DTC POD: How Good Girl Snacks Captured Gen Z's Heart (and Stomach) with Hot Girl Pickles

This week on the DTC Pod, we’re joined by Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar, the Co-Founders of Good Girl Snacks & creators of the Hot Girl Pickles.

They’re a fast-growing company changing the game in the pickle industry with effective and recognizable branding; and a quick-fire, daily-posting social media strategy.

Join us as we hear about how they started the brand in an industry that hasn’t changed in decades, how they’ve targeted their strategy towards Gen Z, and how being open to change has helped capitalize on opportunities they would have missed otherwise..

3 Big Lessons from Leah & Yas

Lesson #1: Be Disruptive.

Good Girl Snacks started in an interesting position.

People buying pickles fall into one of two camps:

1. The ones loyal to the old, boring pickles– these people were constantly telling the founders that the biggest pickle brands already had the loyalty of the entire market.

2. Gen Z looking for something fun– Leah and Yas understood the power that is coming with Gen Z as the biggest consumer in the near future. As such, they understand the importance branding and marketing has on these consumers.

On top of that, they’re not shy to admit their lack of experience in the Food industry; which they believe gives them a leg up against their competition.

This becomes evident when you look at the pickle aisle in your supermarket, where everything looks almost the same and homogenous. From the packaging to the flavor, it’s all almost identical.

So when they started their marketing strategy, instead of building a brand as a food & beverage brand, they decided to create something closer to lifestyle, beauty or fashion. Which they say is a big factor for people buying into the philosophy and vision of the brand today.

Not to mention the flavor innovation they’re working on. The prime example, Honey Harissa being sold out at the time of writing, is a perfect showcase of the lack of variation in the market, which they’re capitalizing on every day.

Lesson #2: Good Girl Snacks’ Gen Z Social Media Strategy.

Finding content/market fit tends to be hard. And it’s not easy to imagine a niche that would be harder to find that fit for than a pickle brand.

In the beginning it was a lot of trend-following, and even creating content that wouldn’t be posted. All in an attempt to create that confidence needed to be in front of a camera.

After a few weeks of this daily practice and confidence building, a mentor at Leah’s previous job told her that if there’s anything young people love, it’s an honest behind-the-scenes look at “the process.”

A “show” about the things that have been happening day-to-day while working on starting, launching, and now growing your own brand. Whether it inspires people or simply gets them to connect with your brand, it has positive effects all around.

And although their follower count stayed mostly the same the first months, after doubling down and making content that people want to watch, both their TikTok and Instagram accounts have blown up.

Lesson #3: Be Open to adapting your strategy.

It’s a well-known concept that you should batch your tasks. It saves time, energy, and makes everything else run smoother.

But one of the drawbacks with the strategy that Good Girl Snacks is using, they need to record and post daily. At least they can brainstorm a whole week or month’s worth of content at a time.

That said, what happens when something important goes on in the world? For example, they mention a craving that Hailey Bieber had developed during her pregnancy for an egg salad with a pickle.

The next logical step is to record a video about that, and use Bieber’s popularity as free marketing.

Now, in the event that all your content is pre-recorded– or you aren’t willing to part with your brainstorm so easily– you’d have lost that opportunity.

As such, it’s important to be willing to move and change, especially in an industry where news & trends matter so much. It’s also worth mentioning that the inherent swiftness with which Leah can produce content also helps in this front.

Make note of this and notice what you could do in order to make your process more malleable. Something as simple as being open to changing can be enough to create content that can better keep up with the times.

DTC Job Positions!

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Description: Lead omnichannel marketing strategy for Dr. Squatch’s fast-growing personal care brand.
Responsibilities: Develop marketing strategies, lead team, collaborate cross-functionally, analyze market trends, manage marketing calendar.
Benefits: Competitive salary, medical, dental, vision, 401k, PTO, free products, collaborative team environment.

Director of Brand Marketing at Dr. Squatch

Description: Lead brand strategy and marketing campaigns to enhance awareness, engagement, and loyalty at Dr. Squatch.
Responsibilities: Develop strategies, oversee campaigns, collaborate cross-functionally, manage budget, analyze performance.
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Description: Lead and optimize Away's Email and SMS marketing strategies to enhance customer engagement and retention.
Responsibilities: Manage Email/SMS campaigns, develop content calendar, analyze performance, collaborate cross-functionally.
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That wraps up this week’s newsletter!

As always, reply any time with thoughts, questions, reactions, or ideas for future issues. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to unlock new episodes of DTC Pod each week!