5 Lessons in Scaling a Start-Up From Candy Kittens
Founded in 2012, Candy Kitten’s is the fastest confectionery brand in the UK. They’ve become known nationwide for their gourmet, ‘grown-up’ sweets that champion natural, vegan and ethically sourced ingredients.
We heard founders Jamie & Ed speak at London Packaging Week and they had some great insights and nuggets of wisdom to share about what it takes to build a successful brand.
1. don’t follow logic
One of Jamie and Ed’s first pieces of advice was to follow your gut rather than following logic. The logic (if I may…) being that if you follow logic you’ll end up where everyone else is. Instead, if the category is doing one thing, do the opposite. That way you’ll end up carving out a more unique space for yourself.
A great example of this is looking back at the first step on their founder journey where they were looking at the existing confectionery category and trying to work out how to improve upon it. One area they identified was the hidden ingredients like sugar and meat (🤢).
As a result of wanting to do things differently to their competitors, they have developed a range that’s vegan, all natural and palm oil free. This ‘no nasties’ approach has become one of their key USPs.
They also stuck to their guns on the idea of their range being a premium offering which wasn’t something that really existed before they arrived on the scene. While their competitors were trying to work out how to sell a bag of sweets for under £1, they were trying to work out how to sell one for £3. But this gourmet positioning is one of their major selling points.
“People told us that vegan and natural ingredients were just a fad...”
2. Patience pays
Ultimately, success doesn’t happen overnight. We had a lot of doors slammed in our face and had to learn to be resilient. It will take longer than you might like to see results, so have a plan that allows for this and surround yourself with a team who you can provide support when you’re feeling unmotivated.
“At the beginning, we really didn’t know what we were doing. We even Googled ‘how to make sweets’....nothing came up....
Our biggest hurdle was convincing people we weren’t crazy.”
3. be clear on your vision
It’s also important to have a vision that’s bigger than just the product. You need to have a purpose behind what you’re doing. For Candy Kittens, this comes to life through both their commitment to sustainability (they’ve just become B Corp certified and have reduced the plastic in their packaging by 25%) as well as their meaningful partnerships that promote wider messages e.g. their limited edition ‘sex positive’ packs they brought out in collaboration with Netflix’s Sex Education.
“You have to know your ultimate goal and where you want to be.
We knew that we wanted to knock Haribo off their perch at Tesco and were laser focused on that.”
4. STORYTELLING, STORYTELLING, STORYTELLING
When it comes to your brand, nothing is more important than connecting emotionally with your audience.
The best way to do this is through focusing on storytelling - share why do you do what you do and why anyone should care.
Don’t focus on going viral (which goes up very quickly but then goes down very quickly), but instead focus on slow growth using storytelling to connect.
5. YOUR PACKAGING IS YOUR CV
Both Jamie and Ed were clear on the importance of packaging, describing it as your opportunity to show people who you are and why they should choose you over another brand. The team at Candy Kittens have spent a lot of time designing and refining their packaging to make sure it’s the best possible first interaction someone might have with the brand. The importance of it’s role in their success can’t be overstated. You need to make it work as hard for you as possible so it stands out on shelf and engages your customers once they’ve picked it up.
Oh, and their first packaging print run had to be recalled because the text colour was illegible, so they recommend always going to the first print run!