc. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPT Guys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.