Michael Palmer, CEO of McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams since 2012, stepped into his role leading the legacy brand with a mission to breathe new life into an institution that had been delighting ice cream lovers since 1949 — without losing its cool factor.
Taking over a brand with such a rich history was no small feat, so Palmer knew he had to tread carefully by respecting the brand’s deeply loyal following while ushering McConnell's Ice Cream into a new era, including collaborating for charity with fellow Santa Barbarian Katy Perry on the Baby You’re a Firework Blue Raspberry ice cream.
Watch now to learn about revitalizing McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, rethinking social media strategies, and keeping it simple.
Taking over a brand with such a rich history was no small feat, so Palmer knew he had to tread carefully by respecting the brand’s deeply loyal following while ushering McConnell's Ice Cream into a new era, including collaborating for charity with fellow Santa Barbarian Katy Perry on the Baby You’re a Firework Blue Raspberry ice cream.
Watch now to learn about revitalizing McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, rethinking social media strategies, and keeping it simple.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Restaurant Influencers.
00:08I am your host, Sean Walchef.
00:09This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:13In life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator economy, we learn through
00:17lessons and stories.
00:18We are grateful to Toast, the primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants, but also
00:23the sponsor of this show for giving us a stage, a platform, the ability to share stories of
00:29the greatest brands in the hospitality space.
00:32Today we have an awesome guest.
00:36We had a pre-show conversation that I wish I could share, but we're going to dig into
00:40it because storytelling is at the heart of what we do on this show.
00:45If a barbecue business can become a media business, we believe any business can be a
00:49media business.
00:50Today we have CEO Michael Palmer, McConnell's Ice Cream, celebrating 75 years of the iconic
00:58ice cream brand in Southern California.
01:02Also available nationwide.
01:03Michael, welcome to the show.
01:04Hey, thanks very much, Sean.
01:05I'm happy to be here.
01:08Let's start with our favorite random question, which is where in the world is your favorite
01:13stadium, stage, or venue?
01:17That's really easy.
01:20My favorite stadium is absolutely, sorry, I know you're a San Diego guy, Dodger Stadium.
01:26I'm a complete architecture fiend, and that stadium is just a point in time.
01:31It's that Googie architecture, it's sitting down in Chavez Ravine.
01:35It's iconic.
01:36There aren't many iconic stadiums left.
01:38Shea is still out there, and out in Boston, Fenway is still out there.
01:43There's the new Yankee Park, which is beautiful, but there's nothing like, and it's so well-matched
01:48to its city as a piece of architecture and as a focal point for the city, and I'm a huge
01:54Dodger fan.
01:55There are photos of me going back to when I was born in Dodger Stadium, so definitely
01:59there.
02:00Venue?
02:01I'm very partial to outdoor venues, outdoor sheds, and Santa Barbara Bowl.
02:07Now, I happen to live in Santa Barbara, so I'm just a tight, little bit biased there,
02:12but the Santa Barbara Bowl, if you've never been there, is this gorgeous 4,500-plus seat
02:18bowl carved from rock in a canyon, in Mission Canyon in Santa Barbara, originally during
02:27the 30s, during WPA, and then sort of revitalized maybe 15 years ago.
02:31It's a gorgeous outdoor.
02:32It's still intimate, because it's only 4,500 seats, but you get acts coming through there
02:38typically to begin or end their tours, because the stadium can support a full touring rig,
02:45and yet it's very intimate.
02:46So, for instance, I'm a big Radiohead fan, and Radiohead ended their last tour at the
02:51Santa Barbara Bowl.
02:52One of the best shows I've ever seen.
02:53It was pouring rain, and we're all sitting there as the Radiohead was just kicking it
02:57on stage.
02:58So, that great venue, and then there's a third part?
03:02Stage.
03:03Oh, great stage.
03:04So, well, I mean, I'd say that's also a stage.
03:07I used to love the Forum when I was a kid, and you know what?
03:11I had one of the best shows I've ever seen way, way back.
03:14I was really young, and somehow I got my parents to let me go to the Pretenders opening
03:20for The Clash, opening for The Who at the LA Coliseum, and that made any stage great.
03:28I also went to the original Joshua Tree Show at that same venue, at that same stage, and
03:33that was just like this incredible moment in time for music.
03:36So, the Coliseum was pretty great.
03:38Maybe not the best acoustics, but what an amazing stage.
03:41So, we're going to go to the Santa Barbara Bowl.
03:44I'm going to talk to Entrepreneur.
03:45I'm going to talk to Toast.
03:46We'll talk to some other sponsors, and one of the things that we believe in is that we're
03:51so grateful that this show, whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube,
03:56wherever you're listening, wherever you're watching, however you're consuming this content,
04:01we believe that there's people that stay curious, that get involved, that ask for help.
04:06Well, Santa Barbara Bowl, these are going to be people that actually want to move their
04:10business forward, that are actually willing to do the work, but I'm going to have you
04:14do a TEDx-style talk, a keynote, and I'm going to give you the mic, and I'm going to say,
04:20Michael, can you please bring us into the 75 years of McConnell's?
04:25Tell us the story.
04:26You know, McConnell's has a really interesting history in that it is, to my knowledge, one
04:33of the only still family-owned and operated dairy and ice cream operations in the country.
04:40Most of our core competitors in this very small tier at the very top of the ice cream
04:46business have been gobbled up by private equity.
04:49And there's a few, there's one in the Midwest I can think about, maybe a handful of others,
04:53but McConnell's background and history is really unique in that a couple, she was originally
04:59from New Jersey, he was from Arizona, they, after the war, World War II, they moved out
05:08to the Central Coast, really just on a lark.
05:12And Gordon McConnell, he was a pilot in World War II and owned some of the country's first
05:19health food bars prior to the war.
05:21So they were looking for something to do and sort of looking for their slice of the American
05:24dream.
05:26And they move out to the Central Coast, and they're trying to figure out, you know, what
05:29to make of their lives, this young couple.
05:32And they look around, and the Central Coast is, at that point, and still is an area where
05:37you can find amazing year-round dairy, year-round, you know, fruit, nuts, et cetera, et cetera.
05:44And on a random vacation, they were in Mexico eating ice cream after dinner, and he's like,
05:50you know, let's start the greatest ice cream on earth.
05:52Now, what was interesting about this was that this was right after World War II again.
05:57So that was the very beginning of what's called the industrial food complex, when everything
06:02was about bigger and faster and cheaper.
06:06And so things like stabilizers and preservatives and fillers, that was the norm.
06:12That was the way the food business was going.
06:14I mean, fast food was started in response to all of these, the baby boom and all these
06:19soldiers coming back from the war.
06:21Everything needs to be bigger, faster, cheaper, right?
06:24And the McConnells' ethos was exactly diametrically opposed to that.
06:29They wanted to go exactly the opposite direction.
06:33They wanted something that was pristine and authentic and something like you would make
06:37on your porch, but something that they could then turn and serve to the public, right?
06:41They did not want to do any of that, and they thought they could do it.
06:45And they spent a year, you know, working on recipes and working on something that they
06:50thought they could scale.
06:52And they opened up a store in Santa Monica, excuse me, in Santa Barbara.
06:56I was thinking about another one of our stores.
06:59Shows how tired I am today, Sean.
07:01They opened up this store, and it really was very successful from the get-go.
07:06And over the years, it just started getting out the word that this little tiny ice cream
07:13company from Santa Barbara was doing something really different from any other company around.
07:19And the product was hailed in the press, and people would stop by the store on their way
07:26to from Santa Barbara and along the coast.
07:30And gradually, it got bigger and bigger.
07:33And it's by no means a large company, but, you know, still quite small, particularly
07:37in comparison to our competition.
07:41But it is the finest.
07:43That was the ethos that drove the product when Gordon and Ernestine started the company,
07:47and that was the ethos that we share as the third family to run the company.
07:52So that was the origin.
07:55When did you become CEO?
07:57So I became CEO in 2012.
07:59And mine and Eva's involvement came about very crazily.
08:06So our house burned down in a massive wildfire here in Santa Barbara.
08:11And at the time, I was running the West Coast for a pretty highly regarded branding agency
08:16based in the Midwest.
08:18And I was on the road three weeks a month often and working with primarily Fortune 50
08:25companies.
08:26So it was quite a bit of a grind.
08:30And I was sort of segwaying out of that.
08:33And at the same time, 2011-12 timeframe, Jim McCoy, who at the time was running McConnell's,
08:41he was in ill health.
08:44And the company wasn't doing all that great, to be fair and honest.
08:48And what typically happens with a company in that condition and in that situation is
08:55the vultures start to circle and the company gets picked up for book value, if there is
08:59any value, and the product gets watered down and they try to expand.
09:05And more often than not, everything just crashes and you never hear about it again.
09:10But it was really important to Jim, as it was to the McConnell's prior to his ownership,
09:16that this thing continue.
09:17And sure enough, the company was going bankrupt and the vultures were circling.
09:22And he called me just randomly.
09:24He knew I was in branding.
09:25He knew my wife was a chef.
09:26He also knew that I was a winemaker.
09:28And he thought, I don't know what caused him to do this, but he calls me on a Thursday
09:31and says, you want to talk about this because we're probably going to sell it this weekend.
09:35And it's a very long story.
09:37But I went over and talked to him and there he is in bed, not doing so well.
09:42And it's sort of very movie-esque.
09:45And in about three short days, we made a deal for Eva and I to become the third family to
09:50run McConnell's.
09:52And I eventually segued over the next year or so out of my job and became the full-time
09:58CEO of this business.
10:00Do not skip this ad.
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10:33Please send us a message so that we can share your toast story today.
10:39Bring me back to what did you like about branding?
10:43This is a brand.
10:44We talk about brand all the time.
10:46You took over an iconic brand.
10:47Tell me about your background in branding.
10:49Well, it's funny.
10:50Let me first say that in these days, everyone's in branding.
10:54Everyone thinks they know what branding is.
10:56A lot of people think it's a logo or a color scheme.
10:59That was not my training at all.
11:00That's not the way I think about branding.
11:04To me, a brand ultimately is everything that tries to erase the space between the consumer
11:11and the checkout counter.
11:16You're trying to differentiate yourself, certainly, in the market, but also you're trying to adhere
11:21to whether it's the values or the ethos or whatever that that product, brand, company,
11:27et cetera stands for.
11:32What I loved about McConnell's was also the most difficult thing about McConnell's, which
11:37is that in many ways, it's easier to originate a brand.
11:42I want to start a new ... We're both out of food.
11:46I want to start a new barbecue company.
11:47I'm going to start it in Santa Barbara and I'm going to bring in the things about Santa
11:52Barbara that I think are relevant to this, whatever it is I'm doing, and then I'm going
11:57to try to broaden that to bring in my consumer base.
12:00I'm going to do all the things that we both understand, that your listenership understands.
12:06It's harder, I think, much harder, to take an existing brand, the one that's been chugging
12:13along for years and years, and at that time, it was 60-something years, 62 years, 63 years,
12:20and pivot it because, among other things, you're dealing with a built-in consumer base
12:25and people don't like change.
12:27We all know that.
12:29People get rooted into what they like.
12:30They think it's the best or it's their best, but generally, people don't like change.
12:36It's very hard to take a brand, whether it's beaten down or in very good shape, and just
12:40pivot.
12:41It's funny.
12:43Sometimes, in conversations with people, I say that the most successful thing we've done
12:47at McConnell is because we've made a lot of mistakes, and we've made some good decisions
12:53also, but one of the most successful things we did over the first, let's call it, three
12:58years, four or five years, is make the current consumer base, which was not huge, but very
13:05dedicated.
13:06I mean, this brand inspires insanity.
13:11Make those people think we did nothing at all.
13:15That was the key, is how do we bring along, gently bring along this consumer base as we
13:20broaden the consumer base?
13:22I think we relatively successfully accomplished that, and yet, what we did, myself, but also
13:32this whole team at McConnell's, very small team at McConnell's, is we changed everything.
13:38McConnell's was a great product, but it was older, it was highly inconsistent, there hadn't
13:42been much CapEx put into the business.
13:45The freezers needed updating, the equipment needed updating, some of the recipes needed
13:49updating.
13:51It needed to be the product that sort of McConnell's always said it was and wanted to be, but maybe
13:56they just didn't have the resources.
13:57What we did is what people generally don't do, is we capitalized the business, which
14:01you had to do, right?
14:04We completely overhauled the manufacturing operation, because one of the other things
14:08as a sidebar is, and you know this because you're in what you do, is being in the manufacturing
14:15business, especially in food and especially in dairy, is scary.
14:19That's why most companies no longer manufacture it, because they get code packers to build
14:22their products, right?
14:24But McConnell's history was as a manufacturer, so that was something important to us to continue,
14:28but being a manufacturer is scary because you're really not in the food business, you're
14:33in the food safety business.
14:36And in dairy, you know, if you're if you have a compromised immune system or you're pregnant
14:40or you're among the elderly, there's stuff in dairy that things go sideways, it'll kill
14:46you or make you very sick.
14:48So we were we were very conscious about that.
14:52But you have to remember, I came from branding and winemaking, Eva came from food like
14:55restaurants. We didn't know anything about dairy.
14:58So we tried to reach out to people who could really help us.
15:01We brought someone in early who was a dairy expert who really helped us along in that
15:04in those early stages.
15:06And we just looked at the product very hard.
15:10And we said, you know, who does this want to be?
15:12Who is this brand?
15:13And I would also tell you that in those terms that McConnell's at the time, which was
15:18only in about on the CPG side, only in about six doors, six.
15:24Yeah, like literally six doors locally, for the most part, and a little bit in Los
15:28Angeles.
15:30It was the ugliest CPG product on Earth.
15:34I mean, I mean, I mean, kudos to whoever designed it, but it was a purple
15:39pint with a gold lid and skirt with this very sort of
15:43antiquated but not cute font and and just a weird
15:48gesture drawing of the Santa Barbara mission.
15:50It was bizarre. Like it was very strange for me.
15:53It didn't really it didn't really smell like the brand, so to speak.
15:58So part of this was getting together with my my other partner, Tom Stanley.
16:02Tom and I would go away and we did what we always do with any product, which is we.
16:08We knew where we wanted to be relative to the platform and the brand's
16:13attributes and messages.
16:29Back to get back to a because you kind of have to look at what you are
16:34and you kind of have to like really feel it.
16:37And it's a huge process to actually really build a brand, even a brand that's been around at the time
16:42again for 63 years and make sure you you're doing it justice and not
16:47take away from those things that make it powerful or potentially powerful.
16:51And so we did that and it took us months and months.
16:54And what you see today on the on the shelves at your local market or any of our
16:59McConnell stores, which are really the architectural sort of example or architectural
17:04representation of what the package is, you'll notice our color palette and our surfaces
17:09and finishes are all very consistent.
17:11What you see today is largely exactly what Tom and I came up with in 2012, 13.
17:17So your team sent us the celebratory 75 year
17:23four flavors. I got that sent.
17:25We have an unboxing video that we'll put a link in the show notes for.
17:30My kids absolutely loved it.
17:31My wife loved it. I loved it.
17:33Can you talk about bringing back these retro flavors, these four flavors?
17:36I mean, I think from a branding perspective and a storytelling perspective,
17:41I've been to Santa Barbara, I want to say twice.
17:44And for some reason, when this potential
17:48interview came across my email.
17:51I seem to remember the ice cream shop, like I seem to remember, I don't remember
17:56much about visiting Santa Barbara, but then when it came to my home, you've done
18:01such a good job on the branding side of evoking that feeling
18:05of evoking Santa Barbara in a box.
18:08And then we actually got to try it.
18:12Can you talk about these, you know, this decision to go back to these four retro
18:15flavors and which one of the four four retro flavors?
18:19So the four retro flavors are sweet cream, which
18:23essentially is the best representation for the McConnell's brand.
18:27There is on a product side, right? It's our base.
18:30It's the ice cream that we make every other flavor from.
18:34Right. And it's basically three ingredients.
18:36You know, it's milk, it's dairy. So milk and cream.
18:38It's organic sugar and it's egg yolks.
18:41Right. That's what it is.
18:42It's the cleanest product in the business.
18:44Right. And and because it's so clean,
18:48and because it's sort of the genesis for everything else that we do
18:53and because we used to find it years ago, but no longer do,
18:57mostly because retailers really they want to market vanilla.
19:02Sweet cream is hard to understand. Right.
19:03So we market our vanilla. They're not going to stock both.
19:05Right. They're not going to stock three coffees, even though we make three coffees
19:08or three chocolates, et cetera.
19:10Anyways, because we used to find it, we thought, OK, we've got to first
19:14and foremost, you know, represent who we are.
19:17And that is this exquisite, authentic sort of pure,
19:21for lack of a better term, virginal version of McConnell's.
19:24It's just it's the essence of who we are.
19:26The next one is our Dutch chocolate or Dutchman's chocolate, which is our medium
19:30chocolate. We used to pint it, but, you know, we've gone in different directions.
19:33You know, a brand is not static.
19:35It evolves. And while we love that flavor, you know,
19:39we've gotten into other areas and realize that chocoholics like me, for instance,
19:43they like certain things. They tend to run in packs and they like certain things.
19:46So that we stopped finding that chocolate.
19:48But that's come back. You know, a third one
19:52is our black coffee chips.
19:54So we're kind of known for our coffee ice creams.
19:57In fact, in fact, my desert island McConnell's flavor is our coffee ice cream.
20:01Amazing. Used to be called Turkish coffee.
20:04It's now just called coffee.
20:06But on one Friday, maybe two years after we
20:09came in McConnell's, I was in the dairy with
20:13with the head of the plant, the head of the head ice cream maker, Mike.
20:16And I said, what would it be if we took that special chip we do?
20:19Because all of our chip flavors, we don't just pour in chips.
20:22We take this incredible chocolate from Guitard Chocolate up in San
20:26Francisco and we melt it down and we add it melted to the almost frozen
20:30ice cream. So it shatters.
20:32So you don't get this feeling of chips in your mouth.
20:34It's more inconsistent, like big, small.
20:36That's also where ice cream companies really cheat is they'll buy like waxy,
20:39crappy chocolate. And this chocolate is amazing.
20:41Right. So I said, what if we combine that chocolate chip in our best coffee,
20:46my opinion, best coffee ice cream?
20:47And he's like, we can do that in a half an hour because we're running that flavor.
20:51So that's how long that one took to to bring out.
20:54And, you know, we pined it for a bit as a special and then it kind of went away
20:57because, you know, again, you can only stock so many if you're a grocery store.
21:01And then the last one.
21:04What was the last one? Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara.
21:08Yeah. So McConnell's, you know,
21:11at the end of the day is all about the Central Coast.
21:15And a lot of companies talk about local and local ingredients have become like a
21:19marketing term, like, you know, with Whole Foods 15 years ago, local this local
21:22foragers. And it's great. And we all know why.
21:25And I don't need to digress. But but one of the things that McConnell's our dairy,
21:29which is in which is about a half an hour southeast of Santa Barbara in Oxnard,
21:34literally is three or four blocks away from strawberry fields.
21:37And that between here and there, that's strawberry country for California.
21:41So and our strawberry ice cream because of that is just insane.
21:45Right. It's it's just it's top of the heat.
21:48So we again, not a flavor we pint.
21:52Currently, we do make it in bulk. So for our stores, but it's a really beloved flavor.
21:56So we thought, OK, that's obviously one that's about our place.
22:00And this and like you said, you know, you remembered the ice cream store from your two
22:05times in Santa Barbara. And we are as much as we are a national brand.
22:09We are of this place. And that's that's a key thing about McConnell's that I don't
22:12think other most other ice cream share ice cream company share.
22:16So can you share your philosophy with social
22:20media, the brand, how it shows up on social? What are you what are you guys trying to
22:24evoke? How are you going about it? Yeah, I mean, so we were talking a little
22:29bit before we came on today about how it didn't just happen.
22:33Right. This has been going for a while, but the it seems to me and I'm no expert
22:38on social media. Right. I wish I was, but.
22:43Social media has gotten to be about how loud you are.
22:47Whether it's, you know, Instagram or Snap or any of the other platforms out there or
22:51take certainly tick tock, it's, you know, how much of it how much can we beat the
22:55audience over the head? How loud can we be?
22:57Because that in being louder, theoretically, we can stand out.
23:02But I think at some point you have to consider the fact that maybe that's not the
23:06answer. And, you know, we're a small company.
23:09We're much smaller than our competitors.
23:12And so maybe and I'm not sure this is true, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
23:16Maybe the key is not to be louder.
23:18Maybe the key is to be quieter and then just tell the story or your
23:23story better than they're telling it.
23:25Or at least tell what makes your story unique and different and then
23:30tell it again and again and again and again and again and then try to tell it in
23:35in platforms and in ways that other people aren't telling that story.
23:41And so that's my, I guess, philosophy, even though I'm not sure I'd call it a
23:44philosophy, but I'd love to hear what you think about it at some point.
23:47No, I think, you know, part of the reason that we do this show is we want to talk to
23:51the best storytellers, the best brands on Earth that are doing things that are
23:56different and unique. And to your point, I don't think that louder is better.
24:00We do believe that the fear that most people have as a brand, no matter the size of
24:06the brand, whether it's a small startup, single unit, you know, catering company or
24:11food truck all the way up to, you know, the biggest the biggest companies, restaurant
24:15groups that we have. And I, you know, I'm I have to pinch myself for the people that
24:20we get to talk to on this show, that we get to have a seat at the table.
24:23But we're living through this incredible age where you can write a love letter, you
24:27know, and by write a love letter, I mean you can use audio, video, words and images on
24:32social media. And we remove the logo because when you start to think of a logo, all of
24:38a sudden you have these subjective feelings towards tick tock or Facebook or
24:42Instagram. Once I say those words, each person that's listening to this or watching
24:47this feels a certain way about each platform.
24:49We remove the logo and all that we care about is the truth and the story.
24:53And to your point, we believe that every single business has stories that they've
25:01overlooked. They're wise.
25:03Why did they open up the business?
25:05Why did they name the business what they named it?
25:07Why is there an orange tree at the front of the restaurant?
25:09We have an orange tree that I just recently started speaking about.
25:13And I'm somebody that talks about social media all the time.
25:15But we have an orange tree that literally my grandfather and my uncle planted at our
25:21restaurant that's survived so many different things.
25:24There was a point where we were literally going to remove the orange tree because we
25:27were adding more smokers for our barbecue restaurant.
25:30And my wife said, no, your grandfather planted it.
25:32And she saved that orange tree.
25:35Like, is it weird where it's located?
25:37Yeah, it's weird, but it's also a story.
25:39And I believe that every business has an orange tree story that they need to do a
25:44better job of using social media, not to get hundreds of thousands, because a hundred
25:48thousand people probably won't care.
25:50But the people that do care are the people that you talked about in the beginning.
25:54In the beginning, you talked about those core people that believe in McConnell's.
25:58And how do you not change?
26:00Well, you don't change by continuing to tell that story, that truth.
26:03Yeah. I mean, look, I wrestle with this all the time because relative to our competitive
26:08set, you know, we're we don't have the capital.
26:10Right. Yeah.
26:11And there's no one I know who does what we do or what you do that doesn't want to be
26:18the viral sensation.
26:19Sure. Like we all want we all want, for whatever reason, the world to pick up on our
26:25story and vault us into the stratosphere of success.
26:29Right. But but that's why it's called viral, because it's alchemy.
26:33We can't control it.
26:34Right. You know, we have no control over some random piece of press or something.
26:40I mean, most press ends up on the bottom of a parakeet's cage a couple of days hence,
26:44you know, so it's the press has this gaping maw for content.
26:50You know, the press, you need to constantly fill that mouth full of content.
26:54So so so trying to do something, quote unquote, viral, you're not going to do it.
26:58I mean, you may do it, but it's highly unlikely you can make that happen.
27:02I think I think it's really what you said.
27:04I think it's that you have to find the things about your company, business, brand,
27:11et cetera, that you can own that nobody else owns, whether it's an orange tree, you
27:17know, next to your smokers or the fact that you are a legitimate, best in class
27:22California heritage brand like McConnell's is.
27:26And, you know, and then you have to lean into those things and then hope and hope and
27:31hope that they make a difference to people.
27:33I mean, the hardest thing for both of us and for small companies is that that's sort
27:39of where our control ends.
27:41Correct. Like and the truth is, we're both and maybe me to a slightly higher degree
27:46than you. Like I'm in a business where I have to gain mass acceptance because, you
27:51know, look, I'm selling ice cream for a living.
27:52You got to sell a lot of it. I'm not selling Ferraris.
27:55Yeah. You know, this is not Ferraris.
27:57Right. If it was Ferraris, I could sell like 30 a year and like we're doing really
28:00well, but I'm not selling Ferraris.
28:03So so so I have to fight for every sale because their sale is critical to the life of
28:10my company. You know, and so but but at the same time, I have to kind of I have no
28:15other choice but to lean into the things that we can know.
28:18So that's what we do.
28:19What have you learned about consumer packaged goods that you can pass off to?
28:25We have a big, large restaurant audience, people that are very interested in how do
28:29you get alternative revenue streams?
28:31Obviously, we're a restaurant business that created a media business.
28:34It's an alternative revenue stream for us.
28:36That's why we do this show. But consumer packaged goods is also something that is top
28:40of mind. Any lessons learned or stories that you can share?
28:43So many. I mean, so one of the things that's changed and this may only be L.A.
28:48County and it may be California, I'm not sure, is that the rules around what you can
28:53and can't sell at farmers markets and whatnot has changed.
28:55You can now do things in a family kitchen or a home kitchen or a commercial kitchen
29:00and then market them, sell them in at farmers markets.
29:04And that's a great platform to at least gain some understanding of what your of what
29:08your sales proposition is and and who your audience is and try to lean into those
29:13things. That's at the base level.
29:14Right. But there's no it's no secret.
29:18The the CPG world is a labyrinth, OK, of of difficult to navigate channels and
29:28financially and and in terms of promotion and in terms of, you know, packaging and
29:36you name it, it is a labyrinth.
29:38And and the the teachings that come out of, you know.
29:44You know, a few decades of this are not easily won, you know, or or the or the you
29:49know, they're not easily learned, let's put it that way.
29:53And I continue I continue to be on that sort of pathway of learning.
29:58I mean, I think that it's very similar to the last subject we talked about, which is
30:02that you have to really embrace your brand and what makes it different and tell that
30:07unique story. And it has to.
30:10And so your packaging has to evoke that story.
30:13I mean, our I can speak to our space specifically.
30:16So when we repackaged McConnell's, I would go all over the place and look in these
30:22doors and you automatically have a barrier and ice cream look in these doors and you
30:26automatically have a barrier and ice cream because you have this glass door in front
30:29of you, right? Or worse, you have a coffin freezer, you know, that you're looking down
30:34on. And that's the worst.
30:35Right. And that glass door, you know, the consumer doesn't really want to open it.
30:40You know, it's cold. So they open it for a couple of minutes.
30:42They grab what they grab and they get the heck out of there.
30:44Right. So with let's call it two seconds of opportunity, you have to find a way to
30:50differentiate yourself on the on, you know, on the shelf.
30:53And so I remember distinctly early on the process looking at this, you know, in some
30:58cases, you know, door after door after door of products.
31:01And most of it was populated with just all manner of brands, lurid colors.
31:07And then there was a trend where in the ice cream space, brands would have a certain
31:12color package for each flavor, thinking that the consumer would notice, oh, brown,
31:19that's my flavor. That's chocolate.
31:20That's my flavor. Take it home.
31:21And maybe they had some success, maybe not.
31:24But I thought what it created was just a storm.
31:27And there there's something on the front of storm.
31:29I was going to say another word, a blank storm of of a mess in the you know, behind
31:36those doors. Just all this lurid color and over design and too much text and too much
31:42of everything, too much of everything.
31:44So knowing who McConnell's was, if you could personify that brand, a big part of what we
31:49were doing is like lean into who we are as a brand.
31:52Yeah. And then put that on the shelf and look who we are as a brand.
31:55We're lucky, I think, in that regard, because we're mid century.
31:59We are very simple relative to ingredients.
32:03We're very sort of pure in that regard.
32:06We're very direct.
32:07You know, we're very clear and simple.
32:10You know, we used to we used to say that simple is the hardest thing we do because it's
32:14much harder to make products like ours with three ingredients than it is to fill it full
32:19of stabilizer. But that's also, you know, our wheelhouse.
32:22That's what we do.
32:24So so that that resulted in a pint that was utterly distinct from anything on the shelf
32:29at the time. Right.
32:31Which is that white pint with notes of sort of charcoal and red.
32:34And those are the brand colors you see again in our stores and in everything else we do.
32:38So so that's what dictated our packaging.
32:41I mean, it's that simple.
32:43But the process of getting there was far from simple.
32:46So every single week on Wednesday and Friday, if you're listening to this podcast, if
32:51you're watching this, we want you to join us on LinkedIn.
32:54We're building a community, a digital hospitality community.
32:57It's a chance for you to share your story.
32:59So please join us. It's 10 a.m.
33:01and 1 10 a.m.
33:02Pacific Time, 1 p.m.
33:04Eastern Time, Wednesday, Friday.
33:05You can follow at Cali BBQ Media for links to the room.
33:10McConnell's ice cream.
33:11What's the best place for people to buy ice cream?
33:14How many places? How many how many locations are you available?
33:16How many stores? I mean, look, scoop shops or both, both, both.
33:21So I have so back to front.
33:23I have no idea how many doors we're in.
33:25A lot. We're in a lot of doors.
33:27I mean, it's I wish we were in four times as many doors, you know, but you can find us
33:32from New York to I mean, look, you know, we don't make cheap ice cream.
33:35So there are places in the country that are going to market our products.
33:38But, you know, safe, safe to say that, you know, California is what McConnell's is all
33:43about. California's our core market.
33:45So you can find us, you know, you know, in a lot of places, whether it is your Whole
33:50Foods or Gelson's down south where you are or New Seasons or New Leaf
33:56or, you know, most of the most of the better markets, also some of the Kroger labels, you
34:01know, things like that. Lazy Acres is a personal favorite.
34:03They've started in Santa on the scoop shot side.
34:07You know, our goal was never to be everywhere.
34:11Our goal is to really lean into what we are, which is a California heritage brand.
34:16And so to that end, we don't really at this point have too many plans to open stores in
34:22Houston and on and like Orlando and Boston and the like.
34:27We're going to leave that up to our competition, you know, all of whom are private
34:30equity out. So we are not.
34:32So they have all the capital in the world to open scoop shops everywhere and manage
34:36those so that they can sell their companies as soon as possible.
34:40We're our models a little different.
34:41We're sort of the way I see it, you know, those say three or four companies are all in
34:45the sandbox punching each other in the face for an exit.
34:48And we're sort of way over here on the side as the only manufacturer among them going,
34:53hey, our business is a lot more complicated, but we are a California heritage brand.
34:57And we're really going to concentrate mostly on California when it comes to scoop
35:01shops. So that's what we're really working on from the San Diego area all the way up
35:05to San Francisco.
35:07That's awesome. Well, if you guys want to keep in touch with me, it's at Sean P.
35:10Walsh, FSH, WNP, WALCHEF, that's on Instagram, that's on LinkedIn, all the
35:17platforms. Please try some McConnell's ice cream.
35:20Tag me in the in you and join some of the McConnell's ice cream.
35:26We would love to see it.
35:27We'd love to reshare that.
35:29Michael, is there any parting words of wisdom you'd like to share with our audience?
35:33Yeah, I mean, go visit Sean's barbecue places.
35:35I heard they're awesome.
35:37We can't wait to host you at our barbecue places.
35:41I'm a huge barbecue fan.
35:42Everybody knows me, knows that.
35:43So, yeah, I think we need to get together and eat some barbecue and drink some beer
35:47probably and then have some McConnell's afterwards.
35:49Bring me some coffee, ice cream.
35:50You got a deal. I mean, I mean, of course.
35:53How about absolutely.
35:54All right. You got a deal.
35:56Great. Thank you, guys.
35:58We appreciate it. We will catch you next week.
36:00As always, stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help.
36:03We'll catch you all next week.
36:05Thank you for listening to Restaurant Influencers.
36:08If you want to get in touch with me, I am weirdly available at Sean P.
36:12WALCHEF, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
36:17Cali Barbecue Media has other shows.
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