Pitch Slam 12 - Semi-finals : Snack Conscious

Speaker 1 [00:13] Let's move on to our 3rd semi-finalist. That's Craig Morantz, who's the founder of Snack Conscious Conscious Conscious. Yes, sorry about that. Uh, either one.

Speaker 2 [00:25] Can you spell conscious? No, I won't. Um So our origin story is a familiar one. We couldn't find what we really wanted, what we craved, so we went out and created it and, uh, it sounds easier obviously we've all kind of thought that um what we craved was something really indulgent. It was the beginning of COVID. We were home we were on Zoom call after Zoom call we wanted indulgence, but we also knew that we had to have something that really made us feel good. But we kind of started thinking well what is feel good it's feel good that it tastes incredible is feel good that it's got a whole bunch of uh you know uh qualifications like vegan and organic is is feel good that you don't feel guilty. Is feel good that uh you have that nostalgic feeling when you bite into it so what we decided to do was define what feel good means because we thought it was really important to make sure that yes have something that tastes good but also feel good so. Number 1 for us was it had to have incredible taste and texture, full stop. We're going after this zero compromise consumer who will not compromise anything around taste or texture. Number 2 was the gut. We knew that if you want to feel good, your gut, you have to treat your gut. You have to have something that's not gonna make you feel bloated. So we made sure that our formula had prebiotic fibers, had a very effective probiotic that was also shelf stable. We used a fermented protein that not only makes it easy to digest, but also tastes good. Um, and then we used high fiber adaptogens and then finally we knew that you had to have that connection between your head and your taste buds and so we wanted to make sure that you felt something nostalgic, something that remember reminded you of something that didn't necessarily always, uh, you know, that you had to be reminded of something really good. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [02:38] You don't have to be silent, you can clap clap, there we go. There you go. All right, um, you know, functional sweets or, you know, treats with functional ingredients seems to be on the rise. Uh, Jason, you know, what do you think of the concept within again that rising category? Yeah,

Speaker 3 [02:55] I think conceptually it's, it's a really compelling product and I like the way that he talked about it. The challenge that we had and we had a different package format, it was a smaller format is very little of that came through to me on the actual physical product and. There was a whole lot of really, really small words and so I think a challenge for a company like this with a product that has a lot of functional benefits is how do you convey that? And I just think that that's a big challenge for them is that right now the product isn't conveying to me what I heard from him in the

Speaker 1 [03:25] pitch. Adrian, I saw you nodding. I mean, what do you think about the packaging in terms of explaining, well, Craig talked a lot about the taste and how good, shockingly good the taste is. Does that come through on the packaging?

Speaker 4 [03:36] Not necessarily. I agree it was a fabulous tasting product. We all were surprised when we took a bite of a protein ball and it was, you know, it tasted like a dessert, um, but when I look at the packaging, my eye was bouncing between the words on the top, bottom, and the middle without really understanding what it was and what was inside, um, so I feel like there's a need for a hierarchy of callouts on pack.

Speaker 1 [04:04] Karen, were these as shockingly good as you would have expected them to be? I mean, again, Craig talked a lot about the importance of getting the flavor right.

Speaker 5 [04:14] Uh, they were better than I expected. I thought they were really delicious, and I agree with him and taste and texture was really there. Um, what I would call out in conventional grocery stores, I don't know where this product goes. I, I can't think of the home, so that in addition to the package challenge are things that I would really call out as something that needed to be worked on soon because you gotta find a home and then from that it's not, it's not, there's no natural home for this product.

Speaker 1 [04:48] Matt, you get the last word on snack conscious. Did I get that right this time? I think so. Uh,

Speaker 6 [04:54] I thought the texture was one of the best that I'd had, but I do think there are some competing messages going on. I didn't even appreciate the good for the gut was a call out of theirs. Um, I thought the package gave off a cool vibe but left me a little confused, and, um, but the taste and the texture were very good.

Speaker 1 [05:14] Outstanding.