Podcasts about The Hershey Company

Send us a textWhat do a South Korean tech giant and an iconic American candy maker have in common? More than you might think. In this edition of Business Breakdowns, Jenny Rae Le Roux and Namaan Mian explore the business models behind Samsung and The Hershey Company - two very different brands navigating a rapidly evolving global landscape.You'll discover:How each company actually makes moneyThe key financial metrics driving performanceThe competitive dynamics shaping their futureFrom semiconductors to snack bars, this session will sharpen your business acumen and give you a fresh lens on what makes these companies tick - and what could trip them up.Business Breakdowns drops on the 1st Wednesday of each month. Have a company you'd like to see profiled? Let us know via email.Additional ResourcesBuild your business acumen through our Black Belt case coaching programUnlock top consulting jobs on the Management Consulted Job BoardConnect with Namaan and Jenny RaeConnect with Namaan and Jenny Rae on LinkedInMore on Samsung and HersheySamsung FinancialsHershey Financials (10-K)Black Belt Price ChangeThe price for Black Belt goes up by $200 on May 14. Purchase now to lock in the best rate.Unemployable the Podcast At Unemployable the Podcast, we aim to inspire and Amplify Disabled Entrepreneurs!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifyConnect With Management Consulted Schedule free 15min consultation with the MC Team. Watch the video version of the podcast on YouTube! Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok for the latest updates and industry insights! Join an upcoming live event - case interviews demos, expert panels, and more. Email us (team@managementconsulted.com) with questions or feedback.

Send us a textJeff Sigel is an author, coach, and consultant who is passionate about creating better work environments and more fulfilling careers for middle managers everywhere. After over 20 years of corporate experience at Nabisco, The Hershey Company, grocery retailer Ahold, and the restaurant company Cracker Barrel, Jeff has shifted his focus to coaching mid-level leaders and supporting companies looking to empower their middle management teams. He is currently a consultant and coach focused on turning strategy into action by developing middle management excellence. His book, "The Middle Matters: A Toolkit for Middle Managers" was published in June 2024.A Few (Awesome) Quotes From This Episode“I spent a lot of years in middle management doing stuff wrong.”"These are the hardest skills that we actually have to learn to do our jobs—the so-called ‘soft skills.'""The goal of leadership is to create the conditions where you trust your team to function at a high level even when you are not there.”Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: Leading YourselfAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!About  Scott J. AllenWebsiteWeekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for LeadersBlogMy Approach to HostingThe views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic. ♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.

Donald Trump's tariffs have generated economic shockwaves, but U.S. Senator Dave McCormick says worried Pennsylvania voters need to give things time. Democratic state senators are calling on their Republican colleagues to help preserve access to housing. Four additional counties in northeastern and northwestern Pennsylvania have been added to the spotted lanternfly quarantine in the Commonwealth. A Lancaster County jury has found Jere Bagenstose guilty of killing his estranged wife more than 40 years ago. Emails and other communications between Pennsylvania lawmakers and the lobbyists who try to influence them will remain hidden from the public. A feature film about Milton and Catherine Hershey is in the works, according to The Hershey Company.Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adriana Avendaño, Latam Senior Sales Manager at The Hershey Company by Diario La república

The first guest of the fourth season of our podcast is Cyndie Lipka, a principal flavorist at Bell Flavors and Fragrances. Ms. Lipka has nearly three decades of experience in the flavor industry, with a focus on developing and duplicating elegantly layered flavors for a variety of markets, including the sweet and dairy industries. She began her career at The Hershey Company and has worked for Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., Sethness Greenleaf Chicago (later Synergy Flavors), Bell Flavors and Fragrances, Prinova USA and again for Bell Flavors & Fragrances.She is also a past president and chairman of the board for the Society of Flavor Chemists and the Chemical Sources Association. In 2017, Ms. Lipka received the Flavoristof the Year Award from the WFFC, and in 2014, she received the O.F. Stambaugh Chemistry Alumni Award from Elizabethtown College, which is given to alumni inrecognition of outstanding professional contributions in chemistry or medicine.Ms. Lipka is also an active monthly contributor and moderator for Perfumer & Flavorist magazine's "The Flavor Report" section and  is a member of the P&F+ Advisory Board.Host: Trevor Groome, Ján Peťka, Music: Aidan Kirkwood, Editing: Maria Palassarou, Publishing: Ján Peťka

UNiTE Food is a Yorba Linda, California-based company that produces globally inspired protein bars. The brand offers unique flavors such as Churro, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and PB & Jelly, aiming to bring diversity to the wellness industry. Each bar provides around 10 grams of protein and is gluten-free, catering to health-conscious consumers seeking both nutrition and nostalgic tastes. Clara often relied on protein bars during her busy career but found the available flavors uninspiring. Drawing from her diverse culinary background, she recognized a gap in the market for culturally diverse flavors. Clara's father is an entrepreneur. Her family immigrated from Sudan when she was five years old. When they arrived in the United States, her father started a plumbing supply distribution business, which is the business Clara worked in earlier in her career. The idea for UNiTE was something Clara started thinking about in 2018 or 2019 while she was still working in her family's plumbing business. She began experimenting with different recipes and products in her kitchen in the early days of the pandemic in 2020.Clara often visits ethnic markets to learn about new flavors for new products. She also studied flavors and what people were eating when she traveled abroad.  QUOTES “If I'm anything, I'm a very curious person. I'm curious about how the world works and I'm curious about why segments of the population aren't being served.” (Clara) “If you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow. If you create value, why would somebody leave you?” (Clara)“For me, it was about making sure we were taking care of our customers. That was the winning strategy. It sounds really simple, but it's way harder to execute.” (Clara)“Business is a framework. Once you understand product liability, you understand how to insure against it. You learn about the certifying bodies in your industry. It's hard and it's not (hard).” (Clara)“It's really about building relationships. Mutually beneficial relationships.” (Clara) “When you're over 40 and you created a new business, you're usually not doing it for money, you're doing it to try to make the world a better place.” (Clara)“I wanted to find common ground. Let's find flavors that will resonate with lots of people.” (Clara)“The essence of the UNiTE brand is to seek to understand and seek to find common ground instead of focusing on how we're different.” (Clara)“At the end of the day, consumers want authenticity and they want brands that create products that are meaningful to them. (Clara)“I don't really worry about copycat brands. I worry more when they stop copying me.” (Clara) TRANSCRIPT 00:01.49vigorbrandingAll right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Fork Tales. I’m Michael Pavone. Our guest today is Clara Paye. And I’ve known Clara for a long time. ah She is from Unite Foods. ah Unite’s line of nutritious bars are built around the concept of global flavors, but also comfort foods. Clara has started a brand that’s redefining what protein and nutrition bars can be, and I’m happy to have her as a guest. Clara, welcome. 00:25.55Clara Paye _ UNiTEThanks, Michael. Good to be here. 00:27.85vigorbrandingSo again, I know you, I think pretty well, and I’m excited to excited for this. This will be fun. So um I want to go back. I mean, you have a fascinating story. So before we get into Unite, I want to talk about you. How did you, you know, where where do you come from? Where do you, where did you work? You know, talk a little bit about what got you, got you here. 00:46.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, it’s definitely not been a linear path. It’s been really a path led by my own curiosity in the world. And so I think if I’m anything, I’m a very curious person. I’m curious how the world works. I’m curious why, you know, segments of the population aren’t being served. So my journey really started, you know, undergrad, I went to USC and I really went undeclared and thought I but wanted to be a lawyer and. 01:10.72Clara Paye _ UNiTEgot into one political science class and I was like, no, I definitely don’t want to do this. And so kind of was looking around like what else is out there, found the business school at USC, and more importantly, found the entrepreneurship program, which was number one in the nation at the time. And, you know, and I knew I didn’t want to study accounting or finance, and that’s what business was to me in my mind back then. And finding this entrepreneurship route really like kind of opened up the world to me and was like a light bulb. 01:34.45Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know My dad is an entrepreneur. and We immigrated from Africa and the Sudan when I was five years old. And in Africa, he had an automotive parts distribution business. And when he immigrated to the U.S., he started a plumbing manufacturing and hardware distribution business. And so, you know, having a dad that had kind of modeled entrepreneurship, it was demystified for me. And so I was like, oh, that’s really interesting. You know, I’ve been an entrepreneur kind of since I was a little girl, whether, you know, the classic lemonade stand or side popsicles or, you know, drawing pictures and trying to sell them to my aunts. Like, you know, I always had that entrepreneurial 02:07.53Clara Paye _ UNiTEstart and you know funny and but like at USC I remember them taking a poll of all the entrepreneurship kids and how many of them had like a lemonade stand or something similar as a kid and it was like 95% of the class raised their hand right like it’s something almost innate where you know that entrepreneurship bug grabs you was even a little kid and 02:15.32vigorbrandingMm 02:24.37Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so, you know, going into the entrepreneurship program, it was kind of like and equated to like Ted Talks, where you just got to like hear and listen to these really successful entrepreneurs that had launched and they were normal people with good ideas that they just implemented. 02:36.22vigorbrandinghmm. 02:38.93Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I thought I would you know be an entrepreneur straight out of undergrad. I wrote a business plan um and for the apparel industry back then. this is I’ll date myself, but I graduated in 1999 and in 1998, 99. I wrote a business plan for plus size clothing for teenage girls. So I saw that there was this huge segment of the population where kids were kind of, you know, Americans were growing in size. and there weren’t really anything fashionable for young girls to wear if they were plus size. They had to shop, you know, especially in jeans, they had to start in the, you know, shop in the women’s Husky department, women’s department or the boy’s Husky department. And it really wasn’t anything fashionable. And I wrote this great business plan. All my professors told me to do it. And like the only person I knew that had any money was my dad. 03:21.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, being 21 years old and or, you know, barely 21 and asking him to fund, you know, I needed like $30,000 back then to launch this business. And my I was going to do it with my best friend whose father had just invested in the jeans manufacturing plant. 03:34.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEShe had done the entrepreneurship program the year before. It was like this home run idea. The internet was just coming online and we were going to do it all online. We didn’t need storefronts. You know, we’re kind of kind of revolutionize all of these things. 03:44.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd my dad’s like, what? Huh? Like watch yourself humming products. Yeah. 03:48.78vigorbrandingYeah. 03:50.42Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, this is a business that already exists. And he just didn’t see it, didn’t understand. But it’s it’s ironic that like that business would grow on to be like that segment specifically, um where I did all my research at this mall, like, went on to become a billion dollar business, like Torrid went into the same free mall with the same concept. And so that was kind of like always in the back of my mind, my entire career. So from age 20 to now, like, gosh, like, why I should have done that, like, I should have done something like that, you know, why didn’t I try and um I’m telling a really long part of the story so we can edit this, but it’s really like, you know, for me, it was really about that early experience in entrepreneurship that I held on to, but then I would go on. 04:22.93vigorbrandingOh, it’s great. 04:29.89Clara Paye _ UNiTEand work in cosmetics, worked for advertising agencies, you know, um and then eventually my dad lured me into the family business, which was like, you know, about five years after college, I wanted to get my MBA and he said, hey, I’ll make you a deal. You and your best friend want to come work for me, get your and MBAs and I’ll pay for them. And you just have to stay the time that you’re studying. And, you know, we did this executive MBA program where we worked our nine to five and then we went to school from like six to 10. 04:53.31Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd those are long days, but they were really fun because I got to take what I was learning in the MBA program and immediately apply it to my family business, which was, again, the plumbing and hardware distribution business. And so not that I was in love with plumbing and hardware, like, trust me, if I never see another supply line in my life, it’ll be too soon. But um it was really about this unique experience that I got to learn and apply, learn and apply. And it was just Really? um Really what set me up for like, you know in that curiosity to like really make an impact in my family business Where you know, sometimes when you join a family business you get told well, this is how we’ve always done it So this is why you have to do it this way and for me I got to kind of redefine everything Because of this MBA program that I was doing and my dad trusted, you know, he always had a high regard for education And so was like, okay. Well, yeah, let’s try it and really got you know got in and 05:45.11vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. i mean You bring up a really interesting point, though. Being a so a sibling of an entrepreneur, you you kind of do realize, or you maybe you don’t realize that it’s it’s not easy, but you you know it’s it’s doable, right? If you watch your father do it, like my father had a couple small sporting goods stores. So I thought, well, if you want to start a business, you just go out and start it. You just do it. and You know, my story is I’ve never been smart enough to know what I can’t do. So I’m like, Oh yeah, I can do that. And just, you know, and sometimes you pass, sometimes you fail, but you know, it’s like, Oh, I can try that. Oh yeah, I’ll do that. So, but, but I think our parents really do make it easier for us if they’ve done that, you know, and you sort of, I don’t want to say you take it for granted, but it’s sort of like, it seems doable. It seems attainable, you know, and next thing you know, you you’ve got something special. And I’ll say this, it had to be interesting, difficult, and maybe very educational for you. 06:34.52vigorbrandingah being a young woman in and the and the plumbing supply distribution business. I mean, what was that like? 06:40.78Clara Paye _ UNiTEah You know, it was it’s a very old industry. It’s you know very much like there’s very little product innovation. And so for me, being a curious person, I was always trying to learn. I always wanted to go to like plumbing school. So like I could like learn about the products a little bit more because they’re actually really complex. And if you ever go down a hardware store aisle and you go down the plumbing fittings or the plumbing section, I mean, there’s literally thousands and thousands of SKUs and so many different parts to like toilets and you know faucets and it’s it’s a very confusing um you know you have to have like a lot of deep knowledge in the industry to really make an impact so for me you know i knew i was never going to have that right what i could bring to the table was really an outside the box way of thinking about this industry like you know we created the company’s first website and started selling you know online and really trying to 07:28.80Clara Paye _ UNiTEUm, quantify customer experience, right? Like it wasn’t just about like place, you know, filling orders. It was like, what was the experience of that order for your customer? And so I’ve always been a customer centric leader. So I think it’s because I came up through marketing and entrepreneurship. You know, I really care about the customer and I really care about like the person that’s opening the box, whatever that box is, you know, and so. 07:51.58Clara Paye _ UNiTEFor me, it was all about aligning the business to be customer-focused, because my thesis was, if you focus on your customers, they will reward you with loyalty. And if they reward you with loyalty, your revenue will grow. 08:01.84Clara Paye _ UNiTEright It’s a win-win. 08:02.46vigorbrandingmean 08:03.15Clara Paye _ UNiTEIf you create value, why would somebody leave you? So it’s when you’re not creating value and you’re creating problems for the customer that you know you have that attrition. 08:13.25Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so for me, it was really about um making sure that we were taking care of our customers. And and that was the winning strategy. I mean, it sounds really simple, but it’s way harder to execute when you get to scale. 08:26.05vigorbrandingThat’s great. I mean, it makes total sense. So basically, you do all your own plumbing now, is that what you’re saying? 08:31.81Clara Paye _ UNiTEnot at all 08:32.01vigorbrandingYeah, I knew about it. Okay, so now let’s jump into something that I know you’re very proud of and should be. the that You founded Unite, okay? and And so let’s talk about that. You founded in March of 2020, right? 08:44.85vigorbrandingIn the middle of that thing called the pandemic with COVID. um but Obviously, that was a part of the story. That’s what sort of infused the story. Can you talk a little bit about that? 08:53.69Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah. So, you know you know, I’d been ideating on it for like probably a year and a half before that and really trying, you know, it was working in the plumbing business at my, you know, and the family business that I was kind of like stuck behind my desk. And especially when I became a mom, like I was always just like looking for quick fuel to get me through my day. And that was like kind of when I had the epiphany for Unite and really our main point of differentiation is that we use global flavors. 09:15.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so I had this unique experience, again, just just like the plus sized clothing where I was like, wait a minute, like there’s this whole population of people out there, like half the population are immigrants, people like me, or people that are just like really interested in other cultures and really interested in other foods. 09:31.28Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, I live in LA, like there’s, you can eat Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, whatever you want, any time of day you want, you know, it’s all, you know, and that’s what makes America unique is that we are this melting pot of cultures. 09:38.69vigorbrandingYeah. Yeah. 09:42.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it very similarly, I saw this demographic shift where, you know, America was just going to continue to grow in, in multiculturalism. And so I was like, okay, if you’re in wellness and you are diagnosed with something like for me, it was a gluten intolerance. Like, and you go and try to find diet compliant food and you go to the shelf and like nothing resonates with you. Like that’s a huge miss. And so I think it was because 10:08.08vigorbrandingbut 10:08.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, i I’m not, everybody that has created protein bars up to that point wasn’t diverse, didn’t have the life experience I had. So I just kind of used my own life experience it to develop it. 10:18.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I developed them in my kitchen, like really, like, you know, as I got my cuisine on out and was like, what would I put in my protein bars? And for me, it was like almond butter and dates and, you know, let’s sweeten it with all natural things. 10:25.68vigorbrandingMm hmm. 10:28.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I i can’t use sugar, alcohols or Stevia. Like I i just, they’re not palatable to me. So I just use natural things. and literally googled what do nutritionists say should be in a protein bar and like made those my macros like it’s not that hard you know you don’t have to like spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure it out and um created my first recipes and found a co-packer to make them and I knew you know because I didn’t want any food liability I wanted a really strong co-packer to be the producer for them found one that ah you know where they saw the vision they understood what we were about and supported us and got our product launched and 11:05.31Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, Expo West was this trade show, you know, it was a trade show in the food industry. It’s the largest natural products convention in the entire world. And if anybody hasn’t been to it, just imagine seven convention centers all smashed together in Anaheim, hundreds of thousands of people, like 3000 plus exhibitors. It’s literally and figuratively like Disneyland. Like it’s just, it’s a zoo. It’s, there’s so many people. And we got our little 10 by 10 booth and at the, you know, they have this like new products part of natural expo that opens a day before or used to. 11:35.43Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd we got our booth set up and we were ready to rock. 11:37.30vigorbrandingMm hmm. 11:37.51Clara Paye _ UNiTEWe were going to go show our bars. We had this whole warehouse full of new bars to show buyers. 11:39.71vigorbrandingand 11:41.83Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd that’s how it’s going to get people excited. And then the pandemic. And that was the first thing to get canceled. And literally we got this call like shows not going to happen. So break down your booth. 11:51.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd you know, and it was like such a wild time. 11:52.43vigorbrandingYep. 11:55.64Clara Paye _ UNiTEum And people were really, you know, unsure of what was going to happen. And, you know, ah brands were not able to get into stores to pitch or any buyers, everything kind of went on hold because every grocery store was worried about safety for their employees and how to keep cleaning products on shelf and Lysol wipes. 12:13.52Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like nobody was really thinking about like protein bars, right? 12:16.49vigorbrandingRight, right. 12:16.43Clara Paye _ UNiTELike we’re all trying to, you know, that’s what like, I think we all were baking banana bread every day in this power now and like, you know, consoling ourselves with chips and margaritas at, you know, noon. so 12:26.31vigorbrandingYeah. Well, I remember like for us, I mean, you know, one of my companies is Quench, which is a CPG food and beverage. I said, you know, COVID was truly the greatest sampling program in the face of the earth, food and beverage. If you made a product at that time, if you had an established product, you people bought it, people ate it, they put in their pantry, they stacked in their shells. I mean, it was phenomenal time for food. I mean, unfortunately, it was you were too new, right? You couldn’t even take advantage of it. You didn’t even get a chance to get out of the starting gate. so That’s how to be extremely disappointing. But I think it’s amazing too. Like, okay, so you you come from one industry and and you learn a lot just in business and dealing with people from one industry. But then you you applied to this startup that you didn’t, you’ve never really, you were never in the food business. So you don’t learn how to be a manufacturer, you had to learn about safety, you had to learn about ingredients, legal and and everything and anything. I mean, it’s just, ah it’s an amazing undertaking. How did you how did you learn so much? 13:21.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, like business is a framework. So once you understand product liability, you understand how to ensure against it, right? And you learn that, you know, you have to look, what are the certifying bodies in your industry, right? 13:35.40Clara Paye _ UNiTELike in, you know, for electrical companies, it’s like UL listing, you know, in food, it’s SQF. 13:35.85vigorbrandingMm hmm. Mm hmm. 13:40.84Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it’s not like the information isn’t that hard to find. So I think it’s like, you know, once you have a framework of, it’s, you know, the product is a widget almost, right? Like how you deal with Lowe’s is how you deal with Target. 13:49.40vigorbrandingMm 13:52.55Clara Paye _ UNiTELike it’s a big box. 13:52.83vigorbrandinghmm. 13:53.59Clara Paye _ UNiTEThey care about many of the same things, right? You have to understand what’s going to happen on the back end of your business. You have to understand how to get that product there on time and in full. And that’s what matters to them. 14:04.49Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so I, you know, it’s hard and it’s not. And so for me, I’ve always really relied on my network, Michael, like, like if I don’t know the answer, I know somebody that I know must know the answer. 14:16.44vigorbrandingMm hmm. 14:17.09Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I spent a lot of time. I don’t want to say networking, but I think it’s really about building relationships, like mutual like mutually beneficial relationships with people, trust. 14:26.75vigorbrandingSure, trust. 14:29.50Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd when I got into the food space, I was like, I just need to great advisors around me. I need people. 14:33.78vigorbrandingMm hmm. 14:33.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd I didn’t want like consultants. I wanted people who were also running their businesses, who were going in the trenches, doing it with in in real time. 14:38.08vigorbrandingSure. Skin the game. Yep. 14:41.79Clara Paye _ UNiTEand so you know, having a ah YPO forum of YPO, you know, food CPG people was like one of the ways that I accomplished that and like really creating a forum of people around me that were doing the same things as I was. 14:50.42vigorbrandingMm 14:56.01Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd, you know, there’s a lot of symbiotic um experience there. And we all got to go through COVID together. So it was something I did early on, you know, it was like grabbing people who wanted to go on this journey with me. 15:02.72vigorbrandinghmm. Mm hmm. 15:06.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so, You know you’re I think networking is like kind of like a bad word sometimes like people think it’s like you’re using people when you say networking but you’re doing networking right you’re actually at creating value for other people first right and that out it works. 15:13.24vigorbrandingwho yeah 15:20.16vigorbrandingThat’s right. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So now let’s talk. You created the, the you had a product, you you got shut down and covered. So let’s talk about the Unite name. You created a brand and I’m a big brand guy, you know that. I love brands and and I love what you did here. I love the name and I’m not just saying that because you’re here, but this is something I did not know. I read an article and I read about the I in Unite. I should have looked and realized that the lowercase I, but to talk about the brand and how you came up with the name. 15:45.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, I mean, so for me is all about that what I was trying to do. So this is like the mission part of like this journey when like you’re over 40 and you’re creating new business. Usually you’re not doing it just for money. You’re really doing it because you feel like something’s missing in the world and you want to make the world a better place. At least that’s my journey. 16:01.60Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd for me, it was like, how can I use food as this instrument of inclusion to improve the lives of people, see people who haven’t been seen, welcome them into wellness, right? And kind of create cultural bridges, right? Where like somebody who I think food is has this unique way of binding people, right? Like it’s the cultural equivalent of bringing your, you know, 16:23.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEyour dish to a potluck and like you know kind of like do you like it you know kind of like yeah having that like you know there’s a moment where you’re like are you sure it’s kind of a little strange or like you know when when people used to come to my home and like be like you know my mom made this thing you don’t have to eat it it’s you know you might not like it and then people loving it and you’re like oh Okay, it’s good. Like it’s safe. Like everyone’s accepted now. And so I think for me, it was like how, you know, food can, can also divide people. But if people make fun of somebody’s food or make fun of flavors, you know, and I think it also can unite. And so I wanted to use it as like, you know, let’s, let’s find common ground. Let’s find flavors that like will resonate with lots of people. And so like the flavors we choose typically are not just like country specific. They’re like region specific. 17:04.98Clara Paye _ UNiTESo like, you know, churros are eaten in Spain, in Mexico, and like all over Latin America, right? Baklava is eaten in North Africa, in Greece, in Russia, in Croatia, right? 17:15.03Clara Paye _ UNiTEBubble tea, which sounds like just an Asian, Asian flavor. And yes, it was born in Taiwan, but you know, like but the British drink milk with tea. the in Indian people drink milk with tea, and the Middle East drink milk with tea. 17:25.54Clara Paye _ UNiTELike those flavors are, can resonate with lots of different people. 17:29.23vigorbrandingYeah. 17:29.53Clara Paye _ UNiTESo, and then there’s peanut butter and jelly, and that’s the one where people are like, 17:31.64vigorbrandingYeah. 17:32.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEhuh like you know that’s like that’s not global but it’s like my american heritage is just as important and so i want all people to feel represented and the reason the eye is small and as i think because if you’re trying to connect two sides you yourself have to get smaller to understand the other side and so that you you know to understand the other you know and we live in such a time of division and so like really having a name like unites like it’s really the essence of the brand 17:37.39vigorbrandingyeah 17:58.39Clara Paye _ UNiTEis to, you know, ah seek to understand and seek to find common ground and instead of like how we’re different. 18:05.96vigorbrandingI love it. i mean You obviously have a propensity for for marketing. it’s it’s It’s very smart and very sound, the thinking behind it. and and I’ve had the products that are fantastic. and again I’m not just saying that they’re your your products are absolutely delicious, so you should be very, very proud of that. 18:21.31vigorbrandingum you know and now So we talk about the flavors, so ah we do a food trends presentation every year and we always come up with all these funky flavors and and we we I shouldn’t say funky, we we we learn about things that are popping in different parts of the world and starting to you know bubble up and and and ah you know we we try to grab onto them, I mean all of us as manufacturers, as restaurants, as ah marketers And we try to understand these flavors and how to bring them forth and and introduce something fresh. how do How do you go about finding flavors? How do you go about deciding what the next flavor is going to be? 18:54.83Clara Paye _ UNiTEit’s really intuitive for me but like you know my my hero flavor is churro and like that one was really you know born out of you know I live near Disneyland I live like 15 minutes away and I have small kids and so we were always at Disneyland always the line at the churro cart was kind of like around the corner right and like churro was like definitely this very familiar flavor and like churros are you know they’re eaten they’re They’re not just different for different sake. Many people have had a churro, whether it’s at a fair or at Disneyland or at a carnival. Churro was like not that um outside the box for most people, and it was very approachable. and so like That Disneyland car, just like looking at the lines, I was like, yeah, that could be a really good flavor. How come nobody you know hasn’t really done that? and then 19:44.35Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, I would visit ethnic markets a lot to look at the flavors. 19:47.44vigorbrandingSure. 19:47.62Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I go to Hispanic markets, I go to Korean markets, I go to Japanese markets, you know, I live in an area again, where I’m blessed by diversity. And so I study, you know, when I travel, what are people eating? 19:59.01Clara Paye _ UNiTEWhat, you know, what are people, you know, what do people enjoy? And I really, I mean I the first flavors are really like things that I loved so I just wanted to create things you know flavors and then I tested them on my friends and I probably Michael I probably made like 15 or 20 different flavors before I started right like and kind of like chose the heroes from um the ones that I made and in my kitchen. 20:17.81vigorbrandingMm-hmm. Now, is there one that you you loved and thought, oh, everyone’s gonna love this and didn’t make it? Is there a flavor that you kind of, what is it? 20:26.76Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah it was a ah green tea matcha 20:30.55vigorbrandingUh-uh. 20:30.44Clara Paye _ UNiTEflavor and so but green tea powder sometimes can be fishy and it’s like sounds so weird but like it just didn’t work in in scale right and so and there are macho bars out there but I never think that they taste great and so you know I wanted it to have like good product integrity and so like that was like a 20:35.42vigorbrandingOkay. 20:39.37vigorbrandingNot it. 20:45.81vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 20:48.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know, one that like I thought would be, you know, cause if you, if you look at the Starbucks menu, like ah so many, you know, those, those are great flavor cues too. Like, you know, Starbucks spends a lot of time in flavor development. And so you can just, you can take cues from adjacent industries. 21:01.68vigorbrandingSure. We got to work with a lot over the years ah through Quench. We worked with the Hershey Company and we worked with the scientists. And I was always blown away because we’d go in the, and back, this would be like early 90s, we’d go in these rooms or they’d have to swipe a card for the door to open. It seemed very like, 21:17.81vigorbrandingUh, sign sci-fi, you know, and it would it be lab technicians and they’d put drops and they’d be like, here, taste that. What does it taste like? I’m like, well, I taste apple pie. They’re like, wait for it. I’m like, Oh, I taste whipped cream. Wait for it. Oh, I can not taste crust. Like they could do this. I mean, it was like better living through chemistry. They could do all this stuff. 21:36.54vigorbrandingand what it came down to obviously was and this is what is so hard with what you do is now you have to source the ingredients now you have to make sure it’s not a chemical thing and then you have to understand can you can you afford that flavoring at a price point that will be palatable to the consumer so there’s so much involved in all of what you do yeah 21:56.81Clara Paye _ UNiTEThere is so much like, look, all business is hard, but the food business is particularly hard, right? Because you’re, it’s a living, breathing thing, right? And for me, it came down to simplicity. Like I always wanted simple ingredients um because I wanted people to be able to understand what was going into the bar, right? Like I wanted it to be real food and natural. And um so when you have those kinds of like, 22:22.56Clara Paye _ UNiTEBarriers, you know, it’s it helps you and it hurts you right? Like I can’t put in a bunch of processing You know like many large companies can because that’s not the brand value that I’m trying to create or the kind of product I’m trying to create. 22:30.08vigorbrandingRight. Mhm. 22:34.50Clara Paye _ UNiTESo yeah, it’s very hard um You know, we do get a lot of those scientists taking pictures at our booth every year at all the Expos and so people and we have been copied, you know and that’s like just anytime you’re successful at something people are gonna copy you and so 22:45.84vigorbrandingSure. Mhm. 22:50.21Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut I think at the end of the day, consumers want authenticity. They want you know brands that are creating products that are meaningful to them and will reward those brands. So I don’t really worry about like copycats. I worry more about when they stop copying me. 23:07.91vigorbrandingbut you know and But to your point, and you know weve we’ve been doing a food trends report for over 15 years, and what you are doing and and how you’re doing it is very on trend. It’s not easy. It’s not inexpensive. i mean it’s ah it’s ah you know you there’s you could You could have cut corners along the way on your product, but you don’t do that. I just think that that’s going to pay dividends in the long run. i think that’s such a It’s hard to stick to your ethos, but I think you do a fantastic job of that. so I think it’s something to be proud of. and so and My next thing is, I did not know this, but the I in Unite stands for invite. and I did not realize on the back of every bar there’s an email address that you can people can send directly to you for suggestions on new flavors. Have you have you learned anything from these? Have you gotten anything interesting in the emails? 23:52.30Clara Paye _ UNiTEYes, I love those emails, like those emails come to me. And so I get to interact with the people that write those emails. And, you know, the most meaningful ones are when people will give me a flavor suggestion, but then they’ll also say, thank you for making a bar for us. 24:07.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, thank you. And it’s exactly what I wanted to do. 24:09.63vigorbrandingThat’s super cool. 24:10.64Clara Paye _ UNiTEwhen I, when I set out was like, make the invisible feel seen. 24:12.05vigorbrandingYeah. 24:14.77Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd you know, I know what it’s like to not feel seen. You know, I know what it’s like to like, kind of be in the shadows, like being a woman in the plumbing industry. Perfect example, right? Like you don’t really belong here or you don’t like, you know, somebody that looks like me typically doesn’t work in plumbing, right? 24:29.33Clara Paye _ UNiTElike It’s a very old, old, you know, antiquated kind of industry. And so like when I get those emails, I get really excited and people do have some great ideas and ideas of like things that we’ve actually developed, you know, and just haven’t launched. And, you know, so it’s fun to know that like, it is also on trend for people. 24:49.00vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. So I mean, ah um I’m being italian Italian. My wife’s Greek. So yeah, yeah, her mother makes us baklava. So it’s phenomenal. So I love that. I’m really proud to see that you have a baklava in your in your flavors. So you have you have baklava, you have peanut butter and jelly, you have chiro, bubble tea, Mexican hot chocolate. What’s your what’s your favorite? 25:09.34Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, it’s like asking me which my favorite kid is. 25:12.05vigorbrandingah We all have one. 25:11.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEum i and I mean, is our hero. 25:12.61vigorbrandingCome on. We all have one. On any given day, we all have one. A favorite kid. 25:18.32Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd churro was like the first bar where I was like, okay, we really have something. 25:19.02vigorbrandingUh-huh. That’s the baby. 25:21.72Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah. But I really also very much like baklava. And it’s similar to churro in that, you know, it’s got kind of like some of the the same kind of spices with the cinnamon. 25:28.18vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 25:29.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut baklava has never been done outside of baklava. 25:31.48vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 25:32.33Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, think about it, Michael. Like, you’ve never seen a baklava ice cream. You’ve never seen a baklava cracker. 25:35.23vigorbrandingNope. 25:36.56Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, you’ve never seen a baklava popcorn. Right? Like it was very unique. 25:40.80vigorbrandingYeah. 25:41.16Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd, you know, when I, before I launched, you know, many of the, the manufacturing partners I met with in the beginning were like, these price flavors are too strange. Like nobody’s going to buy these and like to be, you know, have come full circle and and be like, no, they’re great. 25:54.00Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like Baklava just won a good housekeeping award this year when they’re, you know, best snack award. Churro won the same award last year. 25:59.19vigorbrandingAwesome. 26:00.98Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it’s like, it’s incredibly validating when, you know, people. like like the product and like, you know, um appreciate it. And it’s got organic honey in it. It’s just really tasty bar. 26:12.34vigorbrandingThat’s great. Well, like I said, you’re the products are amazing. And in a way, I like i look at these flavors and in a way they are they’re kind of all comfort foods, too, right? I mean, they’re, they’re, yeah, they’re all international flavors, but they’re almost like international comfort flavors, you know, it just it kind of feels that way. 26:28.40Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, they’re nostalgic flavors. 26:30.16vigorbrandingYeah. 26:30.11Clara Paye _ UNiTESo they’re foods that you ate in childhood. 26:32.21vigorbrandingRight. 26:32.26Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so that was also really important to me. That was also one of the barometers is like childhood flavors. 26:36.76vigorbrandingPerfect. 26:38.45Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd ironically, I mean, I didn’t develop these for kids, but like kids love our bars and like, duh, they’re childhood flavors, right? Like they’re really for adults, but you know, so we’ve had this like wide range of like consumer interest in our, in our products. And so for me, it’s like about taking you back to kind of like a simpler time. I think, you know, health food specifically is sometimes punitive. Like, Oh, I don’t really like this mushroom powder, but I’m going to drink it because like, i my you know, my, 27:03.59Clara Paye _ UNiTEpodcast said that I’m going to get muscles if I drink it. you know and I’m like more on the other side of wellness. We’re like, let’s make it fun and let’s make it like food you want to eat, not food you have to eat. 27:09.80vigorbrandingMm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. All right. Well, let’s have some fun here. So, you know, being the research guys that we are and the marketing guys where we came up with our own flavors. So we decided to go around the world. I want your opinion on if these are going to be winners or not. So we’ll start in India, a gulab jambu. It’s very popular dessert. It’s often served during celebrations. It’s fried dough soaked in a rosewater syrup, often garnished with almonds and cashews. 27:40.04Clara Paye _ UNiTE10 out of 10. I think that would like a home run flavor. I’ve actually, you know, my Indian friends have also suggested ah exact flavor and it’s always kind of been in my mind. 27:45.01vigorbrandingYeah. 27:48.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEThe rosewater is the one that’s like, can be polarizing. So, you know, we try to have things that are like, you know, broad appeal, but yeah, I think 10 out of 10 would be a great flavor. 27:57.57vigorbrandingPlus, I’ll say this, I hate to be the total American here, but pronunciation can also be a barrier to people buying something if they can’t if they can’t figure out how to say it. 28:04.52Clara Paye _ UNiTEFor now, right? 28:06.08vigorbrandingAll right, now we’ll head to Spain, a creamy caramel flan. 28:09.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEI love flan and I think flan is another one of those foods that’s mistaken for like just Latin Americans because lots of people eat flan or you know it’s called sometimes creme caramel it’s called like different things in other regions of the world you know so yeah another great flavor you guys are good at this don um don’t start a bar company Michael. 28:15.09vigorbrandingMm hmm. 28:26.72vigorbrandingyeah Yeah, yeah. We would never if we, you know, they’re yours. These are all yours if you want to do them. So you have some friends, we have some employees in Brazil. So um Bolo de Rolo. It’s a light sponge cake. It’s rolled up with a layer of tangy guava jam. 28:43.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEThis one I’ve never heard of, I’ve never had. 28:45.94vigorbrandingright 28:46.23Clara Paye _ UNiTEI’ve not not been to Brazil, so it really piqued my interest. I love guavas. I think tropical fruits, you know, we see that in beverage now. 28:54.85vigorbrandingRight. 28:55.48Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, there’s all kinds of great beverages that have popped up with tropical fruit flavors. 28:56.09vigorbrandingMm hmm. 29:00.70Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd definitely in terms of what global flavor trends, guava I think is still underrated because I love guavas. 29:04.97vigorbrandingMm hmm. 29:07.99Clara Paye _ UNiTESo yeah, I think, you know, it’d be interesting to to get the um the sponge cake kind of consistency in a bar because bars tend to be a little bit drier and a little bit harder to to make soft because water stability issues. 29:20.76Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut I think that’s super intrigued. I want to go to Brazil, so that’s on my list. 29:24.27vigorbrandingYeah, there you go. There’s an excuse for R and&D. It’s a write-off. um you know Yeah, it’s ah that that’s that’s that’s fun. OK, so we go to Italy ah for some almond biscotti. 29:37.61Clara Paye _ UNiTEI mean, I love biscotti, but I think if you’re craving biscotti, eat a biscotti. 29:41.08vigorbrandingYeah, I agree. 29:41.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know 29:42.08vigorbrandingYeah, I don’t think that works in a bar, right? 29:43.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, you know like people tell me, like oh, you should make a hummus flavored bar. I’m like, what? Why don’t you just eat hummus? 29:49.24vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. 29:50.94Clara Paye _ UNiTEyou know For me, it’s about taking some things. Because biscotti is not unhealthy, like typically. like you know If you had one, it’s like it’s fine. 29:55.05vigorbrandingNo. 29:57.11Clara Paye _ UNiTEIt’s like a treat. So I typically try to take like higher calorie, higher density things to make them healthy and approachable. 30:02.75vigorbrandingoh 30:05.67vigorbrandingYeah, you’re you’re almost bringing a dessert together to a degree, right? 30:05.58Clara Paye _ UNiTEso i probably Exactly. 30:08.59vigorbrandingYeah. 30:08.51Clara Paye _ UNiTEa 30:09.42vigorbrandingYeah, that totally makes sense. And you know what’s funny? You you just said something that that really kind of stuck with me. though The beverage industry does do a lot of flavors. And it’s really kind of accelerated. I mean, as a company, we were early on with with flavored beverages in the tea category. 30:24.27vigorbrandingAnd we were we had a brand that we worked with for like 15 years. We helped build what’s called Turkey Hill Iced Tea. Excuse me. And it was the first refrigerated tea. a lot of There was teas out there that were shelf-stable, but we were in the refrigerator. Well, the proliferation now of beverages in the refrigerator. You go to a convenience store with just walls of beverages. So there’s a lot of unique flavorings that you see popping up. And I guess that’s that would be a good place to see, I don’t know, what’s acceptable, right? like what are what are What are consumers interested in? 30:53.61Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, I think um it’s a good, again, like I got to take a lot of flavor cues from like a Starbucks or like, you know, what are people drinking? 31:01.08vigorbrandingyeah 31:02.11Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like, what are the flavor cues in beverage that we can borrow from, right? Or we that can inform some of us. I think in beverage, it’s a little bit easier because the flavoring is just like props added to something versus like you’re trying to really create something authentic in food. 31:13.60vigorbrandingYeah, yep, yep. 31:19.97Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut gosh, I’m just happy I have a shelf stable product. Like I can’t imagine distributing a refrigerated or frozen product. 31:25.52vigorbrandingYeah, yeah, yeah. 31:26.11Clara Paye _ UNiTELike knowing what I know now, it’s like just a whole nother level of of anxiety. 31:30.73vigorbrandingYeah, well in flavoring to own on that side is it’s amazing how if you had some foot, it’s not obvious as a flavor to like what happened to potato chips, right? So we have a snack food category of snack foods. I mean, adding just a new flavor a new fun. It’s it’s amazing how much velocity you get and how much traction we actually did it across the tuna category. 31:49.35vigorbrandingAnd you would think, you know, tuna, we started adding sriracha or different types of hot or or or Thai chili or, I mean, just all these kind of unique flavors. 31:54.20Clara Paye _ UNiTEMm 31:57.94vigorbrandingAnd it’s amazing how it can really ah get you more more ah shelf presence. 31:59.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEhmm. 32:03.65vigorbrandingAnd it also then, ah it creates ah an atmosphere of trial. So it’s ah’s it’s an awful lot of fun for that too. So um so as an entrepreneur who who’s growing and developing a brand that’s still a relatively young brand, ah you just created it four years ago. 32:17.34vigorbrandingWhat are some of your biggest challenges? 32:20.85Clara Paye _ UNiTEIt’s sad to say, Michael, but like there’s a lot of predatory behavior for emerging brands in the food space, right? 32:26.57vigorbrandinghe 32:26.47Clara Paye _ UNiTEWhere I think this industry like depends on the turn to a certain degree of like brands to fail, to come in to shoot their shot. And like when they fail, it doesn’t matter because there’s like so many other brands behind them trying to get in that same shelf space. 32:39.58Clara Paye _ UNiTESo I think it’s just being the underdog. like If you look at the shelves that we’re on, we’re competing with behemoths, right? Like billion dollar brands, multi-billion dollar brands, like that control the entire food supply. 32:48.42vigorbrandingMm hmm. Mm hmm. 32:51.38Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd we’re like on the same shelf and like, how can we actually compete to build brand awareness? Like, you know, so you just do it with a radical authenticity. You do it by creating value for the consumer, creating something different, creating a better product. 33:05.17Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut it’s really like having come from a larger company where like, you know, you have some kind of street cred because you are a larger and you’re eight It’s easier to grow a larger company, but to grow from scratch has been like humbling. 33:17.69Clara Paye _ UNiTElike it’s There’s a lot of people who want to put their hand in your pocket, who want to you know take advantage of you, and you have to be astute. 33:18.13vigorbrandingYeah. 33:24.66Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd again, you have to surround yourself with people that are smart, that will help you avoid the landline, help you clear those paths. but You know, I, um, I also started, um, a nonprofit called included for, you know, people of color in food CPG just because I feel very passionately it’s called included included CPG, um, for people to kind of like not make the same mistakes that I made or kind of try to pull it forward somehow by clearing the path for, you know, I don’t want people to, you know, make the mistakes that we, we’ve made or could have potentially made. 33:49.99vigorbrandingMm hmm. 33:56.73vigorbrandingMm hmm. That’s you’ve you’ve always been one to give back. And I think that’s very admirable. I mean, we were walking around. It was it was it this we were just talking about with the included CPG. 34:09.40vigorbrandingWe were walking around. He was exposed. You had a special section and they they they don’t you had them donate space. What was that for? 34:16.71Clara Paye _ UNiTEum Yes for emerging brands and no for included and so we do do that at the fancy food show and at Expo West every year and so we kind of run kind of a mini incubator accelerator For these brands and help them get that space and be ready to pitch and you know, you have to be market ready So it’s not like for a brand that’s like pre-launch it’s like, you know if you have some kind of like established brand presence and really hoping to elevate them to the next level because those trade shows are so expensive and it’s so primitive and so anything that we can do to 34:18.69vigorbrandingOh, OK. 34:43.19vigorbrandingYeah. 34:46.50Clara Paye _ UNiTELevel the playing field to like help an emerging brand win is like I just it just lights me up I like it makes me so happy because These are the people improving the food systems. 34:57.16Clara Paye _ UNiTEThese are the people that are bringing healthy Products to market. 34:57.35vigorbrandingRight. 35:01.02Clara Paye _ UNiTEThese are the people who are you know, taking their family recipes and trying to share them with the world 35:06.90vigorbrandingWell, I mean, I admire you because you’re able to, I could see you walking into those shows and asking for them to give you all this space. And I know how you are. You do with a smile, but you’re pretty emphatic and I’m sure you always get your way. 35:19.64vigorbrandingCause I know I sit in meetings with you and when I’m, and when I miss a meeting, I have to answer to you, but you do with a smile, but you always hold people accountable and you get what you want. And I do respect that. So sure. 35:29.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEWell, I mean, it’s been a great partnership with New Hope and the Specialty Food Association. And it just, it aligns with their value. So they actually are great partners. And so it’s a, you know, and it’s a team. It’s not just me. There’s like five other founders on the leadership team have included. So, you know, we, we are really working hard to improve um the food systems. 35:51.19vigorbrandingwhat So what ah what do a lot of these folks, i mean thankfully they have you ah to sort of open up the door for them, literally to bring them into the into these shows. so like What do you see a mistake made by ah want to be entrepreneurs? what What do they do wrong? Or what do what do you think and in the brand creation process? What do you what do what do you think that they they do wrong a lot? 36:11.05Clara Paye _ UNiTEI mean, it’s probably something we did wrong too, but it’s like trying to pretend you’re a big brand when you’re not, right? Like, yes, you can get on that shelf, but are you ready? Can you support it the same way a big brand does? 36:20.43vigorbrandingMmhmm. 36:22.89Clara Paye _ UNiTEDo you know all the levers to pull, right? 36:24.66vigorbrandingMmhmm. 36:25.09Clara Paye _ UNiTElike And it’s hard to say, like, it’s hard when the opportunity knocks not to take it, right? 36:30.71vigorbrandingSure. 36:31.30Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it’s like that discipline of knowing, you know, What is the actual contribution margin of this account? And, you know, is it just like, or does it accomplish something else? So I think it’s like biting off a little bit more than you can chew. 36:44.02Clara Paye _ UNiTEum And then the one that I pay attention very closely to is quality. I think quality can sink your company so fast. You know, one quality issue, one copacker issue, one whatever issue. 36:53.05vigorbrandingyeah 36:54.04Clara Paye _ UNiTESo if you’re not paying attention to your product, you know, so closely, um that can really be a landmine because you can always create more brands. But you know, if your brand name is like tainted, it’s hard for you. 37:07.44vigorbrandingRight. I mean, some people might not even know like that. I think people assume because you have a brand, that you actually make it yourself. And you know, there are co-packers out there and a lot of brands use co-packers and you’re handing off your basically your baby and your promise, you know, a brand is a promise, your promise to the consumer to someone else to make. Obviously, there’s there’s checks and balances there. But it it is a, you know, there’s there’s places along the way that you have to count on a lot of partners. And it’s a, I’m sure it’s a difficult business, you know, 37:36.97Clara Paye _ UNiTEI think you have to think of your co-man relationships as kind of like your investors because they’re investing their line time, their energy you know to develop your brand as well. 37:40.66vigorbrandinghere Yep. 37:44.95Clara Paye _ UNiTESo it is a partnership. You’re not just like, you know. Um, taking and giving, right? is It’s truly a partnership but if done right. And like, yeah, I like to, I like to actually preface a lot of my buyer meetings by saying, Hey, by the way, I don’t make this in my garage. 37:56.50vigorbrandingMm 37:57.57Clara Paye _ UNiTEI, you know, because like the, the bias is if you’re like an emerging, I have a dream person and you’re like, make as far as in your garage and like packaging them up and sending them out. 38:01.10vigorbranding-hmm. 38:07.22Clara Paye _ UNiTEI thought there’s anything wrong with that. But like, when you’re trying to pitch a fortune, you know, 100 company, they got to make sure that, you know, you have your ducks in a row. 38:09.52vigorbrandingRight. eat Yeah. Yeah. 38:14.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so that’s a good qualifier. 38:17.32vigorbrandingYeah, Target doesn’t want you like ah to think you’re baking the night before. That’s funny. But I mean, yeah, it’s ah yeah’s it’s true. And it’s amazing all of the the hurdles, I’ll say, that you have to go through. So you have a great, yeah there’s a quote that you like to talk about. lot Winston Churchill, success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. And you’re always enthusiastic. You want to talk a little bit about some of those things that you had to bump up against, some of your failures, some of the things that you had to pivot. 38:44.24Clara Paye _ UNiTEOh, there’s so many, Michael. I mean, every, if it’s, if it was easy, everyone would do it, you know, like I say that, but it’s like, it’s so true. 38:49.31vigorbrandingSure. 38:51.46Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd like, you know, and every entrepreneur I talk to in the food space or any space, it’s like, you gotta be able to take those hits and get back up. 38:57.56vigorbrandingOh, yeah. 38:59.18Clara Paye _ UNiTEBut the getting back up is really hard, right? 39:02.31vigorbrandingMm hmm. 39:02.73Clara Paye _ UNiTEEspecially when there’s like, you could do something else with your time. You could do something else with your energy. 39:06.20vigorbrandingGreat. 39:07.24Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd that’s where like a mission becomes really important. And it’s like, what’s actually driving you? 39:11.03vigorbrandingMm 39:11.36Clara Paye _ UNiTECause if it’s money, you’ll give up. There’s way easier ways to make money. 39:15.17vigorbrandinghmm. 39:15.47Clara Paye _ UNiTELike if I wanted to go make money, I’d just take my money and invest it in real estate or whatever. I’m like, yes, we do that too. but It’s really about mission for me. And so what drives you to like make the world a better place, have a lasting impact, create products that resonate with people. 39:31.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd so success is just a barometer. It’s just an outcome of you living that up. But like, you know, there are times, I mean, I think if you’re not ready to throw in the towel every month in your business, are you even an entrepreneur? 39:42.90Clara Paye _ UNiTELike, you know, like it’s just, it’s the getting back up. 39:43.50vigorbrandingRight. 39:46.20Clara Paye _ UNiTEAnd it’s like that loss of enthusiasm is what gets you. And like another way to send that is like burnout. If you’ve burned out, it’s too late. So I make sure that I don’t burn out. 39:52.89vigorbrandingYep. Yeah, that’s very smart. That’s actually very sage advice right there. Because look, these businesses, no matter how ah exciting they are, or how long you’ve been doing them, you do hit those those troughs, you do hit the burnout phase. I mean, personally, I started my first agency 33 years ago. And it’s, you know, ah yeah well and during this whole time with COVID, there’s so much change. And and and you know You think, well, you’ve been doing this for a long time. Everything think just should be on autopilot. No. I mean, I probably worked harder in the last couple of years. I did maybe in some of the middle years. I don’t know. It’s just just a different time. So yeah, the entrepreneur thing, I think everyone takes it for granted or everyone looks over and says, oh, you’ve done that. Or you have money because of this. And ah most people don’t realize those days and those sleepless nights and those weekends and the you know the the fears of everything from bankruptcy to lawsuits to everything else. We all go through it. right i mean every 40:45.92vigorbrandingi get to I’m very fortunate i get to talk to a lot of founders, I get to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, and a lot of successful people, and they all have the same they all have those same stories. Every one of them has that nightmare, like, yeah, there was this time when, and you know you didn’t think there was a tomorrow. so it’s ah ah you know it’s ah It’s good to hear, it because your story, you’ve seen it all all the way around from your father to to starting up now and what you’re doing. and I love that you stick to your guns. because ah Again, you can cut corners. You could do things faster, cheaper, but not better. And I think that what you do is ah is really remarkable. And i again, I know it’s going to pay off in the long run. So so what’s what’s next for you tonight? I mean, are there any new flavors? If you can’t talk about it, I understand. But if theres is there anything new products or flavors or anything exciting on the horizon? 41:29.86Clara Paye _ UNiTEYeah, there is a new flavor. It’s called Hot Fudge Sunday. We’ll be launching soon. And so we’re really excited about that flavor, another nostalgic childhood treat. 41:35.70vigorbrandingAwesome. Yep. 41:38.67Clara Paye _ UNiTEAlso some different, you know, we’re looking at different formats, kind of some adjacent things. So definitely an innovation pipeline out there. 41:43.72vigorbrandingthat 41:44.39Clara Paye _ UNiTESo hoping to launch some other products. But really, I want to win at bars first and, um you know, really own our category and really, you know, make sure that our velocities stay up and and everything is is good with bars. 41:59.13vigorbrandingFantastic. All right, so one last question. And you can’t be one of your bars. But if you had one last final meal, what would you eat? Where? Why? 42:09.00Clara Paye _ UNiTESuch a good question. I mean, I’m a California girl, so it’d probably be an In-N-Out cheeseburger, ah you know, and and yeah some french fries and egg steak, animals for sure, animal style. 42:15.08vigorbrandingThere you go. All right. I respect that answer. That’s a great answer. Animal animal style, I hope. 42:25.41Clara Paye _ UNiTEum You know, it’s kind of like, that’s the meal when we travel abroad or something and you get back, you’re like, oh, I just want an In-N-Out burger. 42:26.67vigorbrandingah 42:30.92vigorbrandingYeah. 42:31.05Clara Paye _ UNiTEYou know, it just, it feels like home. And I think that goes back to nostalgia and childhood too. 42:35.15vigorbrandingAnybody that with work or or or whatever, friends or family that travel with me, they know when I land in California, that’s one of the first things I do and I will not leave until I do it. It might not be the very first thing I get to do if I have a meeting, but I will have in and out before I get on that plane to fly back east. 42:51.43vigorbrandingso That’s a great answer. 42:51.95Clara Paye _ UNiTEThat’s right. 42:52.84vigorbrandinggreat answer so Anyway, Claire, thank you. This was awesome. I you know i appreciate you. ah you know I’ve known you a long time and it’s just so cool to hear your story and see what you’re up to and congratulations. 43:03.82Clara Paye _ UNiTEThanks, Michaels. Fun to be on. 43:06.07vigorbrandingAwesome. Thanks.

Keychain, the AI-powered manufacturing platform transforming the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, has announced an additional $5 million investment led by Bright Pixel Capital, the VC arm of the European retail conglomerate Sonae. This latest funding comes as Keychain takes its core search and discovery product out of beta and introduces new platform capabilities. Since November 2023, Keychain has raised $38 million with support from leading venture firms BoxGroup, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and SV Angel as well as other CPG giants General Mills, The Hershey Company, and Schreiber Foods. This latest investment from Bright Pixel not only reinforces Keychain's position as a key player in the CPG manufacturing ecosystem but also signals its readiness to enter the European market. Keychain's AI-powered platform, which enables brands, retailers, and manufacturers to quickly connect with manufacturing partners, is streamlining what has traditionally been a fragmented and time-intensive search and discovery process. The platform boasts a network of 30,000+ manufacturers and 20,000+ brands and retailers and, as of today, is now facilitating over $1 billion in projects each month. Now, with its search and discovery platform officially exiting the beta phase, Keychain is expanding its capabilities with the launch of two new beta products: Keychain packaging and ingredients. These products will allow brands to streamline the process of sourcing packaging materials and ingredient suppliers for their products, empowering them to quickly meet consumer demand for more sustainable and efficient production methods. "Since Keychain launched last year, we've been focused on bringing much-needed transparency to the United States' CPG manufacturing ecosystem," said Oisin Hanrahan, Co-founder and CEO of Keychain. "At the same time, we've been looking into how we can bring our capabilities to other geographies, and the support of Bright Pixel is a huge step in that direction. We're also excited to continue building our depth with new tools that will streamline the ways brands source packaging and ingredients." "We're proud to invest in Keychain at such an exciting moment in their journey," said Manuel Queiroz, Director at Bright Pixel Capital. "Our team is confident in Keychain's ability to modernize the global CPG supply chain and is exactly what the European CPG supply chain needs. We look forward to supporting Keychain as they expand their offerings and into more geographies." Bright Pixel's strategic investment marks a pivotal step in Keychain's evolution and underscores the platform's potential to bring meaningful change to the global manufacturing industry. Keychain is bringing a new era of transparency to the CPG manufacturing ecosystem by cutting out brokers who have historically profited by creating information asymmetry that drives up the costs of goods. In response, Keychain is using AI to eliminate these fees and other unnecessary costs, ultimately lowering the prices consumers see on store shelves. See more stories here.

In episode 474 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Brad Santanna, head of omnichannel marketing at The Hershey Company, an industry-leading snacks company, and Steve Triplett, senior vice president of advertising sales at Vibenomics, an in-store digital advertising provider. Listen in as Santanna and Triplett provide insight into the benefits of in-store advertising…

Mondelez zählt zu den globalen Schwergewichten im Snack- und Süßwarensektor. Marken wie Oreo, Milka und Toblerone haben den Konzern zu einem Synonym für Genussprodukte gemacht. Doch während das fundamentale Fundament beeindruckend stabil wirkt, steckt die Aktie charttechnisch in der Klemme. In dieser Analyse untersuchen wir, ob sich hinter der aktuellen Schwäche ein attraktives Investment verbirgt oder ob Anleger besser auf der Hut sein sollten. Kakao als zweischneidiges SchwertMit einem Preisanstieg von über 600 % bei Kakao in den letzten Jahren kämpft die gesamte Branche mit höheren Produktionskosten. Mondelez hat durch Preisanpassungen gegengesteuert, doch wie belastbar sind die Margen wirklich? Und könnten langfristige Abnehmer wie Supermärkte Preisdruck aufbauen, der zu Lasten der Gewinnentwicklung geht? Ein strategischer Blick: Zukäufe und die Hershey-FrageDer Wachstumskurs von Mondelez basiert seit Jahren auf strategischen Akquisitionen, darunter Perfect Snacks, Clif Bar und Tate's Bake Shop. Diese Zukäufe zielen nicht nur auf neue Zielgruppen ab, sondern stärken auch das Segment gesunder Snacks. Doch wie relevant ist die ins Spiel gebrachte Übernahme von Hershey? Nach der Absage durch den Hershey Trust scheint dieses Kapitel vorerst abgeschlossen, aber die Frage bleibt: Braucht Mondelez diese Übernahme, um den globalen Wettbewerb zu dominieren? Fazit:Mondelez ist ein Konzern mit globaler Strahlkraft und einem diversifizierten Produktportfolio. Die langfristigen Aussichten bleiben vielversprechend, insbesondere wenn sich die Rohstoffpreise stabilisieren und Mondelez die Integration seiner jüngsten Akquisitionen erfolgreich vorantreibt. Dennoch sollten Anleger nicht ignorieren, dass die aktuelle charttechnische Lage Risiken birgt. Inhaltsverzeichnis00:00 Intro01:00 Langfristige Charts: Mondelez02:26 Mondelez vs. Lotus Bakeries vs. Lindt & Spruengli vs. the Hershey Company vs. Nestlé03:24 Mondelez: Geschäftsmodell03:50 Historie05:09 Marktanteile05:45 Marktführer06:27 Marken-Übersicht07:03 Burggraben: Mondelez09:00 Inhaberschaft & CEO09:43 Umsatz & Margen Entwicklung11:17 Umsatz nach Segment & Region12:24 Gewinn, Cashflow & Dividenden-Entwicklung12:58 Bilanz-Überblick13:35 Übernahmen & Aktienrückkäufe14:17 Kennzahlen-Überblick (KGV)15:14 Dividenden15:49 Unternehmensbewertung: Mondelez16:19 Chartanalyse: Mondelez18:28 Ist die Mondelez Aktie ein Kauf?20:07 Disclaimer21:07 Danke fürs Einschalten! Zusammenarbeit anfragen https://www.maximilian-gamperling.de/termin/ Social Media- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maximilian_gamperling/- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gamperling/- Newsletter: https://www.maximilian-gamperling.de/newsletter- Podcast: https://akademie.maximilian-gamperling.de/podcasts/anker-aktien-podcast Meine Tools- Charts*: https://de.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117182- Aktienfinder: https://aktienfinder.net- Finchat.io*: https://finchat.io/?via=maximilian- TransparentShare: https://bit.ly/3laA6tK- SeekingAlpha*: https://www.sahg6dtr.com/QHJ7RM/R74QP/- Captrader*: https://www.financeads.net/tc.php?t=41972C46922130T DisclaimerAlle Informationen beruhen auf Quellen, die wir für glaubwürdig halten. Trotz sorgfältiger Bearbeitung können wir für die Richtigkeit der Angaben und Kurse keine Gewähr übernehmen. Alle enthaltenen Meinungen und Informationen dienen ausschließlich der Information und begründen kein Haftungsobligo. Regressinanspruchnahme, sowohl direkt, wie auch indirekt und Gewährleistung wird daher ausgeschlossen. Alle enthaltenen Meinungen und Informationen sollen nicht als Aufforderung verstanden werden, ein Geschäft oder eine Transaktion einzugehen. Auch stellen die vorgestellten Strategien keinesfalls einen Aufruf zur Nachbildung, auch nicht stillschweigend, dar. Vor jedem Geschäft bzw. vor jeder Transaktion sollte geprüft werden, ob sie im Hinblick auf die persönlichen und wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse geeignet ist. Wir weisen ausdrücklich noch einmal darauf hin, dass der Handel mit Aktien, ETFs, Fonds, Optionen, Futures etc. mit grundsätzlichen Risiken verbunden ist und der Totalverlust des eingesetzten Kapitals nicht ausgeschlossen werden kann.Aussagen über zu erwartende Entwicklungen an Finanzmärkten, insbesondere Wertpapiermärkten und Warenterminbörsen, stellen NIEMALS EINE AUFFORDERUNG ZUM KAUF ODER VERKAUF VON FINANZINSTRUMENTEN dar, sondern dienen lediglich der allgemeinen Information. Dies ist selbst dann der Fall, wenn Beiträge bei wörtlicher Auslegung als Aufforderung zur Durchführung von Transaktionen im o.g. Sinne verstanden werden könnten. Jegliche Regressinanspruchnahme wird insoweit ausgeschlossen. *Affiliate-Link #Mondelez #Aktie #Börse

Julia Schuller '17, Schuylkill is a seasoned marketing professional known for driving branding, product strategy and innovation at companies like Merck, The Hershey Company, and P&G. Julia is the co-founder of Bloom Health, a digital health company revolutionizing the standard for women's health with a science-backed natural birth control app. A keynote speaker and viral content creator, Julia is dedicated to empowering others through community engagement and education. She is a proud alum of Penn State Schuylkill and received her MBA from Vanderbilt University. Connect with Julia on LinkedIn.Learn more about Bloom Health through its website. Please note: This episode was previously recorded in November of 2024, before the departure of host Paul Clifford '20g from the Alumni Association. 

In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Charlie Chappell, Vice President of Innovation, Research & Development at The Hershey Company, to explore what it takes to innovate in one of the world's most beloved brands. Charlie's journey is nothing short of fascinating, from his start in R&D at Kimberly-Clark, earning patents for his work, to shaping iconic brands like Pantene and Old Spice during his time at Procter & Gamble. Now at Hershey, he's leading the charge to bring bold new ideas to life. Charlie opens up about the joys and challenges of innovating in the food and beverage industry, particularly in confectionery. We talk about the creation of Shackalicious, a gummy line launched in collaboration with Shaquille O'Neal, and how Hershey partnered with Shaq to bring his larger-than-life personality into a product that's flying off the shelves. Charlie also dives into the innovator's dilemma—how to embrace change, take risks, and adapt without losing sight of what makes a brand iconic. This conversation is packed with insights on navigating trends, identifying what's meaningful versus fleeting, and having the courage to push boundaries—even when it means some ideas won't work out. If you're curious about how legacy brands like Hershey stay ahead of the curve and continue to bring joy to millions, this episode is for you. Tune in for a sweet discussion filled with inspiration, lessons, and plenty of chocolate. Let's innovate together!  

About the Guest(s): Julie Nee is an accomplished expert in positive mindset and leadership coaching. With a career spanning over two decades, she began at the Hershey Company in sales and sales leadership before transitioning to work alongside bestselling author and speaker John Gordon. Her motivational speaking and coaching focus on positivity, resilience, and enabling personal transformation. She is the co-author of the book "You Grow Girl" aimed at empowering women across various stages of life and the author of "Mirror, Mirror," which provides insights into personal development and positivity. Episode Summary: In this insightful episode of the Who You Know Show, host Trevor Houston converses with Julie Nee about the power of positivity in navigating challenging life transitions. The episode begins with a personal anecdote from Julie about her battle with breast cancer and how positive thinking and maintaining a healthy mindset played crucial roles in her healing journey. Julie discusses various life transitions, including career changes and becoming an empty nester, and how reframing one's perspective can lead to personal growth and productivity. She emphasizes the idea that maintaining a positive outlook is essential not just when life is easy, but more importantly, when life is challenging. Throughout the conversation, Trevor and Julie delve into strategies for overcoming self-doubt and limiting beliefs. Julie shares her experience of transitioning from a comfortable corporate role at the Hershey Company to a path of motivational speaking, amplifying the importance of self-belief and reminding oneself of past achievements. The episode also covers practical actions to combat negativity, such as acknowledging feelings, staying active, and practicing gratitude. Julie also highlights the significance of heart-centered leadership, touching on cultivating environments that foster personal and professional growth, especially for women. She encourages listeners to engage in self-reflection to enhance personal resilience and shine their inner light. Resources: Julie Nee LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-nee/ Career Transition Summit: https://event.webinarjam.com/register/67/04404igv  LinkedIn e-book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://online.flippingbook.com/view/714118097/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/who-ya-know-show ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Trevor Houston is a licensed financial professional offering insurance/financial products through various carriers. For more info visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://cpwstrategies.com  Chapters: (0:00) Reframing Mindset and Positivity in Life Transitions (11:56) Embracing Emotions and Gratitude for Healing and Positivity (19:54) Overcoming Limiting Beliefs and Embracing Practical Solutions (23:56) Harnessing Positive Self-Talk to Transform Your Day (30:25) The Importance of Sleep for Optimal Health and Well-Being (34:11) Empowering Women Through Community, Growth, and Self-Reflection (38:57) Overcoming Imposter Syndrome While Writing and Creating (46:29) Heart-Centered Leadership and Women's Empowerment Events

On this week's episode, host Caryn Antonini is joined by Lindsay McCabe, Manager of Corporate Communications and Brand PR at The Hershey Company. Lindsay upholds Hershey's “history of goodness” by helping to build and publicize some of the world's most iconic brands such as Reeses, Hershey's Kisses, Kit Kat, Cadbury and many, many more. As part of the team responsible for executing exciting marketing, communications and campaign initiatives, Lindsay will share some of her stories with us as well as the long, rich history or Hershey and how it has positively impacted the United States throughout the years. For more information on our guest:Homethehersheycompany.com | Caryn Antoniniwww.cultivatedbycaryn.com@carynantonini@cultivatedbycarynshow###Get great recipes from Caryn at https://carynantonini.com/recipes/

Pittsburgh has seen over $3 million worth of cars stolen since September. The state AG is looking to make interacting with service providers easier. The Hershey Company has rejected a preliminary takeover offer. And, oof, that's got to hurt.

U.S. Steel plans a rally today in Western Pennsylvania to support its acquisition by Nippon Steel, even as reports suggest President Joe Biden will block the sale. Western Pennsylvania oil and gas company PennEnergy will pay a $2 million penalty, and reduce pollution from its facilities, in a proposed settlement with the Justice Department. Penn Medicine is teaming up with billionaire investor Mark Cuban and his prescription marketplace company. New York City’s police commissioner says the gun found on the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO matches shell casings found at the crime scene. Luigi Mangione was arrested in Altoona this week. The Hershey Trust says not so fast to a bid to takeover The Hershey Company. It’s been a productive year for bridge repairs in Central Pennsylvania. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Court records show New York prosecutors have charged a man taken in to custody in Altoona with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO. The murder was likely carried out with a ghost gun -- one of the nearly untraceable weapons that can be made a home. The state's senior U.S. senator is making his last round of stops before leaving office. Democrat Bob Casey recently toured King’s College’s new Center for Advanced Healthcare in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has reopened after a devastating fire five years ago. A piece of the Lehigh Valley played an important role. The Hershey Company could be taken over by another huge snack maker. President Joe Biden has designated a national monument at a former Native American boarding school site in Cumberland County. Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we're thrilled to have Kaya Yurieff, the Team Lead on the Creator Economy at The Information and one of our favorite industry reporters. Kaya shares her journey from working at CNN with Jake Tapper to becoming a leading voice in the creator economy. We dive into how her team produces unparalleled insights daily, the evolving landscape of the creator space, and her bold predictions for 2025. Before Kaya joins, Keith and Brendan catch up on the latest news, including highlights from the LinkedIn Partner Summit, TikTok's new affiliate partners, and the myth-busting insights from Instagram's Adam Mosseri. Creator of the week (COW) - Keith: Fitness creator Maxx Chewning announced that he sold his candy brand, Sour Strips, to The Hershey Company. - Brendan: TalkingTalktuah 50k on IG, @cam__george and @peter.ditzler are host a Talk Tuah companion podcast. - Kaya: Josie Balka 600k instagram followers Brand of the week (BOW) - Keith: Sony just broke the record for most comments on a TikTok video - To promote The Last Dance (Venom movie) - Brendan: Anyone but Jaguar. Wharhol lookalikes. Channeling Ridley Scott's famous 1984 ad. - Kaya: Samsung / mythical FAST channel Follow: - Keith: Visa announced it's officially recognizing creators as small businesses - Brendan: Armie HammerTime podcast. - Kaya: Kylie Kelce podcast

In Episode 157 of the PricePlow Podcast, Mike and Ben sit down with Kyle Thomas, Chief Commercial Officer of Nutrabolt, to discuss the company's groundbreaking partnership with The Hershey Company. Kyle, who joined Nutrabolt in 2021 after years in the Coca-Cola system, provides unique insights into how this collaboration came to be and what it means for both C4 and the broader supplement industry. The conversation covers not only the recent launch of C4 Whey protein featuring real Reese's and C4 Original pre-workout with Bubble Yum flavor, but also dives deep into Kyle's strategic vision for the brand, the evolution of C4's demographics, and how the company is positioning itself in the ever-growing energy drink market. This podcast was recorded shortly after Team PricePlow's visit to Nutrabolt HQ in Austin, Texas, making for some timely discussion of upcoming innovations. Subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast on your favorite platform and watch on YouTube to stay updated on the supplement industry's biggest moves! https://blog.priceplow.com/podcast/kyle-thomas-nutrabolt-c4-hershey-157 Video: C4's Kyle Thomas Talks Hershey Partnership & Brand Strategy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yzsJca0cNA Detailed Show Notes with Kyle Thomas (0:00) – Introductions & Kyle's Background: A Wild Ride to Nutrabolt (4:00) – The Evolution of Sports Nutrition on Coca-Cola's Radar (9:00) – The Hershey Partnership (16:30) – Brand Strategy & Demographics (27:00) – Product Development & Testing (35:00) – Master Branding Strategy (42:00) – Keurig Dr Pepper Partnership Where to Follow Kyle, Nutrabolt, and C4 Kyle Thomas on LinkedIn @C4Energy on Instagram @Cellucor on Instagram Cellucor News on PricePlow Thank you to Kyle Thomas and the entire Nutrabolt team for hosting us at their headquarters and sharing insights into their exciting partnership with The Hershey Company. We're looking forward to trying more innovative collaborations in the future! Stay up to date with Cellucor/C4's latest releases by signing up for PricePlow's news alerts, and don't forget to subscribe to the PricePlow Podcast and leave us a great review!

Amy P. Kelly, GPHR, SPHR, SHRM-SCPAmy is your partner in growth as one of the founders of the You Grow Girl movement and community. As the co-author of the You Grow Girl book and companion journal, she believes in people and works to help them grow into the leaders they were created to be. Amy is a global human resources and talent development executive known for building high-performing talent and cultures, including award-winning workplaces and leadership development programs. Amy is a certified Organizational Well-Being coach and brings mindset, leadership, and teamwork practices to the clients she serves as the Vice President of Consulting with The Jon Gordon Companies. She is a keynote speaker, the co-author of The Energy Bus Field Guide, and the co-creator of The Power of a Positive Team training program, the JG Certification Program, and Jon Gordon's Day of Development. Amy is also the co-author of the USA Today best-selling book Difficult Conversations Don't Have to be Difficult with Jon Gordon. Her passion is to believe in people and partner to build successful leaders and teams in all aspects of life, whether at home with her husband and four children, in her community, or in organizations around the world.Julie NeeJulie is a speaker, trainer, leader, and now author! She is passionate teacher of all things positivity. Heart-centered leadership and enthusiasm are her trademarks. She brings a high level of energy and passion to every group she engages. Her first book, Mirror Mirror: Five Reflections to Clear the Fog and Help You Shine launched in 2023 and has been influencing readers to embrace and love the person in the mirror.Julie brings 25 years of business experience in Sales, Sales Leadership and Marketing, including 19 years at The Hershey Company building business, leading teams and developing people. This experience is the foundation for connecting and engaging with clients around their real business challenges and opportunities. Julie has worked with clients across a wide variety of industries to drive positive change into their organizations.In addition to keynote speaking, Julie leads the Training team at The Jon Gordon Companies, and she is the co-creator (along with Jon Gordon) of The Power of Positive Leadership training program. Julie focuses her sessions on helping each organization, team and individual build more positive minds, teams, and cultures. Memorable Moments"It's moving beyond the things that hold you back to pursue the power of you, and that's the ethos of You Grow Girl""We're all stronger when we're operating in our unique power.""We experienced time and time again, particularly in the past five years, the magnification of the excellence when working together.""You Grow Girl is a movement to help women of all ages and stages fulfill their potential.  It's encouragement and support, believing in yourself and believing in others, continuous pursuit of growth, despite obstacles, detours and setbacks. It's appreciating who you are and how far you've come. And it's seeing the future you want to create and working to create it. It's knowing you don't have to do this alone, and it's knowing there's a path that's meant just for you. So it's moving beyond the things that hold you back to pursue the power of you, and that's the ethos of of You Grow Girl and with that, it's a movement to help women grow together through a community." Connect with You Grow GirlWomen's Entrepreneurship Day - Live Virtual Event - Register here! Or through Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DBGyCsNzQSk/?igsh=MXhkZXNiOXRwZWszeQ==Instagram: @yougrowgirlcommunity Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yougrowgirlcommunity Connect with AmyInstagram: @amypkelly1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypkelly/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amypkellynews  Connect with JulieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-nee-5266a91b/X: https://x.com/julienee108Instagram: @julienee108  Connect with AllisonInterested in working together? Fill out this form.www.instagram.com/allisonwalshwww.shebelievedbook.comwww.allisonwalshconsulting.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/shebelievedshecouldcommunityPRIVATE PODCAST FOR HIGH-ACHIEVING MOMS - www.allisonwalshconsulting.com/privatepodcast

This week Claire meets up with Fe Amarante founder and principal of Experimenta, whose career spans major companies like Coca-Cola, Danone, and The Hershey Company. Now running her own agency, Experimenta, focusing on sustainable creativity, she shared her life in design so far. Fe talks about the evolving perception of in-house creative roles and their potential for fulfilment, the thinking and ethos behind her agency Experimenta, and her thoughts on being terrified and doing it anyway! Links:Red SetterdbaExperimenta

Dave speaks with Brad Santanna, Head of Omnichannel Marketing, Strategic Customers, Insights & Analytics at The Hershey Company. Brad has been at The Hershey Company for his entire career - over 20 years! - a rarity in this day and age.Dave and Brad discuss the disconnect in KPIs between online and in-store (10:02), the importance of targeting occasions and not just audiences (13:07), an overview of the successful Shaq=A-Licious Gummies launch (16:42), what the Hershey team is looking at over the next 12-24 months (21:36), and how the shopper journey is no longer linear (25:35).Connect with Brad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-santanna-mba-4a32b411/Take advantage of a special offer from It'sRapid and get a free image, video or banner ad by emailing sales@itsrapid.io with code "BEYOND2024"Learn more about ItsRapid: https://itsrapid.ai/Theme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Understanding people is key to developing strong middle management leaders, an area often overshadowed by executive leadership. In today's episode, we're joined by Jeffrey Sigel, who has built a remarkable career on this very principle.   With extensive experience in strategy and marketing, Jeff has held prominent roles at Cracker Barrel, Ahold, the Hershey Company, and Kraft Nabisco. Currently, he is the principal consultant for Proprioceptive, a consultancy focused on turning strategy into action by developing middle management excellence. He is also the author of the new book, The Middle Matters: A Toolkit for Middle Managers.  Tune in to hear Jeff's insights on how to empower middle managers, his journey through various high-impact roles, and how senior leaders can better support middle management to unlock their teams' full potential.   Don't miss this opportunity to learn from an accomplished leader who has mastered the art of understanding people and turning strategy into action!What you'll learn about in this episode:The fascinating story behind the name of Jeff's consultancy, Proprioceptive.His career background and how he became interested in middle management.What inspired him to write The Middle Matters: A Toolkit for Middle-Managers.Jeff's framework outlining the three roles of middle managers: doer, leader, and influencer.Common challenges faced by middle managers today (and how to address them).Adopting the perspective of your co-workers to help you problem-solve.How senior leadership can support middle management and get the most out of their teams.The power of encouraging independent thinking and decision-making.Advice to new middle managers on shifting from an achiever mindset to a learner mindset.How feedback can be used for personal and professional growth.Guidance for navigating fear and providing actionable information to leadership.Transcript: HereAdditional Resources:Website: jeffsigel.com Consultancy: proprioceptive.ioLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeff-sigel/Book: jeffsigel.com/bookNewsletter: linkedin.com/newsletters/middle-management-matters-7177833178873647104Email: jeff.sigel@proprioceptive.ioLinks Mentioned:Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone SmarterSharon Spano:Website: sharonspano.comFacebook: facebook.com/SharonSpanoPHDInstagram: instagram.com/drsharonspano/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sharonspano/Book: thetimemoneybook.comContact: sharon@sharonspano.comX: x.com/SharonSpanoThe Other Side of Potential Podcast: sharonspano.com/podcast/

Disney Experiences announces a new Disney Villains-themed land coming to the Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World; Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood unveils it's final house of the season, "The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy"; Halloween Horror Nights Orlando announces its final scare zone of the season, "Enter the Blumhouse"; Sea World San Diego's Howl-O-Scream will feature 4 new scarte zones, 3 new Vile Vignettes, and an all-new show; LEGOLAND Florida Resort announces all-new aerial drone show for Brick-or-Treat; Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party began at Walt Disney World Resort this past week; Netherworld haunted House unveils its two themes for its 28th Season of Screams; Silicon Valley Haunt Investors acquires 50% ownership of All Hallows Eve Terror Town to create "Cincinnati Fear Fest"; CBS's "Ghosts" will partner with Creep LA to create a new 60-minute immersive experience; Field of Screams Maryland announces new attractions and a special event weekend; The Mystic Museum hosts a Crypt Keeper Homecoming Dance on August 31st; Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group presents "Urban Death Tour of Terror" select nights September 27th - November 1st; Dreadwor5ks Haunted House comes to Surrey, BC this Fall; The Hershey Company announces new Halloween products for 2024; Retailers are rolling out Halloween merchandise earlier than ever before. Read the stories here.

In this episode of The Speed of Culture, Matt Britton interviews Dan Mohnshine, Vice President of Marketing, US Confection at The Hershey Company. Dan discusses the evolving consumer trends influencing Hershey's strategies, the importance of innovation—like the launch of Reese's Caramel Big Cup, and how Hershey's is embracing health and wellness for the total snacking experience. Follow Suzy on Twitter: @AskSuzyBizFollow Dan Mohnshine on LinkedInSubscribe to The Speed of Culture on your favorite podcast platform.And if you have a question or suggestions for the show, send us an email at suzy@suzy.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did Mondelez International “swallow a grenade” 3.5 years ago…or has its most significant UK investment since the hostile takeover of Cadbury seen explosively positive results? Being a protein bar company in the summer of 2019 was arguably one of the most valuable things you could be in the growing functional food space…and Mondelez got the party started by announcing it was purchasing a majority stake in refrigerated protein bar brand Perfect Bar in June 2019. Then, two months later…The Simply Good Foods Company acquired Quest Nutrition and The Hershey Company acquired ONE Brands (maker of the ONE bar). Yet, the world was about to drastically change…and just as suddenly the value propositions of protein bars would no longer make them the “fun person” at the convenient nutrition party. With the bar format of convenient nutrition being strongly tied to consumer mobility, the “Great Shutdown” caused a sharp decline in consumption. And the categorical struggles continued into the next year, as restrictive living situations (and work-from-home adjustments) became normal, along with the fact that most “health and fitness” and weight management goals weren't prioritized by a lot of consumers during that period. Though, many of us industry strategists looked past the near-term categorical struggles and pointed to the fact that underlying drivers (feeding long-term secular trends) were unchanged, and the inevitable reorientation of consumer behaviors would continue to support growth within the bar format of convenient nutrition. And it seems that Mondelez International was also aligned with that in March 2021, as they acquired a majority stake in Grenade, a UK-based sports nutrition brand that was best known for its protein bar Carb Killa, reportedly valuing it at $277 million. Now…I didn't have a problem with Mondelez doubling down on the nutrition and protein bar segment, as I've been this broken record over many years stating that consumers are moving closer towards this four-way intersection of taste, convenience, nutrition, and functionality. My issue is more around the valuation paid by Mondelez…considering just how different the marketplace was in March 2021 (compared to the summer of 2019). Regardless, even as the bar format of convenient nutrition continued to bounce back slower than consensus expectations, Mondelez “tripled down” on its strategy to reshape its snacking portfolio by announcing it would acquire CLIF Bar in June 2022. But in terms of operational performance, Grenade did a relatively excellent job against the still weak categorical backdrop of 2021 and 2022. But in 2023, Grenade had an outstanding year…growing its net sales 56.5% YoY to around $120 million. So, what happened? In January 2023, Grenade Oreo protein bar was born...quickly becoming the top-selling protein bar in the UK market. But despite Grenade currently being a revenue “rounding error” impact to Mondelez, I'd assume Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put has keenly recognized the under-the-radar long-term potential in Grenade. And since Mondelez International wants to own substantial market share within the protein snacking space...don't get caught letting short-term ROI financial metrics cloud your vision because Grenade has a lot of explosive growth opportunities ahead. FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YOUTUBE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TWITTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joshua-schall/support

“You always really need to look at people, process, and technology. If you don't look at all three and understand where you are and where you need to be in those areas, you are just going to be chasing.” - Sherry Ulsh, Director, Indirect Procurement, The Hershey Company At the CoreTrust Conference in April 2024, Philip Ideson had the opportunity to sit down with Sherry Ulsh, Director of Indirect Procurement at The Hershey Company, about a wide range of topics, including her own journey from finance to procurement, the evolving role of GPOs, and the changing skill sets required in modern procurement roles.  Sherry shared her views on the importance of supplier relationship management and stakeholder management, both of which are reflected in her belief that procurement's value and influence in the business are best realized when they achieve a balance of people, process, and technology. In this episode, Sherry also shares her views on:  How to define procurement's value proposition across different industries and organizational models The evolving role of GPOs, and how utilization of the GPO model today differs from in the past Shaping internal and external perceptions of procurement's value, and how, for example, CFOs and other C-suite leaders can influence procurement's perceived value beyond cost savings Links: Sherry Ulsh on LinkedIn Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

Welcome Amy P. Kelly and Julie Nee to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more. Have you ever considered putting together a companion piece for your book as a way to augment your message and create a deeper experience for your reader? If so, or if you hadn't until this question, then let this conversation with Amy P. Kelly and Julie Nee inspire you to see what's possible. We talked about: Which came first, the book or the journal, and how the two products blended together to create an experience for the reader as well as how they worked together to write both Giving yourself as a writer, and giving your reader, permission to pause and why that matters Blending branding into your formatting to create a cohesive look throughout the book, your website, social and more Amy P. Kelly and Julie Nee have a positive obsession about growth and development, and they want to share it with you so you can grow, too. You Grow Girl! became a book (which you have on your tables), a companion journal, and a movement to help women of all ages and stages fulfill their full potential! Amy's background includes executive roles in Human Resources, leadership development, and entrepreneurship. She has authored multiple books and is launching her newest book, Difficult Conversations Don't Have to Be Difficult with her mentor, Jon Gordon, in May 2024! Julie's background is in Sales and Executive Leadership, primarily with The Hershey Company. She has been speaking, training, and creating content for Jon Gordon for over 8 years. Her first book, Mirror Mirror: 5 Reflections to Clear the Fog and Help You Shine, shows people how to see themselves with acceptance and joy. Through You Grow Girl!, they have created something that they believe will enhance the lives of women all over the world. Today they are going to share one aspect of that movement with you and help you Unlock Courage and Confidence. Visit - http://www.you-grow-girl.com Book purchase link - https://amzn.to/4aG2eMZ

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! You're Keepin' Company w/ Conor and this is another Townsquare Spotlight. This week, we are shedding a light on two swimmers SET TO COMPETE in the Paralympic Games Paris 2024! U.S. Paralympic Gold Medalist Jessica Long & U.S. Paralympic Hopeful Haven Shepherd reveal their preparations for Paris, their stories of survival and triumph, and their latest campaign with Team USA and Hershey: LEGEND vs. NEWCOMER. As we near the opening ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games Paris 2024 and while the world's excitement is building, the athletes are in full-on training mode. But with more than 605 swimmers expected to take the plunge, how do they prepare physically and mentally to swim laps around the competition? The 2024 Paris Olympics Team USA is headed back to the world stage! As we near the opening ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games Paris 2024 and while the world's excitement is building, the athletes are in full-on training mode! But with more than 605 swimmers expected to take the plunge, how do they prepare physically and mentally to swim laps around the competition? You can find out first-hand! Team USA and Hershey's LEGEND vs. NEWCOMER Campaign Jessica Long became the youngest athlete on the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team back in 2004 at just 12 years old! Since then, she's competed in five taking home 29 medals to make her the second-most decorated Paralympian in U.S. history. Her teammate, Haven Shepherd, is a newcomer, competing in her first ever Paralympics in 2020 and just missed out on a medal. So, in 2024 she's looking for redemption. To celebrate this unique combo and commemorate The Hershey Company's ongoing partnership with Team USA, Reese's, known for its legendary combination of chocolate and peanut butter, has launched its first-ever seasonal shape for summer: Reese's Medals. To celebrate its own newcomer, Reese's is teaming up with Jessica and Haven to help give fans a taste of friendly competition with the new Legend vs. Newcomer campaign! But that's just the start of the fun they have planned for this summer Haven Shepherd – Vietnamese-American Paralympic swimmer from Carthage, MO. A 2018 BBC 100 Women list, 2020 Paralympic Team Member, 2019 World Para Swimming Series Silver and Bronze Medalist, 2018 World Para Swimming Series Gold Medalist and 2017 Can-Am Open Gold Medalist. Jessica Long - Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. Jessica is the Second-most decorated Paralympian in US history. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. Jessica has won over 50 world championship medals.

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! You're Keepin' Company w/ Conor and this is another Townsquare Spotlight. This week, we are shedding a light on two swimmers SET TO COMPETE in the Paralympic Games Paris 2024! U.S. Paralympic Gold Medalist Jessica Long & U.S. Paralympic Hopeful Haven Shepherd reveal their preparations for Paris, their stories of survival and triumph, and their latest campaign with Team USA and Hershey: LEGEND vs. NEWCOMER. As we near the opening ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games Paris 2024 and while the world's excitement is building, the athletes are in full-on training mode. But with more than 605 swimmers expected to take the plunge, how do they prepare physically and mentally to swim laps around the competition? The 2024 Paris Olympics Team USA is headed back to the world stage! As we near the opening ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games Paris 2024 and while the world's excitement is building, the athletes are in full-on training mode! But with more than 605 swimmers expected to take the plunge, how do they prepare physically and mentally to swim laps around the competition? You can find out first-hand! Team USA and Hershey's LEGEND vs. NEWCOMER Campaign Jessica Long became the youngest athlete on the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team back in 2004 at just 12 years old! Since then, she's competed in five taking home 29 medals to make her the second-most decorated Paralympian in U.S. history. Her teammate, Haven Shepherd, is a newcomer, competing in her first ever Paralympics in 2020 and just missed out on a medal. So, in 2024 she's looking for redemption. To celebrate this unique combo and commemorate The Hershey Company's ongoing partnership with Team USA, Reese's, known for its legendary combination of chocolate and peanut butter, has launched its first-ever seasonal shape for summer: Reese's Medals. To celebrate its own newcomer, Reese's is teaming up with Jessica and Haven to help give fans a taste of friendly competition with the new Legend vs. Newcomer campaign! But that's just the start of the fun they have planned for this summer Haven Shepherd – Vietnamese-American Paralympic swimmer from Carthage, MO. A 2018 BBC 100 Women list, 2020 Paralympic Team Member, 2019 World Para Swimming Series Silver and Bronze Medalist, 2018 World Para Swimming Series Gold Medalist and 2017 Can-Am Open Gold Medalist. Jessica Long - Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. Jessica is the Second-most decorated Paralympian in US history. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. Jessica has won over 50 world championship medals.

Some choco-holics are taking Hershey's to court. Four people in Florida have filed a federal lawsuit against The Hershey Company, claiming Reese's misrepresents what's actually inside. In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Wednesday, a knife-wielding menace who was harassing a Midtown hotdog vendor was shot by a witness who intervened in the confrontation, according to police and sources. The hot dog news from Coney Island is hard to swallow. Joey Chestnut, perennial winner of the annual July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition, is out of this year's beef barf over a deal he made to represent a different weiner brand. And in Delaware, he's guilty, guilty, guilty. Hunter Biden became the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime after a federal jury found him guilty of three counts related to lying about his drug use in order to buy a gun.

The State of Early-Stage Food Brands Funding sources are drying up and inflation is making it harder and harder for higher-priced food brands to compete - what's an early-stage food company to do? Dr. James Richardson, owner of Premium Growth Solutions and author of Ramping Your Brand, joined The Food Institute Podcast to discuss what types of food companies are succeeding under current industry dynamics. More About Dr. James Richardson: Dr. Richardson is the founder of Premium Growth Solutions, a strategic planning consultancy for early-stage consumer-packaged-goods brands. As a professionally trained cultural anthropologist turned business strategist, he has helped more than 75 CPG brands with their strategic planning, including brands owned by Coca-Cola Venturing and Emerging Brands, The Hershey Company, General Mills, Kraft Foods, Conagra Brands, and Frito-Lay as well as emerging brands such as Once Upon a Farm, Mother Kombucha, Bobby Sue's Nuts, Rebel Creamery, Zaca recovery, and others. He also hosts his own podcast—Startup Confidential. His thoughts appear regularly in industry publications such as Foodnavigator. To learn more about Dr. Richardson and his book, Ramping Your Brand, please visit: www.rampingyourbrand.com

On this episode of the People Solve Problems podcast, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomed W. Henry Yaeger, the Managing Principal of Banner Group LLC. Henry brings over 30 years of experience as an executive at global and Fortune 500 companies, and as an entrepreneur. He has held significant roles at major corporations like The Hershey Company and Unilever, and has also co-founded Guidehealth, a burgeoning digital health platform. During the podcast, Henry shared valuable insights on knowing when to fully commit to new business opportunities, a topic particularly relevant given his current involvement with Guidehealth. He emphasized the importance of assessing risks and embracing the worst-case scenarios before making significant commitments. Henry advocated for a portfolio approach to managing life's opportunities, suggesting that one should balance risk throughout different stages of life much like managing a financial portfolio. The discussion also covered practical strategies for decision-making in both personal career moves and broader business contexts, such as launching a new product or upgrading business systems. Henry stressed the necessity of combining intuitive judgment with thorough research to make well-rounded decisions. This approach involves not only tapping into personal instincts but also seeking advice from more experienced individuals and leveraging available information resources. Jamie and Henry explored the concept of "portfolio thinking" in depth, discussing how to prioritize and balance various commitments to maximize personal and professional growth. They talked about the readiness to adapt or defer opportunities based on one's current situation and long-term goals. Additionally, Henry provided advice for young professionals and entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of recognizing one's value and the potential to contribute meaningfully to various projects or roles. His insights are particularly useful for anyone at a crossroads, deciding whether to pursue a new venture or opportunity. Listeners of this episode can expect to gain a deeper understanding of strategic decision-making and risk management from Henry's extensive experience and thoughtful advice. For more information about Henry and his work, visit his website at Banner Group LLC or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Wesley ter Haar, founder of MediaMonks and Executive Director at S4 Capital Group, has always been on the cutting edge of digital first production. The company has doubled down on their AI bet, and he shares some of the latest use cases they are developing for clients with AI, including consumer proxies, scaling up personalization, retrieval-augmented generation, and streamlining workflows.For Further Reading: Learn more about WesleyWesley ter Haar, Founder, Media.Monks AI Keynote at the BI Marketing LeadershipA Conversation With Bing's Chatbot Left Me Deeply UnsettledWesley ter Haar on the difference AI makes to creative contentAlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentaryBurger King Takes "Have It Your Way" to the Next Level, Offering Guests The Chance to Win $1 Million for Their Ultimate Whopper® CreationThe Actual Possibility of AI – Wesley ter Harr and Vinny Rinaldi, Head of Analytics, The Hershey Company, presented a case study based on real in-market AI programs to drive in-store sales effectively at POSSIBLE 2024 Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

Steve Balliet is the Senior Manager of Hershey's US Owned Retail in Hershey, PA.  In his role, Steve runs both Hershey's Chocolate World locations, with one in Hershey, PA, and one in Times Square in New York.  Steve began his career at Dorney Park as a seasonal supervisor where he found his passion for the business, particularly in leadership.  Later, Steve took an opportunity to move to Hershey, where he has been for more than 20 years.  In this interview, Steve talks about working for a purpose, from the bean to the bar, and transformational leadership.   Working for a purpose “When you think about Hershey, you think about fun, you think about chocolate, and you think about kids.” The Milton Hershey School, founded in 1920 by Milton Hershey, is a boarding school for orphan boys.  Currently, the school serves thousands of underprivileged kids from all around the country from kindergarten through 12th grade.  The school is funded by the Hershey Company and Hershey Entertainment & Resorts in perpetuity. For Hershey employees, whether they work in the theme park, hotel, factory, or any other business entity, they get to come to work every day knowing that their work serves even more than a profitable business, but that it truly goes to a cause that helps so many people in need.   From the bean to the bar “Our stories are rooted in reality and authenticity.” One of the most iconic aspects of Hershey's Chocolate World is being able to take the factory tour, a dark ride that takes riders through the story of how chocolate is made.  Steve refers to it as being an immersive experience, as it brings guests into a compelling story that is both educational and entertaining. The factory tour was part of Milton Hershey's vision of being able to showcase how the product is made to demonstrate the high-quality standard that goes into each and every piece of candy.  In the 1970s, the popularity of the tour prompted the creation of Hershey's Chocolate World to create the tour as a standalone experience.  Over time, the ride has been updated to reflect continual changes to the story; however, the original track layout and ride system remains unchanged.   Transformational leadership “My day exists to make my team look good.” Steve refers to himself as a transformational leader and is passionate about developing the individuals in the teams that he supports.  Steve defines transformational leadership as taking complex ideas and making them simple so they can be understood and implemented with ease. Transformational leadership also incorporates continuous improvement.  Steve stresses the importance of failing fast and learning from mistakes in the interest of growth and continual development.  Steve says that you should strive to make the guest experience a little better than the day before.   To learn about Hershey's Chocolate World, visit www.chocolateworld.com.  To connect with Steve directly, you can email him at sballiet@hersheys.com.   This podcast wouldn't be possible without the incredible work of our faaaaaantastic team: Scheduling and correspondence by Kristen Karaliunas Audio and video editing by Abby Giganan   To connect with AttractionPros: AttractionPros.com AttractionPros@gmail.com AttractionPros on Facebook AttractionPros on LinkedIn AttractionPros on Instagram AttractionPros on Twitter (X)

Puja Talati is a co-founder of JT Capital and serves as the Chief Marketing Officer. She co-founded JT Capital in 2020, leading the firm's asset management and marketing arms. Before establishing JT Capital, Talati held a principal role in a real estate firm, successfully leading operations, asset management, and marketing. Her professional journey includes leadership positions in strategy and operations consulting and brand marketing at Deloitte Consulting and The Hershey Company. Mrs. Talati received a B.S. in Business Administration focusing on marketing and social decision sciences from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 and a Masters of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 2011. In this episode, we talked to Puja about the advantages she gained from her background, what she's working on today, opportunities in today's market, the art of hunting for deals, and much more.   Announcement: Register and join our free exclusive apartment investing Q and A on Wednesday, April 24th at 8:00 pm EST, by clicking here.   Strategic Income Fund;   02:22 Puja's background; 05:19 The advantages of Puja gained from her background; 10:35 What Puja's working on today; 16:58 Typical questions she gets regarding the income fund; 19:32 What she looks for while hunting for deals; 22:06 Round of insights     Announcement: Join our Apartment Investing Mastermind here for just $89/month.   Round of Insights   Apparent Failure: Lack of having processes and structures in the earlier stages of her career. Digital Resource: CoStar. Most Recommended Book: Building a StoryBrand. Daily Habit: Rewriting her to-do list every day to stay focused. #1 Insight for investing in diversified funds: Properly understand the structure of the funds, not to miss out on the right opportunity. Best place to grab a bite in Austin, TX: Il Brutto   Contact Puja: https://www.jtcapitalgroup.com/    Thank you for joining us for another great episode! If you're enjoying the show, please LEAVE A RATING OR REVIEW,  and be sure to hit that subscribe button so you do not miss an episode.

What do you get when you mix a business anthropologist with international-scale influencers? You get a perspective you're not likely to find on your normal podcast! Today's guest is cultural anthropologist turned business strategist Dr. James Richardson of Premium Growth Solutions. James is an expert in consumer packaged goods. This topic is a little off the beaten path of what we typically do here, but the lessons apply to marketing and strategy if you're in B2B. He has helped nearly 100 CPG brands with their strategic planning, including brands owned by Coca-Cola Venturing and Emerging Brands, The Hershey Company, General Mills, and Frito-Lay, as well as other emerging brands such as Once Upon a Farm, Dr. Squatch Soap, Proven skincare, Rebel creamery, and June Shine kombucha.  James is the author of Ramping Your Brand: How to Ride the Killer CPG Growth Curve, an award-winning, best-selling business book on Amazon. He also hosts his podcast—Startup Confidential. After listening to today's episode, visit James' website to check out his book, Ramping Your Brand: How to Ride the Killer CPG Growth Curve.   

In this special crossover episode, ESG Talk and Off The Books dive into the long-awaited SEC climate disclosure rule. Jonathan Gregory of The Hershey Company and Alan Wilson of WilmerHale and hosts Steve Soter, Mandi McReynolds, and Andie Wood discuss what the new requirements mean for practitioners, investors, and the future of financial and ESG reporting.

Join us for an electrifying episode featuring a dynamic speaker, trainer, leader, and now author who is on a mission to spread positivity far and wide. Dive into her remarkable journey from a 25-year career in sales and marketing at The Hershey Company to becoming a passionate advocate for heart-centered leadership and empowerment. Discover how she channels her boundless energy and enthusiasm to inspire positive change in individuals and organizations alike. Learn valuable insights into the transformative power of positivity, the contagious nature of emotions, and the importance of nurturing yourself and others. Tune in as we explore the keys to unlocking your full potential and creating a ripple effect of positivity in the world.Julie Nee is a speaker, trainer, leader, and now author! She is a passionate teacher of all things positivity. Heart-centered leadership and enthusiasm are her trademarks. She brings a high level of energy and passion to every group she engages. Her first book, Mirror Mirror: Five Reflections to Clear the Fog and Help You Shine launched in 2023 and has been influencing readers to embrace and love the person in the mirror. Julie brings 25 years of business experience in Sales, Sales Leadership and Marketing, including 19 years at The Hershey Company building business, leading teams and developing people. This experience is the foundation for connecting and engaging with clients around their real business challenges and opportunities. Julie has worked with clients across a wide variety of industries to drive positive change into their organizations.Website: https://www.julienee.comHear from Julie about:How our energy and feelings are contagious.The positive and negative ripple effect.Fan girling over John Gordon.Thinking she would be amazing at something, but getting some real reality checks.Imposter syndrome and overcoming negative self talk.Turning up the dimmer switch in ourselves and shining the light on the world.Subscribe to and review the Multifamily Streamlined Podcast here.Burning questions? A hot topic? Guest you'd like to hear? Email us at podcast@streamlinemultifamily.com.Streamline Multifamily Group is your specialized consulting partner for multifamily operations, training, and more! We offer consultative support in project management, construction, development, renovations, auditing, and also organize industry events.Ready to elevate your property's performance? Connect with Streamline Multifamily Group at www.StreamlineMultifamilyGroup.com !Registration for EmpowHER 2024 is now open, click here. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact jzhang@streamlinemultifamily.com. 

As the presidential race picks up momentum, The Current Podcast explores what a political campaigner and a CPG brand marketer can learn from each other. Kyle Yadon-Smith, (the head of digital for the National Republican Senatorial Committee), and Vinny Rinaldi, (the head of media and analytics for The Hershey Company), get candid about marketing politics and chocolate.  Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio. Damian Fowler: (00:01)I'm Damian Fowler. Welcome to this edition of the current podcast.Damian Fowler: (00:10)This week we are queuing up a great conversation between two advertisers who may not on first glance seem to have that much in common. We're joined by Vinnie Ranaldi, the head of media and analytics at the Hershey Company, and Kyle Yadon-Smith, the head of digital for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That said, we thought it would be fascinating to hear what a big CPG brand like Hershey can learn from a major political advertiser like the NRSC. And since this is an election year, what better time to host this conversation. It's been said that every great political campaign rewrites the rules at the same time, CPG brands can now supercharge campaigns with retail data. With all that in mind, let's get to it. Both of you, of course, are focused on reaching those respective audiences, whether you call 'em consumers or voters. I'd love to hear from both of you, you know, on what you think you may have in common.Kyle Smith: (01:09)I was gonna joke, the uh, the biggest thing is, uh, we're both targeting, so we're women I think is our key marketplace. the cycle . Um, obviously that's not the only, uh, demographic that's gonna be key on the political landscape, but, uh, we're gonna be running ads in October and so we're gonna screw up your Halloween marketing. Thankfully you guys do not have a, uh, Georgia runoff this year, so it should be okay by Christmas. And uh, yeah, I think we're gonna be targeting a lot of the same consumers slash uh, voter demographics. So it's kind of, it's, it's interesting how that kind of plays out. Yeah,Vinny Rinaldi: (01:36)I would agree. I think there's more correlation. I think, you know, we're looking at the same content areas to show up in as a brand to sell chocolate as you guys are, to show up and influence somebody to devote one way or the other in those big environments. You know, a lot of how we look to show up is how do we drive seasonality in local markets at a certain store? So you're right in October, believe me, it's probably hot topic number one of like the lead up to our Super Bowl October 31st. There's a serious presidential election happening a week later. Yeah. So how much will that play a role when we're buying, you know, market-based ads? So it is an area, I wouldn't say of concern, but an area that we're certainly focused on of like how do we make sure we're showing up in the right markets during our most precious time of year, but being cognizant of some of the headwinds we might face based on what's happening in real time.Damian Fowler: (02:28)It's interesting, you know, you're sort of talking in a way about competition between say chocolate and political campaigns, but on the other hand there's a sort,Kyle Smith: (02:35)I think we would lose that one if you had to vote on one or the other. .Damian Fowler: (02:39)I mean, of course there's an alignment too. I mean maybe you guys can, you know, get together and cross-reference here.Vinny Rinaldi: (02:45)I mean, I joke as we look at all of the debates leading up to it and one of our products is popcorn. How do we show up and say, get your popcorn ready for all these new events that are happening. So can you bridge that gap and kind of work together? There's a lot of areas of, ofKyle Smith: (02:58)Interest. Politics is pop culture now, right? Yeah. Like I'll never forget, one of the funniest ads I saw was, I think it was Advil, they bought the promoted tweet on the first day of the debate in 2016 and it said, do you have a headache from this debate, you know, by Advil? And I thought that was kind of a fun way to play into it.Damian Fowler: (03:12)What's interesting to me is, you know, in looking at say any given political campaign, how the importance of being reactive in the moment kind of real time is so crucial, you know, for getting those swing voters out to either vote or just to nudge the needle a little bit. And I'm wondering, you know, if that idea of the sped up data-driven campaign is obviously influencing the way CPG brands like Hershey think about campaigns,Vinny Rinaldi: (03:38)I think we certainly use data-driven tactics in a very similar way. And you think back to the last, I guess it's 16 years since the 2008 election, which is crazy during that election when, when President Obama won, you know, it goes a little unnoticed of how he won the tactics he used, which were way ahead of his time in a lot of this, using the data, focusing on different demographic urban environments, getting those people to the polling centers, like we're trying to do the same thing during, whether it's a big season or to dry everyday occurrences, like how do you find those pockets of incremental opportunities to grow from the beast that's already there is very correlated to from when President Obama did it to President Trump doing it in 2016 and really becoming a more data-driven tactic on how you show up in those moments.Kyle Smith: (04:26)I mean, it's kind of funny, both Obama in 2012 and uh, president Trump in uh, 2016 both had a actually almost similar data strategy. They're both very digital heavy in from a percentage perspective for their time. And then of course nowadays we actually can't use that data on quite a few platforms. So data's extremely important in the political space. Obviously there's, uh, 60% of Americans over the age of 18 are gonna vote this cycle and a lot of those folks are gonna vote for the same party they've always voted for. And identifying people that, you know, swing back and forth is the key to winning, obviously. And that coalition changes every cycle. For us, it's leveraging the data to inform what that audience looks like so that we can make tactical data-driven decisions, even on platforms that don't let us use it directly of which, you know, is the bulk of the ecosystem at this point. It'sVinny Rinaldi: (05:08)An interesting point. Like we as a big massive consumer packaged goods brand that sells chocolate, has no first party data. We have to talk to everybody. Literally 98% of the um, US population eats candy mint or gum. So for us it's like how do you balance, you want scalability no matter what, but what are the right insights and data points that you utilize when you go to activation? Because if you're trying to find one-to-one in any second and or third party data partnerships in some platforms, not all, you're losing the findability due to some of the privacy regulations that are coming up. So if you don't own the data asset itself in a first party ecosystem, it's a lot harder to deliver that experience. And it's also a lot harder to collect first party data when you're a brand that everyone else sells your product. You're just driving demand through advertising and awareness and driving people to the store. But from a D two C perspective where a lot of that collection can happen, it's a little bit more of a challenge on our end to be able to sell chocolate and collect a data 0.0 for those people.Damian Fowler: (06:08)What's interesting to me about this is according to a study by the Trade Desk with Morning Consult during the 2022 midterms, 75% of all Americans surveyed who say they might vote in the midterms, say they know who they're gonna vote for. So I don't know from a political standpoint, do you market to those people or is marketing always at the margins? You know, are you always trying to reach out to that undecided voter? And I wonder if that carries over into CPG thinking as well.Kyle Smith: (06:33)I actually think this may be a space where things are more similar than they are different. You know, if you've bought Hershey Kisses every year for Christmas and you, your family's always done that and you always, you know, put that in the stalking, you're probably gonna continue to do it until something shifts or something changes. There's pretty high retention, right? In terms of Republicans from 2016 are very likely to be Republicans again, 2024. But things do change, you know, the people will always tell you, they say they know who they're gonna vote for today, but then there could be a new story that drops at some point next year that scrambles everything. You know, it changes people's opinions on issues, it changes how people think about things and we have to react very, very quickly to that and make sure that, you know, if the story's good for us, that everyone knows about it or if the story's bad for us, that we have our point of view out there to, to kind of counter what the information is. It's kind of hard to expect who those people are gonna be or what's gonna trigger that. So I think that kind of leads to the importance of talking to everyone and making sure that you kind of have a broad message out there. But we also know our folks that are, you know, Republican donors donate or vote in every single election that are probably on our team. So it's kind of just, uh, doing a little bit of both.Vinny Rinaldi: (07:30)Yeah, you look at Reese's Peanut butter cups, they have a 64% household penetration. I'm not sure there's any single brand out there that comes as close. So if you think about it, you, you're almost everywhere. So you're constantly speaking to everybody and hoping, you know, in those moments you're getting that incremental gain for a new household conversion and or, or repeat purchaser. So you do want to talk to both. You're also looking at probably one of the more impulsive categories in the world. Chocolate is a grab and go. You're at the counters, you're just grabbing, you don't plan it. So you always have to be, broadly speaking, making everyone aware of subtly nudging that reminder message to almost everybody.Damian Fowler: (08:08)Given that then, you know, does that mean a lot of your campaigns tend to be about, you know, just brand awareness kind of up there at the top of the funnel? And then how do you use channels to nudge the consumer? How, how does that work? ,Vinny Rinaldi: (08:22)In very basic theory, yes, we are a very big awareness brand messaging strategy to have fun. You know, we lean heavily on the voice of Will Arnett, which is the voice behind the Reese's commercials. So like, it is that probably where, but then you have, whether it's a limited edition or a seasonal environment or some other area where you wanna be a little bit more focused, where you would lean into some sort of targeting capability, whether it's a retail based target, third party, purchase based target. How do you use all those levers to take some of the spend and be focused while the majority of your base spend is reaching that broad awareness of the entire population?Kyle Smith: (09:00)Yeah, I think that's where, you know, I'm a little bit jealous of Hershey's and you have all this institutional brand ID and I'm, we're jealous of the starting point, especially, you know, I'm working on the, I'm working on senate campaigns this cycle. The NRC, we only have really two incumbents, meaning like people that are already senators running for reelection, again, Ted Cruz and uh, Rick Scott in Florida, they kind of have a really strong starting point they can focus on more, just reminding folks that kinda like you, I feel like you guys do every site or every year we're Hershey's, we're Reese's also. I'm jealous you get will learn that, but we're we're, we're Reese's what we are, et cetera. But then on our side we have a separate project of a lot of new candidates that no one's ever heard of that frankly haven't held elected office. And you have a year and you know, three or four months to make their name Id as close to a hundred percent with the voter base as you can. If uh, Trump were president it was 2020 and everyone kind of knows who these guys are. It is kind of more similar I think to the annual, uh, yeah, candy marketing. But this, this year it's uh, we have to start from scratch. It's like you guys introducing a new brand, I feel like, or a new skew of, uh, of, you know, Hershey's, Reese's, et cetera.Vinny Rinaldi: (10:00)We just launched uh, Reese's Caramel Cups and it is like launching a completely new thing even though it's part of the Reese's family. Yes, you're gonna have those loyalists try your new product, but can you attract new consumers into an already built brand because of a new introduction of caramel into a peanut butter cup? You have to find those new pockets of opportunity to not lose your base or not have them switch completely and keep that cycle growing with new consumers.Damian Fowler: (10:26)One of the things that's happened, uh, in the last couple of years, we talked about, you know, what happened in the last four years is the kind of rise of, there's much more inventory out there for streaming platforms, connected television, and that connecting the dots up with, you know, other channels. I wonder if you could both sort of talk me through a little bit of how that, the maturing as it were of CTV has changed the way you go to market and think about connecting up big awareness plays on CTV to, you know, lower down the funnel to more performance driven tactics.Vinny Rinaldi: (10:56)You know, as I go back to what I said earlier, the proliferation of content everywhere has certainly opened up the purview of how to show up, how to be everywhere. You know, for me, when I think about the connected TV landscape, what I love about it is the ability to buy prime time at any time. When you sit down at eight o'clock or nine o'clock or 12 o'clock or 3:00 PM it doesn't matter. You're accessing whatever content you wanna watch in that moment. So in my opinion, when you buy this way, you've got primetime moments at all times. That person is decided they're gonna sit down, they're gonna, you know, watch whatever it is that they wanna watch at that given moment.Vinny Rinaldi: (11:47)And that's your moment as a brand to show up and that's how we look at it. And then when you take that holistic approach to those primetime moments, how do you then use the controllability of technology to control, reach and frequency? So if I know that I'm talking to this person in 12 different platforms, well I don't want my frequency to be a 40 on one of 'em. I want to control that and keep extending reach. If I get enough reach, my household penetration should go up. If that goes up, my sales are going up, we're winning share, we're reaching more consumers, like that's our end goal. So being in as many homes as possible is actually impossible if you're buying on 40 different IOs or platforms. So then when you think about consolidation and the value of bringing somebody from an awareness building tactic and streaming or on the big screen all the way through a funnel and having that control allows me to unlock more business outcomes than any media measurement can give me.Damian Fowler: (12:42)I'm wondering if what the equivalent of business outcomes are in the political ad marketplace.Kyle Smith: (12:48)Um, well if we win.Damian Fowler: (12:51)I thought you were gonna say that. Kyle Smith: (12:52)Yeah, I, I , I think, uh, I actually think this is where also uh, you know, the candy and CPG world in general is, it's pretty similar to political land is um, our outcomes also a little bit impulsive. I remember standing in line, you know, to vote for the DC City Council with a few of my coworkers before and we were all talking like, who are these people? , you know, it's like we don't know who anyone we're voting for. It's kind of funny. And then you kind of re look at 'em real quick. You remember like stuff you've heard or mailers you've gotten and you make a decision that you have one day to do that or one month to do that. And that's our moment. That's when you get your conversion. That's kind of how I'd compare the two there. I think from a high level perspective, we have the exact same problem in politics, especially with linear, where we have very high frequencies against some audiences sometimes.Kyle Smith: (13:28)And when you're talking to one group of people 70 times, you're, you have less money then to talk to the rest of the folks who may not be very heavy media consumers. So having an ever-present point of view across not just linear but also digital, I think that's something that our party especially is gonna try to get a lot better at this cycle. It, it's interesting to me that 20 12, 20 16, I think, and Vinny told me if this is wrong, I think the corporate world almost looked at politics and was like, wow, they're doing some really cool stuff. We have to figure out what they're doing. I think that's kind of taken a step back a little bit now that we've gotten into the, you know, we have to target older Americans 'cause older Americans are more likely to vote. And I think now as older Americans, habits have changed quite a bit from 2020 to 2024, it's forced both political parties to kind of adapt a little bit after frankly the corporate world has uh, to what the new landscape looks like.Damian Fowler: (14:11)You know, speaking of different audiences, are there different channels for different audiences? Kyle, when you said, you know, reaching older Americans or all older voters, I'm wondering if that's still like a linear play now or if that's completely, am I just stereotyping a whole demographic?Kyle Smith: (14:26)Yeah, well I watch Wheel of Fortune every other night, so I, I maybe I, maybe I'm breaking the demographic there. . Yeah, I, I think linear is still the utmost effective mass reach, uh, mechanism for folks 55 plus, especially broadcast. It's pretty easy to get over 75% reach across that audience, uh, with a couple of weeks of linear buys. What I will say though is even older users are starting to shift pretty substantially. Especially, you know, in the last couple of years when I used to do my YouTube pitches, I always told, told the story of my father-in-Law who is a huge Elon Musk fan and watches a lot of documentaries about him on YouTube. And I would walk down one day and he's like an hour or two of this documentary that some college kid put together about, about how he's making rockets or whatever. They do a penetration across all the different age groups. And I do think that we're gonna continue to see a shift away, especially from cable time spent on cable and towards the streaming services, whether it's YouTube or or more of the down funnel servicesVinny Rinaldi: (15:15)As I stated earlier. You know, we reach everybody with a mouth. So every demographic needs to play a role in our media, both strategy spend, investment strategy, that's everything. Kyle, you kinda hit the nail on the head. It's what's happening between those environments is what's the shift what we're seeing. And I think the industry's seeing more and more, if you remove live news and sports from linear consumption, you're gonna see a drastic drop off in actual consumption habits. But you know, when you think about the purchase power right now, it shifted a little bit into the millennial group who are the bigger purchases, which is 71 million US people. We talk about Gen Z a lot. It's like, oh, they're the up and comers, they're people we have to talk to, but they're, you know, the people we don't have to spend that much time on, they're 68 million of them. So they're almost equivalent to a millennial generation. So we're gonna just wait for them to become purchasers. And I think that's a miss. So you've gotta show up in the moments or platforms that those consumption habits are happening by demo and then show up authentically to that audience so it's not, forget about one versus the other. It's how do you repeat the holistic picture across every platform and then deliver a communication strategy that resonates with those different audience groups. That's how we're working towards showing up across every platform.Kyle Smith: (16:34)And that's what's, that's so interesting to me. It's like the purchasing power in our world is a little bit different. You know, like in terms of voter people that actually vote, well one kids under the age of 18 cannot vote. So there's zero purchasing power. And I, I know that, I mean at least when I was in marketing school they, they taught us about how kids do have purchasing power, uh, when it comes to telling their parentsVinny Rinaldi: (16:51)They have influencing purchasing powerKyle Smith: (16:54)But in our world, you know, the, if you look at the millennial generation, you have a much higher voting percentage than it was 10 years ago. But it's still not anything close to 55 plus glad that we have the purchasing power in the millennial generation now though.Vinny Rinaldi: (17:06)I think it's that 13 to 18 group that's so key for us. As I said, the influencing power, everything, especially in our category, has become on demand. So I have the ability at 13 to use mom and dad's credit card tied to a DoorDash account and I'm gonna gain for the next five hours and I'm gonna order a bunch of things from seven 11 as we move into the future, five to 10 years from now, most of that generation will become now the voters but they don't wanna leave their house or they don't wanna go outta their way to go do something 'cause everything has come so easy to them by using a phone. How does the voter landscape change from either written ballots or in person to a truly secure ability to vote and get more buy-in into voting for a generation that is very used to just opening something up and hitting a buttonDamian Fowler: (17:59)We're throwing to the future here. Yeah, I mean Kyle, I dunno, what do you think, uh, do you think we're gonna get to that point?Kyle Smith: (18:04)I think Covid kind of changed the voting rules in a lot of states that make it easier to vote. I don't know if we'll ever get to the instant gratification level until, you know, maybe 50, a hundred years from now when we're voting on a blockchain and you get a vote coin and you spend it somewhere or something like that. So the convenience factor matters a lot and then it changes by state and almost by locality, right? If you live in a rural area and it's hard for you to get to the polling place 'cause it's a 10 mile drive versus it being half a mile down the street when you're dropping off your kids to school, that could make a difference as well. So it really just depends.Vinny Rinaldi: (18:35)I think that's really interesting because each state is adopting their own voter rules sounds very similar to each state adopting their own data privacy rules instead of thinking of a national basis and actually simplifying the ease for everyday people to utilize something. It's fascinating that we all continue to live by state, by state governed rules that are drastically different than just a national governing body to allow us to have a centralized ruling system to use, whether it's data privacy or voter rights. It's just, it's funny to watch that correlation between our two worlds.Kyle Smith: (19:09)Even sugar taxes, you know, some of the cities, I don't think it's gone after candy quite yet. True. But the uh, you know the Bloomberg rules around like the taxing soda and stuff and I think Philadelphia did it and then the sales increased outside of the Philadelphia like urban area like substantially for all those stores because you're able to get cheaper stuff. But that's interesting.Damian Fowler: (19:26)Kyle, you mentioned harder to reach audiences and I want to ask both of you, you know about that and how the programmatic marketplace makes it possible to reach those harder to reach audiences. I know at the top we joked about suburban housewives but you know, how granular can you get,Kyle Smith: (19:43)What is it 95% of people watch video whether it's linear or digital. So that does get you to a pretty high threshold the way I approach it. Like we have to deliver messages very quickly, right? So that's why I think you see political really lean into linear a lot 'cause you could get that mass reach in a day if you're buying the football games. Like if you're buying, you know, primetime on across all the all four networks and you have a presence there, you're gonna get to 50% reach pretty quickly. I think the hard part is honestly the other 50% on CTV and making sure that you're distributing that message to the person the one day a week they happen to be watching ad supported Hulu and they're not watching Netflix for example. That's where it gets more difficult. Having the centralized approach, making sure that you're maxing out the non-linear household reach if you're already buying a lot of linear is, is the hardest and most important thing that we have to do. We'll have maybe eight to 10 messages per candidate that we run and we want all eight to 10 of those messages to be seen by as many people as possible and we don't have as much time. I wish I had, you know, one or two month long campaigns that I could run behind these things to get that reach number, the incremental reach as high as we possibly can. But in reality it's, it's seven to 10 days. We just have to maximize thatVinny Rinaldi: (20:46)For Reeces. Again, reach everybody, everybody with a mouth, everybody wants to buy a Reeces, great. But then I go again down the portfolio, you've got variety brands in York peppermint patties, almond Joy, mounds. And so like how do you take those with much less spending power and find those pockets of opportunity? You know, for your, give you an example for York, one of the really cool unlocks we found was the snowbird effect sales actually increased 'cause York leans very heavily 55 plus really 65 plus and you see Northeast sales in the summer skew higher and then southeast sales skew higher in the winter and you're seeing the people as they move the consumer habits follow with them. So how do you heavy up in those markets during the seasons? So when you don't have a large bucket of money to go spend as a brand, you use data and insights in that way to be like really targeted hyper-focused on winning those key occasions for that consumer. Because again, at the end of the day you can only stretch a budget so far if you want to grow a business.Damian Fowler: (21:51)Fascinating that. So just to wrap it up, I guess I wanna ask each of you one question, you know the same question Kyle, what do you wish you could take from CPG land and Vinny, what do you wish you could take from political?Kyle Smith: (22:03)For me it'd be like two things. Like I think the permanence of the institutions. You know, you have the same kind of folks that'll work in marketing, the same agencies that run things for years, if not decades. Sometimes that makes it so that you have a lot of like earned experience and a lot of, you've gone through all this several times, you know what works, what, what doesn't. And I think kind of an informed approach every time politics is, you know, you have to start from the bottom and you build something up and then election day happens and that institution basically doesn't exist anymore and you have to start all over again for the next two years. So that'd be the first thing. And I think with that comes the advantages of being able to have more predictability. We don't have a ton of predictability in politics.Kyle Smith: (22:37)It's tough to know what my budget's gonna be. It's really tough for me to know what the news cycles are gonna look like next year without kind of that knowledge going in without knowing how much money you have, it makes it harder to do long-term planning. That's where I'm a little bit jealous of CPG land kind of wish, you know, knowing what your budget is a year and a half out I think would be awesome in our world if we were able to say that with certainty. But you know, it makes us scrappy and it makes it so that sometimes it's better than you expect and you get to have fun with it and sometimes it's a little bit worse and you just have to be smarter than the other guy.Vinny Rinaldi: (23:02)I would say almost the opposite in a way because I feel the marriage of branding and performance is so important to not separate the two, but to bring them together and the agility that the political landscape moves with is actually a blessing in disguise. Pricing aside the hyper target ability, the ability to show value really quickly is something that we lack because we don't own the end game. So like there, there's a part of that that's like, okay, well if you can be that hyper-focused and get a really quick outcome, how do you build that into a small percentage of your spending in the overall portfolio to be super agile, super hyper targeted, really focused on market analysis and then correlated to sales or in your case outcomes from an election. That to me is super exciting. It's something that we sometimes strive to do. You know, we used to have this motto that we're still trying to build out, but like, act like a CPG, think like a D to C, we don't own the end game, but how do you think really agile but come with the power of being a CPG. So I think what you bring to the table from a political landscape gives us just a little bit there to think about of like being super fast, nimble, and agile in a marketplace that changes so fast.Damian Fowler: (24:17)And that's it for this edition of the current podcast. We'll be back next week. The current podcast is produced by Wonder Media Network. Our theme is by loving caliber. The current podcast team includes Chris Brooklier and Kat Vesce. And remember,Kyle Smith: (24:30)If you're talking to one group of people 70 times, you have less money than to talk to the rest of the folks who may not be very heavy media consumers.Vinny Rinaldi: (24:37)Act like a CPG, think like a D to C.Damian Fowler: (24:40)And if you like what you hear, subscribe and leave a review. Also tune into our other podcast, the current report as we round up the week's biggest marketing headlines from across the open internet. I'm Damian and we'll see you next time.

In this episode of Hospitality Hangout, Michael Schatzberg, “The Restaurant Guy,” and Jimmy Frischling, “The Finance Guy,” are joined by Herb Ring, National Foodservice Director of The Hershey Company.Herb shares how he got his start working in his family's restaurants before transitioning into foodservice sales roles at companies like The J.M. Smucker Company. Twenty years ago, Herb moved his family to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to take on a role heading up foodservice sales and marketing at Hershey. He talks about major foodservice customers like Dairy Queen using nostalgic ingredients like Twizzlers for milkshake straws, the importance of data and chopped candy in driving Hershey's explosive growth, and more!Key Takeaways[00:08 - 03:17] Introducing Herb Ring, National Food Service Director of Hershey[02:47 - 03:39] An opportunity to work at Smucker[03:41 - 05:51] Moving to National County, and working with Aramark[05:50 - 06:37] The first thing Herb sold for Hershey's was their chocolate syrup[06:38 - 08:18] Moving to Hershey, Pennsylvania for work. Realizing it was a great place to raise a family, and connected to major hubs like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC[08:20 - 10:34] How Herb helps food service clients avoid the sandpits of business[10:58 - 15:19] How Hershey's is using technology and innovation to drive better decision making. Using data, selling goods as ingredients vs just candy bars, and having connections across the food industry[15:28 - 18:36] Limited time offers and how customers are incorporating Hershey's products into their line of nostalgic desserts and alcoholic drinks[18:45 - 22:27] Reflecting on four years of the podcast and 156 episodes, Hospitality Hangout podcasting frequency shifting to weekly,[22:32 - 24:49] Spice is Right, the price of a wing combo meal at Wingstop[24:49 - 28:44] Branded Quickfire with Herb Ring

The Hershey Company recently released their earnings report. During the call on Thursday February 8th 2024, CEO, Michele Buck, acknowledged to investors: "We continue to operate in a dynamic environment, but we are encouraged by the resilience of seasonal traditions and the consumer response to innovation within our categories." It is evident that, despite circumstances remaining relatively static with flat revenue and a decreased operating margin, opportunities for growth and improvement still persist. Hershey's solid brand image and renowned products, namely the Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar and Hershey's Kisses, play a significant role in the company's revenue. These products maintain a stalwart cohort of loyal customers and predominantly power the company's financial performance. However, the earnings call did not shed light on further products, services, or initiatives that could fortify the company's breadth beyond its prominent offerings. During the call, a notable trend resonating with changing consumer demands was identified - a pronounced focus on health-conscious and sustainable food options. Hershey recognised this trend as an opportunity. As the company strategizes to align product offerings to these demands, they position themselves to enter the burgeoning market for healthier snacks, potentially paving the way for industry leadership. While financial performance holds steady, Hershey emphasised the need for a profound understanding of consumer trends and preferences. The earnings call, however, did not delve into these insights, which could pose challenges in Hershey's ability to retain competitiveness and adapt to shifting market dynamics. Hershey outlined that market research into consumer behaviour could help identify opportunities for growth and enable them to tailor their offerings to meet customer expectations. The earnings call did not provide much clarity on Hershey's future strategies and investments - an essential aspect for projecting the company's future direction. Effectively communicating innovative strategies, potential expansion, and possible acquisitions to stakeholders is intrinsic to illustrating Hershey's long-term vision and dedication to growth. In conclusion, the latest earnings call from Hershey reinforced the company's steadfast financial performance and reliance on its mainstay products. The call, however, lacked in providing significant details pertaining to Hershey's strategies for diversification, deep insights into consumer behavior, and future plans. While the company has not provided additional comments regarding this, an attentive approach to address these aspects could potentially steer Hershey towards success within the changing market landscape. HSY Company info: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HSY/profile For more PSFK research : www.psfk.com  This email has been published and shared for the purpose of business research and is not intended as investment advice.

Hundreds of dead fish were found floating in the Susquehanna River this week. If you're one of the 16,000 Pennsylvanians owed back wages, this is the tool for you. A favorite from The Hershey Company may be getting a makeover. And lastly, a professor has started a fire with America's original enemies — the British.

While my family trip to Vegas had some high points like Cirque du Soleil & Blue Man Group, I was shocked by the atmosphere. A robot attacked a worker and caused blood-loss. A Florida woman is taking on The Hershey Company, claiming it has “tricked” customers through “misleading” packaging on Reese's seasonal-shaped chocolates. Influencer tried to workout with pants painted on.

The “Best of 2023” episode features sixteen don't miss moments from HR executives and thought leaders who…So, who can you expect to learn from on this episode? Lisa Buckingham, former Chief People, Place & Brand Officer at Lincoln Financial GroupDave Ulrich, Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at The RBL GroupMatt Breitfelder, Head of Human Capital and Partner at Apollo Global ManagementMiriam Ort, EVP & CHRO at C&S Wholesale Grocers & SymboticSam Hammock, EVP & CHRO at VerizonOla Snow, CHRO, Cardinal HealthAndre' Martin, PhD, Founder of Shift Space and author of “Wrong Fit, Right Fit”Tami Rosen, Chief People Officer at PagayaJay Parker, founder and CEO of Mentorforce Cary Friedman, Global Head of Human Resources at JefferiesMatt Abrahams, a leading expert in communication and author of “Think Faster, Talk Smarter”Mita Mallick, Chief Diversity Officer & Author of “Reimagine Inclusion”Nick Bloom, WFH expert & Professor of Economics at Stanford UniversityAnne Gotte, VP Global Talent, General Mills & Joe Garbus, EVP Global Head of Talent, PVH Corp.Peter Block, author of Flawless Consulting and Partner at Designed LearningChris Scalia, Chief Human Resources Officer, The Hershey Company

829: As a technology leader within a tech company, an important advantage is acting as the first customer of its products to test them before offering them to customers. Salesforce, often cited as the first SaaS company, is no different. In this conversation, Juan Perez, CIO of Salesforce, shares his thoughts on serving peer CIOs in his role at the company and discusses the key priorities that have remained constant throughout his career. He delves into Salesforce's mission in building technology to help customers succeed and highlights the potential applications of generative AI. In addition, he discusses the importance of maintaining technological modernity, cybersecurity, and people development. Juan also details his board responsibilities at The Hershey Company and shares valuable advice for aspiring board members. Finally, Juan reflects on his methods for championing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the firm, the critical leadership skills he learned at UPS, and the exciting trends in technology that have been on his roadmap for the future.

829: As a technology leader within a tech company, an important advantage is acting as the first customer of its products to test them before offering them to customers. Salesforce, often cited as the first SaaS company, is no different. In this conversation, Juan Perez, CIO of Salesforce, shares his thoughts on serving peer CIOs in his role at the company and discusses the key priorities that have remained constant throughout his career. He delves into Salesforce's mission in building technology to help customers succeed and highlights the potential applications of generative AI. In addition, he discusses the importance of maintaining technological modernity, cybersecurity, and people development. Juan also details his board responsibilities at The Hershey Company and shares valuable advice for aspiring board members. Finally, Juan reflects on his methods for championing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the firm, the critical leadership skills he learned at UPS, and the exciting trends in technology that have been on his roadmap for the future.

A former health care worker pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes against the patients he once looked after. The Hershey Company revealed how a phishing attack exposed the personal information over 2,000 people across the country. Here's what the Pennsylvania Farm Show's upcoming new milkshake flavor will be. Plus, Steelers Nation united to help out one of their own.

Inflation, supply chain risks and a tightening labor market are placing a squeeze on organizations, forcing leaders to make difficult tradeoffs. These macroeconomic conditions create challenges and opportunities for HR leaders to guide their organizations through an environment most leaders haven't experienced before. Chris Scalia, Hershey CHRO, and Ceree Eberly, former Chief People Officer at the Coca-Cola Company, join the Talent Angle to share how HR leaders can thrive during periods of volatility. Drawing on their experiences as HR leaders, Chris Scalia and Ceree Eberly offer guidance for making tough decisions in an uncertain environment, outline approaches to making enterprise level changes amid disruption and provide tangible advice to help HR leaders model behaviors that make organizations excel. Chris Scalia is The Hershey Company's Chief Human Resources Officer and leads Hershey's human resources function with accountability for Workforce Planning, Listening and Analytics, Total Rewards, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Talent Management, HR Service Delivery, and Strategic Business Partnering.  Central to Hershey's vision of becoming a snacking powerhouse are capabilities brought to life through outstanding talent.  An energized workforce and people-centric culture striving to make a positive impact in communities where we live and work is fundamental to how Hershey leads in the marketplace. Chris has held several leadership roles in legal and HR across the spectrum of manufacturing, labor relations, employment law, business partnering, and all of talent. Ceree Eberly serves as Chair for the CHRO Global Leadership Board, a network of HR executives working with Gartner to share best practices and influence cutting-edge thinking to guide the next generation of HR leaders. In March 2018, Ceree retired as SVP and Chief People Officer for Coca-Cola after 28 years with the company. She led significant improvements in Coca-Cola's people and talent processes, leaving a lasting legacy at the organization Ceree is also a member of Women Corporate Directors global organization and has been involved with numerous Human Resources Global Leadership organizations. Ceree has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, graduating with high honors. *This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Why is talent the ultimate value creator?How can you unlock the capacity of your people and a high performance culture?My guest on this episode is Chris Scalia, Chief Human Resources Officer, The Hershey CompanyDuring our conversation Chris and I discuss:Why he believes talent is the ultimate value creator Why it is important that your organization have a strategic narrative that drives clarity and purpose for your workforceWhy the most effective employee listening capabilities give team members a direct voice in shaping strategies and how the business operatesWhy he believes every high performing team is composed of visionaries, pragmatists, and geeksWhy he believes a strong employee value proposition can build trust, increase organizational agility and foster inclusion.His advice for future CHROs on how to be successful in the roleConnecting with Chris ScaliaConnect with Chris Scalia on LinkedIn Learn more about the Milton Hershey School

An 11-year-old sixth grader spoke up at a school board meeting last week and read aloud from the illustrated romance novel "Nick and Charlie," which he checked out of his school's library. The pornographic scene he read from details two teen boys stealing wine from their parents and proceeding to experiment sexually with each other. President Biden has repeatedly vowed to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, but that ban can't pass in Congress. Last night in Baltimore, one of the country's most dangerous cities, Biden called for a ban come “hell or high water." Attorney General Merrick Garland is champing at the bit to expand his army of social justice warriors. He talked a lot about the DOJ's “lack of resources” during his appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans and a handful of Democrats in Congress rebuked the White House over a rule that would allow retirement fiduciaries to invest according to the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement. The Hershey Company is celebrating women by promoting ... a biological man.  Today's Sponsor: This New Year, resolve to stop supporting companies that don't align with your values. Patriot Mobile's 100% U.S.-based customer service team makes switching easy! Just go to http://PATRIOTMOBILE.COM/NEWS or call 878-PATRIOT! Get FREE ACTIVATION today with the offer code NEWS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices