Reviving a Brand: Insights from Acquiring and Relaunching Detroit Jerky!
*Spoiler Alert if you’ve never seen the movie Pretty Woman*, but at the end even the most hardened shark like Richard Gere’s character Edward Lewis was able to see that every deal doesn’t have to have a winner and a loser, and he has a revelation that instead of taking over the Morses’ shipbuilding company and dismantling it he’d like to work with them and build ships together.
The reason I’m telling you this is because we (I, my wife Ally and son Tony) recently acquired the business Detroit Jerky LLC from the previous owners Scott and Katie Eatmon. Without going into ALL of the details, let’s just say there was barely a “negotiation” for the transaction. We all approached it in a way that made everyone happy and comfortable. They wanted someone who would take care of the brand they built, we wanted to make sure they were totally comfortable with the offer. We are honored that they chose us and grateful to them for teaching us all the ins and outs of the business. And believe me, there are PLENTY of ins and outs….
So yes, there are opportunities that look really good and are indeed TRUE. Just because it’s good doesn’t mean it’s too good. There are indeed good people with good intentions, you just need to have the instinct to recognize it when you see it.
Drinking From A Firehose
So now that we own the company I can say it’s been a ton of work. A ton. We still have our photography studio Frameable Faces Photography and there have been days when we have put in a full day at the studio only to head straight to the Proud Mitten Shared Kitchen to make jerky. After dropping off inventory at the storage facility we’d get home close to midnight completely exhausted - with a smile on our faces.
On top of learning to make the jerky which, while not rocket science per se, CAN indeed be tricky. And it’s only not rocket science for us because of all the trial and error Scott and Katie already did in perfecting the recipes and the process to come up with the best vegan jerky in the game. That WAS rocket science. We’re the beneficiaries of a lot of R&D. But so much still goes into learning a business like this which we crammed into just a few months including:
ServeSafe training - OHHHH MY GOSHHHHHH….. ugh ugh ugh ugh. Hours and hours of online seminars about 75% of which applies to running a RESTAURANT. Much of it does not apply to making vegan jerky to go on a shelf in a grocery store.
Getting the standard operating procedure down for the MDARD state inspection at a commercial kitchen (which none of us had worked in before).
Learning e-commerce. Plenty of moving parts here including Woocommerce, Wordpress, Square, QuickBooks, Faire and Mailchimp. 6 different platforms most of which are integrated with at least one of the others. I only really had experience with a couple of them…
Learning about distribution. Lots to learn here… wholesale direct, wholesale through distributors, retail, packaging, shipping…
Learning Marketing. Yes, learning marketing. As a digital marketer I have worked with a ton of brands, but I never managed campaigns that were primarily selling widgets online like this. Doctor’s offices, yes. Banquet Halls, yes. Photography Studios, yes. Shopping Malls, yes. Charities, yes. Heating & Cooling companies, yes. On and on…. none of them were primarily a volume e-commerce play. Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Super Car Wash were probably the closest models but still NOT the same as this. It’s a slightly different animal which can have you questioning yourself when it’s yours and not everything you think you know works.
Like a Rollercoaster
I’m not saying all of this to complain. We’ve made plenty of progress and love owning this business even with several setbacks.
The website went down twice for two different reasons, and a plugin I used to offer a signup discount seemed to prevent orders from going through on the site. But then when you think you have it fixed and no orders happen for a day or two you get anxiety. IS it fixed? Was it fixed but now broken again and is this going to keep happening? Stuff like that can keep you up at night.
The wins feel huge and so do the glitches. And so you do feel like you’re on a rollercoaster just in terms of the ups and the downs, even though rollercoasters tend to be a ton of fun on the way up AND down.
Let’s focus on a couple of the wins:
We have had a couple of really successful events, the biggest of which so far was All Things Detroit Day at Eastern Market. We sold a lot of jerky that day and there was a buzz for sure. That felt great. We’re sponsoring VegFest on June 2nd back at Eastern Market with VegMichigan and cannot wait - that will be a big one.
Kicking ass at All Things Detroit Day!
We are up to 14 stores who have ordered jerky to sell on their shelves as of this writing - 8 of which are already selling it now including at least one out of state so far. Just like anything else some have said no, but I’m really pleased with how many have said yes so far. The product is so good that it really should sell itself and sometimes it does. But sometimes it doesn’t and I’ve turned a couple of maybes and even a NO into a YES. So as an old sales guy let’s just say THE KID’S STILL GOT IT!!! Lol…
Give it a try…
I’ve always written on M10 Social to teach and pursue my passions with the other two blogs here Doug’s Music Snobbery and Doug’s History Blog. Some of my articles do really well and some bomb. But I love them all and I go back and read my own stuff from time to time. Everyone should do that by the way.
The same is true of this post, but I’d be lying if I also didn’t say I REALLY want you to sign up for Detroit Jerky News and order some delicious plant-based protein-packed jerky. Give it a try! As I said - we purchased the company because the jerky is damn good, and by eating this instead of animal jerky you’re doing something better for your health and the planet. Can’t really argue against that.
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here. You can also visit our other business Detroit Jerky at the website www.DetroitJerkyLLC.com!
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Tune in to the 📷Doug&Ally📷Morning Show T-F between 8:30 & 11 EST UTC-4 on Heckle by following them on Heckle or Twitter at @frameablefaces! Also check out the Doug & Ally Morning Show podcast at anchor.fm/frameablefaces and everywhere you listen to podcasts! Doug also tweets at @dougcohen10 and @M10Social!