As a boy, Abe observed his mom using vegetables in sauces to sweeten them without sugar. So, when he started True Made Foods, it wasn’t a surprise that he created his ketchup to compete against Heinz. (David, say hello to the Goliath). By replacing the cane sugar with carrots and squash, he could eliminate the added sugar with naturally occurring sugar.
Catching Up with Abe
Born in D.C., Abe Kamarck grew up in Virginia, Brooklyn, and Maryland before attending Vanderbilt on an NROTC scholarship. After graduation, he served eight years as a Navy Helicopter pilot, deploying on counter-narcotics missions and for OIF.
He spent his last tour in England, where Abe earned his MBA from the London Business School. He had an affinity for impact entrepreneurship. This experience prompted Abe to leave the Navy and start a seven-year adventure in emerging markets as an impact entrepreneur. He spent time in Bulgaria, Ghana, Egypt, and China. He lived with his family in Qatar for three years.
A sucker for challenges, Abe worked under challenging environments on “wicked” problems like migrant worker housing and funding startups in the Middle East. Along the way, he launched various ventures. He launched websites like Doha-Delivery.com to more difficult ones like building greenhouse farms in the desert.
In 2013, Abe returned to the DC area and was hired by the Coexist Foundation to develop and launch Coexist Coffee. By starting the coffee venture taught Abe the food business. He then married his two biggest passions – food and entrepreneurship.
Raised on a mix of Southern Italian and Southern Virginian culinary traditions, Abe is an avid cook and self-proclaimed grill master. A father of four, he is passionate about real food, healthy lifestyles, playing rugby, and coaching his kids’ football and basketball.
True Made – A Marketing Lesson
True Made Foods created no sugar, low sugar condiments like ketchup, barbecue sauce, and siracha by infusing them with vegetables for sweetness. He is fond of saying that a standard bottle of ketchup has a quarter pound of sugar, whereas True Made has a quarter pound of vegetables.
Lessons from The Ketchup King
Distribution is growing in traditional grocer outlets like Wal-Mart as well as natural food environments like Whole Foods Markets. In some retailers, Abe’s product is growing the ketchup category.
True Made’s marketing has a valuable lesson for marketers.
- Can you find a large category with little or slow growth?
- Then, is there a part of that category that no one focuses, like those who love ketchup but would prefer less sugar?
- Can you help generate growth in a big, lumbering category like ketchup by focusing in on the dynamics of consumers worried about excess added sugar?
- Are you able to packages yourself in contrast to the leader, so where they are Heinz red, you are True Made white? (Like coke red/Pepsi blue or Campbells red and Progresso blue?)
- Make your product available through Amazon, so everyone can get it even if it isn’t available in their local grocery store.
Heinz Responds
Of course, Heinz has taken notice and started to market their low-sugar ketchup, also made with vegetables. Can Heinz stand for both sugary ketchup and non-sugary ketchup in the consumer’s mind? Consumers often cheer for the challenger but taste and price squeeze out the winner.
I’ll be watching in anticipation to see what happens.
Need help catching up with the competition? Contact me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com Let’s explore working together today.
Images courtesy of True Made Foods
Image courtesy of Kraft/Heinz Foods
