Shauna Martin of Daily Greens on fueling growth and the importance of having a “why.”
1. You created Daily Greens out of a personal need. What was the void in the marketplace that needed to be filled?
I started Daily Greens because of my passion for drinking an organic green juice, daily. After battling breast cancer at a young age in 2005, I started making myself an organic green juice everyday. The results were phenomenal. Not only did I recover very quickly from my two-year battle with breast cancer, but I had more energy and stamina than I did in my teens. I was convinced I had discovered the fountain of youth, but the problem was the time and money involved in making an organic green juice on a daily basis which usually involves 30-40 minutes of prep and clean up and over $10 of organic produce. Most folks, including me, did not have the patience or income to be able to afford to do it on a daily basis. I founded Daily Greens in 2012 with a goal of making ready to drink organic green juice for sale in retail outlets everywhere. The Mission: making the most nutrient-dense, organic green juice on the market, and making it available and affordable so that everyone can drink a Daily Greens everyday.
2. The passion of your fan base has fueled your growth. Talk about your biggest advocates and how they’ve helped shape your brand.
Because of my story and history, the breast cancer community has always served as megaphone for our brand to get the word out about the amazing health benefits of drinking a daily green juice. This amazing grass roots, word of mouth advocacy has helped us create a “movement” that has transcended those seeking relief from specific diseases and allowed us to start to get the word out to anyone seeking better overall health. We are now poised to give our “movement” a megaphone and shout it from the treetops.
3. How does Daily Greens continue to differentiate and evolve as new players enter into this space?
Daily Greens continues to innovate at a very rapid pace. Because we are fully vertically integrated, owning our own plant and doing all our manufacturing in-house, we can move very quickly to innovate and bring new products to market. I am always looking for the “white-space” in the juice cooler with a goal of being first to market with new juice innovations that I believe are needed and not available in our organic, cold-pressed juice format. We also stay very true to our roots, never compromising on quality, and making juice the same way I always made it in my kitchen all those years ago.
4. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give a challenger brand that doesn’t have the marketing resources of their category leaders?
First watch your category leaders very carefully, and emulate what is working for them, and be careful to not waste time or resources on the things that are not working well for them. Second, stay true to your roots and be sure you have a clear story and reason for being that is well articulated to the consumer. Loyal customers will win the day, once they understand the “why” behind your brand.
5. If you could have one do-over, what would it be?
Never hire anyone that is not a 100% believer in your brand and reason for being. Along the way I made the mistake of hiring a few folks that, while qualified, were not true believers in organic cold-pressed green juice and its amazing health benefits. Daily Greens is a complete bootstrap story, having started at the farmers market to in 2013, and less than 3.5 years later has national distribution in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Krogers, Safeway, Target and Costco. We got where we did because we are a company and team driven by purpose and passion. Anyone that is not driven by that same purpose distracts everyone else from pursuing our mission with focus and vigor.
Daily Greens Headquarters, Austin, Texas
