In this episode, we talk to Marc Lafleur, CEO and Founder at truLOCAL, a consumer platform that helps people access locally-sourced meat products—100 percent grass fed and pasture raised.
TruLocal is a consumer platform that started four years ago.
Their main objective is to get consumers consuming value-added meat, meaning meat that's 100 percent grass fed, pasture raised, and most importantly locally sourced.
That means there are strict criteria for farmers and suppliers wanting to join the network. Marc unpacks what the expectations are for everyone joining the marketplace.
COVID-19 has changes this, but TruLocal is fortunate to be positioned as a DTC brand doing almost all of their business online. They also have the ability to fill boxes in closed-off fulfillment centres. Because operations continue, they've been able to hire as many people as possible.
Pricing is always an interesting conversation. With a lot of brands cutting, slashing, and offering discounts, Marc shares his approach and plan with truLOCAL.
He also shares his approach to expanding his business. Not just new products, but also his approach to moving into new territories.
You might not know this, but Marc started in door-to-door sales. He opens up about his journey to founder of this fast-growing business operating in multiple countries.
To learn more about truLOCAL, go to trulocal.ca.
This is the DTC Growth Show by #paid.
Roger Figueiredo: Today, I'm talking with Mark Lafleur, who's a co-founder and CEO at TruLocal. Welcome, Mark.
Marc Lafleur: Hey, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Roger: Tell us about TruLocal.
Marc: So, TruLocal is a consumer platform. It started four years ago. And our initial goal was to solve the problem that people were looking for more access to value-added meat products. And when we talk about value added, we talk about things like 100 percent grass fed. We talk about pasture raised. But our main focus is on local.
So, our view is that everybody, obviously, you know we're a Canadian-based company. Our view is that everybody should be shopping for products within their province.
So, we started in Ontario, expanded out into BC and Alberta. And the TruLocal model is that when you go to the website and you put in your postal code, you will see products from that province, from suppliers and farmers in that province. If you're in BC, you'll see a different group of suppliers and different products as well. So, that's the TruLocal model, in a nutshell.
Roger: How has COVID-19 impacted the business for you?
Marc: Yeah. So, the business looks completely different three weeks ago. We've been growing for four years, which we're very excited about, everything from business, subscribers, revenue, brand awareness. But in the past three weeks, everything's changed. Obviously, the business has doubled in size. We're aggressively hiring.
And like we were just talking about this before, I truly think that we're blessed right now. I think that TruLocal is fortunate to be positioned as a DTC brand doing 99 percent of our business through e-commerce and then being able to fill those boxes in closed-off fulfillment centers. And we were able to kind of be in essential service during this time and stay in business and keep operating.
I feel really badly for my friends that are co-founders and people that are in this space, who are in the restaurant industry, either non-essential retailers, gyms that it's really a struggle right now.
So, we've been actually trying to hire as many people that have been laid off as possible. I know just here in Canada, laid off 15 thousand employees, right? So, we're trying to -- we're never going to be able to deal with that entire workforce, but there's definitely been some people that have come on board that have lost their jobs.
Roger: What are some of the roles that you're looking to fill right now?
Marc: Primarily fulfillment. You know, we've got a really tight knit team and our number one focus right now is getting boxes out the doors for the families across Canada. So, that's what we're looking is just to have people come in, help us type boxes, help us get the products out the door.
Roger: Have you noticed the difference in consumption patterns for your customers?
Marc: Yeah, we double down hard on data. I think, it's kind of a default nowadays for eCom businesses. But for us, it's unique. We have over 100 different products, depending on which market you're in.
So, we're talking about Ontario, we have over 100 different products and people get to customize every single box that they make. So, we have good understanding of people's shopping habits and seasonality and we'll people are focusing on. And, yeah, there has been a big difference.
So, I think a lot of people like shopping with us because of the variety. They like to try things like their typical staples; your chicken breast, your salmon, your steaks. But you always kind of see some of the more exciting cuts sprinkled in there. You'll start seeing your hickory smoked bacon, you'll start seeing your buffalo burgers, you'll start seeing your elk ribis; things like that.
But what's happened since the spike started happening and there was around that mid-March timeframe when people were trying to stock up is a lot of stocking up on the staples. So, your chicken breasts, your ground beef, your more-values type cuts.
With us, the way it works is you get to customize your box with whatever you want. Obviously, the more expensive the type of product, the less you're going to get. So, we started seeing people shifting towards getting more volume in their boxes rather than getting the more exciting ribis and filets and stuff like that.
Roger: And how does that change your approach to your marketing? Has your language changed now to accommodate for COVID-19? How are you balancing between empathy and also making the business move and grow?
Marc: Yeah, that's a great thing. I actually just wrote a little thing for our marketing team, kind of talking about it where we're no longer selling.
Right now, we're trying to talk to people and we're trying to let people know what we're offering. We've reduced a large amount of our call-to-actions obviously. Paid advertising before was with a lot of value props, it was a lot of photo marketing. So, everything from brand awareness on the top and all the way down to call-to-action on the bottom.
Now, it's really just been letting people know that we're here, it's letting people know that we're operating, it's letting people know that we're stocked and people know that we exist. So, it's been a lot more trying to connect people on an authentic level.
It's been a lot of communicating with our existing customers, too. So, that's been a big thing. Coming out front and center, letting people know what the updates are.
So, I think now, I don't think you need to be selling products. Like for what we do and the same with the meal kits and all these people, people know what we do. I think more it’s just letting them know what we're all about during a time like this.
Roger: And I'd love to get your perspective on this, because during this time, some people say, “Reduce your pricing”, some people say, “Don't reduce your pricing.” What what's your philosophy? What were your thoughts around that?
Marc: Yeah, it's a great question. Actually, I haven't heard anybody talking about reducing pricing, but our commitment has been to try to keep pricing the same.
Because right here in Canada, beef pricing has tripled. And you're seeing it all over the place, you're seeing at our grocery stores, you're seeing people tag it on social media. I saw that today where three rabbis were $46 as opposed to 20, right? So, our focus has been on keeping the pricing the same.
We've seen it here. The premier of Ontario actually was putting out a ban on price gouging and called out a couple of retailers for doing that. So, our focus; it's never been to reduce pricing, it's never been to increase pricing and try to capitalize on what's going on.
We just want to make sure that we have a stock; obviously, the supply and demand. We want to make sure that we're stocked up on our product and make sure to keep giving people that same product at the same price, throughout the course of this.
Roger: You sold me door to door.
Marc: Yeah.
Roger: Tell me about that; from doing that to here.
Marc: Yeah, I know it's crazy looking back on it. So, I went to the University of Waterloo; my degrees in health, but I live with four my buddies. And I think it was in the third year at the time, and I was looking for some extra money. I've paid my way through everything. I had four jobs in the university. So, all that fun stuff.
But he's like, “You know what? You talk really fast. So, why won’t you try sales.” I was like, “All right, I'll give it a shot.” And I walked in to an interview with the company he was working for and it was a company that will go door to door selling meat.
And what they would do is they would go door to door selling meat. And the product was great, but the business model made absolutely no sense. So, first of all, the door-to-door concept didn't make any sense; this was in 2012. So, it was still outdated at that point. And then on top of that, you had to sign contracts. They would you credit applications, because you had to purchase a year's worth of meat at the time.
So, they would come and deliver you a year's worth of meat. You had to get a freezer with it and all this type of stuff.
So, I did that for four years and made really good money doing that, but that's pretty much what led to TruLocal.
In between that time, I’d actually started two other startups. We did an instant messaging app called Towel, and then we did a sharing economy platform called Dash Task. I think that after the second one was when I realized I got like this whole business thing and I think that “Founder” might be a good title for me.
And it came to the point where I realized that the reason that both of those weren't successful was because I was always treated them as a part-time hobby; they were never actually businesses that I was doubling down on.
So, when it came time to really double down on an initiative, I realized I had to quit my job. So, I was going to quit my job, that was a very cozy job and I was making great money doing it, I needed to do something that I knew we could have an impact on.
So, with the two previous businesses, I had learned digital strategy. I had learned project management through Dash Task, working with developers. So, I figured, “You know what? I've got this unique skill set. I've got this unique skill set in meat. I understand how meat works and the meat markets and all these types of stuff”, because I used to literally go door to door and sit in people's homes and understand what they were looking for, because I would have to deal with objections on a day-to-day basis. But I also had my toe dipped into the tech world.
So, I figured if I was to quit my job, the chance of having the most success would be to go ahead and try to bring this this particular industry into the 21st century.
And once again, the whole idea behind this wasn't that we were going to reinvent the wheel. We were going to take best practices from existing industries. So, everything from e-commerce to SAS to real estate. So, e-commerce, when it comes to paid acquisition. SAS when it comes to user experience and optimizing user journey, onboarding, things like that. Real estate, when it comes to lead generation.
You could take all these things that worked really well in these industries and bring them to meat, which nobody has been touching. Everybody who's been going into the online food space has been focusing on the hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in meal kits. So, all the tech kids are focusing on that. And all the people who have a meat background definitely don't have a tech sort of online presence or experience that area.
So, we figured there's a good opportunity there. And that's sort of how TruLocal was born initially.
Roger: Some of your friends pressured you into applying for Dragons Den. So, tell me about that experience.
Marc: Yeah. So, Dragons Den. So, TruLocal, our whole business was built off community and off the support that we got early on. So, I've always believed that branding is everything. I think that people struggle a lot to describe what a brand is. But to me, it's very simple. A brand is how people feel when they think about your company. That's what a brand is.
So, my argument was that if we could take a brand and put it on a controversial industry like meat, because regardless, whatever you want to say, meat is very controversial. We could really make something happen here.
And we have gotten a lot of growth. The key to that, though, is that the business execution has to live up to the brand you're trying to portray. Because anybody can come up with a core brand, but if the execution isn't living up to it, then you start running into problems. So, I think that we meshed those things really well and got a strong following early on. So, we were growing organically throughout.
And my biggest thing is that, as a founder, you’ve got to limit your distractions. So, if you've got something to work in, you need to be doubling down on it and not necessarily be focusing on things that may or may not work and may be a distraction.
Now, there's a lot of different arguments made on that. I'm a huge believer in 80 percent exploitation, 20 percent exploration. So, obvious, there's always a time you look at different things. And I think that's kind of where Dragons Den came in, where people were like, “Why don’t you just give it a shot. It's nothing off your skin to try to go and audition.” And it worked out really well. So, I'm glad that we got peer pressure to do it. So, if you ever have friends tell you to give something a shot, it's definitely worth exploring.
Roger: Stop. Drop. Pitch. Tell me quickly what that was.
Marc: Yeah. So, obviously for the listeners that are in the US. So, Dragons Den is the exact same thing as Shark Tank. In fact, Dragons Den came out before Shark Tank. So, Kevin O'Leary was on Dragons Den in the early days. So, the exact same concept.
And you watch this all the time. We had experience pitching for VCs, pitching for Angels before going on to Dragons Den. But the big thing that I've always noticed is that when people go on there, that's national television. The last thing you want to be doing is having a huge mess on a national television. I've always said it's really easy to pitch behind closed doors and you can be yourself and you can mess up a little bit and no one's really judging you on that. But on the national stage, they can't wait to see you sweat. They want to see a mess up.
So, I've always noticed that I feel like a lot of people that go on there aren't prepared. The questions that they're asking on Shark Tank and Dragons Den aren't that intense. If you're going to pitch to VCs behind closed doors, you're going to get grilled way harder than you will on something like that. And I noticed that a lot of people just weren't prepared.
So, for us, it was part of it is making sure that your pitch is ready to go at any given time, in any circumstance. So, we would just do something where we came up with our pitch and then for like a month leading up to it, anybody at any given time could just tell us to stop, drop and pitch, no matter what we were doing at any time. We could be doing the dishes, we could be walking the dog; we had to stop, give our pitch and keep doing what we're doing. And I think I really helped. I think that really helped.
Roger: What was maybe the most awkward moment where somebody asked you to stop, drop and pitch?
Marc: That's a good question. I mean, I was at the gym, which is really awkward, because you're just here pitching to someone at the gym and nobody has any context as to what's going on. Everyone's just like, “Who is this guy right now?”
Roger: Tell me something. What determines if a farmer is qualified to join your network?
Marc: Yeah. So, the one cool thing is that we've gone and visited, and especially in the early days, every single farm, butcher or supplier that we work with to build a one-on-one relationship with them.
So, for us, it's on a case-by-case basis; it's not any one particular thing. However, it is a high standard in terms of they have to have a value add. So, what we mean by that is that it has to be something like 100 percent grass and grass finished. It has to be something that's 100 percent pasture raised during, obviously, the summer months. It has to be something where it's local.
But we work with everything from pasture-raised chicken farmers to 100 percent Wild-Caught fishermen out in BC, we deal with Ontario lamb. So, that's pretty much what it is.
And then what we do on that is our biggest thing is based on transparency. So, we don't want you just to take our word for it. We will go and take that story. We'll go and take all the claims, we will go and take all the information about the farm and also put it online, so that way you can actually judge for yourselves if this is something that resonates well with you.
Our biggest thing has always been choice. This is always the argument people ask us, “We'll what's better for you? Is it 100 percent grass-fed or is it organic?” We're not here to make that decision.
Those are 100 percent based on preference. We don't say that any of them is better or worse. So, we'll offer 100 percent grass or grass finished. So, it's for people that want that; they have access to that. But we also want organic. So, we give people the choice.
Roger: One of the difficult things about operating a marketplace is balancing both the supply and the demand side. So, I'd love to know how you're thinking about serving both those sides of your business.
Marc: Yeah. So, for us, it was actually mostly the demand side that we really focus on. And a lot of the butchers and farmers that we worked with all have been looking to build their businesses as well.
So, a perfect example, a butcher that we work with in Ontario as lately quadrupled the size of their operation after working with us. They've actually got to add and increased the size of their facility, which is something they've been looking to do for a while. So, that's a story there.
We've got chicken farmers that we work with who increase their quota significantly because now they have an outlet. I think the biggest thing to understand is that different people that we work, we deal with all different types of vendors, right? So, the different people that we work with have different business challenges.
Farmers, like the producer-level of farmers, the thing that they struggle with the most is they have an amazing product and it's the product that everybody is looking for. They don't have time. So, for them, they're literally raising the animals for a full week and then they have to go to the farmer's market after; it's a struggle to try to sell their product. So, once they start working with TruLocal, they know that all their products will be sold every single year.
So, we always tell people, “This isn't TruLocal meat. We're not here, putting our label on the meat. TruLocal as the platform and the marketplace where you can shop with these farmers and these brands. So, we're always focused on the demand side, making sure that we have enough demand, because we're always going to find amazing farmers and suppliers. There's tons of them out there.
I think people like to think that they're super hard to find and there's not a lot of them. That's not the case. I just don't know if they have the best strategy when it comes to voicing how amazing their products are. So, that's why we want to work with them to make sure that people can see what they offer.
Roger: How do you split up your marketing? Do you have people focused on the demand side, people focus on the supply side, is it the same people serving both? How are you thinking about that department?
Marc: Yeah. So, in the early years, I guess year one and year two, we had to hunt people down, in terms of finding the supply side. So, people didn't know who we were. And when we did find the really good ones that we wanted to work with, they're always skeptical, because they care about their brands. They don't just want to give their brand to anybody. So, they're actually very choosing somebody they work with.
That was year one and year two. Things have changed dramatically now. We have a wait list for suppliers and farmers that we want to be working with actively. So, really, that hasn't been an issue anymore; finding the quality supply. Like I said, there's a lot of really, really, really amazing farmers and a lot of really, really amazing butcher shops and suppliers out there.
So, our focus is actually on the demand side. So, that's where the majority of our time and effort is spent. Yeah.
Roger: And you started in Ontario, which is one of the provinces here in Canada, and then you expanded within the country. Tell me about that experience and maybe some of the complexities that came with adding those additional territories.
Marc: Yeah, that was really interesting. So, we started in Ontario and that is learning. You know, your year one is your infrastructure phase. So, what I mean by the infrastructure phase is that you're really just learning how to run your business. You have this idea. You have this hypothesis. You have this concept that you think can work. But really, it's not just about proving if that answer is yes or no, this didn't work or it didn't work. But it's also how can you make it work through the different stages of your business? Your first million in revenue, your first 10 employees, your first thousand customers, whatever it might be.
So, your first year is your infrastructure phase; it’s learning just how to run the business. So, for us, we wanted to deliver meat to people in the mail directly from -- So, we’d source the products and we wanted to get it to people directly to their homes.
So, how do you actually do that? Okay, well, we've got to figure out when you get a warehouse and then you got to figure out you're shipping partners. You got to figure out the products that you want to ship. You want to figure out how they're going to order those products. You got to figure out how it's going to get there and so on and so forth.
So, we did that for about a one to two years, and then we got really good at it and realized now that it wasn't so much the infrastructure phase, it was more on the acquisition phase. So, it's figuring out how to continue getting these customers.
So, once we got to that point, we realized that if we wanted to continue growing and get the brand awareness out there, because we do want to be the biggest players in Canada, like we want people to understand that when you're thinking about getting your proteins or your meats and you want a higher quality, there's no ifs, ands or buts. You're going to be looking at TruLocal. So, we realized if we want that to be the case, we had to expand the different markets.
So, we figured, “Okay, we figured out our infrastructure phase. Why don’t we trying to replicate this now, because that's another massive milestone for the business? Sure, we survived that phase in Ontario, can we do it again?” So, that's when we decided to do Alberta.
So, we went out to Alberta, did a bit of a soft launch in Alberta, got it all figured out, took a fraction of the time, obviously, because all the mistakes were made in year one, we weren't making again in year two. And then, I think it was barely even six months later, we did the hop skip over into BC as well. So, between those three markets, that's where we're operating locally. But we do service all across Canada.
So, what ended up happening was that we were expanding Alberta, BC and people were still asking, “Hey, I'm in Saskatchewan” or “I'm in the East Coast. Can I still get your products?” And we had a lot of people asking about that. They're like, “Look, is it Canadian?” We're like, “We'll, yeah.” They're like, “Well, it's 100 percent grass fed or is this? What about this product? Is this their claim?” We’re like, “Yeah.” “We'll, fine. Send it to us.”
So, we started actually shipping across the country as well. So, we talk about it, “We’re in Canada. TruLocal will ship across Canada. But we operate locally in Ontario, Alberta and BC.”
Roger: And what did that soft launch look like in Alberta?
Marc: It was two people. So, we ended up sending two people out there. That ended up growing quickly. But pretty much our early on crew. The guys that did it all the way from the beginnings; the ones that were packing boxes with us in the early days, all the way through to running the trade shows with us and doing gym programs and doing all these stuffs. So, visiting the farms with us. So, we sent them out there and started getting sales almost immediately.
And then by the time we got to BC, the name had grown. So, where we were hunting down suppliers and farmers in Alberta, before we launched in BC, we actually had products, suppliers and farmers lined up and we already had sales coming in on our waitlists.
So, I think once you start getting some of that momentum, your launches become a little easier. But the same thing with business is that -- I actually shouldn’t say easier because it's just bigger. So it's easier in the sense that you get out there and know what to do, but your expectations are a lot higher.
So, if you do something like you launched in Alberta as your first expansion and you're like, “Okay. You know, I just want to get 100 orders.” No problem. You get 100 orders. You feel really good. When you go to BC. Well, now it's, “I want to get a thousand orders.” So, the scale changes. It's not necessarily easier. It's the scale has changed.
Roger: And now you're in the United States. So, what's the approach in now going into a whole new country?
Marc: Yeah. So, for us, we feel like the TruLocal model has a place everywhere. True local is once again about supporting local. And the interesting fact is the difference in perception on what local is in the US versus in Canada.
So, for us, our goal is always to focus province by province. I mean, when you look at the US, it's going to be state by state. But right now, with what's going on with COVID, we've been having a lot of demand in the US and right now we're only operating in one state.
So, we've actually decided to open it up. All of our products are from the US, which is a big change from what's usually seen in the industry. So, we're excited that, you know what? For now, in the meantime, our focus has always been on supporting local, but right now, with what's going on with the pandemic, our focus is to make sure we have food.
So, actually we’re going to be opening up to surrounding states as well. The products are all coming out of the Midwest and all US products. So, that's something that we're -- actually, you're probably first person to hear it. But yes, that’s something we're really excited about right now.
Roger: So, you've expanded different markets, but you've also expanded products. When was the right time to add more products?
Marc: Yes. So, we always deal with meat. We always look at fishes as a meat. We always get questions all the time, “Are you going to get into grass-fed butter?” “Are going to get into eggs?” “Are you going to get into vegetables?” It's not some that we're going to focus on. There's a lot of amazing online grocers out there that do great products. There's a lot of amazing companies that do vegetables.
For us, we want to be the ones that are known as having the best variety, the best suppliers and the best experience when it comes to getting your proteins delivered.
So, when it came down to expanding into more products, it's just consumer demand. Everything we do is based off of the feedback that we get from our customers.
So, pretty much, it was never even about having a certain number, it was never really about knowing when to expand. It was just like, “Oh, a lot of people are asking for shrimp. All right, let's get some shrimp.”
So, that's always been the focus. And I think that in a business like ours where the offering is a big part of what we do, I think actually the easiest part of it. Because you just start getting a lot of requests for a specific product. So, it's time to double down and see if we can get that offered.
And we get it from both angles, too, because a lot of the farmers and suppliers want us to offer different products as well that they see selling, whether it be farm gate or they're doing their own little farmer's markets and they're like, “This is a really interesting product that is selling. Can we put it on the website?” So, that's been our approach to expanding into new products.
Roger: What did your launch team look like when you first started to TruLocal? Walk me through the change to where it is now.
Marc: Yes. So, we started the business with four people. Sorry, it was myself and my co-founder. And then we ended up very quickly getting into four people. And then from four, it went to 10 and then from 10 it went to 20. And now it's under 40 employees.
The launch team, honestly, I think it looks like every other business’ launch team. It’s pretty much everyone's a jack of all trades. I can't stress it enough; adaptability, the ability to deal with chaos, the ability to deal with change. These are all the things that you need to run any business. It doesn't matter if it's TruLocal.
So, the TruLocal origin story is very similar to everybody else's. We had an idea, we had a couple of dedicated founders, with a couple of dedicated team members. And at no point in time did, whether it be the growth, the failures, because there's equal amount of failures as there are growth. The growth, the failures, the change of pace, the market conditions, none of these things deterred us. We just adapted to whatever came our way.
And whatever job; whether it be from packing boxes to running to a trade show to working with the developers to try to put add creative together, it didn't matter. Everyone was willing to take that on. And I think that's the biggest thing you need.
Roger: Walk me through the process of ordering from TruLocal; from the time I get to your site to the moment the box comes to my house. Walk us through that experience.
Marc: For sure. So, our biggest thing was that we always wanted to make shopping for these types of products, something that didn't seem like a chore. We wanted to make it seem like something that you're excited to do.
Don't forget, when you're at the grocery store, you're going through and there's a sense, you know, if you're grocery shopping and you enjoy grocery shopping, you kind of like grabbing stuff off the shelf and putting it in your cart; kind of see what that looks like.
So, for us, we wanted to make sure and change the way people are used to shopping online. So, we wanted to make it as simple as possible. We did two box sizes. It was really, really easy. The price is set up both of those box sizes.
So, you would choose a box size you want. We either have a regular size box starting at $2.49 or a small box starting at $1.25. And then from there you would actually get to go. And on the website, we assign point values to all of our products. So, our products have 1 to 5-point value and then you can fill your box with whatever products you want. That's what allows us to mix and match.
Ironically, believe it or not, you look back on it if it is -- What's that website? I think it's mytimemachine or whatever, but we weren’t the first ones to be doing meat online, but we were the first ones to be doing meat online with this sort of customizable point system. And I think that it really just changed the expectations that people have when they are shopping for these types of products online.
For us, it's always been about the user experience. We want to make sure that users have the best experience possible and make sure it's as simple as possible and to get as much information as possible.
So, once you build your box with whatever you want, you would choose how often you want it delivered. So, we offer every two weeks all the way up to every six weeks. There's no commitment. So, if you want to order just one box, you can order just one box and immediately cancel the renewal. You can put your account on pause, you can skip orders, you can change your delivery dates; all that fun stuff.
But then from there, yeah, we would usually be delivering next day. So, you order a box, as long as it's before 1:00 PM, it'll show up the next day.
Right now, with what's going on with COVID, obviously, we're a little bit backlogged. So, it's between one and seven days. And then next thing you know, the box shows up and you're stocked up for a month or so.
Roger: A lot of people have begun to adjust their packaging so that it's more sustainable. What are some of the changes you've made?
Marc: Yeah. So, for us, that was one of the biggest things. So, our number one priority is making sure that products arrived to people frozen. We're a little different than the meal kits. Meal kits are shipping fresh product. And when you order a meal kit, the skepticisms that you might have or whatever concerns you have with shopping with that type of business don't revolve around, “Is my meat going to show up sour?” You're just thinking about other things; there's just a few things that you're thinking about.
When you're shopping with a company that does exclusively meat online, the only thing you're thinking about is, “How does it show up? This is kind of weird. How is this working?” That was a testament to Dragons Den, in the sense of giving us that credibility and showing people that this is the real deal and that you should give it a shot.
But for us, we were using Styrofoam. So, we wanted to make sure that the product arrived frozen. So, Styrofoam, regardless of what is available is hands down the number one product to be used when it comes to keeping things frozen.
But the use of Styrofoam was fine in the early days when we were shipping out a couple boxes. But when you start getting into thousands and thousands of boxes, well, now we have an environmental issue.
And with TruLocal, it's not only supporting local, but it's trying to get more sustainable farming practices out there. You know, a lot of our farmers are using regenerative farming practices. Well, if you, once again, we're talking about a brand and a brand is how you feel when you think about a company.
If what we're doing isn't matching our brand story in every sense of the way. So, everything from the way our ads are created, everything from the way you interact with our team at events, everything from the way our website is built out, everything from the emails you get, the messaging you get, all the way down to the quality of the product, the stories, the suppliers. Well, part of that is the packaging as well.
And if there's a disconnect there, well, now the brand isn't living up to its full potential and it's creating this mismatch and this certain type of feeling that we want to give people when they think about the brand.
So, it was really important for us to get away from the Styrofoam and get to a fully recyclable packaging solution which we launched this past year. We've been testing it out in BC and Alberta in the summer, got the green light on it and then we rolled it out across the country and in the US as well in January.
So, now, everything we have is 100 percent recyclable. You can take, fold it down, toss it in the recycling and it's good to go.
Roger: What's something that you believe about launching or managing a brand that the majority of people around you disagree with you on?
Marc: People disagree with me on a lot of things. So, when it comes to doing a brand, I think, like I was saying, I don't know if a lot of people really can communicate what a brand is or really understand the power of a brand. Especially in the finance space; I find it with the VCs. And luckily, we have no VC partners. For us, we've been able to do all this working with Angels, which we’re really excited about. And we've gotten to where we're at today without having to give up any serious -- Pretty much all the things that typically come on the VC-side of things.
But obviously, we have a lot of VC friends and we pitch VCs all the time. I think it's good to stand your toes. But the one thing that sets TruLocal apart is the story. It's the community. It's the brand that we have created and then it's that as the umbrella. And then underneath that is all the things that we've done to live up to that. And when you try to tell a VC or someone in the finance world that, they kind of laugh it off. They’re like, “Yeah, that’s what everybody says.”
And it is. It's true. It’s what everybody says. Every company says they have a brand. But we pride ourselves on being the company that we can go ahead and show you that through metric. We go out and show you that through our social, which everyone will say is a vanity metric. But once again, go look at the engagement on it. Go check our reviews at any point in time. Check our retention rates.
And I think that these are the types of things that people just agree with quite a bit is that, “Well, no. That's not the brand. That's your execution and that's how you're tracking it.” But it's not. It's really not.
The difference that TruLocal has is that we have a brand that people can get behind. And once again, that's just based off us taking customer feedback and implementing it as much as possible. So, I think that, to be honest, is probably the biggest thing.
Roger: I agree with you. People have a very fine definition of what a brand means, and they don't think of it as the whole experience, every touchpoint; from sales and even accounting, how you pay your vendors and your payables. That's part of your brand and part of the experience. I love that.
Marc: That's exactly it. Yeah. That's so true. And even the things, all the way down to things like the accounting. Like we truly believe that; it's how our vendors feel with us. And I think that that's such an important -- It is. It's just such an important part of what of what makes your business different, especially in something like online food when copycats would come up left, right and center. Like, it's not difficult to go and copy a website and run the same ads and find the keywords and target that. How are you going to avoid falling into the commodity space? Well, that's with the brand that you create.
Roger: Absolutely. Mark, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate your time.
Marc: Thanks a lot for having me.
Roger: If you haven't already, go to trulocal.ca. That's TruLocal (T-R-U-local.ca). Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening. This is the DTC Growth Show by #paid.