• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, September 26, 2018

HelloFresh follows classic DTC pillars: Test and learn appetite; available only at Helloresh.com; strong feedback loop.

Creative has calls-to-action, discounts to induce trial, moving from paid to our own channels. Our bread and butter. We’re most comfortable.

In just six years, the brand has achieved $1B in annual sales, gained market leadership; however, there is endless competition. 150 direct competitors. This year we sought to expand our markets, one way through retail exploration.

There have been many meal kit category shifts in 2018. Big one, in 2017, Amazon buys Whole Foods. Every category is wary of Amazon.

• Albertsons partnered with Plated; Kroger partnered with Home Chef.

• Accellerated development, we asked how will these DTC brands have advantage?

• Adjacent categories, DoorDash and Postmates, last-mile delivery. Great upheaval, lot of experimentation. 

Innovation this year was to form a retail division, with Stop n Shop and Giant, and are now a few months into this journey.

We have to ask: Should it be the same product? What is instore communications plan? Is it a new customer? 

Retail: Bringing DTC and retail together. 

Product is single meal for two, which provides at least three meals. We don’t change recipes as frequently as subscription. One-off purchase. Allows for trail, impulse. Feels, looks like a meal kit. Extends brand equity.

Landing pages, search, how blend core strength with new channel to drive awareness and trial. Used a lot of emails. Database is strong, digital coupons very strong uptake, tested on FB, strong conversion rate. 

We’re using paid social ads driving toward coupon download.  

Retail has media needs, retailer requested OOH, radio, billboard, local TV, a little out of our sweet spots. 

Shelf setups, store location, forming a very strong partnership with retailer, do we belong in the deli, produce section?

Instore Walgreens, from first touch to finding shelf through basket. Dinner solved tonight, it’s a new customer at retail, may not be tech forward. Concept education. USP. Quite a communications challenge.

Co-marketing, never had to be side by side with partner brand before retail. Quite important.

On pack opps, Colavita partner, create a new habit, make HelloFresh product a part of weekly checkout program. Trying to learn about all the channels. Our history was trying everything digital. Slower feedback loop in retail. On pack, in store, OOH offer us a wealth of opp.

Learnings:

• Communication needs are completely different in retail channel. Must understand that environment and how to drive consumer engagement there.

• Product fit must be strong and may not be identical to current DTC offering.

• New-to-category customers must be educated on the product concept.

• At beginning of this journey, opening new revenue opportunity for us. Very bullish on it.

Question: Why so much Facebook buying? Especially friendly with DTC fans?

We’re bullish on paid social. We entered that environment in different ways. We love the variety of content that can be distributed. Formats change weekly. Can work with influencers. Still the dwell time. Their teams have been kind to us, testing together. For now, we remain optimistic about that channel.

We love the old-fashioned stuff, too. TV, direct mail, trying to make radio work. We’ve tried almost every channel. We could never make Snapchat work. Core four or five that do the trick.