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Annalea Krebs | Social Nature
114 Plays11 months ago
When we’re at the grocery store most of us find it hard to switch to new products because we don’t want to risk the 10 or 20 dollars it usually takes to try a healthier option for the first time. Well, have we got a surprise for you!
We chatted with Annalea about how her Bcorp certified company, Social Nature, gives shoppers 100% cash back when we grab a featured product off the shelf, try it, and give our honest feedback.
In this episode you’ll learn why the transition to sustainable products is so hard for consumers and what future-proofing food companies are doing to make that easier. You’ll hear some of the nitty gritties of price, trust, and convenience play into our shopping list-making.
And you’ll also learn how full-sized samples make this journey a lot more fun—because let’s face it, sometimes a paper shot glass or a chunk on a napkin at a sampling station just doesn’t cut it.
Later in the conversation we beyond the free groceries, and you’ll hear how food brands truly value consumer reviews — giving us the opportunity to influence future product improvement, innovation, ingredients, and packaging.
Grocery shopping can be a force for good AND we can make a few bucks while we’re doing it. So let’s get into it! Here’s Annalea Krebs from Social Nature.
Learn more at www.socialnature.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to Aisle 42 and Social Nature
00:00:00
Speaker
This is aisle 42. When we're at the grocery store, most of us find it hard to switch to new products because we don't want to risk the $10 or $20 it usually takes to try a healthier option for the first time.
00:00:18
Speaker
Well, have I got a surprise for you? I chatted with Analia about how her B Corp certified company Social Nature gives shoppers 100% cashback when we grab a featured product off the shelf, try it and give our honest feedback. In this episode, you'll learn why the transition to sustainable products is so hard for consumers and what future-proofing food companies are doing to make that easier.
Challenges in the Transition to Sustainable Products
00:00:42
Speaker
You'll hear some of the nitty-gritties of price, trust, and convenience in how they play into our shopping list making. And you'll also learn about how full-size samples make this journey a lot more fun because, let's face it, sometimes a paper shot glass or a chunk on a napkin at a sampling station just doesn't cut it.
00:01:00
Speaker
Later in the conversation, we go beyond the free groceries, and you'll hear how food brands truly value consumer reviews, giving us the opportunity to influence future product improvement, innovation on ingredients and packaging. Grocery shopping can be a force for good, and we can make a few bucks while we're doing it. So let's get into it.
Future Vision of Grocery Stores
00:01:20
Speaker
Here's Analia Krebs from Social Nature. Analia, I've been looking forward to this conversation for a really long time.
00:01:30
Speaker
Everything that you and your team does is really interesting. And in our business, we know that sampling is so important and highlighting good for you products is so important. But before we get to all of that, I have a warm up question for you. If you were to imagine the perfect grocery store of the future, what would it look like?
00:01:51
Speaker
Oh, well, thanks for having me. And I love that question. As I thought about this quite a bit, my perfect grocery store would have a junk aisle, not a natural product aisle, as many grocery stores currently have. And so I could feel confident in going up to
00:02:12
Speaker
any shelf in that store knowing that the products are better for me, better for my children, better for the environment. And if I wanted to make a choice that was a product that didn't meet that criteria, I could go to the junk aisle and look there. But ultimately, if I walk into a grocery store, I have
00:02:36
Speaker
the trust that what is on the shelf will be better for me and better for the planet. That's my ideal grocery store.
00:02:43
Speaker
I love it. That is fantastic. No one, I've asked this question a lot over the last few months and no one has said, we need a non-organic crap aisle. That's good. Why don't we just call it the Frito-Lay Dorito chocolate bar aisle? Yeah, I mean, when you walk into a conventional grocery store, they often have the natural product aisle. So that's really why that even occurred to me is, you know, why have a natural product aisle and then
00:03:11
Speaker
do you assume that everything else outside of that aisle is maybe not so good for you? I mean, that's essentially what it's signaling and let's flip that around and have everything in the store and be better for you except for that one junk aisle. I love it. And we'll call it aisle 43.
The Mission of Social Nature
00:03:29
Speaker
So why don't you walk us through what social nature is and why shoppers love it so much. You have over a million users of the social nature app and shopping system. So give us the download, like, yeah, tell us the story. Great. So social nature was founded about eight years ago and it was on the tails of my, my previous company, which was also all about helping people
00:03:57
Speaker
discover better for you greener choices. So that's been the space that I've, the space I'm passionate about for the past 15 years. And social nature is really all about helping the everyday person easily make the switch to better for you, better for the planet products. And in my time promoting
00:04:22
Speaker
good stuff to people. I've learned that there's three barriers that really get in the way of the everyday person making that conscious choice and making that switch. It's not that people don't want to. Everybody wants to eat healthier, you know, live better, make environmentally friendly choices.
00:04:40
Speaker
The three barriers are price, let's be real, especially with inflation in the last couple of years. Second is just like trust slash education. Like really, you know, can I trust this? Is it really better for you? There's been so much greenwashing that's happened. And especially when you're asked to pay a premium for it, you want to trust that it's going to deliver.
00:05:01
Speaker
And then third is convenience. So is it easy to find at a grocery store near me? Or do I need to hunt and go out of the way to a health food store to find that product? So really my mission at Social Nature is to reduce those three barriers for as many people as possible. We're a million in.
00:05:24
Speaker
today. But we'd love to see that number grow to 10 million or more. And making it so easy for people to make that switch is really what drives me every day. So good. And it's an app. It's an Android and Apple app that you can download for free in the app store. And then as a user, right? Is that how that works? You can correct me if I'm wrong.
00:05:51
Speaker
It's actually, it's a website that you can access on your phone, your desktop, however you would like to access. We don't currently have an app, but it's easy to access. And then every single day we introduce a new Better For You product to our community. So it's free to sign up to Social Nature. You just go to socialnature.com, create a profile, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you like.
00:06:16
Speaker
What you don't like what grocery stores you shop at what days of the week you go grocery shopping these are the things that we use to match you to products that we think you'll enjoy at stores that you shop at at times that you shop to make it as convenient easy for you as possible.
00:06:34
Speaker
And then once you've signed up, you'll be alerted through SMS or email, however you choose to be notified, when there is a new product to offer at a grocery store that you shop at. And so our product offers are typically fully free trials of products. So you can walk into a grocery store and pick that product up off the shelf, put it into your basket.
Consumer Feedback and Product Innovation
00:06:59
Speaker
And then when you check out of the grocery register,
00:07:03
Speaker
You'll just either give them a coupon, if that's what we've given you, or get 100% cash back through our new rebate functionality, which just requires you to take a picture of the receipt, upload it to social nature, and within 24 hours you'll get 100% cash back for that product.
00:07:20
Speaker
So a couple different ways to experience social nature depending on if you're in the US or Canada, but ultimately every day you could be trying a new Better For You product on social nature and trying it for free in exchange for your honest review.
00:07:38
Speaker
I love it. I just remembered I had made a shortcut on my phone from a browser tab. That's why I think, you know, it was an app, but you're right. So you just, you know, can make a quick shortcut. I mean, that's right on my home screen. You created your own app.
00:07:55
Speaker
own app. It goes right to your website and it's very seamless. It's a great process. So shoppers are so used to the trial, the lovely lady with the hairnet and the plexiglass and the tongs and the paper things and the microscopic portion.
00:08:12
Speaker
In the business, we know that sampling works. Sampling is a great way to introduce a product to a consumer. I would imagine we can get into more of this in a second, but a lot of your clients are food brands that are trying to get their product out to the ideal consumer.
00:08:30
Speaker
So when food brands do these sampling programs, they have a very high confidence that a lot of consumers are going to try it. A lot of consumers are going to pick it up at least once and give it a try in their home and in their lifestyle with their family. And hopefully that will help that journey of switching from a less better for you product to a better for you product. What I love about your program is that it actually it's not disruptive.
00:08:55
Speaker
I don't have to stop at the end of the aisle and wait my turn to get my little Petri dish sample. I don't have to do anything other than what I want to do. And what I want to do is go pick up something new and cool. And then you reimburse me for it, which I love. And I have a full version of the product. If it's a marinade, if it's a snack bar, if it's a ingredient or whatever it is, I actually have the full version. And when it comes to trying something new,
00:09:23
Speaker
I have a nine-year-old, so I'm trying new stuff on her all the time. Actually, I need a few times to like add it into a meal or to introduce it into a lunch or kind of experiment with it. So I love the fact that your system brings that full version of the product into my home and to let me play with it and try it and show family and tinker and explore it, kind of get used to it being in my lifestyle.
00:09:50
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, that was very intentional as I also had experienced just having that bite, that little morsel in a in-store demo environment. But it's never enough to really give you that full experience. And this also allows you to sample so many different types of products.
00:10:09
Speaker
things that you can't easily sample at an in-store demo. So cleaning products or pet food or beauty products, things that are traditionally quite hard to sample, but now you can take that home with you and give that new clean beauty product to try or that eco-friendly dish detergent to try or whatnot. So we have
00:10:31
Speaker
all the different products you can imagine at a whole food aisle, from baby products to fresh produce to beverages to non-alcoholic products, we do it all. And it doesn't need to be available to Whole Foods. It can be available at a grocery store that you shop at, which is another way that we try to make it really convenient for people to discover those products is by bringing them actually to the grocery store that they regularly do their grocery shopping at and then helping
00:11:01
Speaker
helping them discover that product on the shelf so that if they enjoy it, it's really easy for them to go back and buy it again. And the profiling you do, maybe that's not the right word. That sounds evil. The onboarding, the thank you, the matching process the consumer goes through when first signing up into the system and maybe periodically along the way where you can make sure as the consumer that you're getting notified through SMS,
00:11:26
Speaker
products that you're very likely interested in versus a lot of other platforms kind of carpet bomb their users with, oh, now there's like double stuffed Oreos with, you know, peppermint ganache and, you know, pixie dust. You're like, well, I don't eat those and I'm not going to buy those. And well, that sounded good, actually. And I have a bunch of shopping apps on my phone that kind of get relegated quite quickly to they're irrelevant.
00:11:52
Speaker
to my lifestyle and to my family's needs. Whereas when I get a push notification of a product that actually lines up with my values, it lines up with my preferences and with the stores that I go to regularly, there's nothing worse than getting an announcement, a post or something that you're supposed to go off to some far off grocery store, you know that's not going to happen.
00:12:14
Speaker
So I think that that tailored experience is really, really vital so that consumers get what they want, not what the advertisers need them to see.
00:12:24
Speaker
Absolutely. There's less waste that way. Many people have signed up to get these subscription boxes full of different products. They're meant to help you discover different products, which is great. But when I've purchased those boxes in the past, honestly, maybe 3 out of the 10 products I'm really enjoying. That's waste. That's 7 out of 10 products that
00:12:50
Speaker
could have maybe gone to someone else that would have enjoyed them. And so the matching is important for the person to actually have a good experience. We want them to fall in love with that product, but also just to reduce waste that often happens in the sampling industry.
00:13:05
Speaker
Because of the review environment that you have, I see social nature as being a voice of the consumer, which consumers as a general is a very wide sweeping statement, but it's kind of hard to feel like we have a voice in the whole thing, especially in grocery that is just, you know, there's big players at the table, there's huge multinational corporations and shareholders kind of running the show.
00:13:29
Speaker
But when we get to give reviews you know a star review one or two sentences of an endorsement and then the food brands can take those and they can show other retailers they can show their existing consumer base they can use that to grow their business it's a way that.
00:13:46
Speaker
You know, sort of the impact shopper, the conscious can shopper, shopper can speak to what they want to see more of. And it actually does make a difference. We know that food brands, when they walk into a new grocery store to try to get their product listed, if they can say, hey, 3000 people gave us a 4.7 star rating.
00:14:05
Speaker
And here's 10,000, whatever, like all these reviews. That is what those brands need. And if they started the farmer's market or they started in five local grocery stores, as they get to more and more grocery stores, they need this feedback from consumers to show grocery stores, you're going to make money carrying my product because people out there already want it and are looking for it.
00:14:27
Speaker
Absolutely. And I will tell you that most of the brands that we work with, I mean, there are often thousands upon thousands of reviews that they get for the products that they're running sampling campaigns on. They're reading every single one of those reviews. And we also help summarize some kind of key trends, both positive and constructive. And if it's constructive, those brands are taking that feedback to their R&D teams and are doing something with it. So absolutely.
00:14:56
Speaker
Our community has a voice they have changed often a couple years ago for example some of the some of the brands there was a trend to you know the ingredients being really healthy but the packaging still needed work so our community called that out and said you know I love the taste love that they're ethical ingredients all these things but it's wrapped in plastic do something about it.
00:15:16
Speaker
And the brands went away and they did something about it and now they're doing compostable packaging or other types of packaging. So I love seeing that connection between consumer feedback and brands taking action on both the good stuff and the constructive feedback. So we really stress the importance of honest reviews because we want
00:15:36
Speaker
both of those things to happen. We want, you know, of course, brands to use the reviews to get on the shelf and get the buyer's attention and help sell more products, of course, but also to improve their products. And there's some really helpful feedback on everything from price to packaging, new flavor requests,
00:15:53
Speaker
So you could be influencing, you know what next flavor this brand comes out with and then see it on the shelf a couple You know six months later and then be the first to try that so that's also a bit of the sense of community that we're starting to build through social nature is when you Participate in these sampling campaigns. You'll be invited as almost an ambassador for future campaigns, you know based on the feedback that you've given so brands are reading it actioning it and definitely this is one way that consumers can make a difference is to
00:16:23
Speaker
what they want to see on their grocery shelves and have an influence. How often are consumers using the system or is it like one or two purchases a week? Is that pretty common? What's the sort of the general vibe?
00:16:36
Speaker
It depends on where you live. Our community is active across North America, but we do have hotspots, if you will, in certain provinces and states. Right now, the brands that we work with are often looking to support specific retailers.
00:16:57
Speaker
with new product launches that they have and so forth. So it depends where you live, depends where you shop. Most of our campaigns are run at Whole Foods. It's one of our top retailers. So if you shop there, you'll get probably an offer a week.
00:17:12
Speaker
Other top retailers have included kind of on the more mainstream side of things Walmart because Walmart in the US in particular has actually been bringing on more and more Better for you products on their shelves, which has been great. And so Walmart's a popular retailer for us
00:17:30
Speaker
Sprouts is also up there in the top three, I would say, which is a US-based natural specialty retailer. It depends where you shop. Most of our community shops at about three and a half retailers to fill up their whole basket. So if you tell us all the different retailers that you shop at, that's one way of getting notified of more offers. And then it depends on your dietary preferences.
00:17:55
Speaker
I will say that we do a lot in the plant-based space. So even if you're not vegan or vegetarian, you can still enjoy plant-based beverages or other types of plant-based products. And so if you tell us that you're interested in trying plant-based products, that'll also help you gain access to more product offers. So it's almost up to you as to how many offers you get, depending on the information that you tell us and how broad or narrow those requirements are. Choose your own adventure.
00:18:25
Speaker
Choose your own adventure. Yes. Yeah. But I will say there are kind of top three product attributes, if you will, that you can find on our website. Our first and foremost certified organic is the number one product attribute, followed by GMO free. So free of genetically modified ingredients. And then third is plant based.
00:18:46
Speaker
So if you're looking for any of those types of products, you'll see a wide variety across all different categories there. And then there's some more niche, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free types of products on our website as well. And you guys have a connection to the United Nations 17 Goals of Sustainable Development. Can you walk us through a little bit about what that means to your company, to your team, and what are some of the things that you're hoping to see happen in the future with all the work you're doing?
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah. So this year we were really proud to become a certified B Corporation. And you might see that label popping up more and more as there's just, I think there's just over 7,000 companies in the world now that have become a certified B Corp. And what that means is you're committed to using businesses, of course, for good.
00:19:34
Speaker
And so typically you're a business that has either a positive social or environmental impact as really ingrained into your products or services. And so for us, when we look at United Nations sustainability goals, there's one that really jumps out and it's all about promoting responsible consumption and production.
00:19:53
Speaker
And so that's the one that we are really focused on. It's really interesting if you look at someone's grocery basket over the course of a year, or if you even consider your own shopping habits, there is about 200 products, choices that you'll be making.
00:20:09
Speaker
in the course of the year across, again, your cleaning products, beauty, food, beverage, baby, pet, your garage, you know, there's any room in your household that you can kind of imagine. There's about 200 different products that you'll be purchasing and many people end up purchasing the same products every year.
00:20:25
Speaker
And so when we look at the UN sustainability goal of promoting responsible consumption and production, if we can help people make the switch, even 25% of that basket or 50% of that basket over time, those everyday choices do add up. That's what you're ingesting every day. It's what you're putting on your skin. It's what you're putting down the drain. It's what your baby might be.
00:20:50
Speaker
looking up or your dog might be looking up on the floor is these very real everyday choices that we make that touch us so deeply in that way. And so that's why that sustainability goal really jumped out to us as an area where we could really make that everyday impact for the everyday person. And that maps back to our commitment to use business as a force for good and to join that collective of businesses that are working towards that.
00:21:20
Speaker
I love it. Yeah, B Corp is a wonderful ecosystem in which to signal to the business community and consumers that you're focused on being accountable and having transparency and doing the right things and improving over time. One of our agencies is B Corp certified and we've got our number. I can't remember off the top of my head what it is.
00:21:40
Speaker
but we're already working towards improving that number and we're not just sitting on our hands and going, well, look at us, we've got the logo now. It's like, no, that's not good enough. The goal is to always grow.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yes. No, I love that they have that accountability and transparency built into how they profile the companies and that every two-year audit that they do of companies. So you've got to raise the bar and you're motivated to embrace the bar. I mean, so much of it was about setting impact goals and measurements and
00:22:12
Speaker
and so forth. But yeah, I highly recommend the B Corp community and keeping an eye out for that as you shop. And also, if you're looking for a great company to work for, they have they have lots of there's a directory of B Corp certified companies that you can check out.
00:22:26
Speaker
I think you guys have like a best place to work thing too. Don't you? It's like great place to work certified. Oh, you're certified as a great place to work. We are another certification. Yeah. No, we were, we were proud to receive that one. That was, uh, I mean, that's in a, not based on an anonymous survey that our team fills out every year. And for the last three years, we've, we've been recognized as a great place to work in Canada.
00:22:49
Speaker
And yeah, that's really important to me is people and planet is kind of my two guiding forces in business, caring for people and planet. So good.
Call to Action: Join Social Nature
00:23:00
Speaker
So for those that want to sign up, want to learn more, where do they go and where do they keep tabs on what you and your team are up to?
00:23:07
Speaker
So if you want to try natural products for free, then you should go to socialnature.com, create a free profile and get access to a new natural product every day, if you're lucky. And you can also check us out on all the usual social channels, Instagram, TikTok. We just created an account there last year. We are active on Facebook. What is it now? X.
00:23:36
Speaker
Something like that. Something like that. LinkedIn, you know, all the usual channels, but yeah, our community manager does an awesome job on social. We try to do weekly contests on there as well, promote, you know, education as to, you know, things you can swap in and out, the better for you swap you can make this week. So they're fun channels to follow and a great way to kind of get a taste of, yeah, experiencing what we promote, which is, you know, a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.
00:24:06
Speaker
I love it. And I love the SMS notifications. They're so convenient. And everyone should bookmark Social Nature's website on their phone, because then you can have your little fake app, your quasi app. And we're all shopping with our phones out anyway. We're hitting QR codes. We're taking pictures of things we want to try later, ask someone about, where our membership rewards programs are all on our phones. So we're showing the clerk, here's my phone, scan it. And so being able to take a quick picture of your receipt
00:24:35
Speaker
I have a question though. What if the receipt is really, really long? Like some of my receipts are like, you know, a country mile. How do you take a picture of something that's three feet long?
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah, so you want to capture the part of the receipt with the product that you want the cashback for, so that's most important. But we also need to capture where you shop. So kind of take the top part of the receipt that tells us the store, the date, the location, and then capture as a second picture the actual product on your receipt. And then you can upload both of those to our platform.
00:25:12
Speaker
together and recognize it. There's some cool AI machine learning behind the scenes there for the techies. But yeah, you just take a couple of photos there. And we will also in 2024 be making it even easier for people and utilizing the wallet functionality on Apple phones to start and then later the Androids, which will be able to notify you as soon as you get close to one of the grocery stores.
00:25:42
Speaker
are.
00:25:45
Speaker
that you have this product offer. So we're utilizing the phone in a number of different ways. A little geofencing. Yes. I had visions of you telling me that you're going to have to get two people to hold up the receipt and I'd have to use the panoramic view on my camera and scan a giant panoramic image of my receipt. I'm glad that wasn't the solution. Oh, it was funny this year. For our team Halloween party, we actually had one of our team members dress up as a Whole Foods receipt.
00:26:17
Speaker
It was body length receipt that she made. So that reminded me of that. She won best costume. Yeah, as she should. That's so good. Annalee, thank you for your time. Thank you for everything that you're doing for the planet and for healthy eaters and for shoppers that want to do better. And I appreciate it so much. Thanks for the time. Thank you so much.
00:26:41
Speaker
That's it for this episode, but before you move on with your day, do yourself a favor. Head over to socialnature.com and sign up. It's free and it's awesome. From all of us here at Ethical Food Group, thanks so much for listening and for doing your part by filling your shopping cart with food that's better for you and the planet. I'm Corwin Hebert, and I'll see you in the future.
00:27:13
Speaker
you