Cool Beans finds a better way to demo at retail

Category: FROZEN FOOD

About Cool Beans

In a world filled with vegan junk food, Cool Beans makes plant-based products from minimally processed, whole food ingredients. Their vision is to make plant-based eating healthier and more accessible to all, starting in the frozen aisle.

Impact at a glance

New customer acquisition: 97% of the consumers reached were new to the brand

Above-average consumer engagement with 81% response rate from sampling experience to product reviews

30% of consumers opted-in to the Cool Beans email list – an opportunity to build direct relationships and cultivate Cool Bean champions!

Challenge

As an emerging brand, Cool Beans knows that driving trial and awareness is key to brand building. The bold, gluten-free, globally-inspired, flavorful wraps come to life when people of all diets – vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians, and omnivores – try them. They knew that driving a targeted trial was vital to their success, but unfortunately, regular in-store product demos have been a major pain point for them and other emerging brands.

“Product demos are a necessary evil that is expensive, inefficient, and unmeasurable. Even in the best of times, product demos are difficult because only a small fraction of people tasting the product are likely customers. And they all but disappeared in the pandemic.

The old playbook was having people demo in-store. The new playbook is Digital Demos.”

– Tyler Mayoras, Co-Founder & CEO, Cool Beans

Cool Beans needed a better way to demo. They needed a solution that could laser focus on their target consumers who wanted easier, healthier, and more accessible plant-based foods.

Solution

Thanks to Social Nature’s Digital Demos, Cool Beans found a better way to demo. Instead of relying on unqualified in-store traffic, Cool Beans can hyper-target consumers based on consumer shopping habits, product preferences, and usage habits.

Consumer engagement was above-average at 81% post-trial response rates. Social Nature’s Digital Demos generate 15+ meaningful touch points across the consumer journey from online discovery to offline trial, and back online with data collection and email acquisition opportunities along the way.

By involving consumers in a complete journey of trial, feedback, and opportunities for remarketing, marketing dollars are spent more efficiently. Brands can get additional consumer insights to complement their business decision processes, with market research outputs and in-store marketing integrated into a single solution with actionable data.

“We were in our first year of launch so we needed to drive trial and awareness. During our first three months with Social Nature, over 12,000 people signed up to try our products. We received very good reviews and nearly 80% said they would buy the product again. This is the type of trial and awareness we were looking to generate.”

– Tyler Mayoras, Co-Founder & CEO, Cool Beans

Real-time insights for real-time application

Cool Beans used Digital Demos in-market insights to improve the product usage experience of their frozen wraps.

Based on consumer reviews generated, Cool Beans is now adjusting cooking instructions for the wrap line to improve the overall product experience.

Elevating product experience will ensure that overall marketing investments generate better lifetime value with more repeat sales. Cool Beans has already started to communicate the improved instructions on social and other marketing channels.

Cool Beans is also leveraging Social Nature’s insights to refine product messaging and introduce the brand to new consumers and retailers. The reviews are syndicated to their website, which helps improve online discovery.

Cool Beans Frozen Wrap review by Suzanne

A key partner for emerging brands

“Emerging brands need to drive trial and build brand awareness. For us, Social Nature has been the most effective tool we have used for driving trial while also helping to build targeted awareness among high value consumers. We enjoy the quarterly insights downloads with the Social Nature team. They share a detailed analysis of how our products are doing relative to other similar brands and where we can improve our reach going forward. The team knows their business, knows the process, and is super clear with directions and requirements.”

Rachel Porges

Marketing Lead, Cool Beans

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