Julie Bernarski from the Healthy Crunch Company sent me a huge box of kale chips almost 2 weeks after her interview.
I didn’t open it until a week later. The product was still good!
Looking into the care package, I gotta say, I was very impressed with the material I’ve seen. Beautiful folders, nutrition facts, and a personal, impactful postcard. Julie’s company does an amazing job giving me the experience of trying these kale chips.
As Julie stressed in her interview, it’s important to give your product to everyone. And I see she lives up to that.
In this article, I want to discuss what makes an awesome product package. I can tell that the products and papers are used to pitch to brokers, which is important too.
Info Sheets
At the Fancy Food Show, I took a seminar about small food businesses and they talk about info sheets quite a bit. These 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper showcase and highlight her SKUs and her flavors which makes it easy to read. This format is designed for brokers and distributors to look at with the hopes that you will have your products in their stores. When presenting to them, these sheets a crucial for conveying your product. When you pitch, a broker should have this paper in hand and at a glance, they should look if your product can be successful.
Booklet
Another cool thing about the package I got was this amazingly bright and beautifully designed folder which talks about everything the product stands for. The folder is about 6 pages long and really explores in depth, the beauty of her product.
The first three pages show a simple message which leads to more information dense questions the further you read.
You get to know more about the owner, Julie, and also why the are say, Non-GMO and Organic, or how they are processed.
On the back of the booklet, Healthy Crunch goes into more detail, where it presents nice coffee table readings. They talk about all of the ingredients they use in the kale chip, which is a nice touch. Her contact info is at the bottom.
Postcard
Julie added a postcard, where she hand wrote a thank you note for being in the podcast which I found very heartwarming.
Personal touches like these are huge and I perceive them to be most effective when you and a potential broker have had a very nice talk, and you agreed to send him samples. I have had raw material providers do this in my company, but their notes are a bit more… Post-It.
But the game is indeed different for a CPG. Julie has to use high quality graphics and a hint of personal charm much more than a raw material supplier has to.
With the world full of digital text and emails, it is extremely satisfying getting a beautifully designed post card and a hand written message. Thanks Julie!
Samples
Samples are everything, and with the fragility of kale chips, a ruined bag would ruin my experience. Like most products in the food industry, Healthy Crunch sent me a box with shredded paper in it that protected the box.
Most importantly, however, is that the product was indeed delicious. The product was bright, flavorful, and unique. Though the marketing and the personal touches were a great experience, we have to believe in the product overall.
Marketing and Product are much related. You can’t market crap, but you have to market gold for people to find value in it.
Julie’s action reminds me of a book I just finished up called Give and Take, from Adam Grant. In Adam’s book, he talks about how being a Giver overall creates better relationships, and ultimately more success in your life. Julie’s action of giving me products is the act of a giver because in the short term, I have absolutely no way of helping her in her business.
However, giving away her beautifully packed product to me has made a lasting impression in me. I even gave some of her samples to my kale-loving co-workers and gave them a 10 minute speech on how her product is so cool.
With that small bit of reciprocity, Julie has turned me into an advocate of her product.
