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- [00:01]
A
Hey, CPT Guys listeners, Before we dive into this week's episode, we want to talk about something that takes less time than your morning coffee run, but could literally save three lives. We're talking about donating blood every two seconds. Someone in America needs blood. Cancer patients, accident victims, people having surgery. They're all counting on donors like you. And here's the thing, only about 3% of eligible Americans donate each year. That's wild when you think about how easy it is. One donation takes about an hour, but most of that is paperwork and snacks. The actual donation, 10 minutes tops. And that single pint can help up to three different people. So here's the CPG Guys ask. Roll up your sleeve, make an appointment. Be someone's hero. Today, head to redcrossblood.org to find a donation center near you and schedule your appointment. That's redcrossblood.org.
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B
I'm John Frost, CCO of Chobani and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast.
- [01:06]
A
Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast. Set at the intersection of commerce and tech, your hosts Sree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Bhan explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG guys.
- [01:25]
C
Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys. I'm of course Sree, your co host and also CRO and co founder of ThinkBlue Consulting, your trusted partner in your omnichannel development journey. Get in touch with me at srinkblueconsulting co. Please do listen to my older daughter's music@www.rearaj.com. we've just come off the commotion. Tour five cities and follow Lara Raj. My younger daughter is a member of the world's fastest growing global girls group, Cat's Eye, recognized by TikTok as the artist of the year above Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. Proud winner of an MTV VMA as well as two Grammy nominations for best new Artist and for pop duo performance. So we're looking forward to being at the Grammys. Let's see what happens. But Lara also broke a ceiling to become the first person of Indian origin in history to win an MTV vma. Unable to join me today is my co host and co founder Peter Vsbahn, who moonlights his head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. Make sure you're subscribing to our podcast on your preferred listing platform where you can get our latest episodes. Even go back to consume some of the 500 plus episodes we've already published. And now to our guest. Today I'm thrilled to welcome a fellow Virginia Tech Hokie alum. I wish Peter was here for this conversation because he makes fun of the Hokies all the time. A guest who sits at the very heart of customer leaderships in one of the most beloved and innovative brands in food and beverages, John Frost, Chief customer Officer of Chobani. Over his career, John has built a reputation as a trusted partner to retailers, bringing deep expertise in sales, customer development, omnichannel growth indeed. The part that I love is when I worked at General Mills, we had you play as part of the portfolio and we'd look at Chobani and say damage. They've taken a share of the category that will probably never be able to claim back. And I can actually say that now. He's an ex colleague of myself from Frito Lay. We had offices next to each other, which means we are now amongst the elites. Chobani itself is a true modern CPG success story. From disrupting the yogurt category with good food for all to expanding into oat milk coffee creamers ready to drink beverages and beyond. At the center of it all is a relentless commitment to purpose, quality and consumer first thinking. John leads the charge in building strategic partnerships, harnessing insights and ensuring that Chobani shows up for consumers and customers across every channel, in store, online, wherever shoppers choose to engage. We're going to dig into his journey, how Chobani is redefining customer collaboration, what the future of food, retail and consumer engagement looks like through his lens. Join me in welcoming John Frost to the show. John, fellow alum, Virginia Tech welcome to the CPG guys. Man, how you doing?
- [04:09]
B
Great. Thanks for having me. Sree, it's an honor and privilege to be here and it's obviously great to be able to connect with you again. Awesome.
- [04:16]
C
In the digital liner notes of this episode will include links to your LinkedIn profile, of course, Chobani's corporate websites for our listeners to access while we go on with our conversation. So I'm going to jump into it. John, you know I briefly mentioned you were at Frito Lay. So let's start with your journey. Graduate school at Virginia Tech. Take us through the years. What path led you to Chobani? How has your experience coming from DST at Frito and PepsiCo shaped your perspective as CCO here of a yogurt category company?
- [04:43]
B
It's now 25 years in consumer packaged goods. I started out in 2000, a graduate from Virginia Tech. I was actually a swimmer at Virginia Tech. And I had two degrees in marketing and management science and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my career. Had offers from three consulting firms and Frito Lay and got some great advice from my dad that said, hey, at the end of the day, is there anything more stable in business than, you know, the economy goes up, economy goes down, people still eat, you know, salty snacks and beverages. So decided to get some frontline experience at Frito Lay. Spent a number of years in the field organization. Frito Lay in PepsiCo spent a number of years in the customer and commercial organization. And PepsiCo is a fabulous organization. You and I obviously spent some time there and you get to meet fabulous people in a just a world class organization. And ultimately what I learned in my, my, my career at PepsiCo was just this ability to, to be able to be a builder, a builder and a leader of a business. So I had the great fortune of touching a variety of different aspects of the business. And at the juncture when, when I started with Chobani, that's really what they needed. Chobani is a food company and the food is, is ultimately what, what the whole company is focused on from, from start to finish. And how do you take that food and, and how do you use that food to be a force for good not just in communities, but a force for good within retailers as well. So as I joined Chobani, the task was my responsibilities are customer and commercial. How do those two organizations come together and take our best food and solve problems for customers across the market? You know, we're a, a mission driven, mission driven brand. We prioritize our people and our products first and then we focus on ways in which we can drive profitable growth for our customers and certainly our business so we can reinvest that back in the business. It's been a great transition to Chobani. It's an incredible company. I've been with the company for two years now and we're doing some great things in the marketplace.
- [06:54]
C
Awesome. Anytime you put the customer the center of the conversation, you can't really go wrong because that's how value is created between a retailer and a brand. But before we go any further into that world, give me a prediction for the Hokies for next year. Virginia Tech Hokies. So we went three and nine. We get this grandiose coach Franklin coming from the outside. Prior to this recording, you and I chatted about first time in the history of the Hokies. Four. Four star prospects.
- [07:23]
B
Yes. On the offensive side of the ball. Yes.
- [07:27]
C
Give me the prediction 9 and 3 year. Do we flip it from 3 and 9? ACC championship, 10 and 2. We'd have to go at least 9 and 3 to have a shot at. Although this year, you know, Duke was there with what, seven and five?
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B
Yes, Duke was there at seven and five. My prediction, I'm going to be, I'm going to take the bullish side of this. I'm going to predict 9 and 3. I think our schedule is very easy. I think we have an opportunity to go out into the transfer portal under James Franklin's new leadership inside Virginia Tech and really go make an impact and get some talent inside Virginia Tech like we used to have and, and what we deserve. And I'm really excited about this new coaching staff. So I think the combination of not the hardest schedule in college football, the combination of this talent that's come in from a recruiting perspective, the combination of transfer portal and the coaching staff, I'm very bullish. I think 9 and 3 is probably the floor for next year.
- [08:26]
C
And do you see this bright new future, John Frost and Rod, the new NCAA podcast on the Hokey football future. Do you see that blossoming in the future somewhere?
- [08:36]
B
Yes. And we may have to do that at the ACC Championship game next year in Charlotte. We may have to go live from.
- [08:43]
C
A CPG podcast may or words come true that we'll be at the ACC championship. But in any event, the CCO role is all about partnerships. How do you define retail customer centricity at Chobani and how does it show up in your actions day to day?
- [08:59]
B
Yeah, it's a great question. And honestly, the way we like to solve problems with customers is with more of a growth mindset. So at the end of the day, our retailers have a tremendous amount of fixed assets and those assets have to be more productive each and every year. So when we from a supplier perspective, and certainly as it relates to Chobani, what we try to do is we try to get under the hood of what, what is our retailers trying to solve for? We are obsessed with our consumer. We have incredible consumer insights. So how, how do those consumer insights start to manifest into retailer problem to solve that then get us into how do we solve for that with our brands and our growth and our products and our innovation, both short and long term. So that's, that's really the epicenter of all of our JDP conversations is it starts with, you know, our discovery sessions with, with innovation. It moves into ways in which we can build three to five year plans with retailers. And that's a big, been a big part of our transition over the course last couple years is getting into that rhythm with customers. This is large customers and this is small customers. There is all of our customers are incredibly important to us and we take that same approach. We at Chobani are in the middle. We're a disruptor. And when we disrupt these categories, we drive a tremendous amount of growth. And we are in the middle of that disruption and that growth right now. So we have growth to help solve our retailer problems. And when you look at our products, we're driving a lot of productivity on shelves. So we look through that model in terms of how we partner with retailers and it allows us to start to put some transformation initiatives on the table both in year and in the out years of what we both can invest in together that will allow us to delight their shopper, which is also our consumer.
- [10:59]
C
You know, John, one of the key important words out there that you used in as you spoke was having a respect for the assets of the retailer. The deep capital investments made in retail centricity requires that. I can tell you most brands don't think of it that way anymore. In the world we are in now, especially as we went through the COVID era, another such ecosystem that's going through rapid change is the whole world of assortment management, AKA category management. Any viewpoints on how you approach modern category management?
- [11:31]
B
Yeah, it's, it's a great, great question through the lens of, you know, you think about dairy. Let's just take that. We're. We have a big business obviously in dairy. In order to have a dairy business, there's a tremendous amount of fixed assets that have to be lined up. Number one, the code life isn't a year, it's, it's much shorter. Code life. You have to set up refrigeration across an ecosystem from the supplier to potentially a third party, you know, cold storage operator to the retailer's cold storage to the store's refrigeration. And then now in an omni world, you actually have cold transportation potentially to consumers homes. So that's a tremendous amount of ecosystem that has to be stood up. It's a lot of fixed assets and then you have labor that's on top of that. So from a category management perspective, the game is two things. One, how do you get more profitable velocity against those fixed assets? And then two, how do you get more incrementality so you can get to a point where one plus one equals? 3, the challenge in dairy today is that There are the haves and the have nots. There are businesses that are on the functional side of dairy that are growing very well. And there are businesses, legacy businesses on the side of the dairy that aren't growing as fast. So it's putting on the table more transformation. How do we start to project where the consumer is going to be at short, medium and long term? And how do we look at this combination of productivity, profitability plus incrementality as we start to set stores not just with the fixed amount of space, items in, items out, but start to look across adjacencies and making sure we have the right positioning across the entire dairy aisle. And if you can get a hundred billion dollar business, which is roughly what the dairy business is across the US not growing 0 to 1% but growing 4 to 5, that spins off a tremendous amount of profitability for retailers that they reinvest in their shopper. And brands such as Chobani reinvest back.
- [13:30]
C
In the consumer 3 to 4% is no joke. John, working in this post life from being in the corporate setting, one of the things I've learned is the highest capital cost as well as the highest maintenance cost of any store is actually the refrigerated lines that sit under it. Respecting that and trying to produce, ensuring productivity with velocity turns and the right profitability is very important in that scenario. So that's why I want to jump to. You've used the word disruptor quite a few times of a category disruptor. But you're also a scaled modern food and beverage company today because you are producing beverages as well in the dairy category. So your roots, you know, there's a whole story behind Chobani. How it was born, came to being the first listing distribution, growing. So the roots of Chobani are very much still ingrained in the company from everything you read on the website. So John, as you scale now as this national player that's continuing to grow every single day, delivering this 3,4% growth which in CPG is very hard to sustain and deliver in the first place, how do you balance those roots at Chobani with this phenomenal growth you're delivering at the same time?
- [14:49]
B
Yeah, it's a, it's a great question and I've used the word food a few, a few times. We're not a product company, we're not a brand company. Chobani is a food company. We develop food that at its fundamental core is food that you would be proud to serve to your family members, to your friends, to members of your community. And we do that through making products that are one, products that are made with natural ingredients. Two, products that provide real nutrition to consumers. Three, products that are delicious products have to taste good and for they have to be accessible. So that is the lens in which we say we are going to come in with food that fits that classification. And when we look across categories, whether it's dairy, whether it's in dairy, whether it's yogurt or whether it's creamer, whether it's coffee, we have a business in LA Cologne, whether it's in the frozen aisle, we have a business in daily harvest or future ventures that you will see Chobani get into over time. We know there is an endless opportunity to provide consumers with those four elements, products that are natural, nutritious, delicious and accessible and be a force for good with that food. And if so, if you look at our assets and things that we have lined up, they're really all anchored on making the best food, whether that's our existing products or whether that's our long innovation pipeline of where we can go with our products going forward. So how we stay true to our roots is, you know, things like service, quality and safety we are talking about from a fundamentals perspective every day. You know, our president of our company says we are an input company, we're not an output company. It's all about getting the fundamentals and the inputs right. And as we have the food that's out in the marketplace, we are constantly pressure testing was this our best food? And this goes on existing products. So you will constantly see us tweaking formulas, changing things, because we know we have to evolve that food based on a growing list of demands from consumers of what's going to fit in their household. As we go out into new pieces of innovation, we keep that same model, this continuous improvement around service, quality and the safety of our associates and how that shows up in the pantries and the refrigerators of consumers across the US and we are our worst critic because we know consumer, if we get that right, consumers are going to choose to purchase those products. And the loyalty of the, you know, we're a branded house, we're not a house of brands. So we know the equity of Chobani is going to continue to grow over time, but it's all got to start with those inputs. So it's the same model. What you'll continue to see is Chobani continue to grow in terms of the number of categories and sophistication as we go forward. But we can't lose the fundamentals of our business that started with one cup in one store less than 20 years ago versus where we're at today carrying just north of 200 SKUs across the marketplace that you will continue to see grow over time.
- [18:08]
C
John, one of the things in there you talked about the quality inputs, right. When the word value is used in the consumer today seeking value, not just price is obviously a motivator but it's not the only driver. Quality is a huge part of that value equation.
- [18:26]
B
Yeah, I agree. I mean transparency within the consumer has never been higher and we spend a lot of time listening to the consumer. Whether it's consumers that take the time to call us and give us really good feedback or give us areas that we need to improve or whether it's through you know, digital mediums like social media. We're listening to consumers all the time and that feedback helps us with you know, products that we don't have in the market that we need to innovate against or ways that we can prove improve our existing products. But I do think that's going to be incredibly important going forward is making sure that you know what ends up happening a lot within consumer packaged goods companies is we tend to look look at businesses through an eyes of the business instead of the food. So you're looking at revenue numbers, you're looking at you know, gross margin numbers, you're looking at even things from a customer management like trade spend numbers and those things are important to run the business but that's not the business. The business is really making good food, the best possible food that we can possibly make and getting that into consumers lives and then using that to be a force for good in the community. That's our business model, the business we will continue. We'll know our revenue, we'll know our growth, we'll know our net sales, we'll know our trade spend and all the different account measurements. We'll know that how that shows up on the retailer's P and L that will never come as a priority of our fundamentals. So does that answer your question?
- [20:01]
C
Makes all the sense in the world John, which I then I want to move to innovation. Putting that as a backdrop now. Right. Making good food. Would love to learn your thought process behind how innovation is created but more importantly once it is, how do you align with retail partners to ensure that the right innovation lands with the right shopper in their hands?
- [20:22]
B
Yeah, it's a great, great question. Again we as, as we are obsessed over our food and how that shows up with the consumer. That's also, as I mentioned before, it's our consumer is the retailer shopper. So when we sit down with a retailer, yes, we will go through things like you heard the term in the industry line reviews, which is, okay, we have the next reset. What are the items that are coming in? What are you, as a cpg, prepared to discontinue inside our stores to fit within a finite amount of space so we can get the planogram right and we can have that go across the marketplace with execution and precision. But we spend time not just there, we spend time taking our consumer insights and say, where is this food going over time? Because again, if you start with the retailer is looking at productivity and profitability per square inch and they're looking at that growing over time. They need to see where these businesses are going. So I'll take a great example. We launched a product called Chobani Drinks. So it's a seven ounce. You've seen it in a white bottle. It's a yogurt drink. We were ahead of our time. We launched that business 2021, going into 2022 and the business was doing okay for a while. Consumers weren't in the US not really accustomed to drinking their calories and drinking the, the yogurt. In places like Europe, that was a lot more prevalent. But in the US we were a little bit ahead of the consumer. We then said, gosh, there's, when you have milk, you can actually deliver even more nutrition inside that bottle. You can get to 20 grams of protein. You can get to, obviously our products are lactose free, but that can be communicated on the front of the pack. You can have billions of probiotics in that yogurt. You can have that yogurt provide the lion's share of the B12 that you need in a given day and a great source of calcium. You can have all of that as a superfood in a slightly larger bottle that at the time we called Chobani Complete and that product was, was doing great. We walked customers the journey of we're going to start with our core Chobani yogurt drink. We're going to launch our Chobani Complete and then we're going to evolve this into more of a protein forward product as we go forward today. And we have a whole innovation pipeline across multiple years for that product line. When I joined the company, that product was just less than $100 million at retail, around $53 million in retail as I stand here today. We'll finish the year. And that business will be an $800 million business at retail. And a big part of that was not just our food and our innovation pipeline and getting the packaging, the product, the food right and the offerings right. But it was also listening to retailers that said, hey, we believe you guys could sell a four pack of that. The average purchases of these Chobani Complete, which is now we call it 20G. It's on the front of the pack is three and a half units. Come out with a four pack, come out with an eight pack, come out with additional flavors, come out with a 15G and a 30G. So you actually see those in the marketplace because of our partnership with retailers who we are innovating with, we're getting them to try the food. They are helping us iterate on what this could be. And together we are building this business across the marketplace, which is a really fun space to be in.
- [23:53]
C
No doubt about it, John. And I got to tell you, good quality product with a focus on delivering productivity for the retailer, including your thoughts on like per square inch, et cetera, the way to do it, because that's what will sustain. We all know the less than five products, 5% of the products that make it to the marketplace from an innovation standpoint, survive. To hear you quote the bigger numbers, I want to say congratulations first.
- [24:17]
B
Oh, thank you.
- [24:19]
C
I am aware, John, that you're able to do that because you're leading with purpose. You know, you're. You're very much inclusive of the communities that you sell product in, make product in, et cetera. So let's talk about that. Right. So while you lead with purpose, you make food better to. So that you can get community impact. How are you actually bringing that community impact in your partnership with retailers in collaborative environment?
- [24:46]
B
Yeah, great, great point. We, as I mentioned, you can see it on our website. It's part of our. Part of our founding principles. We want to use food as a force for good. So if a consumer in their lives, the products that they were purchasing, if they pick up a cup of Chobani, a bottle of Chobani, a can of LA cologne, they are fundamentally making a better choice in their lives. That's a key foundational principle for us as an organization. And what we want to do is, as they do that, we want to use our food as a force for good with consumers, but also a force for good in the community. And we invest a lot in the community. I'm. I'm proud as I joined Chobani and I've learned this over the Course of the last couple years, we have a. A week where we call it Chobani Let's Eat Week. And we work with our retailers to go after ending food insecurity in, in the United States, in many parts, we will make product donations and we will work with our retailers to make additional product donations. And then our folks. I was actually here working in Mimi's Pantry in Dallas. So all of our leaders and all of our frontline associates, we get together and we actually work inside these food pantries to be able to help them with logistics. I mean, at the end of the day, food insecurity in the United States is not really a food production problem. It's really a logistics problem. The second area is, and I haven't seen a company do this, there's probably some examples of that that I'm not aware of. But what was really important for us, as you see some really horrible situations across the US Whether it's hurricanes or flooding, natural disasters that take place, we, we put our innovation teams to work and say, how do we develop a product that can provide real nutritions, real nutrition for consumers that need it during these times of disaster? So if you talk to a retailer, they're very good at getting case pack water out to areas that are in need of that as it relates to a disaster relief. But one of the challenges is how do you get them real milk and real nutrition. So we created Chobani Super Milk. And this is a product that we don't sell at retail. We only produce it and have it ready during times of a national disaster. And this is a shelf, stable milk that provides an excellent source of nutrients, including all the nutrients you get from milk, plus even more protein. And that's the thing that we hear from consumers is they need real nutrition while the whole community is recovering. So we partner with retailers, we make the product, and then when the disaster happens, or if it's, if we're preparing for one that is hurricane season, we partner with retailers to be able to get supermilk inside their facilities. And that can go as a part of either one Red Cross efforts or their efforts to help the community get food where it needs to be as the whole community recovers. And then we work, we work all throughout the community. You know, as an example in Twin Falls, Idaho, which is the largest yogurt plant in the world, we work with the community there around a Chobani summer program in concert with retailers. A lot of times when kids go to school, they get a great source of meals. When school is out they need access to great meals. And Chobani and our retailer partners in Twin Falls, we help provide those meals. And listen, I could take your whole podcast and go through all the things that we do in the community, but it is a, it is a fundamental element for every single associate that works at Chobani is living that mission every day inside the community.
- [28:27]
C
And no, John, take all the time you want because that's a very important part of just executing as a product manufacturing company, distributing through retail, getting in the hands of consumers. These consumers are the community at the end of the day. So this is very, very important, but a reminder to our audience. I'm speaking with John Frost, chief Customer Officer at Chobani. So in our discussions today, it's pretty obvious that consumers today demand more authenticity. We've used the word transparency already from brands. How are you meeting those expectations in ways that are building, continuing to build on the brand equity and yet being able to take the customer with you from a trust perspective so that they come back again and again and really ensure that they stay connected with the brand. You mentioned social listening is one way.
- [29:16]
B
Yeah, yeah, social listening is definitely a way that we get, we get real time feedback from consumers, but we spend time not on where consumers are. We spend time on what does real nutrition look like in the future. And the, the good news for us is, you know, dairy is a hard business. Milk, any type of milk, and the byproducts of, of milk, it's, it's a hard, it's a hard business to be in. But what you get out of milk is milk is the lifeblood. I mean, milk is what feeds babies to help them develop for the first several years of their lives. And if you actually really get into the milk science, there are a number of things, not just yogurt, but there's a number of things that you can do as a part of the milk processing that can provide real nutritious nourishment to consumers going forward. So for us, what you tend to see across the marketplace is consumers make a shift and therefore you see a proliferation of products. Right now we are in a protein craze and you can get to protein a variety of ways. You can have real sources of protein that we would say come from places like milk, and then you can have artificial based proteins and those are going to work for consumers based on their choices. There's puts and takes on both sides of the equation, but for us, we're focused on where is the consumer going? And we obsess over that sometimes you get some leading indicators, sometimes it's intuition and you, you then work through a construct for us of how do we deliver a solution for consumers that is one made with natural ingredients, nutritious, delicious and acceptable. And through that lens, we are able to innovate in a place that we can be a disruptor. No. You know, no one thought Greek yogurt was going to be a large growth trend across the United States. And then we went through a period where Greek yogurt slowed. And, you know, there were some industry experts that said Greek yogurt is dead in the United States. Well, as we stand here today, anybody can pull up a Nielsen or IRI report. You can see the sub segment of the Greek yogurt category is incredibly healthy and it's, it's vibrant and it's going to continue to grow and has a long Runway for growth in household penetration going for. But it's not just Greek yogurt. It's other elements across the marketplace that you see in these categories where you say it lacks natural ingredients, it lacks real nutrition, and it doesn't taste good and it's priced way too high. And we look at those categories and say, will the consumer eventually look for real nutrition in these segments? And if so, is it part of our core capabilities to be able to provide that? And we also know that through that, because it says Chobani, we are going to be incredibly transparent and authentic because that's who we are as a company. And that's why we have one name on the door and we have one name out in the marketplace and Chobani that consumers can trust along the way. So trust and transparency is not something that happens. We didn't build that over a year. We built that over the course of just south of the last 20 years. And what's important for us is that we don't lose that trust going forward. So when we go into a category or we look at our innovation or we think about our existing business, the trust of the consumer is so important to us as a company.
- [32:47]
C
The Greek yogurt one is a little special. John, as former CCO of General Mills myself being in the yogurt category through your play, our single biggest regret not getting into Greek yogurt and having dismissed it at the wrong time, then over Covid, we smiled because as you mentioned, there was a blip. Then 2023 came by. Resurgence. Biggest, biggest regret.
- [33:12]
B
Yeah.
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C
Speaking of trust, you know, we've talked quite a bit about that importance. Developing trust with the consumer, the community, as well as the retailer at the same time by respecting their capital, their assets, their need for productivity. So y' all are a brand that started one cup as you mentioned and today at this national large brand, multi subcategories, including drinkables, beverages. So if you looked at some of these upcoming brands that are walking in store today and building their distribution, what advice would you give them on building trust, driving results? Especially since you come from DST and from Frito and PepsiCo and now Chobani and being an effective leader that's put the customer and the retailer the center of it all.
- [34:03]
B
Yeah, great, great point. I would break it down into three questions. I get this a lot. You know, we, we spend a lot of time in forums where there are entrepreneurs in the audience and you know, they're looking for some examples of companies that, that made it. Chobani would be a company that's a, you know, a. A well regarded story across the marketplace of how, you know, we, we've moved from no business in the US to a multi billion dollar business over the course of the last 20 years and that that's hard to do in the US so we actually spend a lot of time with upstart companies. So I would say, you know, there's some advice for upstart companies, there's some advice for CPG leaders, and then there's some specific advice for sales leaders in the US around things that I've learned that I would just, I would offer up to your audience in terms of ways to be able to think about the world and how to be able to thrive in an ever changing world. The first one is for sales leaders. Listen, the model in the US is really simple. Retailers have problems and you have an opportunity to be able to solve those problems with your products, your brands and your innovation. Their shoppers are your consumers. So obsess over what the retailer is trying to solve for within their business and how can you help them solve that with your products and your brands? That's going to allow you to get to the win win and be able to do that with trust, transparency and honestly dependency along the way, which is really paramount to moving fast in the retail environment. And Chobani is a great story of that. In terms of our rapid rise. Those are the things that we have done over time. And I'm happy to report that over the last couple years that's what my team has been obsessing over with customers in the marketplace to be able to get to these win wins for CPG leaders. I would say, hey, regardless of your function. Just remember, at the end of the day, it's the food that you're making that's what wins. The business is just an output of how good your food is. So obsess over your food and be nimble and flexible with your food based on the needs of what's required to win now and into the future. I think a lot of times we again, we keep thinking about a sales number, we keep thinking about the business and we say the business output is the health of our company. And it's actually the opposite. It's the health of your food that determines the health of your company, that the business output is just your performance. Last one is to new upstart companies. I've learned a lot from Chobani since I've been here. It's been, you know, as much as I've tried to impact people, I've tried to impact our company and impact our customers. I would say I've probably learned more than I've impacted since I've been with the company. And one of the big things that I've learned about Chobani and this is great advice for upstart companies, is just stay grounded in your mission. You know, the reason why you exist and the rise of Chobani is not for the faint of heart. There have been many, many trials that have been in our history just as much as the tribulations. And always stay grounded in your mission beyond the business and financials because your mission is your true north. And every calorie and every action must feed into that mission every single day. There will be a lot of distractions as your business grows, but you've got to stay true to that mission and you've got to be prepared to lose the business at the expense of the mission. Because if you, if you're prepared to do that, then you're prepared to be committed to what your company can be in the future, not what it is today. So those are kind of the ways I would break that down. Sree in terms of sales leaders, CPG and upstart companies. Advice that I've learned along the way and advice certainly that I've learned at Chobani since. Since I made the transition.
- [38:17]
C
I can see a CPG guys T shirt with a quote on it that just John Frost, cco Chobani at the bottom that talks about the health of the food being the purpose and the outcome at the end of the day. So don't be surprised if you see that at FMI Midwinter. Just. Just saying. Just Saying, you know, and two people wearing that. So I got a couple more here for you, John, before we wrap up. And we can't not talk about omnichannel, retail and digital because that's the reality of today's consumer. Even though majority of transactions are in store and that's where they browse and shop, a lot of the interaction with the brand takes place online, in an app, on social media and across a variety of platforms. Online, even streaming TV is par for the course today, and it's transformed how a consumer shops. So how are y' all thinking about this omnichannel journey and working with retailers to create seamless experiences in store, online and emerging channels?
- [39:14]
B
Yeah, it's a great, great point. We're a branded house, so, you know, we're not a house of brands. And that's a strategic choice. There's puts and takes on both sides of that. The advantage that it gives us is we have equity in the Chobani brand that has. That continues to compound and carry over from year to year. And what it allows us to do is make that very personal for consumers, shoppers of retailers. So if you actually look at the marketing mix that we have, we spend the lion's share of our marketing mix actually in the digital space, and we spend the lion's share of our marketing in the digital space with retailers. So we spend a lot of time in retail media, we spend a lot of time in social, we spend a lot of time. And targeted marketing, we spend a lot of time and as I mentioned before, one to one relationships with consumers in the marketplace, that's a. That's a big part of our model. We're not about having the splashy campaign that's out there that gets a tremendous amount of pressions with a very low amount of authenticity. The best thing that we can do is have consumers try our product, love the product, and then want to come back. So what we like to do is use digital as a microphone to say, try our food. You're not going to see some ambassador behind the food that says, because the ambassador endorses the food, therefore you should try it. We have big fans of our food that we absolutely leverage to make sure that it's clear that they're fans of our food. But we use digital as a way to say, try our. Here's our food. Here's what our food does from a, again, NDA perspective, which is again, natural ingredients, nutritious, delicious and accessible. And then how that food is presented to that consumer to try it or to make sure that they're aware that the Chobani name has gotten into these other categories where we can offer real nutrition and real enjoyment for consumers that they may not be aware of. So we do it for more of a trial and awareness perspective, but we do it in a very personal way. We think of things digitally household up, not mass media down. If that makes sense.
- [41:37]
C
Totally makes sense, John. And I'll wrap it up by a very simple question, but as you look forward to the next year, which is upon us in just a few weeks from now, what excites you most about 2020? There are words like AI floating around the industry that seem to be this buzzword, but yet has already started to make impact. You know, Walmart, I think Kroger, Instacart all made announcements on their partnerships with OpenAI. But I've always believed that being successful in the business of being at retail is back to the basics, executing the fundamentals. So I'd love to hear from you what excites you the most about the future of being in these categories in food, beverage, retail partnerships as you head towards 2026, what are you personally preparing for?
- [42:23]
B
Yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm excited because I'm seeing a, a food revolution in the United States. My personal opinion, I'm seeing a food revolution in the United States. I'm seeing people pick up products and ask themselves, what am I putting in my body? And the, the concept of picking up the product and turning to the back of the label to see the ingredients is more prevalent than it's ever been before. And then you compound that with a digital world and AI that can provide recommendations for what people need to help extend their life, to prevent themselves from disease, to maximize the nutrition they're putting in their body so they can, they can be the healthiest they can possibly be. We're seeing a food revolution in the United States that I would submit based on my experiences and what I see. I don't see that going backwards. And certainly you're seeing that all around us, inclusive of initiatives that are taking place within households, within communities, within.
- [43:29]
C
You.
- [43:29]
B
Know, government, within both local and at the local and federal levels. All these things are pointing to people are wanting transparency on what they're putting in their body. And as that happens in the future, I'm just excited about the growth that that creates. That's, that's a, there's a tremendous amount of unmet demand in that space. And I'm personally excited for our company because I know our company is going to be at the tip of the spear and we're going to be at or ahead of the consumer in terms of what those solutions are going to be. And I know we've invested the resources ever since we founded the company to be in a position where we will have the food that will be ready for that and the opportunity to use food as a force for good and help not just consumers, but help retailers and help the community. That's what fires me up, as you can tell each and every day. That's what puts my head on the pillow at night. That's what gets me up out of the morning. Because we're solving problems across the board and we're doing it in a way that we're proud of. So I'm super excited for the future. I think it's going to be an incredibly fun ride, but it's going to be a challenge because not all the solutions that are out there that consumers are going to want to exist in the environment. And it's all going to be about which companies are prepared to make the bold changes to be able to get there and meet meet the consumer where they want to be met.
- [44:55]
C
All right, let me remind our listeners, you can find all of our content by simply going to a web browser and typing cpg guys.com as the URL. That easy if you are someone you know something. To contribute to this ongoing discussion on the CPG Guys about our wonderful CPG industry in retail, drop us a line at ContactPTOM to our audience. I want to thank you for the clicks, likes, comments, DMs, meeting us at trade shows, coming to our events, recording episodes with us, and of course our sponsors. We're always grateful for you. The show doesn't exist with all of you. You work with us all year and we're grateful to have you as your audience and partner. So sincerely thank you John. It was fun to talk Virginia Tech Hokies, but it was more fun to talk about a brand with a purpose and the fact that you are grounded on making the best quality food for the consumer and that triumphs everything else at the end of the day. So thanks for joining us on the CPG Guys.
- [45:50]
B
Thanks Sree. Great to be with you.
- [45:52]
C
That's a wrap for this episode. We'll see you soon on another episode of the CPG. Foreign.
- [46:09]
A
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