Retail Marketing of Special Walnut Brands

One big marketing strategy is the hope you're not the only brand on the shelf. Mike Poindexter is CEO of a Poindexter Nut Company in Selma. He knows quite a bit about walnut nut marketing. In fact, his Crazy Go Nuts flavored Walnut brand is in grocery stores up and down California and beyond.

“So when we see competitors come in and try and copy what we're doing or other companies trying to offer their own private label version of what we're doing as a producer of that item, I'm kind of frustrated, but as a walnut grower and a walnut marketer, I'm happy to see that that is a sign of a very healthy market,” noted Poindexter

If the demand is robust, then the supplies should be robust. “We're seeing a lot of growth. It's triple to quadruple every year on our flavored snack nut line,” Poindexter said.

Here's an example that Poindexter explain of not being the only brand of a product on the shelf. And it's about Walnut milk. There were no brands on the shelf until recently, and then one brand came in and it was quickly followed by another brand.

“I looked at doing walnut milk. Here's a challenge that I saw is that there wasn't any walnut milk in there, but it would be a very easy add on for the entrenched players to just say, okay, we'll do walnut milk now,” explained Poindexter.

“So if I do all the investing and try and build a market for walnut milk, and then a major food distributor comes in and says, oh, you know what? You proved that walnut milk is successful. Okay. We'll add that to our line. And now we're in all the stores that you're trying to get into. And now you're a nobody,” Poindexter said.