Smooth Move: One Trick Pony Takes Peanut Butter Beyond the Jar with Popcorn Launch

Natural peanut butter brand One Trick Pony is venturing outside of the jar and into the salty snack category with the introduction of Caramel Crunch Peanut Butter Popcorn as it continues to “see how far we can take peanut butter,” co-founder Lucy Dana told Nosh.

“We had a slide in our original pitch deck that compared the peanut butter market to other markets, like confections and snacks, which are way bigger. We’ve always wanted to use peanut butter as the platform and put it in other products versus making all kinds of nut butters,” said Dana.

Caramel Crunch Peanut Butter Popcorn features popcorn covered in caramel and a coating of One Trick Pony’s peanut butter, as well as pretzel pieces. The new snack is available exclusively on the brand’s direct-to-consumer website for $8 per 6 oz. bag.

Ecommerce, which accounts for 50% of the brand’s business, provides a convenient channel for testing out innovations in adjacent categories, according to Dana, as it doesn’t involve the category reviews and free fills associated with brick-and-mortar retail.

Formulation of the product began roughly eight months ago. After receiving a surplus of popcorn from its co-manufacturer (read: eight gallon-sized bags), One Trick Pony sent out 100 mini tins of the secret product to consumers who then filled out a form with their thoughts. Consumer feedback directly impacted the final iteration, from which mix-ins were included to the package size.

“People got to feel like they were along for the journey with us, and they got to give their feedback from the start. Once we nailed down the product, we started working on packaging and, again, we asked our Instagram followers to help with that,” said Dana.

The popcorn launch comes on the heels of the brand’s new no-stir jars designed to prevent the oil separation that often occurs in spreads that are free of stabilizers and additives. Drawing inspiration from cosmetics packaging, the custom jars are designed to be stored upside down and feature a leak-proof lid.

Reception to the new packaging, which began rolling out to Whole Foods Market stores across the Mid-Atlantic region in June, has been overwhelmingly positive. According to Dana, One Trick Pony has nearly doubled its Instagram follower count since introducing the jars and has had several social media videos featuring the product go viral (over 2.5 million views).

Though “nothing is set in stone,” Dana said the no-stir packaging has also spurred interest from several large retailers.

“I was lying awake the week we were going to launch the new packaging and doubting myself. But since we put it out in the wild, we’ve received so much good feedback, and [I knew] it was 100% the correct approach,” said Dana, adding that there are still some tweaks One Trick Pony will be making to “Version 1” of the new jar.

As the holiday season approaches, One Trick Pony will be relaunching its Maple Crunch flavor – this time in the new packaging format. The LTO will be carried at Whole Foods, marking the first time the brand has launched a seasonal flavor in a large retailer. Looking further into the future, the brand plans to start working on a better-for-you peanut butter sandwich cracker next year.

“The name of the game this year and next year is retail expansion and continuing to test new formats for our peanut butter,” said Dana.