#327 - How Good Girl Snacks Captured Gen Z’s Heart (and Stomach) with Hot Girl Pickles

Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar are the co-founders of Good Girl Snacks, a company that has made a name for itself in the snack industry with a focus on creating modern, female-oriented branding, particularly with their product "Hot Girl Pickles." 

Leah and Yasaman launched their brand by leveraging social media, especially TikTok, identifying a gap in the pickle market for their niche audience. Despite their lack of experience in the food and beverage industry, they were able to carve out a unique space and build a dedicated community around their brand through their knowledge of social media marketing and content creation.

In this episode of DTC Pod, Leah and Yasaman pull back the curtain on their content and marketing strategy. We gain insights into organic brand-building, how it contributes to maintaining authenticity and connection with an ad-averse Gen Z audience, and how they use it to get real-time engagement and feedback to refine and enhance their product line. We also learn the unique challenges and learning curves Leah and Yasaman faced in the CPG industry as they built Good Girl Snacks from the ground up.

Interact with other DTC experts and access our monthly fireside chats with industry leaders on DTC Pod Slack.

On this episode of DTC Pod, we cover:
1. Content Creation and Marketing Strategies
2. Overcoming Production and Operation Challenges
3. Engaging Gen Z through Authenticity
4. Branding and Niche Market Targeting
5. Learning From Industry with Consultancy Support
6. Building Community via Organic Social Content
7. Flexibility and Patience in Business Growth

Timestamps
02:00 Viral TikTok trends and how Good Girl Snacks started
04:21 From doing corporate work to launching a brand
07:21 Initial fears of starting a business
09:34 The white space in the pickle market
10:59 Picking a niche, catering to Gen Z consumers
13:28 Content strategy, leveraging brand stories and SEO
17:07 Good Girl Snacks’ content creation workflow then vs now
22:45 Balancing planned and spontaneous content 
24:39 Content distribution; reels, stories, and grid strategy
27:59 Product development, hiring R&D consultants, the importance of community
31:34 Gathering customer feedback for iterative product development
34:21 Challenges and advantages of bootstrapping
36:21 Adapting marketing strategy to Gen Z consumer attitudes and behavior
38:53 Retaining authenticity while scaling, continuing to create low-lift content
41:22 Hiring consultants vs full-time employees
44:28 How to get the most out of startup advisors
47:33 Advice to future founders: be adaptable and patient

Show notes powered by Castmagic

Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.  

Additional episodes you might like:

• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth

• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content

• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views

• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands

• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook

• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands

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Projects the DTC Pod team is working on:
DTCetc - all our favorite brands on the internet
Olivea - the extra virgin olive oil & hydroxytyrosol supplement
Castmagic - AI Workspace for Content

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Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar - Co-Founders of Good Girl Snacks
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic
Ramon Berrios - Co-Founder of Castmagic