no. 21: in a pickle?
happy halloween, substack!
for some reason this didn’t get sent via email today - hopefully you are seeing this now! i’m not sure why i went from talking about pistachios to pickles, but we have arrived here. also, happy halloween! i have been well-rested and i have a lot to say this week, so let’s dive in.
mini-news roundup 🗞️
trick or treat, nerds gummy clusters account for 90% of their sales right now - since adding gummy clusters to the product line, nerds’ retail sales have surged from $50 million in 2019 to ~$500 million today. i truly see them in every bodega and storefront — at the one near me one bag goes for a light $8. i would rather get a latte with oat milk for that price tag but to each their own i guess.
the chronically online have stolen halloween - in spirit of today, this is a great piece by the atlantic on halloween costumes — and how they have become meant for tiktok and for our phones, first: “it becomes clear the costumes aren’t intended for my—or any other partygoer’s—consumption. they’re for our phones”
bandit running is essentially a media-making machine - i am purely convinced that bandit has a really good social media strategy, yet i do not know any of my friends who run that wear bandit. that being said, i do love their content and their true grassroots efforts, especially their recent campaign with the olympic trials where they gave 35 unsponsored olympic athletes bandit merch to compete in (genius). i also recently learned that a fun fact about their beautiful storefront in west village. it’s strategically placed by two factors: 1. the most common running routes in strava all overlap right around their storefront 1 and 2. train access.
artificial intelligence is an electricity hog - this is something that is happening but not being talked about enough — google says its total greenhouse gas emissions climbed nearly 50% over five years, mostly due to electricity that powers ai data centers. the lack of press on this topic seems to be outstanding to me.
food brands targeting gen z are becoming more and more hyper-segmented - hot girl pickles is a pickle company building it’s brand on tiktok, but they also have stellar marketing and packaging. the two co-founders are already in a lot of retailers in under a year since launch, and i personally think that they have a good GTM strategy though i do not enjoy pickles myself.
also see beer girls, a beer company for girls… that has lower calories, gluten, and alcohol content. i am not a fan of this - why does it need to be marketed as “healthier”?? the cute packaging to target the 22-year-old girl at erewhon has got to stop eventually, and i fear this may be the beginning of the end.
trends to watch 👀
pickle is a consignment clothing app that allows you to shop and rent the closets of girls near you, with same-day delivery. so like depop meets postmates. the name nods to the fact that one might be “in a pickle” without the right outfit at the right time. they currently have a seemingly random storefront in west village that i walked by the other day. i was confused as to the purpose of it, since it is an app for renting clothing largely from influencers. so i downloaded the app and tried to rent from it myself. turns out, you can rent 500-dollar dresses and designer bags for like 40 bucks. incredible. unfortunately, i think this business model only works well in new york, where you can walk a few minutes to pick up and drop off clothing while also finding the exact dress you want for a last-minute event. upon further research, the pickle storefront in west village went up shortly after the company raised $8 million in a seed round co-led by craft ventures and firstmark capital.
once again, another startup is leading with this “influencer-pitch”. i don’t think this is their route to success because people think you are exclusively shopping influencer’s trendy closets, when in reality i found several cool luxury items that i wouldn’t necessarily want to buy, because of the cost. i think with a positioning and brand refresh they could be onto something here, though. (if you know someone at pickle, send this along). good positioning can get you in front of the right audience, instead of changing your product to fit what you think is your ideal consumer.
see you all next week! — zoya from on my mind as of late
more on the storefront
see my previous post on strava and other things, if you want.
On Hot Girl Pickles and Beer Girl, something that's been bothering me lately in the marketing world is brands that are specifically targeting women. Sure, it's using social media virality and gen z speak to drum up hype and consumer buy it, but it 1. alienates half the population who would maybe otherwise buy the product, and 2. I actually find the cutesy girl branding a little demeaning and maybe a little annoying lol. But that could be my cynicism talking. 🧐
I’d love to see a comparison of all of the rental services and secondhand sale services these days