Happy Wolf’s Whole Foods expansion is a ‘make or break’ moment for kid’s snack brand

Happy Wolf launched nearly a year ago with four flavors of its child-friendly snack bars ─ Apple Cinnamon, Choco-Banana, Chocolate Chip and Strawberry ─ through its website and now is taking these snacks to 300 Whole Foods locations across the US.

Each bar is formulated with gluten-free oats, dates and sunflower seed butter and contains no refined sugar and no artificial colors or flavors and is Clean Label Project Certified, Non-GMO Project Verified and USDA Organic-certified. 

“I talked to hundreds of parents over the course of about a year, and I realized that there was really this gap in the market for [an] ultra-clean ingredient, nut-free, school-safe snack for toddlers and kids that felt homemade, but we made them for you, and that is where Happy Wolf was born,” Goodbaum said.

Happy Wolf uses brand ambassadors to educate consumers on brand

Ahead of the launch, Happy Wolf teased the Whole Foods expansion in social media posts in what the brand called its “make-or-break” moment for its business, while also recruiting brand ambassadors to spread word of the launch.  

In these posts, Happy Wolf shared the challenges of growing a CPG brand with limited marketing resources and hosted a competition for the most creative marketing idea to spread the word about Happy Wolf.  

Startups often recruit ambassadors to spread brand awareness, but Happy Wolf advocates also are helping educate other consumers on where the product can be found in Whole Foods, explained Goodbaum. Happy Wolf bars are formulated without preservatives, relying on refrigeration, so the product is not stocked next to its shelf-stable competitors, she added.

“Brand ambassadors are important for every brand, but they are so important for us because we are not in the part of the store that our target customer sort of expects us to be,” Goodbaum explained. “We are a refrigerated product, which means we are not in the center store with all the other kid's bars, and unless somebody tells you about us, you are not necessarily going to find us, even if you are looking for the best quality kids’ snack.”

Happy Wolf also is reaching out to its top direct-to-consumer (DTC) customers to inform them about the expansion into Whole Foods, Goodbaum explained.

“We are actually going to be reaching out to our top 200 DTC customers — the ones who buy the most. And we have also looked at who is closest to Whole Foods locations that we are going to be in and having personal conversations with them, thanking them for their support, but asking really nicely for them to stop buying online and buy us in-store instead,” she elaborated.  

Happy Wolf’s Expo West presence ‘was definitely a risk’

Happy Wolf secured its Whole Foods distribution after meeting with a buyer face-to-face at this year’s Natural Products Expo West. Attending a major tradeshow like Expo West can be a financial risk for many early-stage CPG companies, but it paid off for Happy Wolf, Goodbaum said.

“Going to Expo West so early in our journey was definitely a risk ─ it was a financial risk. I cannot say it was the right decision, but it worked for us. I cannot say it is the right decision for every brand, but that is where we were able to be face-to-face with our buyer for a significant amount of time,” she added.