Blender Bombs: Shaking Up the Smoothie Industry
Published on November 18, 2020, at 10:15 p.m.
by Emie Garrett.
“Blend ’em, Break ‘em, Bite ‘em.” With fun, brightly colored packaging, interesting flavors and ingredient lists that do not leave customers wondering what questionable things might be lurking in its products, Blender Bombs, a South Carolina-based company, is quickly making a name for itself in the booming health and wellness industry.
According to its website, the Blender Bombs products were “born out of the kitchen” of Helen Hall back in 2017. After Hall gained an unwanted 30 pounds in college, she began cycling through different fad diets and depleting workouts, only to slip back into old routines. Hall eventually “found balance through replacing one meal a day” with a Blender Bomb smoothie — before her Blender Bombs were officially created — and “practicing an 80/20 plant-based lifestyle.”
But what exactly are Blender Bombs, and what is the company all about?
Blender Bombs are nutrient-dense balls made with whole and plant-based ingredients. The “bombs” can be used to enhance smoothies — boosting them with healthy fats, fiber and protein — eaten alone as a quick snack or enjoyed crumbled over a bowl of oatmeal. The product line carries the “Original Bomb,” along with six other creative flavors like “Mint & Cacao Chip,” “Aloe & Irish Sea Moss” and “Sunflower & Coconut.” The company also recently released its “Cannabomb,” a blender bomb created with full spectrum hemp extract, which has become a star ingredient in the health, beauty and wellness industries in recent years.
Since the company’s conception in 2017, Blender Bombs has grown at a rapid pace. What started as a lone product grew into an entire product line, which has now turned into a flourishing business with multiple product collections, like its “Bomb Butter” and “Bomb Drizzle” lines — both nutritious smoothie and meal-boosting products.
Branding
After a total company rebrand in 2019, Blender Bombs dove headfirst into 2020, expanding its interests in the digital marketing world and moving into wholesale, which led to a deal with Whole Foods grocery stores, where its products can now be found on shelves nationwide.
“We have come so far since the beginning [of Blender Bombs], especially with our branding,” said Kayla Braun, Blender Bombs’ director of public relations. “Our founder, Helen, designed the original branding and color theme, but as we grew and became a bigger company we decided to do a total rebrand in 2019.”
Along with the rebrand, the Blender Bombs team also integrated digital marketing into their communication strategy with the help of a digital advertising agency, which has helped the company grow significantly, according to Braun.
Social media and influencer marketing
Social media, particularly Instagram, has played a pivotal role in Blender Bombs’ connecting and building relationships with consumers. With an Instagram following of 48,900 and counting, one might think it would be painstaking to listen to, read and respond to every customer need, question or concern. But not for the Blender Bombs team.
“We love our customers! We take so much pride in the fact that we put our customers first. We are sure to respond to every single DM, email, Instagram comment, Facebook message, all of it! If a message is missed, it is a total accident,” said Braun.
While the Blender Bombs team can typically be caught catching up with customers virtually over Instagram and other social platforms, they also hold regular pop-up shops in grocery stores. Braun said, “Having pop-ups helps us to actually meet and connect with some of our customers!”
Another way Blender Bombs connects with audiences is through its “Bombassador” program. A bombassador is a Blender Bombs ambassador, and individuals with 1,000 or more Instagram followers can apply for the program. “We send free product each month to each of the accepted bombassadors in exchange for at least three posts per month using a unique code,” explained Stewart Parkhurst, Blender Bombs’ marketing manager. “We analyze success rates of the bombassador’s efforts by tracking how many times their code is used each month.”
With 150 bombassadors currently partnering with Blender Bombs, the team is now planning to implement a paid influencer program. Parkhurst provided details about the new program: “This (paid influencer program) entails us sending product and unique codes to micro influencers (3,000-75,000 followers), after an agreement. We then pay these influencers 20% of the sales they generate from their code used each month.”
What’s next?
Blender Bombs has grown exponentially in its short life, because while 2020 has felt like the longest year ever lived, 2017 was not all that long ago. In its almost four years of operation, Blender Bombs has greatly expanded its product range, created strong relationships with consumers, and successfully entered the wholesale market by landing a national deal with Whole Foods among others, and more. But, what’s next for this small business wunderkind?
Braun said that looking forward, Blender Bombs will be focused on actively working with its digital advertising agency to deepen relationships with its current customer base as well as cultivate new relationships outside of its key audiences, “Our key audience is women but we would love to be able to reach more men as well,” said Braun.
The Blender Bombs team is also looking to share more about the brand with consumers through TikTok. “We really want to find a way to make TikTok work for us and use it to tell our brand story,” said Parkhurst. “We love putting behind-the-scenes content of our team and business on social media. … We feel like our customers are our friends, and we like to include more of what we do for Blender Bombs, in addition to all things Blender Bombs itself.”
While some may look at Blender Bombs’ journey so far and see a quick and easy success story, it has taken a lot of hard work and determination from the Blender Bombs team to arrive at their current destination and to create the momentum propelling the brand forward — and it does not look like that momentum will be running out any time soon.
