When Gail Becker’s young boys received a diagnosis of having celiac disease, she started to purchase every gluten-free product in sight. The problem she found was that they still were laced with fat, sugar and often unhealthy ingredients.
She became inspired to create a different type of pizza that her boys could enjoy and would satisfy her desire to give them healthy, the gluten-free food they would love. Her experimentation led her to try using cauliflower as a pizza crust. She conducted focus groups at her kitchen table, and she had two participants – her boys.
Today, Caulipower Pizza is Amazon’s biggest selling frozen pizza in just six months.
Pizza – Your Favorite Vegetable
The inspiration for the cauliflower crust came from Instagram where she saw dozens of recipes. But she was a busy mom and didn’t have time to spend 90 minutes making a pizza for her boys. As she searched online and in stores, she couldn’t find anyone making a cauliflower-crust pizza – and business was born.
In less than one year, she will have distribution in 3,000 stores as well as through Amazon’s online food service.
Why Cauliflower? (from Gail’s website)
The short answer is OMG; cauliflower is awesome! But chances are, you’re hungry (sorry) for more info than that. The longer version is that cauliflower delivers some heavy-hitting nutrients that fight cancer, heart disease, arthritis, type 2 diabetes, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. It’s also full of antioxidants like vitamin c and manganese, and even has phytonutrients that lower the risk of oxidative stress. On top of all that, cauliflower has vitamin K and omega-3, both important anti-inflammatory nutrients.* In other words, Cauliflower brings a lot to the table. Which is why we called ourselves CAULIPOWER. See what we did there?
Marketing Lessons from A Crusty PR Pro
- Instead of being a me-too foodpreneur, she took a path untraveled. Her point of differentiation is clear.
- Brilliantly, she observed a trend and saw an opportunity. Why wasn’t anyone serving this slice of the market that wanted healthy, tasty, gluten-free pizza?
- She begins her business with the most popular product in America – yet found an untapped market segment.
- Gail poured her heart, soul, and bankroll into starting the business. She describes it as her third child.
- Gail bets on herself and her first-hand experience with her boys and trusted her instincts.
- The key ingredient in Gail’s success is noticing what was going on in Instagram. She has become a success by focusing on serving a very specific audience: her two sons.
Keep an eye on Gail and her business and she gets her slice of success.
Could you use help with your marketing? I can help offer seasoned advice. Call me at 919 720 0995 or jeffslater@themarketingsage.com
Photo courtesy of Caulipower
