Ryan Sensenbrenner: 0:00

It gives me a challenge. I've always said if you can market, a dietary supplement where you're not allowed to say what the product does, you could market anything on the planet. So, for me, I kind of take that as a personal challenge. I think the biggest thing you're going to see is the craft of marketing is growing up rapidly for our industry.

Tina: 0:23

Welcome to the natural products Marketer Podcast. I'm Tina.

Amanda Ballard: 0:27

And I'm Amanda. And we're here to make marketing easier for natural products, businesses so you can reach more people and change more lives.

Tina: 0:39

Okay, welcome back to the podcast. And today we are joined by Ryan Sensenbrenner, who is the head of marketing for Informatica and I am super excited about this interview today, Amanda? Yeah,

Amanda Ballard: 0:50

me too. When we when we interviewed Ryan, I, I think I went into the conversation thinking that we were going to have this very clear cut idea of what we're going to be talking about. And we went down so many different rabbit trails, but it's all super vital information. I think if you are an Apple products retailer, we talked about marketing ideas, customer experience, building trigger baskets, all these different topics. So I think you're really going to enjoy this one. Absolutely.

Tina: 1:18

And if you stick around to the end, we've got a few links that are available for you that will help you market better in your natural products retail store. So get ready. Here comes Ryan Sensenbrenner.

Amanda Ballard: 1:30

Ryan, let's just kick it off. Can you tell us a little bit about you, what you do where you are? And a bit about your role at NZ? medica?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 1:39

Yeah, absolutely, Amanda. And as you said, it's been fun getting to know you over the years. And in some of the work we've done together. You know, my my call it day to day is I lead the marketing team at Informatica. And for those of you who aren't aware, Informatica is America's number one selling enzyme brand. And, you know, we're rapidly growing really to be America's leader in natural digestive health and wellness. And so, you know, so many fun activities really like to say I'm the chief storyteller at Anthem. And I work with an amazing team of storytellers, from people who lead strategy for retailers to our creative and design team. And yeah, that's, that's really, really my day to day. There's so many other things that go beyond that. But I grew up in the industry, a second generation marketer, if you will, for the industry, and so excited to speak with you today.

Amanda Ballard: 2:36

Yeah, awesome. Well, it's interesting. We always like to know how people get into the industry. So, you know, being second generation, I'd be interested to know, like, what made you want to kind of carry that baton? Because a lot of people, that's not always the case. So tell us a little bit about like, why you like being in the natural products industry and how you got into it.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 2:58

I can absolutely relate to your statement. When I first was was looking at the opportunity of getting into natural, I was actually quite suspicious about it. As I said, I grew up in it. My dad had led marketing for a company called enzymatic therapy in the 90s. Today, there are nature's way. And a number of years before I moved to Florida, he had taken over as CEO at NS medica. And I was on vacation visiting family down here and in Sarasota, Florida area. And I was fresh out of school and he said, Are you ever open up in marketing? Why don't you go interview and long story short, I went in, I interviewed I'd have multiple job offers up north and Michigan where I had been living at the time. And my now wife kind of made the decision for me. She said, No, we're moving to Florida, she wanted to get out of the Midwestern winters. And so I'd like to say I'd never left vacation, I actually stayed down here, I canceled my flight home, started a job kind of entry level within our marketing department. And I thought, Okay, I'll do this two, three years and get some experience under my belt, and we'll see where that leads. Well. Now, I've been at NC medica for 12 and a half years, I'm leading our marketing department after a variety of other roles to get there. And I'm having the most fun I think I ever could imagine in my career. And what I'll tell you is to your point of not everybody wants to follow in the family footsteps. When I first came in, I did come in as a skeptic, even though I've grown up around supplements. There were certain things that I knew worked that I really believed in and then there were other things that I didn't believe so much and and today at NC medica It is so fun and exciting. And one of my greatest joys is chasing that innovation and finding that next new thing. And now I'm I always say get the prescription from the marketing guy right you become very popular, trained to help those around you.

Tina: 4:59

Would you say You're a believer now?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 5:02

I absolutely am. I'm a believer of good quality products and good quality brands. The dietary supplement space is a big space. And I don't think every company does equally as well. I think there's certain brands that do really, really well. And those are the ones whose products that I personally take and recommend. And so, yes, I'm absolutely a believer of the brands that do it. Well,

Amanda Ballard: 5:26

yeah. So tell us a little bit about, you know, being in marketing and kind of leading, you know, trying to figure out how do we become better be be more innovative, all of that, what have you kind of seen kind of evolve in our industry, as far as, you know, new products that you're seeing coming on the market that are kind of revolutionary, or even just like what would we look for, for a new product? Like what are what are some of the things that retailers should be keeping an eye out for right now,

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 5:55

the industry is been going through a really dynamic shift for quite some time. I wish I could say it was COVID, that did it or or something like that. It, it's been many years in the running, I think back to 1012 years ago, going to Expo last and it still had a little bit of that hippie culture, right, it was was kind of the medicine of the earth feel. Our industry has lost some of that. And you're seeing investments by, you know, big major corporations buying out a lot of the long standing independent companies, I think that has had a major effect. But in there's good and bad with all of that. Right? I think our challenge as an industry is how do we keep the heart and soul of it. And for our health food stores, they have always been about that consumer experience and the consumer. And that is their opportunity to really reinforce as we bring new products to the market, either an enzymatic or at other innovation brands for health food stores, really to look at what is the real innovation that's happening in, in establishing themselves as destinations of innovation. Is there you know is it isn't CBD or or you know, Berberine? Right now everybody's talking about the tic tac Berberine trend, or whatever it may be, of course, those things matter. But I think the opportunity is looking at it as a big picture. And as a health food store, what am I doing to structure and create an innovative experience? That's really key.

Tina: 7:28

And what does that feel like to you, Ryan? Like, what is it an innovative experience feels like to you when you walk into a health food store?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 7:36

Yeah, it's so many different things. I give talks about this to stores around the country. And I love to show experiences from other industries, right? What can we learn from others that are out there? And you know, there's been this ongoing trend for years, for example, like grocery stores that are adding in like bars and coffee shops and all those things, right? Well, not everybody has the square footage to do that. If you do great like embrace that have those things that bring bring people in, what I always recommend is creating destinations of innovation in the store. So too often I'll see health food stores will bring in a new product, they'll put it in its proper structure function set. And then six months later, they're complaining. They say that products not really moving. Well, you've got to pay close attention to the store traffic, what is the flow through the store? If it's the blood sugar sad as an example, how many consumers are actually walking by that said, actively looking for that, versus what if you have a destination for innovation right at the front of the store, so that everyone that comes in sees, hey, this is what's new, and this is what's exciting, and always have that be constantly being refreshed with what's new. Trial and error in I would also say and maybe this is a secret that a lot of brands would would probably rather we not say is I think the best thing that a store can do is trial a product, put it front and center where consumers are gonna find it quickly and can get educated and in all that consultative stuff around it. If it works, of course, bring it into the main set, but test and learn. You know, if you get a product that's a dog that doesn't work for your customer, for whatever reason, now you can take it out of your store without disrupting the rest of your planograms. So one other final thought on that. I think it's it's the first step above all is know your customer at Informatica. We're doing some major work today to really understand the digestive health customer. I think I've invested more money and understanding that digestive health shopper than anybody and I've interviewed them and I've done surveys and the focus groups and all of that stuff several times over for that store, have vehicles to collect information, don't assume you know your customer, really actively seek out those insights that can drive an innovative experience just based off of what you learned.

Tina: 10:14

What are some of the best things that you've learned? Since you guys have invested so much money and time and effort into this? What are the biggest things you've learned in that research about the digestive customer, as an example?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 10:29

Yeah, I get really excited about the digestive category, especially for independent retailers, because one of the things we have found is the vast majority of consumers actually prefer to buy digestive products in store versus online. And that makes a lot of sense. If you're gassy or bloated, or you have your occasional heartburn, you don't want to wait for the FedEx guy to show up, you want to go and find that destinate, you know, find that store and get that immediate relief. And so with indigestion, the idea of immediate relief is a big deal. And it's a huge opportunity for our stores. What there's a lot of other things, we found consumers really look at digestion, not just as digestion, but it's a series of sub issues under digestion. So most people aren't going in a store saying I want to have better digestive health, they're saying, I want help with my food intolerance, or I want to be more regular, or I want to deal with my occasional heartburn. And that was a big unlock when we changed the messaging of our marketing from just purely digestive, to those specific things. Go to Amanda's health food hot because they specialize in a consultative experience around food intolerance, it's much more effective than just go to Amanda's health food hot, they have great digestive products, that that has really been key in taking the digestive category from just yet another structure function sat within the shelf, to looking at the nuance of it and saying, how do we build programs and systems that make that actually a destination driver, because every store, I don't care what kind of store it is, in America, if you're an independent health food store, if you're Walmart, you want to get more people in the door, and you want to build baskets when you're there. And those are the type of initiatives that do a good job. And that was a big unlock for me is digestion is ideally suited for that.

Amanda Ballard: 12:28

I'm really intrigued by you know, kind of niching down a little bit and finding out you know, whether it's food intolerance or bloating or whatever it is, and changing your messaging that way. Have you kind of seen a trend? Or have you seen interest in some of this research that you've done in having products that are a little bit more like mission driven or sustainability driven? Or things like that? Is that also trending as well?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 12:54

Definitely. It's part of attracting especially a younger consumer to the store, right? Even myself, is I often joke around the millennial in the room, right? But Millennials are now entering their 40s, you know, through this generation, and we see that those causes, and be at the brands that get behind it. Or by the way, the retailers that get behind causes are a really big deal. We did it in a big way with our Aqua biome fish oil line, you know, we launched that we're the fastest growing fish oil in the industry, according to spends for the better parts of the first year of our launch, that brand raised over a quarter million dollars for coral reefs. And we definitely saw consumer interests. They're separate from the environment, though other causes can work really well. We've got a program right now, where we've partnered with independent health insurance across the nation. And we actually talk very little about our products on these displays are beautiful endcaps. And it's about raising awareness for women's rape and crisis and abuse centers around the country. And we've worked with these stores, they built these amazing end caps that got collection boxes, and we've identified a series of goods that benefit these shelters. And the stores that are getting behind this, they're actually seeing foot traffic increases, because people are talking about it right. And they're sharing Wow, this is amazing what such and such store is doing, you know, to their friends, you've got to go in there and see this. So I highly believe that it can can be helpful to brands to the retailers in the industry. But also you have to market it. As a retailer. I was doing a talk just a few months ago in Texas. And I asked all the independent stores in the room, what is your greatest strength? And they talked about having a consultative experience with their customers that was across the board. We've got that one on one with our staff And then I asked the room I said, So how many of you when you're driving by the store, have signage and materials that market that you offer a one on one consultative experience in the room went silent. And then I kind of heard chuckles And I saw people looking at each other kind of shrugging. And we talked about as a room, the store said it was their greatest strength. Yet none of them were actively marketing to the community that that's what they offered. And so be it a consultation or mana, you just asked me about sustainability and philanthropy. For the lay consumer driving by that store has an opportunity to scream out to the world. This is what we do. We have values that we stand for quality, sustainable products that make a difference for people in the planet, one on one experience to help you with your most pressing issues. Like we just talked about food intolerance or occasional heartburn. In we're on trend, and we're innovative, right? We know that Berberine is on tick tock going viral right now. And we're experts on it. Let's tell you the reality. Right? That's a huge opportunity.

Tina: 16:13

So big question around that, Ryan, because one of the things that we've heard over and over again, is this one on one consultation can get a little squirrely legally for them. People are afraid of talking about consulting on health and wellness, because of what claims they can make and what they can't. So any advice on how you can sort of frame that up in a way that makes people feel confident going forward? In marketing that message?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 16:41

Yeah, absolutely. Tina, it's, there's aspects of it that are, I think, General to all stores. And then there is a regional nuance to that. And I want to acknowledge that the industry saw some of that nuance, for example, around CBD, at its height, right, where certain states stores were actively able to sell it and talk about and do everything. And then I was hearing from other stores who are telling me that you know, the local DEA office was coming in or, or whatever it may be. So there is a region ality to anything legal. And I want to acknowledge that beyond what the federal laws say. I think it is category specific, I think the days of a store being we are general health and wellness consultants, there's certainly risk and some dicey Ness there. I think though, there are certain categories that opened the door a little more, that are much safer. If I were building next door to build that consultative expertise around, first and foremost as nutrition, offering consultation around nutrition. You know, the vast majority of nutritional considerations are actually carved out as fair game for talking about, you know, nutrition is not necessarily a disease, you know, so I think that's a great area to start, obviously, on the digestive health guy. There are plenty of digestive health things which are not disease related. Yes, we're not going to talk about Crohn's, we're not going to talk about IBS. But a food intolerances example is not a disease. So do stores have to be careful? Of course, do they need to actively have training programs to their staff to teach them what they can and can't say? Absolutely. And there's many great resources in the industry to help with that. But I would identify the specific needs of your community based off of local demographics, right? How people eat, are they eating the standard American diet? Can we coach them on things like that? Can we talk about nutrition? Can we talk about these non disease related issues? That's very fair game, and I think store should feel really comfortable talking about those things. Yeah. And

Amanda Ballard: 18:57

I love that you mentioned making sure that your staff are well trained on those things. Like I just saw, literally, just a few minutes before we hopped on this call a video, it was an influencer for a natural products manufacturer. They're like, if you're on Adderall, you don't need it, take this supplement instead. And I'm like, Oh, my goodness, you can't say that. And then if you that customer who's or potential customer goes into their health food store, and they're like, I saw this and they said, I if I'm on Adderall, I can take this instead. And like being able to navigate those conversations well, I think is really key especially in now the the days of tick tock and all of these things that are not necessarily compliant. I think stores definitely needs to be aware of how to handle those conversations and those claims.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 19:47

How I approach it in my own organization is this and we are a very cautious company when it comes to regulatory, you know, knock on wood, and I'll knock as many times as I can. We've never had a recall others in the industry have, we've never had a warning letter and then that kind of what again. But but so I do tend to be more conservative. But generally, you know, the approach we take, when you get those questions about the drug or things like that, to the best of our ability, we don't want to expand beyond our own knowledge area, you know, we will happily explain how that drug works. I can't say that my product is better than that drug, right. But there's publicly available knowledge that you can find about how these drugs work in the body. And there's publicly available knowledge about how natural products that work. So you know, in the case of PPIs, for example, proton pump inhibitors, we can talk about how those work and how they stop acid and things like that. And they're ideal for that frequent heartburn consumer, right? In the eyes of a doctor, they're gonna say they're ideal for that. Well, in the dietary supplement world, we don't treat frequent heartburn that is considered as a disease claim. We treat occasional heartburn from food, from dietary choices, lifestyle choices. So if I'm educating Sure, I'll explain how the PPI works and why it it is there for those with frequent heartburn. But what I really want to talk about is why most people actually get occasional heartburn from their diet and lifestyle and what I can do to help you with that. So there's nuance to all of these things. Absolutely, of course, I'm never going to say my product is better than the drug will never be allowed to. And, and I don't think it would be fair to say either way, every person is unique, everybody's health is unique, and they need to work with their medical practitioners to get the best advice for them.

Tina: 21:47

Yeah, we love. We love pointing people to medical practitioners, especially those who are also trained holistically. And then they can have sort of the broad picture of doing both right, looking at a disease, plus all the research on some natural things and pair these things together. And I think that's a beautiful marriage that could that could be happening between the medical community and natural products on a regular basis. Wouldn't that be wonderful? The

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 22:15

vast majority of challenges that consumers experience, usually, there's not a single pill that has that magic pill to do it. Right. I am a huge believer in the power of the supplements that companies like enzymatic and other good quality companies put out there. But you have to look at the individual holistically. And really understand what is it in their lifestyle, their dietary choices or nutrition that is contributing to the person. And I'm lucky in that I am in a space where we do have a few as I call them magic pills, right? If somebody has a food intolerance, I can give them enzymes that are for the most part, going to let them enjoy those foods that they love without challenges. Digestion. And enzymes are one of the only categories so you can do that. Right? How many people take a multivitamin? And you ask them, Do you feel a difference when you take it? If you scratch your head, maybe I feel a little more energy or something, right? There's a lot in our industry that are really good that people need to take that they take on faith. And they take it on science in their own research. And that's okay. But there's also some really cool categories where they can get that immediate benefit. I love that immediate benefits face myself. But I also know that not every natural supplement can do that you do have to look at the individual, holistically.

Amanda Ballard: 23:38

Yeah, and I do like that, that there are cuz it can be discouraging, as someone who's worked in retail for a long time that it can get very discouraging to tell your customer, make sure you stay on this for at least 30 days, like at least really more like 90, like don't give up. And it's like, oh, like I have to buy three bottles of this in order to like possibly see a change, but then to have products that are also on the shelf that I like, you'll feel a difference within, you know, a couple hours, no problem. Like it is very encouraging to have products like that, that make it seem like it's not just a long term solution. It's like no, there are immediate things that can make a difference. So that's, that's really nice. Yeah,

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 24:22

it's, you know, earlier I mentioned this Berberine trend that's going on, we've been been right at the heart of this with, you know, for those who don't know, but rain went viral on Tiktok as nature's ozempic for weight loss, right. And I'm a big believer in setting the expectation for that consumer right at the start. I never wanted to cease deceive that consumer in any way. Is Berberine nature's ozempic Is it gonna make you lose 20 pounds overnight? No, right? But can I help you a little bit? Well research shows you know best case I can help you maybe lose half a pound a week or you know very is of course, depending on the person. But what a great opportunity if I'm in health food store, if a consumer comes in and asks about these kinds of trends, to say, okay, hey, let's get them Berberine. Let's get them the best, most absorbable form we can find as an example. But also, what is that consumers goal, their goal is to lose weight to live healthier. Let's talk about diet, let's talk about some of the better for you food options we have in the store. Let's talk about how we can help you cut sugar from your diet, simple ways to improve exercise. Those are all pretty fair game, going back to that consultative experience. We're not talking disease claims here. We're talking about people living their most natural, healthy life, as is nature intended. And I think, I think that's the opportunity the store should become experts on the trends that are out there. And what's important, the consumers what the consumers are acting and looking for, and then provide them with that holistic plan to help them be at their best. Right. And

Tina: 26:00

I love that because somebody that you had said earlier was that you guys have done a ton of research and you've got these categories that are more niched into solving problems like gastric distress going from that category into Okay, do you have heartburn? Do you have mucus like there are other you're very specific about what the enzyme solves? And I think what you're talking about with this consultative approach is when someone comes in with bergrin, you're you're advising people that we work with the natural products, retailers to go back and say, Okay, what's the real problem they're trying to solve? For bear in mind? The answer might be part of the answer. And we're going to consult and become the experts in this and help them partner and walk into wellness with it. But let's talk about what they're really after. It's not necessarily per brand. So I love that you just brought that up, you're you're trying to solve the consumers problem, versus just giving them a product. I

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 26:57

think that's the best way of selling, right? The best way of selling is how do we truly help someone? How do we provide that unexpected added value to them? And it's not enough, by the way to have a really well trained staff? That that was another question. I tossed out to independent retailers the other day, in one of my talks, and I asked the room, I said, raise your hand if you have enough staff to cover the meetings in your store today. And you guys can imagine, I think out of you know, maybe 100 people in the room, maybe two or three hands went up. staffing issues are everywhere, especially in retail. So you've got to look at how do you provide that value that you're talking about Tina, in other ways, I've spent a lot of time in health food stores, I always kind of joke. I'm like, I kind of stand in the corner. And I watch how people walk through the store and how they shop the categories in so often in the health food stores across America. And I see this time and time again, consumer comes in maybe they're a new consumer to that store. And they would love that consultative that one on one experience. But you know what, there's not enough staff that day, they're all helping other customers. So they gradually make themselves up to whatever structure functions that they're looking at. And you see it every single time they stare at the shelf. And it's sort of like do eyes, blink stare. And maybe they'll grab one bottle or two bottles, and they'll pick them up. And they'll read a little bit of the label. In inevitably what happens, they put the product down, they get overwhelmed, and they walk out and they leave. And I think the other part of this experience is how do we create a curated program on set? Where do we have the right, you know, channel strips that highlight the subsets of each section? Do we have too many facings? Right? Our stores love to be loyal to their customers. And I get a lot of chuckles from this from them too. I'll say You know, this bottle, how many customers do you have for it? Well, you know, Susan, she comes in once every three, four months, and we keep it here for Susan. Well, you're potentially ruining that whole shelf experience for one single customer, you know, keep that bottle in back for Susan or or dropship at to her house from the vendor or whatever it may be. I think the other such a core part is at that point of purchase. The categorization has to be clear, there's got to be vehicles for education, and I encourage fewer products more facings when you look into the mass market, and you know the most expensive real estate in the world is an inch on the shelf of a retailer like Walmart right that these mass market stores are ruthless and what products are there and which ones aren't there. They have curated those sites based off of what they've identified as the best solution for their consumers that's going to drive the most revenue in for health food stores. If You don't have enough staff, one of the first things you should be doing is I would be cutting any any product, which is not absolutely necessary, I'd be taking your best sellers, I'd be actually triple or quadruple facing them, simplify the set, it simplifies your purchasing, it cuts your labor costs to keep that shelf maintain. And now when the consumer goes up, they see a beautifully curated selection of products that the retailer really stands behind, versus a whole bunch of different options that are just going to overwhelm them. Right? How many of us think of when you go to the store and you're trying to buy toothpaste, right? And there's this giant toothpaste section, and they all say the exact same thing. dentists recommend it brightens your teeth takes care of your plaque or your cavities. There's no unique stories there there duplicate is a health food store analyzing your staff, every product on shelf needs to earn the right to be on its shelf. So question yourself is that brand and forcing a MAP policy is that brand, investing in marketing to bring new consumers to the category or awareness right and enzymes. Nobody has invested in awareness of enzymes even close to what our organization has. I could give similar comparables for the fish oil and probiotic category. 30 year old brands doing the legwork. So simplify the shelves, add the tools that that are there to help the consumer navigate without shelf, you're going to save on your labor. And you're actually going to improve profitability and revenue by having less of an assortment but the right assortment. Yeah,

Tina: 31:39

I love Yeah, I love that you were just talking about marketing from the manufacturers as well. So one of our big questions is, when someone is looking at manufacturers, what should they be asking of people like Informatica to help them out with marketing? Or what should they be looking for? Like how you market to your consumers? And which would bring brand awareness and bring people into the store? Read

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 32:05

question. I get asked all the time, you know, Hey, Anderson, Monica, can you do social media posts from call up my store? Right and, and we do that actually, quite actively, if we have stores that do a post and tag us, provided that I don't have a lot of competitors in it, I will repost that out to my audience. But at the end of the day ends America doing one social post saying go into a man or Tina's health food store, we are targeting a global audience, not even national, and we do business and dozens of countries all around the planet. We're reaching a global audience. It's all about what can we do to help get the regional level at the localized level of the stores? So what should the stores be asking? One, I encourage every or every owner to take a journey to their stores, if they are a consumer, get in the car, drive by your store several times off the main road and pretend you're a consumer has never been there. What is that outside of the store communicating? Are you sharing enough that a UK consumer driving by is going to be enticed to check you? Well? Then do the same thing in your parking lot? Look at your windows, look it up closer, what messaging is being communicated? Then go through the front door? Close your eyes? Open them, what's the first thing you see? What is that communicating to the consumer, and then ultimately, audit your hero destinations. And, you know, for example, we've been talking digestion today is that category doesn't have the right product mix doesn't have the right signage doesn't have the education, where if there were no retail employee to help, the consumer is going to figure it out. Each one of those steps, I'd be going to your brands in saying Help me get better street visibility, you know, empower me with posters and signage for my window. In by the way, don't just make it about your products make it about what I can do, right helped me with that. All these brands, many of these stores have 1000s of items and hundreds of brands in their stores. Every one of those should have some sort of marketing teams. That's a lot of power the store can leverage to really build an amazing experience. And I can say my company, we do that all the time. We do a lot of individualized marketing and signage and links for stores, you know, hundreds and hundreds of stores. We've done it. We're not alone in that. There's a lot of really good quality brands that will give that commitment to the independent retailers.

Amanda Ballard: 34:37

Yeah, for sure. And as someone who's who's done that with brands for years, being able to say, Hey, Ryan, I have this idea. How can Enza medica help me they'll make it happen if a retailer has a good idea and want support from their manufacturers as long as like the relationship is well maintained. It's an easy yeah You know, it's a win win situation the retailer does well, the manufacturer does well, like it's not something that they're going to say no to. So definitely make those, those requests known. And you'll see the results that you want to see.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 35:16

In that's up, by the way, too, is a great opportunity for stores, you know, I always say, you know, you always want to get in front of, in brands, those who can have the biggest impact on your business. And in our day to day representatives that carry the flag or our sales team across the country. And they're well trained, they they coordinate a lot of what you're talking about Amanda every day. But I would also encourage the stores, when you're at tradeshow events, you know, sometimes can be a little hard at Expo last Expo East because it gets so busy, but you know, go to Soho in Orlando, for example, and say, hey, I want to talk to a member of your marketing team, I want to talk about how we can collaborate, use those events, not only for that purchasing experience, but also to get contacts, where you know, with a lot of companies, you'll be able to reach out directly and maybe do things even a little faster than the more traditional realms, but every brand is different about that. But I really encourage we're really big about the human connection and relationships and that one on one, we seek them out the best that we can I go out in the field, I send my team out in the field, but you know, get those events when we can come together, encourage the stores come on, talk to us, we're here to listen.

Amanda Ballard: 36:33

This has been great, Ryan, um, I, we normally end our interviews with just some rapid fire questions. So I didn't send these to you in advance so so we'll keep you on your toes. What are some of the things that you do? Who do you listen to? Who do you watch follow to kind of stay up to date with what's kind of up and coming in the industry? Oh, great.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 36:57

Great question. I'm gonna adjust your question a little bit. I know these are rapid fire as we get into the end, yes, very important stay up in in, you know, on what's going on in the industry. And, and at the legislative level, I work really closely, I've been on the board of the sampah association for a number of years. They're great advocates for that. And LinkedIn, I've got all sorts of different people from the industry that I follow, be it from the media, like MPJ, and things like that, and in some of their editors, you know, the vitamin retailers, Whole Foods, magazines of the world. Absolutely. The best thing honestly, though, is keeping up to speed outside of the industry. And that's where I'm a huge student of looking at some of the publications, you know, the the ad ages and others. And some thought leaders in the field of marketing and especially retail marketing in general, say what's going on outside of the industry? Because I want to bring that to the industry. Makes sense? Absolutely.

Amanda Ballard: 37:55

What do you think most people in natural products, marketing would change about it? Like if they if they there was one thing that they could change about the way that natural products are marketed? What would they do different? Or what would you do different? If you could change something?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 38:11

I think most most people would talk about the regulatory right and not really being able to talk and share about what what our products really do, right? Even when we have research. We can't always talk about what what they really can do in the body. Of course I change that if I could, but I kind of like it. Right? It gives me a challenge. I've always said if you can market, a dietary supplement where you're not allowed to say what the product does, you could market anything on the planet. So for me, I kind of take that as a personal challenge. I think the biggest thing you're going to see is the craft of marketing is growing up rapidly. For our industry, we've had a lot of brands that have not been following what other industries would call best practices in marketing. And it's, it's good and it's bad, right? Because we were a cottage industry that all of a sudden is quite mainstream, and quite in vogue. And so you will see on the brand side, a lot of those learnings coming in on how to be really consumer centric and all of those things. I think that's going to be a big change for a lot of marketers, if you're a legacy marketer in the industry, you're now competing with a lot of us and that there's opportunity there to write, we can be guerrilla marketers and have a lot of fun. And I'm kind of feisty and how we bring ideas to the table and thinking creatively. So I say let the big guys come on, bring it on. We'll have a lot of fun with that.

Amanda Ballard: 39:44

What would you say is the single biggest decision that's led to your success in the industry?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 39:49

I can't say that there is any one decision that has led to my success. I'm still finding my success. To be honest, right? We've done amazing things. The First thing for me has been about surrounding myself with people, people that are better than I am at what they do. Right? I have sought out subject matter experts and everything under the sun that you can imagine from market research to the world of retail to how you build a package or design thing, I think you've got to, you've got to surround yourself by people better than you. I'm going back to college. Right now, I'm doing a year long program. Through Northwestern Kellogg, it's their chief marketing officer program. I am surrounded by people that have 2530 years of experience, and really amazing brands and and companies. Um, just a few weeks in, like my mind has already been blown with new ideas. So that would be my advice. I think the biggest thing anybody can do is find others better than you and just do everything you can to surround yourself with them.

Amanda Ballard: 40:53

Great advice. What do you wish that people in the industry would try when it comes to marketing their natural products business? Oh,

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 41:02

yeah, I love these questions. The what would they try? I'd like to see him pray a whole lot. Right. So often when I talk to natural products, retailers, and we talked about what are things that are holding them back from achieving their goals and in you know, most often marketing goals. And I think there's, there's for our legacy stores in the industry, sometimes marketing things can generate a lot of fear, right? Maybe they don't understand fully understand them, they understand there's value to it, but they don't really know how to predict that. And there's sort of this, you know, Perfection is the enemy of progress thing going on. So what I would encourage any health food store owner is is part of your annual business plan, establish a series of things that you want to test and learn from throughout the year, every month or every quarter, pick one single thing that you just want to try that you've never have before. And it doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have to be you know, every single detail consider, but test and learn as much as you can, as a health food store owner to figure out what works for your community. Because you know, what works for mana grocery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama might be totally different than what works for you know, guess, organic marketplace and Gastonia. There's, there's so many variabilities that come into any kind of marketing, certainly we can learn from each other, it can give us ideas of things to test. But if you don't test it, you're never going to learn. So that would be my advice is trying to just try.

Amanda Ballard: 42:48

Yeah. Okay, low hanging fruit. What are some quick wins that natural product retailers could do today that would give them some quick wins.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 43:01

This one is much easier question for me. And And now again, I am biased, you guys are listening to the digestive health guy and I built my career in digestion. But no pun intended, by the way. I truly believe that digestive health category is prime for independent retailers to leverage to build their business at a quantum level. And what I mean by that is it's a huge opportunity to bring in new users. The digestive category is one of the fastest growing categories in the industry. Enzymes are driving a lot of that you go back five years, we barely saw enzymes on the consumer awareness research charts. Enzymes are now at the level of CBD and they're increasing. So we're seeing digestive health rapidly rise in consumer awareness. And if I'm a health food store, first and foremost, I'm going through that whole journey from the road to the shelf, and I'm making sure that I am screaming that I am a destination center to help with all of these issues. You've got a huge prevalence in that heartburn space. There are over 30,000 people or 40,000 lawsuits right now targeting some of the mainstream heartburn drugs out there. That is going to come to a head. So well. We can't do anything again for that frequent heartburn sufferer or other than just educate them that occasional heartburn suffer. Establish your store as a destination for that. Right? food intolerance. You've got about a third of all Americans experiencing some type of food intolerance. If your local demographic has high levels of those of Asian descent or African descent, for example, those rates are much higher, they can actually be close to 100% with dairy intolerances. So again, I mean, I'm very biased towards digestive health. That is my face but I do have the data to prove it. I think there are so Many programs that I'd love to engage with retailers across the country that could help them get a whole new source of traffic that may not be coming in store today. Awesome.

Amanda Ballard: 45:09

Yeah, that's fascinating. Definitely cool to see the digestive health space increase and in awareness, I think that's really exciting. So if people want to follow up with you pick your brain on, you know, natural product marketing, natural products in general, how could they get in touch with you?

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 45:30

I absolutely welcome that anybody who wants to talk, I'm happy to do a consultation with them. We're put my team on it to I've got an amazing team of specialists from different areas of marketing, including independent retailers. So it ends medica, we do have resources at our disposal to help you. If you're a health food store owner, the best way is reach out through your rap and ask them to put them in contact with me. Otherwise, just give us a call at NS medica and find our phone number right on our website and asked to before to Ryan since about our label, they will pass you on? For sure.

Amanda Ballard: 46:04

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, Ryan. It's been great having you and you are just a wealth of knowledge. And we really appreciate you sharing that with with our audience.

Ryan Sensenbrenner: 46:15

Oh, no, thank you so much, man. And Tina. I think you guys are doing an amazing service for the industry with this podcast. And hopefully you're getting phenomenal support from all of the stores and other individuals throughout the industry. So whatever I can do to help. Very excited to connect with you anytime.

Amanda Ballard: 46:32

Thanks so much for listening to the natural products Marketer Podcast. We hope you found this episode to be super helpful. Make sure you check out the show notes for any of those valuable resources that we mentioned on today's episode.

Tina: 46:43

And before you go, we would love for you to give us a review, follow like and subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening today. And make sure you join us for our next episode where we give you more marketing tips so that you can reach more people and change more lives.