How Amy's Kitchen Built a Brand Based on Values With Ritu Mathur, VP of Marketing at Amy’s Kitchen
Ritu Mathur is the VP of Marketing at Amy's Kitchen, a prominent producer of organic and plant-based foods. With over a decade in the food industry, she previously served as a Senior Director at Cliff Bar, initiating a value-based equal pay campaign for Luna Bar. She collaborated with the US Women's National Soccer Team and Venus Williams to advocate for gender equality in sports. Ritu also contributed to the Outshine and Drumstick brands at Nestle and recently consulted for Peloton on its global brand strategy.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Ritu Mathur discusses the motivation for starting Amy’s Kitchen
Why the brand has been able to stay innovative despite being 30-plus years old
What hurdle must Amy’s overcome to make its products widely available in grocery stores?
Ritu shares how Amy’s stands out against the competition in the crowded healthy food space
How the brand makes its products attractive to various generations
What marketing obstacle keeps Ritu up at night?
Ritu explains why trying to appeal to a broad customer base can be counterproductive
What you’ll learn in this episode:
As brands are routinely learning, changing your product or messaging is often necessary to adapt to the modern era. What about a 30-year-old brand whose primary products are healthy meals found in the frozen food section? What pivots have been necessary over its lifespan?
Ritu Mathur, a brand marketing leader with experience creating and growing natural and lifestyle brands, refuses to stray from her brand’s original values — which has been critical to its prolonged success. Many consumers spend their money based on companies with values they align with. Amy’s Kitchen has attracted customers who value sourcing organic produce and pay close attention to how food is made, minimizing waste and a negative impact on the planet. Most importantly, Ritu notes that the food tastes good and consists of only ingredients consumers would recognize and use in their own recipes.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni visits with Ritu Mathur, VP of Marketing at Amy’s Kitchen, about building and sustaining a brand around consumer values and why the brand has remained successful over the years. Ritu also shares marketing strategies and the communication approaches that have worked for Amy’s, how the brand stands out among the competition, and some subpar advice she learned from.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design are the strategic foundation for your brand’s success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:31
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to use my expertise in shifting consumer behavior to engage with top marketing leaders propelling their brands forward. Before I get to today's guest, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, they use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Their behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. And if you're not shifting your audience's behaviors, you truly can't unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavior models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand's success. Is it offmadisonave.com to learn more. Now without further ado, super excited to have with me today Ritu Mathur who is the VP of Marketing for Amy's Kitchen, the maker of organic and plant based foods near and dear to my heart simply because I'm a vegetarian so the season interview should be fairly easy. Ritu, though massive amounts of experience has more than a decade of experience in the food industry. She is skilled at telling emotional purpose led narratives to build brand love and awareness, which combined with her analytical mindset, and as a seasoned marketer and brand strategist. Ritu has demonstrated a track record of building consumer love and loyalty. In the past, she has served as a senior director for Cliff Bar, where she architected a value based equal pay campaign for Luna Bar. She has built key partnerships with the US Women's National Soccer Team and Venus Williams to drive gender equality in sports. And furthermore, she has worked with outshine and drumstick brands at Nestle. More recently, Ritu has served as a consultant for Peloton on its global brand strategy. Ritu, welcome to the show. And thank you for working with all those brands because I have relationships with all those brands because I use them all.
Ritu Mathur 2:30
Ah, well thank you so much for having me. And I love hearing that that's one of the great joys of doing the work that I do is is hearing from the consumers that actually use those brands. So I love hearing that.
Roger Hurni 2:41
Well, now that we've had like a pre conversation to the interviewer and other they know you a little bit better, I'm gonna even like those brands even more of the fact that you were behind a lot of great work that I really appreciated. So, um, let's jump right into it. I know that Amy's as has been known in the natural food space for a long time. And in fact, you they are really the founders, in my opinion from the on the natural foods movement in California. Before it's really I'm using air quotes for anyone who can see and in thing. Can you go into a little bit more detail about how Amy's Kitchen started? And what was the driving force behind it?
Ritu Mathur 3:24
Yeah, absolutely. I think like many products that kind of come to life. It started with the founders own sort of need and what they weren't finding very easily for themselves. Andy and Rachel, were, you know, a couple of we were about to have their first child and Rachel had to take bedrest, so she wasn't able to be as mobile and cooking was, you know, less, less of an option. And so Andy was trying very hard to feed her. But he you know, and I think I can say this, he himself says he wasn't the best in the kitchen. So he would try to find healthy. They'd like to eat organic food, healthy organic food that he could bring home to feed his family, and just couldn't find anything in the stores at that time that really spoke to the values that they had in terms of food and nutrition. And so, you know, they decided to do it themselves. And the first product was a pot pie. Very kind of nostalgic product for us today. We still sell the pot, the pot pie, but I've expanded, you know, to many, many categories now. But that was kind of how it all started. And it was really to help nourish their own family at the beginning.
Roger Hurni 4:37
Sorry, the pot pie is great, but I've never actually had it might have been my my big thing is the Asian dumpling bowl.
Ritu Mathur 4:45
Oh, yes, that is. Yeah, and I would recommend the chili Rino casserole. That one is one of my favorites.
Roger Hurni 4:53
All right, I'm all in. I'm all in on that. Given all of that, you know, super innovative. How do you honor the legacy and still innovate and appear fresh medicine fresh ingredients. But when something is 30 years old, sometimes it feels like there can be this. Oh, that was yesterday's brand. Amy's doesn't seem to have that. So I'm kind of curious how you've overcome that issue.
Ritu Mathur 5:16
Yeah, you know, I was really impressed when I first started working at Amy's with how quickly and kind of consumer led the innovation process ends up being. So I think the reason you feel that way that innovation is fresh, and that the brand has new products kind of all the time is that our commercialization window is pretty is pretty short, we are pretty proud of the fact that we can think of an idea, whip up the recipe, and then, you know, build it to a scale that we could then serve, you know, to the country, because we have distribution all across the United States and abroad. And a lot of the inspiration comes from some of the letters that consumers write us and say, Hey, we love your food, but we'd love it, if you could do this, you know, and then that becomes sort of a seed that gets planted, or Andy and Rachel travel a decent amount, you know, if they find something on a restaurant menu that they find delicious, you know, maybe they try to use that as inspiration. Or sometimes it's our own employees, many of our employees have actually contributed recipes that have turned into Amy's products over the years. So the inspiration kind of comes from many different directions, which obviously creates like a huge, you know, plethora of ideas that we can then play with. And then really, I think the magic that Amy's brings is taking a recipe that you know, might be a family recipe might be just something you've cooked for a family of four or six or whatever it might be, and then scaling it to and scaling it to a size that you could then feed you know, across the country and have enough ingredients and organic supplies and things like that, that we'll all kind of come together to then have options for for consumers.
Roger Hurni 7:05
Excellent. Yeah, I want to. And please don't take this the wrong way. Because it's gonna feel like I don't want to feel like a little bit of attack. But I want to, I want to address a negative perception out there. There's all these quote unquote, health experts and influencers all up until consumers and I worked on Safeway for five years. So I do understand the grocery store business, that if you're going to eat healthy, there's this shop, the perimeter of the store, you know, where the breads are, and then the fruits and vegetables and produce. And maybe this really isn't an issue today, because we've gotten used to a convenience factor. Do you get any backlash about an anti fresh skepticism because of where these products are located in the store? Or the fact that you're making it really convenient?
Ritu Mathur 7:54
Yeah, you know, it's a, it's a great question. I don't think we really, we really have a lot of that I think the bigger the bigger hurdle for people is, to your point, thinking the perimeter is sort of where the healthier options lie. And then we don't get consumers to kind of even potentially go down a frozen aisle to even know about Amy's as an option. But a lot of the way that we cook is how you cook at home. So a lot of the you know the sauces start with spices and simmering in a giant kettle. And really, if you if you were to come and look at any of our of our manufacturing locations, you would see basically kitchens, they're just much larger and pots, but much larger pots that we're using to make the food. And so I think there's you know, there's quality, there's freshness, there's the quality of ingredients, there's organic, that all play a role in health. Now, you know, if you're looking for keto diet or you know, high high protein, maybe as a vegetarian option or a you know, a lot of our options may not fit a Keto lifestyle, for example, then yes, you know, that version of health may or may not work for some folks. But overall, what I felt when I first joined the company and started to learn about the process was that we can provide a healthier solution for consumers that doesn't have to compromise on quality and taste frankly, or TR you know, I think we are incomparable when it comes to taste. Of course, that's my opinion, but we really make great tasting products, and we give consumers that option to have a convenient solution without having to compromise on some of those things.
Roger Hurni 9:42
Yeah, I have to imagine it because this is my own experience. I have to imagine for most people, maybe this is a good marketing position for you that it's not unlike home cooking, because it started that way. I know that when I make like a vegetarian chili or I have this polish just called golumpki, which I'm sure the SEO people when they put the words on this podcast gonna be like, how do you spell that? And polish? Basically stuffed cabbage. That's a vegetarian. I make a lot and then I freeze up. Right? To me, that's not that much different. Only obviously, you're doing it on a much larger scale than me making a home cooked meal and taking a third of it and freezing it for a meal sometime down the road.
Ritu Mathur 10:24
Exactly. Yeah, that's a great way to think about it. Yeah.
Roger Hurni 10:27
Well, let's, let's kind of shift to marketing. Because while you may have kicked this off 30 years ago, and I think you're in 23 countries now, if I'm not mistaken,
Ritu Mathur 10:38
Have to follow up on that. I'm not sure actually.
Roger Hurni 10:42
That's what LinkedIn says. Right? I'm not a reporter, but I did do some research. I know, you've grown grown tremendously, but the category has grown with you. And there are a lot of plant based options out there, which will be nameless, some of them I actually purchase. So how is your marketing and what you're doing it Amy's helped shift that consumer behavior to choose Amy's over some of those competitive products? Or? Or does that not matter? Do you just look at like, Let's feed healthy people and get them away from non plant based products?
Ritu Mathur 11:22
Yeah, you know, it's no pun intended, but a lot of our growth has been very organic without a lot of marketing investment behind it. And I think it speaks to the quality of the product, as well as just the need for a food like this. And the consumers were really looking for products that they could feel good about that tasted great and fit the values that they had as a consumer. But I think, to your point, there is a lot more competition. Now, I think Amy's has really shown, you know, other companies that hey, this is, this is a growing area, you know, there, we've seen a lot of success. And so I'm sure you know, other companies out there looking to find some of that success themselves. But I think what, what keeps us kind of very excited about the future of Amy's is the strength of the brand. So we've recently done some equity work to just understand what consumers think about the Amy's brand. And we did a fairly large study recently, and, you know, I've been around for quite a long time in the marketing world, I have never seen scores, like what I saw for Amy's and without any marketing behind it, you know, over the years, it was just this very healthy, strong people have a true affinity and love for the brand. They see it and wanted in other parts of the stores and different categories and different products, because of the the trust they have with the brand in terms of quality and taste, and what what I you know, what I'm excited about for my role, and what I can bring, hopefully, to the company is to unlock that, you know, we haven't really even brushed the surface in terms of household penetration and awareness of the brand, I think in certain pockets of the country, you'll you'll you'll find people that know the brand and know it well. But in other parts of the country, you know, people just they don't know the brand. And, and that is, you know, sort of the negative side of not having invested I think in the marketing because we haven't generated a lot of that awareness. But that's such a huge opportunities just to let more people know about the brand, how we make the food, how they can trust this brand and the ingredients that we use. And then you know, we've seen on the on the other side, once people taste the product, the repeat rates, and the loyalty that we have is like nothing I've seen before either. So we just need to get people to kind of try the product. And then and then they're their consumers hopefully for a long time,
Roger Hurni 13:50
since you've done a lot of research because you're you're using consumers and people. And those are really big, all encompassing terms. And a friend of mine reminded me the other day that you know, because I am over 40 Now you spent the first 40 years of your life trying to kill yourself and you spend the next 40 years of your life trying to stay alive. And so I see that with the preface that as a solid Gen X or you know, I mean that generation we're, you know, boomers, we want to eat healthier because our motivations are very, very different than a millennial or Gen Z and I've got two Gen Z kids are eating patterns are different. You know why they eat what they eat is very unique and different. Are you are you seeing how those trends affect different generations? You know, you have to keep baby boomers and even Millennials satisfied but then there's this Super Trend conscious Gen Z. I can't believe your messaging is the same across all those generations. Yeah,
Ritu Mathur 14:58
you know, it's interesting what comes to my mind is more on the product side. So the messaging, I actually do think how you present the messaging will differ based on how different you know, generations kind of consume messaging and communications and things like that. But I think the, the general premise of it tastes really good. It's organic ingredients, it's made in a way that you would recognize and, you know, cook, cook that particular product yourself at home. I think that resonates with with everybody, which I think is one of the strengths and differentiators for the brand. But I think where you start to see sort of the coming, you know, the separation between generations is in the flavor profiles. So I would say, you know, we have generally had a pretty middle of the road in terms of spice level, if not more on the mild side. And we've been talking about putting, you know, little did distinguishing factors, like on the packaging, like do you show chilies, so you can kind of indicate spice levels and things like that, because I think some of the younger generations are looking for that flavor variety, they're looking for that, you know, that excitement on their, on their palate, and things like that, and other you know, other age ranges may not be looking for that. So, we're trying, I think, to kind of appeal from a flavor standpoint, the actual product offering standpoint, you know, we're working on on Asian food ideas right now that are not your typical Asian products that you might, you know, see and recognize that we all know from our you know, growing up when we were younger, but are a little bit more adventurous, you know, a little bit less known, potentially to the average consumer, but that would be potentially appealing to a younger generation.
Roger Hurni 16:41
Now, that makes a lot of sense. It resonates with me, because we were not that traditional family where it's like someone cooks a meal, unlike everybody eats the same thing. You know, our typical nights when we are eating at home is, you know, I'm grabbing the Asian dumpling bowl, my daughter's grabbing the black bean, you know, vegetable enchiladas, and, you know, my son's grabbing the cheese pizza. And so, you know, this is where the convenience factor and the different flavor profiles work and work in my house, I got to believe that I can't be the only one out there. And if perhaps your sales are a really good indicator that I'm not just say it was kind of a plug, but at the same time it was it was, I think it's true, we're motivated, even if we're eating healthy, just in the work I do in consumer behavior, everyone's motivated a little differently with why they're eating healthy. And to be able to have a product or when we bought like 250 products, again, I also looked that up, you got like 250 products, having options for different flavor profiles, that allow people to tap into them based on their own individual intrinsic motivations. You know, that's, that puts you in a unique position over somebody, even in the evening in the health food category, saying, We have this go make something with it. Which is great, but it's not. It's not actually all that convenient. Because now you actually have to start cooking and figuring out a lot of things.
Ritu Mathur 18:08
The other thing that I think, you know, we're very proud of at Amy's is not just on the flavor, variety, but also on dietary needs and lifestyle. So I have options that are vegan, we have options that are gluten free, we obviously have, you know, the plant based and vegetarian side of things, but a lot of a lot of focus is put on what do consumers look for? What's solving a need for them? If it's been challenging for them to find a certain type of dietary lifestyle? Like, can we be a solution for them? And a lot of what we've had over the years is people writing in and saying I love this product, my child loves this product, but can't eat it, because they don't eat dairy. And so, you know, is there something that you can do for us. And though it may not be the highest selling products that we offer, we try to keep a good mix of those products available to consumers, because it is we understand how challenging it can be for a mom to feed a child that has, you know, dietary restrictions or different family members having different needs, and how do you solve for all of that, you know, in one household and make it easy for for that family to find those options?
Roger Hurni 19:18
Well, that that might be really the the reason you have loyalty because I mean taste. Yes, tastes amazing, but it's table stakes, right? You've got to be good tasting, having that kind of variety feels like that's how you drive customer satisfaction because we do get tired of eating the same thing. And we want to try different flavor profiles and for you to have a product ready and waiting in the wings. Maybe that's the reason for longevity. Do you think
Ritu Mathur 19:51
Yeah, I think that's definitely a piece of the puzzle for sure. And I do think you know, our our sustainability and the way We approach business, a lot of consumers today shop with, you know, there, they spend their dollar based on their values, and they want to align with, with companies that they feel good about. And, and we do our best to source organic, not just for the people that eat it, but also for the farmers that are pretty our, you know, growing the produce that we use and their safety, we look at waste, we look at, you know, sustainability and what the impact is on the planet. And then we focused on the food and the way it's made, and making sure it feels as close to home as possible. And serving that all up with, you know, a package and photography that hopefully feels very inviting to consumers. Rachael likes to say that, you know, she wants people to feel like they're having dinner at her table like she, they've been invited into her home, and they're sitting down to a meal at her table. And the packaging is, you know, rat is trying to evoke that that feeling, and then hopefully the food also, and gives consumers that that sense of love and trust.
Roger Hurni 21:03
Now, I'm kind of curious, and this is just a personal curiosity. It really has nothing to do with marketing. But I'm wondering if you've seen a correlation between something that's happening in our lives, or is affecting our choices, and the popularity of certain kinds of dishes like, I know that like, I'm gonna just make a guess that probably during the pandemic, pizzas were selling like hotcakes. Yeah, we're mixed metaphor there. But I imagined like pizzas were like the thing. And then you get something like, you know, a story about tsunami profiles, or actually, here's a really good I just heard about six or seven months ago that Mexican food for the first time in this country in this in our country has outpaced and his favorite choice of restaurant over Italian, in 70 years. So, you know, a story like that comes out, and it becomes all of a sudden, we're selling a lot more burritos, you know? Do you see any of that?
Ritu Mathur 22:07
Yeah, we definitely do. I mean, the pandemic, for sure changed consumer behavior, a lot of soup was being bought. And yes, a lot of pizza. But, you know, I think what we're seeing a lot of now is is, is still that feeling of like comfort, I think consumers are still looking for that. And so a lot of, you know, things that we're kind of working on now, we just launched a family size version of some of our of our classic offerings. And, you know, a lasagna, cheese, enchilada, things like that, that can feed a family. So obviously, with inflation and current trends, today, it's important to keep that top of mind and what consumers are going through. So we're trying to offer a little bit of value by offering it in a larger size that can feed a family. But the the choices of products that we went with was also I think, informed by this idea of like the comfort, you know, a cheddar bake, like a mac and cheese like that those types of products are really resonating right now with consumers. And so we kind of leaned into that for for some of our new products.
Roger Hurni 23:13
Well, I know that not everything in life is always perfect. So I'm curious as to what what's keeping you up at night now with work, not personal stuff? What's what's challenging now that you've got to deal with?
Ritu Mathur 23:27
Yeah, you know, I think the, the challenge for us is really unlocking the, the awareness for the brand and growing household penetration and, you know, from a marketing standpoint, that requires investment in dollars, and we put a lot of our money into the box into the food. And, you know, it's challenging sometimes to find the, the tools to kind of unlock the brand growth. So I would say we're really focused on, on how to do some marketing in an efficient way so that we can kind of continue to grow the business but do it in a way that, you know, makes makes sense for us as a business and leaning into new things like retailer, media retailer search, you know, a lot of the brick and mortar stores have their online shopping and how do we kind of tap into that very close to the point of purchase and get people to know about Amy's as an option as they're kind of clicking and filling their their carts?
Roger Hurni 24:28
You know, I would and perhaps this is unsolicited advice, but I would challenge you a little bit on the money thing. I'm not saying that you can't spend money on marketing but Amy’s has done an amazing job of shifting consumer behavior in terms of eating habits. You have an entire army of evangelists out there who love a nice love of organic food, love the options. You know, there are a plethora of marketing strategies that you could use to tap Did that consumer behavior and, and help them shift and grow the brand reputation and the awareness? And just in the behavioral work that I do, that'd be something I would, I would throw out there to look into. Because when you're when you don't spend a lot of money on marketing, but you've got a tremendous amount of customers and loyalty. That's kind of your marketing. And there's a lot of opportunities there to uncover that. There's really no question in there. There's just like, I just see it that way. And for whatever that's worth to you. Yeah, no,
Ritu Mathur 25:32
no, I mean, that's definitely true. And I think there's a lot we are looking into doing in terms of influencers and just getting, you know, the word out in again, very organic ways as much as we can. And we've been doing that over the years, I think the kind of a step level change that, that there's the potential for is just going to require a little bit of a different approach than what we've kind of been doing for the last 35 plus years. And so that sort of is like the million dollar question is like, what is that right? Mix? You know, what, what are the right marketing elements and tactics that we would want to use that feel right for the brand? To your point? It is very much loyal consumers, lot of strong ambassadors out there, like how do we kind of leverage that? How do we grow in a way that I think we feel there's so much potential out there for other consumers to know about the brands? Just how do we do that?
Roger Hurni 26:33
Yeah, 100%, and I wouldn't use influencers in the traditional way of using and I use Barbie as an influencer once for a campaign. Before there was a Barbie movie or anything we use Barbie. I'm very proud of that, according to the web is one of the top five social media campaigns in the world that year. Well, you've been great, and you've been generous with your time, I have one wrap up question. I ask all my guests, because your approach, there's a lot of advice in there. There's a lot of good counsel in there. But I'm kind of curious as to what's the worst advice you've ever gotten that you went? No. It'd be personal. It could be career. But, you know,
Ritu Mathur 27:18
the worst advice? That is a great question. And
Roger Hurni 27:21
literally, that's the response I get every single time and the stalling so you can answer the question.
Ritu Mathur 27:26
I appreciate that. And, I mean, I think probably, I think the thing that I've heard a lot in terms of marketing that I just don't, I have not seen in my own personal experience, and I just kind of generally don't don't agree with is the idea of really trying to be broadly appealing to to everyone and try to capture you know, as much as you can because it feels safe and and you know, the right thing to do to kind of be as widely appealing to a broad consumer base. And I really believe that that's, that can lead a brand in the wrong direction. I think you got to stay true to who you are. Build your your evangelists and your ambassadors and really get them to understand who you are, and then they will bring other consumers into the brand. And I think when you try to be too much be all things to everybody, you just dilute the brand. Nobody really knows what you stand for anymore.
Roger Hurni 28:25
This is why I asked this question because it within the wrapper of bad advice is generally a nugget of amazing advice. Because if you're trying to appeal to everybody, you're not appealing to anybody. Exactly. But I appreciate all the time today and thank you so much for being a guest on the show. Everybody I had been speaking with Ritu Mathur, she is the VP of Marketing for Amy's kitchen. Ritu, where can people learn more about you and Amy's kitchen?
Ritu Mathur 28:55
Oh well you can learn more about Amy's at amys.com and we are available nationwide and in a wide variety of retailers from natural stores to you know, the the larger retailers as well and personally for me can reach me on LinkedIn. And I am there I check and happy to engage in any other conversations.
Roger Hurni 29:18
Okay, and you can see the correct spelling of her name even though you might not be able to pronounce read through which is r-i-t-u in the show notes though. Again, once again, thank you so much. I'm Roger Hurni. This is From Persona to Personal and we'll catch you next time.
Outro 29:37
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
