PODCAST – How to Leverage Industry Gaps w/Adelaide Campbell

If there is a single question that every entrepreneur has on their mind, it is “how to leverage industry gaps to stand out as a successful brand.” No matter how saturated your niche may be, there are always opportunities waiting to be discovered for those bold enough to zag when everyone else is zigging.

Today, I sit down with Adelaide Campbell, who at the start of the pandemic, left behind a very cushy corporate job to venture into the unknowns of the United States liquor industry. Talk about saturated!

In this episode, Adelaide fills us in on the many steps she took to bring her brand,  Kachaça Spirits to life. From market research, brand storytelling, and beyond, you will hear the unfiltered story of what it takes to stand out in today’s business world.

In this episode, we discuss…

• Market research into the Kachaça industry to find a gap in the U.S. liquor industry to capitalize on (9:18) 
• Specifying the target audience for the Kachaça Spirits brand and understanding their mindset to market effectively (11:40)
• Authentic storytelling and the importance of transparency (13:12)
• Creating a memorable brand experience with imagery that is highly emotional and engaging (15:35)
• Getting into the mind of the ideal consumer for Kachaça Spirits through the skill of empathy  (17:30)
• The pros and cons of celebrity brands, such as Casa Amigos (20:00)
• The more you can bring yourself into your story, the easier building a strong brand will become (26:42)

Meet the Host and Guest Expert

Links and Resources

Connect with Adelaide and the Kachaça Spirits brand:

• Instagram @kachacaspirits
• Facebook @KachacaSpirits
• Website: www.KachacaSpirits.com

Click here to listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts!

Want us to send you a free gift? Leave a rating and/or review on Apple Podcasts, and send a screenshot to podcast@wildwomnhaus.com. 

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Audio Transcription

Introduction

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Hello, you have reached The Wild Womn hotline, a place for visionary entrepreneurs like you to listen in on value, packed episodes for growing your brand in bold and strategic ways. 

Welcome back to another episode of the Wild Womn Hotline. And today I want you to get Booy with me, but before we dive into this liquor-inspired conversation, I want to introduce myself.

Hello. Hi, how are you doing? My name is Tristan. I am the CEO, founder, and head brand strategist at Wild Womn Haus which is a collaborative brand and marketing agency. And the reason we are having a conversation about the liquor industry today is that we are having a thorough, thorough unveiling of what it takes to stand out and differentiate yourself as a brand.

No matter how saturated a market may be. And I have the perfect guest to introduce to you. And as the founder of Kachaça Spirits, Adelaide Campbell is on a mission to convert American cocktail drinkers into lovers of Brazil’s national spirit Kachaça. And something really important that I want you to pay attention to in this episode is the industry of liquor and alcohol and spirits.

So heavily saturated with celebrity brands and countless options for consumers to choose from and something that Adelaide did extremely well with the Kachaça Spirit Brand is that she found a white space. She found a gap and she really leveraged that gap to introduce something new, innovative, and exciting to the market that is.

Heavily, heavily indoctrinated with options. You have a lot to learn from Adelaide’s story of research and development, identifying the emotional needs of her target audience, and also learning how to dive into an industry that is brand new to her as an entrepreneur. So pay attention, take notes, and let’s dive into this conversation with Adelaide Campbell of Kachaça Spirits.

Introducing Adelaide and how she started in the liquor industry

All right, miss Adelaide, tell us your story of having a very successful corporate career and then deciding to basically abandon everything and venture out into this brand new world of the liquor industry. 

Can you tell us a little bit about what spurred that and kind of what obstacles you had to overcome in order to leave that previous world behind and venture out into a new one?

Guest | Adelaide: 

Well, realistically it was the pandemic and I think a lot of people had this happen in the last two years where our normal routine, that kind of status quo that we were so used to for a very long time was massively disrupted all simultaneously. And for a lot of us that meant working from home, maybe relocating and I ended up doing both of those things.

I was working from home and I relocated down from Boston where I was based for my entire life down to Miami and talk about a culture shock. So, moving down here was really that big spark that was the kick in the pants to start exploring other options. I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit within me.

I’ve thought about starting other software companies or things like that. And I think entrepreneurs will kind of resonate with the fact that you’re always looking for opportunities no matter where you are or what industry you’re in. You’re always keeping your ears, open your eyes, open for problems that need to be solved in ways that you might be able to do that in new and interesting ways.

And so moving down here, being introduced to Kachaça, which is the national spirit of Brazil. I kind of my eyes opened up to this market opportunity and I just decided to quit my very well-paid, very easy, relatively speaking, comfortable job and go, you know what? I’m going to jump into this industry that I know nothing about.

I’ve never been a bartender. I don’t know the international supply chain. I don’t know anything really about the logistics of how alcohol moves around the country or around the world. And I started from ground zero and started learning all of those pieces up until right recently when we got our brand out into the world and launched. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing and I love your boldness and I love your bravery because that’s like a hallmark of a modern entrepreneur is we are like, I’m not afraid to just abandon everything that I feel comfortable with. And it’s more of that boldness and that bravery that leads us on a daily basis and the eye for an opportunity which you pointed out.

So can you tell us more about the opportunity and maybe even the background of Kachaça and how you saw this blank space in the liquor industry which is you know, from my perspective as a brand strategist, heavily, heavily, heavily saturated with brands, existing options. 

So what was the opportunity that you saw and what was the like formula going on behind the scenes to say, “this is a winning idea and I’m gonna run with it?”

How Kachaça became a liquor brand and the unique experience it brings people

Guest | Adelaide: 

It was really learning about Kachaça the first day, learning that it is the third most popular spirit in the world right behind vodka, and Korean vodka, and it is this relatively unknown in the US. So if you really don’t live in Miami where you don’t live in a heavily Brazilian community, you probably have never heard of Kachaça.

Maybe you’ve heard of capias, which is the classic cocktail that Kachaça are made in. But you probably might not know that it’s Kachaça that goes in the Caipirinha and you absolutely are right that the alcohol in the spirits market is very saturated. I always say, I’m going to just scream if I hear about another celebrity tequila.

Oh my gosh. Like, you know, just, I can’t wait for, you know, Elon Musk has a tequila brand. Let’s just, let’s start, and end there. let’s just start there. 

Anyway, so you start to look at these market opportunities I see Kachaça. I see that it’s got a huge market in Brazil but very little footprint in the U.S, and every other spirit category in the U.S. is saturated.

Rum is saturated. Tequila is oversaturated. Vodka is on its way out. I think people are also another result of the pandemic. They’re really looking for new and interesting experiences. We can only make so many espresso martinis or you know, vodka sodas at home. You’ve been at home for two years.

You’ve been experimenting with your craft cocktails at home Tiki and other new and interesting flavors. And so going out to the bar now, you’re not going to order that Tito’s and soda. You want a new and exciting experience. One that you can’t replicate for yourself at home and I saw that opportunity in Kachaça.

It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s holistic. It’s just this really exciting new experience for people in the U.S. who might not yet know about it. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

And one thing that you hit on, that’s really important for everybody listening is that she saw an opportunity for creating a unique experience that doesn’t currently exist in the states.

And that is one of the keys to zagging when everyone is zigging. So when everybody is thinking, okay, what’s the next hottest celebrity tequila, what’s the next hottest, you know, Bubbly seltzer. Like how many versions of freaking Whitelaw do we need? Honestly, exactly. Everybody is recreating and trying to, you know, climb on top of what already exists, and what you did really, really smartly and innovatively is you saw a huge white space for a spirit that just doesn’t have that presence in the states.

And that’s something where you’re talking about creating that unique experience. That’s something that people are going to latch onto because right now we see a lot of research that’s showing us that people are looking for escapism, and that doesn’t mean that they’re trying to brush problems under the rug, but they’re looking to escape into a new experience.

Something that can give them, you know, just new insights and new emotions and a new feeling that maybe they haven’t felt before because we are so over the same old thing especially because of the pandemic. So can you talk a little bit about how you researched the target audience for this liquor?

Because from my perception, I see it as somebody. It’ll thrive in cities where there’s a vibrant nightlife, it’ll thrive in cities where there is a value of artistry and performance and liveliness. So can you tell me from your perspective? That’s my perspective. What was your research on who this is for and who would just gravitate towards this type of flicker?

Brand influences and the process to make the brand as a whole 

Guest | Adelaide: 

That’s a very important consideration I had when I started developing the brand because I did a lot of market research into the Kachaça that are out there in the market. We taste-tested as many as we could get our hands on, dozens of them here in Miami because it’s a heavy, heavily Latin and Central American influence.

So there are a lot of them out here. And what I realized was two things, one is that a lot of them are marketed to Brazilian populations who are already here in Miami, they’re also marketed towards really sophisticated Kachaça drinkers. So, and I kind of, akin it to scotch. And if you’re, if you’re really interested in scotch and you want to introduce scotch whiskey to a friend, you don’t give them a Lero or something that’s really heavy and PE and complex.

You want to give them something that is a really nice, evenly experienced, evenly rounded, approachable experience in the taste profile. And what I found in these Kachaças that are already on the market is they either are kind of that cheap gasoline, or they are really kind of funky and grassy and aromatic.

That might be a little off-putting to somebody who isn’t familiar or has never tried Kachaça. It’s all about setting expectations. And so when we blended Kachaças, we specifically went for dry. We want something that’s mixable, and we want something that is more familiar to somebody in a taste profile that’s used to drinking tequila or a white rum. 

And so we really tried to tailor this for an American consumer and I see Kachaça following a trajectory like tequila did over the last 30 years where a lot of the stuff that was imported from Mexico, to begin with, was that kind of crappy well-tequila. And then it started to catch on in the well-traveled and the culture, the heavy culture areas.

And then you start to import the higher quality things. And now it’s, it’s a mature market the way it is. So Brazil is the exact same as Mexico. They import, they export a lot of their lower-end Kachaça and then some people who are very into the craft spirits world will go for the very high end but there’s no middle point.

There’s no friendly entry point for somebody who doesn’t know. And so I think that when we did our branding, we were trying to target somebody who was open to new experiences, wants to try something new, but is probably already a tequila drinker, and is probably young, well-traveled, and prideful in that, and wants to say I’m kind of over skinny spicy margaritas. I’ll have a Caipirinha. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Mm. Okay. Can you send me a bottle? 100%. I am a huge tequila drinker, but I am so particular about the tequila I drink. And I swear to God the difference between a well-crafted age, tequila, and something that is like you said, rubbing alcohol like that. Well garbage night and day, night and day.

Bridging the culture gap while creating an authentic label 

And what’s really interesting is that correct me if I’m wrong, but the Brazilian heritage isn’t something that you are a part of necessarily. So how did you, and like I said, correct me if I’m wrong. So how did you bridge that gap culturally in saying like this isn’t American made Brazilian spirit that we are bringing to America and there might be some people, again, if they are Brazilian descent or if they are Latina descent, they might be interested in a Brazilian brand because it feels more authentic. So how did you ensure that authenticity and how did you ensure that like genuine Kasha experience so that bridge did get, you know, so that bridge didn’t yeah. 

Guest | Adelaide: 

Adding Brazilian Twist into the Branding Development of Kachaça

Oh absolutely. Yeah. And I’m very open about the fact that I’m not Brazilian but I am a product of where I grew up which is on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which has a heavy Brazilian Portuguese community and Irish.

So I do have both of those in my background which is also why it was surprising to me that I had never encountered the spirit before moving to Miami. The way that we really tried to bridge the authenticity story was to make sure that we were upfront about my background and where I’m coming from.

But also lean into American’s perception of Brazil and a lot of the brands that are out there right now that are marketed to Brazilians, they market to people who are familiar with Kachaça, they’re familiar with Brazil and they’re probably leaning more on that kind of rainforest-y feeling or those may be outside of the city.

And what we focused on when we did our brand development was probably the first thing when I say Rio Degenero is carnival. So we should, we went, this is the spirit of carnival, this is going to be high energy, exciting, passionate, vibrant, and its group experiences, and its energy. And it’s all of those things.

And it’s not to say that the other ones are more authentic or less authentic. I think just is a way to introduce Americans who are not familiar with Kachaça. You need to use a touchpoint in Brazil that they’re familiar with. And we decided to go to Carnival. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: Which is perfect. Literally.

Guest | Adelaide: It’s also fun. Perfect. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau:

So fun. And when you think about the experience of carnival, what you’re thinking about is that vibrancy, that high energy you’re thinking of. Fun and play and just a whole wild playground experience that you really can’t get anywhere, but there, and that is so genius to focus on that.

And it might seem like, well, yeah, duh, but no, it’s actually genius because of all the cities across the states that are, that have that energy of excitement, I’m thinking new Orleans, Los Angeles, New York, like these big cities where we love the nightlife, it’s gonna thrive there. It’s going to absolutely thrive there. And it’s so exciting.

It really meant the branding and the experiences really meant to be enjoyed together. And another piece of imagery that may be less obvious to folks is the way, when, what you think of, when I say carnival is you think of the parade of SOMBA schools in the SOMBA drum, the headdress and the women dancing and everything like that.

The importance of knowing your target market for creating the best authentic product

Guest | Adelaide: 

And what you probably you’re thinking of a woman all decked out, dancing in front of thousands of people. And I am a female entrepreneur. We are female-founded and run. And I loved that strong female energy that passion that she’s out there leading, dancing her heart out, and she is the center of attention.

And that is really the ethos that the brand has taken on. We want when you’re drinking Kachaça, so you wanna feel like you’re the center of attention and that you are just part of a larger experience that’s larger than you than larger than life.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

And I am just blown away by the depth of understanding that you have around your consumer. And I have to say that that is relatively unique in that a lot of product development. Sure, there’s a market research and sure, there’s, you know, study or like case studies or study groups or things like that. But you really got into the mind of the ideal consumer, like you understand the emotional need, not just the tangible need of. 

Okay, we have a saturated market, let’s introduce something new and exciting. You understand the emotional drive of wanting to bring people together, be the center of attention, have that liveliness, have that high energy, and come from the background you come from. That’s surprising to me and I am just like, wow, Adelaide gets it.

So can you tell me how you became such a, I mean, inquisitive, curious person that understands the emotional needs of a product and not just the tangible needs of a product? 

Understanding the emotional needs and what it takes to build a brand, no matter how saturated the market is

Guest | Adelaide: 

Well, I would, so I started my career as an actuary which is a very clinical cold industry and career path. And I think part of the reason I moved on from that was that it lacked compassion.

It lacked my ability to be empathetic. And that is just something that is, has always been something. My mom is instilled in me and I see it in her and I see it reflected in myself. And when I pivoted into product management for tech companies, a huge part of that is having empathy for your user, understanding their pain points, and what you can start, to see if you think about the tools that you interact with every day. There’s somebody behind that who’s really trying to get in your mind and understand what you’re trying to do, and how you’re you’re feeling while you’re doing it. And that was why I really enjoyed that part of what I did was that empathy and really being able to connect with the goals of the end.

And I took that with me and took Kachaça. I really just tried to internalize everything that we have all collectively been feeling for the last two years, locked up isolated, not unable to go out, unable to see our families. And my feeling was that after this is all over with, we’re ready to kind of go back to normal.

We’re really going to want an experience that brings that is collective, that brings us together. And that explores that feeling of large groups. And feeling that experience that we haven’t had for the last two years. So it was a reaction over the last year of saying we’ve all been cooped up, we’ve all been isolated, let’s create a brand that is really about being together, it’s a high energy, it’s colorful, It’s all of the things the last two years have not been.

Host |  Tristan Thibodeau: 

Genius, literally genius. Like your brain is made for branding, and made for marketing, like absolutely genius. Everybody listening, like take notes, cuz this is what it takes to build a brand, no matter how saturated the market is if you can understand the emotional need of your consumer.

And if you can really think big picture, where have we been, and where are we going as a collective, as an identity of the person. You are going to thrive no matter how saturated the market is. So like five gold stars, triple a plus. No, you nailed it. It’s so, so, so genius, and I kind of wanna take a not a huge left turn, but a little bit of a left turn and talk about celebrity brands, and talk about celebrity brands of tequila in particular.

We’re seeing, I mean, within the last, I would say five years, we have just seen this like the uprising of celebrity brands from skincare, to travel, to liquor. I mean, the list goes on, and I kind of blame Gwyneth Paltrow for this, with Goop. I think she kind of paved the way, like she kind of paved the way on this in saying like, Hey, I’m an actress and an activist, but I’m also gonna build this like multi-billion dollar brand.

And I think she really paved the way for other celebrities being like, oh, I can have an opinion about a brand and a product, and I can carve out a unique space for myself. So tell us the pros of celebrity brands from your perspective. Of course, we’re talking liquor, but then also why they’re overdone and why they need to maybe pump the brakes a little bit. 

How celebrity brands are trying to get into the front row of product visibility

Guest | Adelaide: 

Put down the Terra tequila. I love the rock, by the way. He’s my celebrity crush, but boy, I, 100%. Gosh. So the plus sides for tequila and I’ll use Kendall Jenner at Kendall, Kylie. I can’t, I don’t, I’m not a Kardashian. Can, I don’t know what. Kendall has the 18. Yeah.

Yeah. So the plus side is you have a built-in market. You’ve got hundreds of thousands. If not millions of followers, you have a built-in ad platform in your social media platform, your social media accounts.

And so it makes marketing and popularizing, and really providing an outlet the proof of concept really easy, where I think that these brands could do better. I think she got some backlash on this too, which is the authenticity. Obviously, there are some, she’s not the one really building and putting her heart and soul into 8 1 8. Sure, 8 1 8 is her local home address.

But it’s you can kind of tell that there’s, she’s not there picking out the colors and really seeing all of the hard work that goes into it and she’s certainly not the one trying to understand what federal permits or local customs agents she needs to navigate to really put this brand on the shelf.

And so it really just kind of rings hollow with a lot of these brands. The plus side is they get a lot of visibility. Most of the time they’re pretty good products. But one thing that’s really started to bubble up, particularly in the trade news that I’ve been reading, which may not be out there in regular consumer news yet is.

That it really takes seven to 10 years for the agave plants in Mexico to mature to the point where it’s they’re ready to make tequila. And we’ve just the demand for high-quality and ultra-premium tequila has exploded so much, especially driven by these celebrity brands. Everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon and get their cut Casamigos, really being the first success story of the celebrity brand.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Which I think is the most authentic celebrity brand because George Clooney is like, in love with tequila and like has this whole story built into it. So I think he’s a good example. 

Guest | Adelaide: And they did it first

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: example. I completely agree and see your point. 

Guest |  Adelaide: And Elon Musk, did Elon Musk ever go? Does Elon Musk know the people that harvested the agave or cooked the agave down? Does he have any idea where it comes from? Does he care? 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: No. I think Theon Musk is just hungry to like devour every market that exists. Like he’s got Twitter now. He’s got SpaceX. He’s got Tesla. No. Now he’s got tequila. Like what you doing, man? What are we doing? 

Why consumers looks for more authentic brand that has emotional resonance when buying a product

Guest | Adelaide: 

But people, so it’s turned into, especially with the skincare and things like that. How many? And I don’t know if you’re a Bravo TV fan, but I am. How many Housewives have candles? And skincare and I just cannot wait for, you know, Kyle Richards to come out with her own tequila. Cuz if you’ve watched Beverly Hills, you know, she’s a tequila drinker. We’re, like five minutes away from that.

And that’s really when you know that we’ve reached peak tequila. It’s too many people jumping on the bandwagon trying to take that last little bit of market, last little bit of profit sharing and they’re not doing anything new and interesting. Okay. I get it. You slap your name on another tequila.

Big deal. But what you’re really not doing is you’re not trying to open up a new market or trying to really solve a problem. And I think people are going to get burnt out on it and really start to look for brands that are a little bit more authentic. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Absolutely. And if the pros of celebrity brands are that they have a built-in audience, which from my perspective, that built-in audience is not something that’s gonna become loyal to that brand, like in the case of the 8 1 8 tequila. 

Guest | Adelaide: They’ll buy one bottle. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau:  Yes. It’s fun. It’s trendy. But if the founder is not thoroughly invested and has a passion for the brand, and they’re clearly using their celebrity to promote and profit from that brand, it’s gonna fall flat because there’s no emotional resonance, there’s no feedback, there’s no bouncing back and forth between founder, and community to say, this is what I love so much about this. This is why I care so much about this.

People have nothing to latch onto. It’s just fun and trendy versus something like Kachaça that you’ve created, where it is unique. You have a market for it, but there’s also this very strong, emotional understanding of why you’re creating it. And I can tell you care about creating a product that provides those emotional needs.

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

That’s something that’s gonna withstand the test of time and that even if you have to innovate and reformulate or repackage or rebrand, at any point in the future, You understand the emotional needs of the audience that you’re trying to reach. So I just admire that so much about what you’ve done. And I think also just the branding and marketing acumen that you have is something that we can all pay attention to.

And everybody listening can learn from you because you really did completely carve a brand new career path for yourself and dive into a market that you didn’t have any experience in, but it’s thriving. Like the brand is thriving and it’s only up from here. And so I just wanna thank you so much for coming on and just participating in this conversation.

I had a lot of aha moments. I hope the audience listening did too. Is there anything that you wanna share with The Wild Womn fam? We are all female entrepreneurs, female and female-identifying entrepreneurs. Is there anything that you wanna share from your experience? To give away. 

Building a brand means building an authentic, brand story

Guest | Adelaide: 

I would say it all and this may sound obvious, but it all comes back to the brand story and authenticity and building authenticity into your brand story.

And you, something I’ve had to overcome personally is getting comfortable with putting myself out there and having myself be the kind of intertwined with the brand, builds that story, and builds that authenticity into it. So the more you can, bring yourself into your story, bring your authentic self into the branding and everything. The easier your branding will be, the easier it’ll all become, and the more successful you’ll become because of it. 

Host | Tristan Thibodeau: 

Amazing. All. Thank you so much. And for everybody listening, go check out the Kachaça Spirits website. I’m gonna order a bottle. Go check out Instagram too. Head to Miami, get yourself some C spirits on the beach, and keep an eye out for, you know, lively spirits around the country that I can guarantee this is gonna start popping up.

And so just thank you so much for sharing your story and your expertise with us. 

Guest | Adelaide: Oh, thank you for having me.

Closing…

Host | Tristan Thibodeau:  

And just like that, that is a wrap on another episode of the Wild Womn hotline. I hope you enjoyed today’s conversation with Adelaide Campbell and that you learned a lot about how to find a white space or a gap inside of a heavily, heavily, heavily saturated market.

Ultimately what it takes to differentiate yourself, and stand out, and emotionally appeal to your target audience. I am ordering myself a bottle of Kachaça Spirits as we speak. I am going to sip it and enjoy the energy of carnival. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, I would be so appreciative if you could head on over to apple podcast and either leave us a rating or a review.

And if you do so, we wanna send you a free gift of gratitude. So when you write that review or leave that rating, take a screenshot and email it to podcast@wildwomnhaus.com. And if you are not yet subscribe to the show, girl, what should doing? We post weekly episodes featuring powerful conversations from founders, such as Adelaide.

And I would hate for you to miss out on any of the value that is going to help you grow your brand and create your legacy and your mark on the world. So go ahead. 

Hit that subscribe button. And I will see you back here on next week’s episode of the Wild Womn hotline.