Building Iconic Brands: Marketing Strategies from Rohan Oza

[00:00:00][Applause] well you don't like following up Tony Hawk should have gone before okay so I have videos that just keeps it more engaging I think thanks for having me this is like the real tough slot you guys have lunch start to kick in so I'm between you and coffees me so let's let's try and see if I can bring some caffeine to the mix here so what am I here to talk about apparently building iconic brands I've been lucky to be part of some incredible food and beverage products I don't do many things well I love that at some time ago I got fired a couple of times and then I figured out but there's only a few things I do well and I stick with it but I've been part of building brands like fighting water smart water vitae cocoa buy and pop chips and I thought about why I got into those brands and why I do what I do and it kind of starts with the fact that today I don't care if you're tall short white black male female everybody across the board wants to feel better about themselves so it's a basic universal trait and that starts with what you put on and in your body everyone loves to work out but they say you know abs are made in the kitchen I'm still waiting for my to kick in but it's Indian genetics people it's not that great but we're great at business so so for me that's where it starts and everybody out there looking to feel bad about themselves and with the advent of access of information we have today I don't care if you're in Des Moines or Manhattan you're still getting the same information and so you're still looking for the same products it's why Whole Foods sales and in any part of the country does well because that audience is looking for products that are better for you but the problem is the food pyramid today is upside down everyone knows that today we should be eating high protein high good fats apparently fat is okay hype bless you high fiber instead you go to the stores today and what do you see you see high sugar high carbs high fructose corn syrup highly processed truly if you walk down the aisles today in a grocery store it's upside-down by the way why Amazon and Bezos are brilliant they didn't buy the traditional grocery stores they bought Whole Foods it gave them instant credibility in the grocery world and now the beauty is you can get products directly to consumers as e-commerce and grocery explodes but the aisles today are old and ripe for disruption when cheese can last six years on the Shelf maybe it's not cheese I won't mention the brand because I hope that these companies buy my brand so you guys know what I'm talking about and so this disruption in what is a trillion-dollar category when you combine all the stuff together is why I feel that America is the greatest place to be an entrepreneur because all the big food and beverage ideas by the way good and bad start here and then get adopted across the globe and I think that as an entrepreneur here it's part of the DNA and spirit of this country everything that's huge today started with an entrepreneur and that that's more power and today in food and beverage than ever before because these entrepreneurs become the innovation incubators of corporate America so I love the big corporations in America because I have maintained great relationships with them because I feel that we're not in competition were simply incubating ideas that they can buy because for big companies to start with small brands have an original idea and then nurture it and then get it out and have the same passion that have founder like Ben wise from bi or Darius from vitamin water or Justin's from Justin it's very difficult it's not their fault they're not designed for that they're designed for you know moving a lots of cereals and big boxes and frosted flakes or the design for move Pepsi and Coca Cola they're not designed to create the next vitamin water or bi or bulletproof or blue bottle because that requires a passion of founder so to me that the landscape today for entrepreneurs a lot of you obviously entrepreneurs room is phenomenal because we should be the innovation incubators corporate America should let us build the brands of tomorrow which is what Millennials are looking for they're not eating and drinking the brands of 30 years ago they're looking for the brands of tomorrow and to redefine what they put into their system and I think that's why this makes this time very exciting as we build the brands of tomorrow so what does it take to build a brand first I've had an interview earlier Tyler asked me can you make any brand hot and the answer is no I mean icon maybe others can but I don't think you can because you have to start with a product that works and for me I feel that my marketing skills a decent my brand building skills are decent but my best skill is probably my gut it's slowly going down but the the reason is I I want tasty products but I want the nutritionals of the back to also be good before you'd go down the grocery store with your card Oh frosted flakes soda Velveeta you go down just knock it into your thing now you grab it and the first thing you do is turn it around what's in this why should I have it and I think that what made by great was the fact that when you tried it and then you look to the back and you're like one gram of sugar no way it's too effing good to be true and when you have a product that's too effing good to be true then it's a billion-dollar brand so it starts with a product that tastes great but it's then better for you packaging in the clutter that you see in stores today make sure your packaging breaks through there's brands that have done no celebrity hardly any marketing but the packaging comes out and it starts to fly off the shelf to brands that we got involved in a cover one is one bar the packaging on the left hand side is the original packaging by the way the product is unbelievable I guess another one of these too good to be true there's 20 grams of protein 1 gram of sugar and 8 grams of fiber I have one every day but the I never bought it at the beginning because the packaging was horrible and my business partner will tell you that he created it but he created a light side product in the process we together created new package the minute that new package hit the shelf the brand start of doubling in sales same product the velocities doubled because the package pops off the shelf the same thing with skinny-dipped brizi has an amazing product it's almonds thinly covered in chocolate women love it guys don't get it but the premise is generally the cases most of my brands by the way women get to CPG brands before guys all the time but what happens is it's the Nutritionals 5 6 7 5 grams of 5 or 6 grams of sugar 7 grams of protein is amazing because the chocolate is thin it tastes like chocolate but the the nutritionals are almonds packaging was horrible we redid the packaging she's done no marketing all we've done is put the brand on shelf and she went from a brand there was zero sales last year or hardly any to a brand it's gonna do over 4 million dollars in sales this year that's pretty good for you know a lady with no background experience her mom had a vision they wanted to create better for you desert-type on-the-go snacks and she did it what skinny-dipped so packaging makes a massive impact you don't always have to have celebrity despite what my video said although i'll show you about that as well and then great people as entrepreneurs here there's a great there's an important element to passion and the passion that you guys need to have because the signal for the company's energy is taken from the founder so whether it's the brilliance of a guy like Dave Asprey who literally bio hacked himself lost 150 pounds he's in great shape now and is now basically pioneered the whole good fat movement with bulletproof or Jody who is driving clean hydration because everything she wants to do has to start from a natural and original source versus certain sports drinks and put quite unnatural stuff in there but she inspires that principle in the company were Dinah who's driving the whole passion with gut health on Health Aide all these three founders have their own unique passion and own unique mission but everybody in the company takes a signal from them if you are not a hundred percent a hundred and ten percent engaged dedicated communicating with your people that won't be infectious and then you won't have a company whose culture can break through so those are the three simple elements product package people but I kind of want explain the importance in this in this era and especially on product lobby will ask well how do you know what's good for Millennials I'm like because they're looking to for better products in their portfolio they're looking to eat and drink stuff that's better and it's not that complex if you find a better product and put in a good package you will connect with that audience so I have a few mantras that I've come up come along along the way for you guys if you'd like to hear them the first one I love is everything is niche until it's not how many of you have heard that all that's a niche idea because and my feeling is everything's nature tell it's not vitamins and water was really niche when I joined and then four billion dollars later it wasn't by was niche when I got there and it's like botanical antioxidant infusion please what the hell is that a billion seven later by was not niche so if you have an idea and you like what you're doing then keep driving at home and I feel that you should defy the experts because a lot of people write about the news very few people actually make the news your role in this room is to make the news ironic were on a news broadcasting place but but if you want to make the big box you make the news and that requires defying experts because people who thought that coconut water that maybe tasted like smelly feet wasn't going to be big and vitae coca will do over half a billion dollars in sales it's because people are looking for more natural hydration to the multi-billion dollar brands than what they were putting it out there so defy the experts and trust your gut and then once you have a great product and you have a great package you have a passion a team you've told the expose to go to hell and you believe in yourself how do you then build a buzz around your brand because to go from a good brand to a great brand you then have to stop becoming part of pop culture so it starts with influencing the influencer one in ten Americans in flow the other night obvious stab you can look it up at any book the key is how do you find that one intent well celebrities are easy top of the food pyramid you know everybody on this list whether it's Beyonce invest in watermelon water or David Ortiz invest in chef Scott Madonna and Vita Coco the list goes on the celebrities are big and if you have an authentic celebrity it works to me a lot of people feel you can grab a celeb slap them on a brand and it's gonna work does not work that way I don't gonna name some brands but some major celebrities have gone on some beverages and they haven't taken off because you don't need a celebrity to save your brand you need a celebrity to turbocharge your brand so I never go in very early with a celebrity partner until the brand is ready to take off and then you bring a man to turbocharge it but it's just not about the top of the pyramid of celebrities you need to fill out the other two the middle section are what I call the insta rock stars and the digerati it's the bloggers it's the instant if people have huge followings of social media but followings that are credible not following just cuz you know you take a lot of clothing off I'm saying like for following where they have millions of fans for a reason who are looking to be educated or edu tained educate entertain at the same time by them and then let's not forget the local community at the local community you talk about your alpha moms your mommy bloggers and groups let's not forget that because that that group that word of mouth is very powerful to make or break a brand so when you get influences like Hungry Girl or wellness mama who people look to they won't buy into your products by the way there's no way that a mountain Dew is going to get on that site but I mean that yellow dyes dodgy in itself but they will find products that are the brands of tomorrow so if you connect with these influences and you bring the brands of tomorrow yes I'm sure there's some exchange in some capacity because everyone has to make something but they have to believe in your brands and their audience then believes in what they present so you need that middle section along with the influences well the celebrities the top because that gives you the full gamut and then it's about what you do with it so Justin Timberlake is an owner and by he's one of those brilliant celebrities I've worked with he really gets the brand he understood the vision that been painted for by he loved the product and he want to become an owner of the company and so we created an ad and Justin was part of it but it's almost like he's packing like an owner he's not acting like the endorser and the brand became dad became pretty big on super bowl just run the ad man I don't like it tough I just want to tell you on that I've had enough if I sound crazy but it ain't no lie baby bye bye bye five calories no artificial sweeteners and tastes amazing [Music] so it's a creative way Justin says nothing he's the main investor and he's in the company he said nothing Christopher Walken did all the work but and that stands out so you see that everyone seems to row I love that buyer I actually had nothing to do with that ad I'm taking credit for a year but this is the one I didn't have any someone just phoned me and said what do you think I said fantastic the idea is great so I think you got to be creative and then when I partnered with a rapper who had been shot nine times on a brand that was very medicinal why did you do 50 in vitam one I'm like well vitamin is a great product it was half the sugar of sodas it had vitamins in it the packaging was cool but very medicinal and the problem is how do you get a medicinal product people like vitamins in water that can't taste good so we have to find a way to disrupt it and I'd worked in the hip hop world and the two guys that I really liked this is 2005 who was the top of their game or 50 and J and I just didn't have Jays number so now I'm joking faith and so my friend Seth Watsky new 50 we connected the three of us got together and we created the whole equity model and we didn't create a strategically I should give 50 more credit than then I take for this one I had no money I was a tiny brand and I brought I can't pay you what you're worth and he goes don't worry just give me skin in the game I've got the rest and he told me wait till next summer when my tour gets going and you'll see what happens and I had no idea what he's talking about and literally the tour took off 50 became an owner in the company and vitam what it took off but it's the way that 50 was an owner in the brand that's more unique and different it wasn't in a more expected fashion so we'll run the ad and show you welcome to a televised performance of the National Symphony will be hearing Beethoven's 9th and the conductor Shimon sue Masuka will be replaced by a relative newcomer Curtis Jackson also known as the rapper 50 cent he says he's always loved the work of Beethoven and often thinks of him as a tree oh gee kept so busy by his recording career it hasn't felt up to trying this at since he began drinking vitamin water formula 50 he feels he's up to the task one more change this one for the first viola chair DJ whoo kid [Music] [Applause] [Music] it sounds like he's integrated his head in the club extraordinary and now he's calling out the trombonist for a solo which is great because they've been from her dad before the show so thanks what when you do creative be creative because just because you have a big name you've got to find a way to break through and I think that's what makes the difference but it doesn't always have to be a celebrity on by before Justin became an owner the big thing was all about out of home and so you know flavor so fresh you could slap it you know you drive by you've only got five seconds in an ad and how many times you guys see abs out there where they try to put the entire you know story of the dangers of cialis on the actual app like it's it's you can't read more than seven words or eight words so you're going to be quick Rodeo Drive flavor yardsale calories all you think is oh what's that that's all it is what's that because when you go to the store when you go online you drop it into your basket because it's given you that impulse purchase or seventy percent of the impulse purchase it's now in your head and buy starts leaning that way and your creative has to be impactful even if the headlines mean here the product we talked about earlier explodes off the show off the screen so you know glazed and amused tough cookies only indulgent bliss eyes in the pies so all you have to see is 20 grams of protein one gram of sugar that's all the time you have but if the ads Brown unpack for you walk away and you buy and then you can get a little more creative potentially if you want to be risque so fire and water came out back in the day and I want to talk about vitamin essential start your morning with this it's got half the calories of orange juice or the nutritionally and the vitamin C so we ran at Sunset billboard years ago headline was OJ found guilty off being too high in sugar but who can see the of being too high in sugar it's like it's in the mouse font so we had like helicopters flying around the billboards and capturing this thing it went out to like a hundred markets across the country so it an interesting creative play on pretty much orange juice but obviously tapped into something that was relevant within pop culture so when you want to push the creative envelope give it a crack because that's what lets you a brand breakthrough and then the last part I would say is I don't believe in brand marriages I believe in brand messiahs so as you build your organizations and companies make sure people use your product make sure people are passionate about the brand I once interviewed a guy as I should coke and I was interviewing him for Powerade and he was a brand manager on Tampax house just climaxed I'm like I don't understand what do you do with it like how was it color what he's clueless on his product so so I don't I believe I'm you know big companies like to do a rotation program does not work as an entrepreneur be passionate about your products and use it so be the brand don't market your brand and in the end follow your gut it all boils down to following your gut as an entrepreneur every successful entrepreneur starts with a gut feel about an idea a gut feel about people a gut feel about his vision or her vision and in the end if you follow your gut it'll get you to the promised land thank you alright don't run off I want to ask you a question you know I did I thought you were gonna be here longer it make us happy they might walk back drinking a bi yeah I promise it was a buy it was a 5 I love that I told you on TV earlier I laugh every time I see it's good why I laugh every time I see Christopher Walken but but it was it was really good you have a lot of wonderful products up there you got packaged people product how do you know as an entrepreneur when it's time to pull the plug on something that isn't working pull the plug what are you trying to get me to figure out which might I want to know which ones aren't gonna work no so how do you know when it's time to move on I've had a couple of losses some in baseball terms I'm batting 800 Banamex pretty good but I think when you rip you've got a back the right product and the right leader and I think that you can change out the leader sometimes you get products great but if your products terrible does matter who runs it you're not gonna get there but I think that when you start realizing that regardless how much money you're putting in the person running the place is a little cuckoo you have to pull the plug and I think a lot of people keep putting good money after bad in the hope that I'll turn around and I think at some point when you see the numbers flatlining not nationwide in the best markets that you have and there's not a repeat purchase and the person running the show who might be a founder doesn't fundamentally get it don't bother show let me ask you another thing when you're working on one of these projects the products the or projects you say you have to be the brand you've made a lot of money when you're doing these jobs do you ever think about the money or do you only think about the mission I think about the money at the end when I'm building the brand it's all about the mission because I'm a believer in the field of dreams builder than they will come if you'll focus on the money at every stage you start making bad decisions if you're focused on building a great brand obviously I'm not stupid at the end of it I start calculating what I can make but if you calculate the beginning you're gonna go sideways I think you have to believe in your brand and your mission and then at the end sure the money will follow yes the money will follow Rohan thank you thank you hey there thanks for checking out CNBC on YouTube be sure to subscribe to stay up-to-date on all of the day's biggest stories you can also click on any of the videos around me to watch the latest from CNBC thanks for watching