Tara Bosch had a sweet tooth, but didn’t want to give up candy—just the negative health effects that came with it. So, in 2016, she embarked on a mission to lower the amount of sugar in her favorite gummies and treats from her childhood. After dropping out of university, she launched SmartSweets, a company that recreates classic recipes with a fraction of the sugar.
Tara Bosch had a sweet tooth, but didn’t want to give up candy—just the negative health effects that came with it. So, in 2016, she embarked on a mission to lower the amount of sugar in her favorite gummies and treats from her childhood. After dropping out of university, she launched SmartSweets, a company that recreates classic recipes with a fraction of the sugar.
Finding the right manufacturing partners was a long and intricate process for Tara. Taking the sugar out of a product that’s typically made with a lot of it was a tricky process, and the manufacturers struggled with the formulations.
“It was something so foreign to them that most of their machinery wasn’t built to run our recipes,” Tara said in an interview with Shopify Masters. Despite the challenges, Tara was confident in the potential her business had, and she eventually found a partner that was willing to take a chance on her.
Today, SmartSweets can be found in over 150,000 retailers, including Whole Foods, Target, and CVS. Tara wanted to initiate partnerships with larger national retailers from day one, and she used social media to drive traffic to stores and deliver high value to its retail partnerships. The brand has a combined reach of almost one million followers across social media platforms, where they engage their audience to vote on new products or share input for which stores to launch into next.
SmartSweets has also developed more than a dozen delicious and innovative candies, such as gummies, lollipops, caramels, and jolly treats. To maintain relationships with national retailers, Tara recommends having someone from the team that can connect and take time to have authentic conversations.
The brand has also leveraged its social media channels to gain celebrity partnerships, such as Megan Trainer’s music video “Made You Look,” and Kourtney Kardashian’s Poosh Holiday Gift Basket. Tara says that when it comes to celebrity partnerships, they never reach out with a cold call, they wait to see who’s already enjoying the product.
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Sources: https://www.shopify.com/blog/smart-sweets-retail-celebrity-partnerships
