Fresh attempt

Fresh attempt

Armed with a new marketing plan, Salsa Lisa takes new products into untried territory

by Matt Krumrie   By now the fairy-tale story that is Lisa’s Salsa Co. is well known in these parts. A backyard garden with 12 tomato plants led to hundreds of red-ripe tomatoes overflowing in the home of Lisa Nicholson in the early 1990s. Despite every effort to can and preserve these tomatoes, she still couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. So she started experimenting and making her own salsa. Her homemade product was a hit at family gatherings and social events. After some luck (another vendor didn’t show up) she got into the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market — and sold out all 120 jars of her salsa in three hours. Suddenly, this hobby turned into a small-business idea for the aspiring law student.That was 1993. Fast forward to now. Nicholson employs 16 people at her 8,100-square-foot St. Paul  headquarters. That colorful, fresh salsa is now in the refrigerated section of grocery stores in 10 states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania) and Salsa Lisa Real Hot won first place at the 2005 Scovie Awards in the habanero salsa category.That’s right: A blonde Swedish woman from Minnesota who created her own salsa recipe won first place in a national contest held in New Mexico for best-tasting hot salsa in the country.Sales increased 42 percent over the past four years. But Nicholson is now introducing two new products, tomatillo and green chile salsa and a roasted chipotle salsa, and has begun an extensive marketing campaign in Milwaukee as a way to test new methods of selling her products.“We’ve had a really successful run being a word-of-mouth product,” says Nicholson, who has a bachelor’s degree from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. “It’s a social product by nature. It’s at the office party, the neighborhood block party, and that’s how we built most of our business in the Twin Cities.”But the goal is to expand into other markets. Nicholson sent out about 12,000 direct mail advertising pamphlets to residents in the Milwaukee area. She picked Milwaukee out of discussions and insight with an employee from that area, and because of proximity to headquarters.Cheryl Vavricka, principal of Minneapolis-based Vavricka Juntti and Co., is helping Nicholson on that marketing campaign. Vavricka Juntti has provided Nicholson with an extensive communication plan, helped her develop and implement a direct mail initiative, and most recently, a guerilla/grassroots word-of-mouth initiative, “which by all early accounts seems to be extremely successful,” says Vavricka.Salsa Lisa can be found throughout the state at grocery stores such as Cub Foods, Rainbow, Byerly’s and Lunds, as well as in SuperTargets. Many other grocery stores throughout the state also sell the product, and she has recently started selling her salsa in bulk quantity to restaurants. The main appeal of the product is that it’s refrigerated and fresh. Salsa Lisa is made weekly from two tons of fresh tomatoes to custom-fill orders each week. Salsa made on a Tuesday will be in stores on Thursday or Friday.Vavricka says the challenge when marketing salsa is product saturation and the difficulty in breaking through the clutter of choices and ever-increasing marketing and advertising messages.Consumers are becoming numb to traditional marketing and ad messages and unless you have lots and lots of money to spend, it's getting more and more difficult to get their attention, she says. “Salsa Lisa is challenged with the fact that she sells a refrigerated product and people don't naturally think to go to the dairy or deli section of a store to get salsa,” adds Vavricka. “She probably continues to miss out on impulse at-the-shelf buying opportunities as a result.”Salsa in demand
That doesn’t matter to Nicholson’s distributor, Crystal Farms of the Twin Cities, a subsidiary of Michael Foods. Chris Johnson, director of national accounts for Crystal Farms, says people increasingly want freshly made products. Crystal Farms has been in business for over 70 years and was started as an egg manufacturer. The company now specializes in products located in the refrigerated dairy section of grocery stores, such as butter, margarine and cheese. The desire for fresh, refrigerated foods is increasing, and more products are being moved to that section, says Johnson. Walk through a local Cub Foods and you’ll find bagels and peanut butter in the refrigerated section. Crystal Farms is also a distributor of Mission Foods Corp. products, and sells Mission tortillas, taco shells and tortilla chips. Partnering with both made perfect sense, Johnson said.On a Tuesday afternoon in August, Nicholson is on the floor, helping her production workers get the day’s orders out. Hundreds of jars of salsa are being filled. She walks up to her office and sits down to talk about the journey that brought her there.Nicholson says she gets e-mails on a regular basis from aspiring entrepreneurs who want her tips on how to start a business. They have a great fudge recipe, a great chili recipe, and they want her advice.“What they don’t realize is that it’s much easier to have an idea than it is to manufacture that idea,” says Nicholson.Nicholson says she looks at the two new salsas as almost a reward for her customers.“People have been so loyal and so good to us, I just want to make sure we can continue to provide them with something they love,” she says. “Salsa is fun, and we hope we make it fun.”Vavricka sees that determination.“She feels very responsible and wants to make sure she's not letting anyone down,” she says. “I believe that level of appreciation is hard to match by other food-product manufacturers.” She also believes in sharing her brand, says Vavricka. She understands that the goal is to have loyal customers invested, attached and feeling a significant sense of ownership. But at the same time, Nicholson continues to keep things in perspective.“I think for her, it absolutely has to be fun,” says Vavricka.More jars of Salsa Lisa salsa are sold in Minnesota than any other state. That’s not surprising, says Nicholson. People love the homtown-girl-does-good story. Plus, she’s developed her product and brand over time. (The Salsa Lisa label design came from her dabblings during a law school lecture and it’s stayed the same — with tweaks — ever since.)“But other markets won’t give me as much time,” says Nicholson. “We have to create the buzz. We have to introduce the product and give people a taste of it and give them the inside to the type of company we are.”Standing out in the refrigerated section can be difficult, says Mary Kemp Murray of HartungKemp, a Minneapolis design agency that created the packaging for Salsa Lisa’s Tomatillo Green Chile Salsa and Roasted Chipotle Salsa. The package is vital for a smaller brand like Salsa Lisa when competing with mega-brands like Pace, says Kemp Murray, who has also created branding for Land O’Lakes and Johnsonville Sausages, among others. The package is the only “ brand experience” customers have with the product, she adds. It must jump off the shelf and tell consumers something about the brand to make them choose it over the one sitting next to it. “I think much of Lisa's success is Lisa herself,” says Kemp Murray. “Every entrepreneur has to have a drive and understanding of their brand to help push it to the next level. Lisa has that. We have tried to help her maximize her shelf presence and do it so we can maximize her fiscal restraints and challenges.”It’s a challenge Nicholson enjoys.“It’s like we’re almost starting over again,” says Nicholson. “I feel great about our product here in the Twin Cities and in Minnesota and know we have strong momentum. Moving into new markets is a whole new arena. But getting out into other markets and proving us beyond Minnesota is something new we need to do.”[contact] Chris Johnson, Crystal Farms: 952.544.8101; ch***********@**********ds.com. Mary Kemp Murray, HartungKemp: 612.343.8881; ma**@*********mp.com. Lisa Nicholson, Lisa’s Salsa Co.: 651.644.4381; li**@*******sa.com; www.salsalisa.com. Cheryl Vavricka, Vavricka Juntii: 612.335.8865; ch****@************ti.com