You “Knead” to Paying Attention to This Opportunity
Welcome to another WFH week… According to the weekend news, we may be inching closer to a reopening.
In the meantime, AAR Partners is constantly and consciously keeping an ear out for smAARt leads to help you to help brands. And there is an opportunity that has been rising quickly… bread-making.
According to data from Chicory, a tech company that helps websites like Delish and Betty Crocker monetize their recipes, articles on how to make sourdough starter saw a 1,258% spike between March 8th and April 4th.
There are some common responses for the spike including: comfort; stress relief; self-reliance; store avoidance; boredom.
Whether it’s avoidance or boredom or stress-relief, the search volume for bread-related products on Amazon has exploded. In the last 30 days, “all-purpose flour” has seen 320k searches — a 3,618% increase over last month (according to Jungle Scout).
Various queries for yeast have ballooned by as much as 5,343%. Bread mixes, bread pans, and bread books (particularly, Ken Forkish’s 2012 classic, Flour Water Salt Yeast) have seen jumps of over 400%. Many products are sold out or are on backorder.
Below are some baking brands that can’t seem to keep up with the rising demand.
Red Star Yeast, a subsidiary of the largest yeast manufacturer in the world, has seen a sales bump of 647% since last year and is currently experiencing 3x its usual web traffic. But the company’s spokeswoman, Kelly Olsen, says Red Star — which is used to filling large bulk orders for restaurants — can’t package and transport consumer-sized servings fast enough to fill order requests.
King Arthur Flour is in a similar situation.
The 230-year-old company sold 6.6m bags of flour in March and experienced a 30x increase in online sales of its 5 lb. all-purpose flour. It is currently sold out of most of its offerings and has increased milling output and shifted transport from rail to truck in a bid to be ramped back up by May.
“The quantities we’re seeing now are double what we see during our busiest holiday months,” says Bill Tine, the company’s VP of marketing. “The demand is simply unprecedented and is outpacing the inventory in our warehouses.”
Bread machines — which were owned by 25m Americans during the ‘90s before falling out of favor — have seen a 652% bump in online sales. Now, popular brands like Cuisinart are ramping up production on a device once thought to be antiquated.
“We were out of stock for a short period of time due to demand but are now back in inventory this week,” says Cuisinart’s marketing director, Mary Rodgers.
What can you do to help?
First, stop selling and start supporting as much as you possibly can.
Remember, don’t stalk! Don’t hound. Don’t sent a myriad of messages about yourself. What do you do?
Build trust fast by offering ideas to help with their operations, manufacturing and distribution dilemmas. Share your expertise and show how it’s relevant. Just… don’t… sell!
With that said, you will most likely be “kneaded” to get these brands through these times and will build a lasting relationship. If not, at “yeast” you tried. (Sorry – I just couldn’t resist the puns here).
Prospect smAARt and pitch with passion and most importantly, purpose.
