Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer!
This week we sit down with Stacey Hartnett, SVP of Marketing at Chomps—the better-for-you meat stick brand now in 50,000+ doors and 22 million households—to talk about their biggest product launch yet: chicken sticks. We get into why chicken was a 12-year-in-the-making innovation, how they’re tapping into a breakfast occasion, and about where the brand is headed.
We also cover the week’s biggest CPG news. The L-theanine and caffeine combo taking over the functional beverage space (and why matcha is what finally made it click), Armra’s colostrum soda, Lemon Perfect founder Yanni Hufnagle’s new sparkling water brand Popwtr, the booming luxury laundry detergent category led by The Laundress founder’s new brand Lindry Lab, and how Thayers turned a TikTok DIY hack into Amazon’s #1 new beauty release in 24 hours. Let’s get into it!
Check out our deep dive on L-theanine:
https://www.expresscheckout.co/p/everyone-needs-to-calm-down
The breakdown:
0:00 Interview with Stacey Hartnett, SVP
of Marketing at Chomps
12:43 Feedback & podcast updates from our offsite
13:19 The L-theanine + caffeine trend
27:01 Armra's colostrum soda
30:43 Popwtr: Lemon Perfect founder's new sparkling water bet
37:27 Luxury laundry
45:08 Thayers' creator-led product launch and what brands should learn from it
51:04 Wrap up
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