It's Not You, It's RangeMe
When I jumped headfirst into RangeMe’s premium mode, I thought it would be the magic ticket to get Nature's Wild Berry onto retail shelves faster. Honestly, we didn’t have the money to burn but I found a discount through a new platform called Startup CPG and convinced Juliano it would pay for itself.
After all, I was right about Amazon and they were pay to play. Giving away product is expensive but seeding campaigns to influencers was working. Might not have been the most lucrative channel but we found a home at Erewhon. So when our whole mission is to make the berry more affordable and accessible and we’d been brand-building for 24months, Rangeme would surely get us there.
Wrong, reality had other plans. No matter how many pitches I sent out or how hard I worked filling out forms, it felt like I was hitting the same wall I faced when I was going door to door with restaurants back in 2016. I was thirsty and nobody was swiping right on my profile.
In an attempt to understand what was holding us back, I went to the best place I could turn to get some answers: Amazon reviews. You and I both say they’re rigged, bought and paid for until we’re actually about to buy something and we use them ourselves. These are the hidden gems in plain sight if you have the guts to digest them.
I looked at my one star reviews looking for some patterns. Top result: Does not work. Except every demo or video that drops disproves that one. Next: Too expensive. Obvi you don't see the value yet and/or don't know our mission is to keep bringing the price down and that it's seven times less expensive than two years ago. Then I saw it: Dried out and stale. Now here is something we can improve on! I'd either educate the consumer about freeze drying or offer a product that is not a dried berry.
One of these was going to be the correct answer and the other would turn out to be an extremely expensive lesson I would like to save you from having to learn on your own dime. For that, tune in next week.
Now for this week’s flavor test.
On a recent Mother's Market & Kitchen run I grabbed Tal's Tahini Harissa Fiery Chili dip. I wanted a neutral chip so I used Milton's sea salt chips from Costco Wholesale. Before the berry the combo was bold and addictive. Crunchy chips, smoky chili, a little tang and a slow burn that built with each bite.
Then I chewed Nature's Wild Berry for 30 seconds so the pulp could coat my tongue and tried again. The sharp heat eased up. The tang in the harissa turned creamy while the spice stayed but felt more like a warm glow somehow. It tasted like something you'd expect on a chef’s appetizer board, where it belongs!
If you have ideas for what I should try next add them in the comments to keep the fun and discovery going.
As always there's a hidden alphanumeric code in this post. Spot the odd word with a number, enter it exactly as written and save 20% for the next 48 hours. Thanks for reading and for riding along.
– Hank