Stephanie Stuckey | Remix of an Iconic Brand

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome back, everyone to the why Marketing podcast. I'm Rusty Pepper and I'm excited to bring you a spotlight episode this week. It's actually an episode that we did earlier this year with Stephanie Stuckey, the CEO of Stuckey's. You know, that iconic roadside oasis famous for those delicious pecan log rolls. In all seriousness, it is a great conversation. Stephanie is really a rock star out there across social media these days. She's done amazing things honoring her family's legacy in business and thought it would be fun just to re share that episode with everyone because I do believe that there is a lot of great lessons learned there when it comes to marketing, the entrepreneurial spirit and the power of building brand. So without further ado, our past episode was Stephanie Stuckey. We're going to kick it off with a quick speed round just to get to know you a little bit better. Okay, these first three questions are going to be for you and John, there are surprises for him as well. Uh, and the last few are gonna be for you.

Speaker B: All right, I'm ready.

Speaker A: Sneakers or sandals?

Speaker B: Sneakers. Keds in particular.

Speaker A: Keds. Okay.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm all about brands. Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, okay.

Speaker C: I have, huh. You know, people have sneaker collections and I mean, I have mine, but man, I have flip flops. Reef flip flops are my go to and they are on all the time. So I get those nice little tan lines you be across my feet.

Speaker B: You can wear sneakers everywhere any time of the year. Any occasion, you can wear a sneaker. So maybe it's a nod to sneakers.

Speaker C: Maybe it's my subconscious that I want to be walking on the beach somewhere. So.

Speaker A: Well, then you're going to like this next question. Amusement park or a day at the beach?

Speaker B: Amusement park. Come on, that's like Americana. Get a beach anywhere. Amusement parks are just so uniquely American and kitschy and fun and just the best people watching, you know, on an

Speaker C: annual basis, I will always say beach because I'm a water person. In general. However, I will never forget I hadn't been to Disney World since I was 10 years old. And then I took my, I think at the time, uh, seven and five year old to Disney World and I think I had more fun there than they did. So, uh, I think it's more take some time and then go back and then you appreciate it more maybe. But I beach all the time.

Speaker B: I want to add a caveat to my amusement park. A little asterisk at the bottom. And that is I don't like the big, really super popular Disney amusement Parks. I like the out of the way small ones. My favorite as a kid was one that's now a, uh, shopping mall. It was called Six Gun Territory in Florida. And it was really small. They were grateful to have you there. And people would. They had these stuntmen and women who would fake out, uh, shoot out at the OK Corral. It was so much fun. And, you know, the entire place would have, like, 30 people. So I like these tiny little amusement parks that are really fun and unique and different.

Speaker A: I'm a big amusement park fan, so I'm with you on this one. Stephanie Beach. No way. I'll take an amusement park and rides all day long. And I like the bigger, the scarier, the older wood rides. Awesome.

Speaker B: Yes. And I'm somewhat obsessed with closed ones, like these ghost amusement parks. There are a few of them out there, and there's like a whole YouTube video culture around them. And it's fascinating to me. Like, these former places and what are

Speaker A: they now you're talking about massive real estate, massive investments. All of a sudden, they just shuttered. So.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, next question. What series are you currently addicted to?

Speaker B: I have to say I rarely watch tv. I work a lot, and when I'm not working, I watch YouTube videos that are related to what I'm doing. Having said that, I did watch every episode of Schitt's Creek, and I loved it. I'm not watching it anymore, but it was like, that was awesome. Potato chips for me. Right? You just can't eat one. I would, you know, I would have. I would watch it so often that Netflix would flash up, are you still there? And I'm like, of course I'm still here. I haven't left my couch in hours. I've watched three episodes in a row. So I love, uh, Eugene Levy and Dan Levy. They're just brilliant. And I mean, the whole cast. I spent a week trying to talk like Moira, uh, Myra. I'm probably mispronouncing her name, but I love that show. Moira. Moira. She was amazing. What amazing characters and dialogue and plot development. Just. It's a great show.

Speaker C: Ah, I did like that show. But, uh, I like period, uh, series. And so probably, uh, the last one, and I just started watching again just because it was so good, was Vikings. So, um, I like period stuff.

Speaker A: Interesting. I didn't really peg you for that.

Speaker C: I'm, uh, a bit of a. Bit of a closet history buff.

Speaker A: I'm gonna go with Cobra Kai. All right. I'm going back to the 80s, pulling it out Seeing the trailers.

Speaker C: I can't do it.

Speaker B: It's gonna.

Speaker A: No, it's awesome. You got it. Everybody's back. It's fantastic. I'm not a big. I'm kind of again, like Stephanie. I don't watch a whole lot of tv, but when I do, I get addicted. I'm like, in. I watch a whole bunch of them, and I. All of a sudden, I realized that I spent three, four hours, five hours watching these shows because I just, like. Well, I'm just gonna get it all over with right now. But I. Fantastic. My kids love it, so I gotta check that out.

Speaker B: But, yeah, I'm either 100% in on a show or, uh, I'm just. I go months without even turning on my tv. No.

Speaker A: Um, but I appreciate that. Now, these last two are for you. What's your favorite Stuckey's product?

Speaker B: Oh, I got to say, the rubber alligator. It's just such a classic. We've sold tens of thousands of them. And I was just looking at our SKU report. That's what I do for fun product analysis. And they consistently sell. It's been a great seller for 80 years.

Speaker A: I'm sure the supplier appreciates it, too.

Speaker B: Yeah, right. And I'm very particular about my rubber alligators, too, because there's some that are really squishy. I don't like that. I like the harder ones and I like the neon green. So they've got to be really bright colors. The ones that are trying to look like a, uh, real alligator, I'm not into. I want them to just own the fact that this is a total kitschy product and just go all in on that. Be a neon green with bright red mouth and maybe some yellow looking teeth. That's what I want. I love a good rubber alligator, and I got a whole collection of them.

Speaker A: Awesome. We're talking all about the brand.

Speaker C: All about the brand.

Speaker B: Yeah. I'm also a huge fan of snow domes. I have about. I have about 300 of them. I collect snow domes. You know, the globes that you shake. I just love the, like, who thought of that? I would love to know the history of the snow globe. If anyone out there knows that, please let me know. Like, who sat around one day and said, I'm going to come up with this little globe. We're going to put water in it, it's going to snow, it's going to be in Florida. How crazy is that? Not only do they think of it, but they convinced someone that it was a good idea to make it, produce it. And sell it. And people have been buying them for decades.

Speaker A: And every city in America or the world has it.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker A: And I used to, when I traveled a lot years ago, I would literally grab a snow globes and like the nice snow globes, not like the little plastic ones, but the nice ones and bring those back for each of my kids in kind of like the playroom. There was all different snow globes that I'd collected. And what I found and why I stopped doing it was the kids didn't care about the snow globes. I did. They cared about the peanuts, the little things that I got, all the free stuff that I got. I'm driving myself crazy buying these, trying to track down these really beautiful snow globes. And all they really want is the peanuts or the snacks. Whatever I got in my bag, I'll

Speaker C: give you another one. And it just started with a, uh, company that I worked for. My internal creative team, I traveled a lot, they didn't. So they live vicariously through us sometimes. We started buying refrigerator magnets from every city or location we went to. And because they had a fridge in their creative area, and we started, you know, next thing we know, the fridge is filled with different cities and, you know, start looking at magnets, uh, in airports, they're kind of the same way. A little old school, 50s designs kind of thing.

Speaker B: I'm a sucker for collectible classic Americana souvenirs. And for snow globes, I like the plastic. The nice ones do not interest me at all. The ones that you see in every tour stand in America that are plastic, that's what I love. But these collectibles like the magnets, thimbles, state spoons, they're the best. And I have to say the Internet has really wrecked that because now you can just take a few clicks of your keyboard and you've got all 50 states. That's not fun. The fun is I went to every state and got a T shirt to show it. You know, like there's a story, a memory. Yes, yes. It's not just a plastic globe. It's not just a magnet. It's a story. It's an experience. It's a reminiscence. There's a reason why they call it souvenir. It's a French word for remember, to remember. And that's what it's all about.

Speaker A: This really dovetails into what we're going to be talking about here in a few minutes. But my last question, I think you mentioned something about being all about the brands earlier.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: So what brand inspires you most.

Speaker B: I really love Levi's, and I think it's because it's longevity, it's amazing history. What a story. And, and I wrote a column called Everybody Loves a Comeback. And I talked about Levi's and a couple of other of my favorite comeback brands, including Keds sneakers. But I think Nike, I mean, uh, Levi's managed to really bounce back, remember? I mean, we're, we're all, I think, a product of the 80s. We were coming of age in the 80s, so. Remember when designer jeans were the thing and Brooke Shields wearing her Calvins? Nothing comes between me and my Calvins here. I'm a total victim of marketing. But Levi's really suffered then. You know, the 501 Jean was really hip for a while with James Dean and Marilyn Monroe and all the pop culture was following it. And then the designer jeans hit and the brand plummeted. But they made a comeback and they, they said, you know, basically their line was, you can buy these other jeans, but you live in Levi's. Right? Like, this is what you live in. This is your comfort brand. And they also made it hip again. They did some amazing ads with beautiful people of different cultures, different color, different diverse, uh, customers wearing Levi's and being hip and dancing and having fun. And this whole new generation is like, wow, that's a great brand. I aspire to that because Stuckey's is an older demographic and I'm sure we'll get into that. But how do you make a nostalgic comfort brand? And all of that is wonderful, but how do you make it relevant to people who are 10, 20, 30 years younger? Because we want them as customers too.

Speaker A: Well, let's talk about that. Let's jump right in then.

Speaker B: Yeah. So our story is different because we fell out of family hands for decades. And that is not different. There are lots of classic brands that had a visionary founder. A lot of them were in this period during the Great Depression. So many amazing brands were founded during economic hard times because that's when these entrepreneurs really thrive and come up with innovative ways to sell a product and to make it despite all the hard times. And my grandfather was no exception to that classic tale of a visionary founder who came up with a product that met a need. At the time Stuckey's was founded, we were it for roadside retail. There was nothing else on the, on the highways. There wasn't even an interstate in 1937. The interstate didn't come to Eisenhower in 50s. And so he provided a place where people could relax, refresh and refuel. And it was a great idea. He grew it, uh, from this humble roadside stand, pecan stand in Eastman, Georgia, to you at his peak, almost 370 stores in almost 40 states. But then he sold to a corporation because he was getting tired and he couldn't grow the brand any further, given his financial and human capacity. So he sold that company, got bought by another company, that company got bought by another company. We lost hundreds of stores. The brand suffered. We became an item on a balance sheet. All of that is a classic tale that you see told time and time again with these classic brands that many of which just go bankrupt. Howard Johnson's restaurants is a great example. Or they get bought by a corporation and they frankly lose what made them special. And with all due respect to ihg, which is an Atlanta based brand where I live, but Holiday Inn, I'm sorry, it's not the same as when Clemens, uh, Wilson ran it. And it had that classic marquee sign that we all loved. So what makes our story unique is that we got the company back. And my father reacquired the brand. He kept it going. He got it in 1985 and he was running five other companies. He wasn't expecting to get it back. And he had the opportunity because it was losing so much money. The company that had acquired it, the railroad conglomerate out of Chicago, basically gave it to him in exchange for, uh, getting the company out of some potential lawsuits with franchisees who were so disgruntled with how the company was being mismanaged. So it's a little bit complicated how my father got the company back, but he got it back. He righted the ship, he kept it going. Then my father retired like, a decade ago and frankly, left the company being run by a skeleton crew. And it's been on autopilot. And I did not expect to get the company. I had my own career. I was head of sustainability for City of Atlanta. I'm an environmental attorney. I was happy doing my sustainability work. But I had the opportunity for my dad's former business partners to buy their shares of Stuckey's. And I said, well, if I'm going to buy half of the company, um, somebody needs to run it. And so that's how it all came about. It was a year ago. And then after about six months, I bought my father out. And, uh, then I got a business partner. And then I acquired. As of last week, we just bought a candy plant and a pecan processing plant and a fundraising business. And I bought a snack pecan company last year, uh, all on a shoestring budget. It's just financing and creativity. Uh, that's a whole other episode. But I, uh, think that. I'm sorry, I know the question was, what do you do with a nostalgic brand? But I think it's important to know the story, to see the context of we fell out of family hands and now we're back. So that story is part of how I'm marketing the brand. I think our story is unique. So we are a comeback and I think people want to be part of a comeback. We all love Rocky. That's one of my favorite movies. Bad News Bears, right? Getting back to our childhood years, we love those scrappy teams that nobody thinks is going to win. Well, that's Duckies. And so that's part of what I'm doing is just appealing to that sense of, all right, we want to see them make it. And I hope that that's a story that will resonate. Even if you didn't grow up knowing Stuckey's, even if you're in your 30s, 20s, uh, I think entrepreneurs can relate to the idea of you kind of got a lot coming up against you. Stuckey's is an 80 year old startup, so entrepreneurs should relate to us.

Speaker C: I'm curious because you and I connected on LinkedIn probably about six months to a year ago. And I remember seeing your name pop up and I, and I remember the brand instantly from those road trips. I mean, it was like, oh, my. And then I thought, I don't think I've seen one in a while. And I've gone. Now that I live in Tennessee, going to Florida is pretty easy. I mean, so I drive through Valdosta and I go that direction all the time. But I was like reflecting, going, I don't think I've actually seen one. So fast forward to what you were talking about. You know, I remember the pecan logs as a kid. I remember the rubber alligators as a kid that you talked about. I remember that, you know, the stuff you can buy in the store. But there are brands, nostalgic brands that kind of change who they are. And one that is, I think they're still based in Detroit that you might have heard of, called Shinola, which Shinola is not a cleaning product anymore. They make high end watches and all leather goods and all. They're not even anything about cleaning products anymore. So the question is, is Stuckey's going to be restaurants again? Is it going to be, uh, branded food products again? What are you going to turn the brand into.

Speaker B: So I like to say we grow at the speed of cash. And I'm very mindful that I can have all these wonderful creative marketing ideas. And if I can't finance them, um, it doesn't mean anything. So looking at how we generate revenue, 80% of our profit comes from the sale of product. And so I have really been doubling down, tripling down on product, which is why we bought this manufacturing facility. And one of the things I've also done is been incredibly honest and authentic in where we are right now. And our product has suffered over the years because my grandfather sold the candy plant. We have not made our own product since 1964, before I was even born. And as of last week, we now own a candy plant. We are going to be making our own candy. So, yes, product is going to be, first and foremost, we are going to make the most delicious pecan log rolls you have ever tasted. Because it's not the same as it was when I was a kid. And, uh, I'll just leave it at that. I don't think the product today is. I, uh, think it's good, but I want it better than good. I want it exceptional. I want the original Stuckey's pecan log roll to be the best log roll anyone has ever tasted. I want our pralines and our gophers and our divinity and our fudge to be incredible. And then with a shift to changing consumer taste, we also had the pecan shelling plant. So we are going. And I bought a, uh, I merged with a healthy snack nut company. So we are going to really have the pecan be front facing with everything we do. And that's getting back to our roots, but it's also moving forward. We started as a pecan stand. The pecan is the only edible nut native to the US and is also one of the healthiest nuts. And so for that reason, I think we've got a great story to tell about the pecan that blends with the Stuckey story that people who care about health and nutrition would really be interested in. And we're perfect for people who are vegetarian and vegan and gluten free. And the keto diet, the pecan and nut based products, plant based diets. We're there.

Speaker A: So I love what you said about you're going to move the speed of cash. I think it's a smart, intelligent way to move forward. Look, we're going to go with what we, how we're managing our money. We're going to move forward with um, so taking on more debt, that's where trouble happens. Get leveraged. When bad economies makes a challenge. It sounds like the game plan that you're deploying. You're going to be able to find the Stuckey's brand in other grocers, other, uh, retail locations. And that's a pretty. I mean, you talk about really expanding and building that brand quickly. You can do that by leveraging other people's.

Speaker B: That's right. And actually, for the first time in Stuckey's history, August, September, October of 2020, our sales to our retail partners through those channels exceeded the sales in our branded Stuck east locations. So there's a trend there. Here's my challenge, and I welcome your input on this because I'm still learning. I'm an environmental attorney, but I have the last name Stuckey, and I grew up with this brand. And even though my grandfather sold the company the year before I was born, I knew my grandfather. I went on those family vacations in the Woody station wagon, and we stopped at every single Stuckey's. I know what the brand is. There is no one who is going to be more passionate about this brand than I am. So I love the brand, I love Stuckey's, but I'm still learning about branding and marketing. And so there's so much for me to gain from having conversations with people like y' all who are really, you know, neck deep in this every day. So here's my challenge. We are selling our product and doing very well with it, and we're starting to get in grocery store channels, especially now that we manufacture the product. We can meet their margins. Right. And we're able to private label. So we're getting more in those channels that are in town locations or a grocery store or a hardware store. But we're known classically as a road trip brand. How do you get that sense of this great brand that I remember stopping at on the. On our family road trips, but you get us in the grocery store, right? So I'm working through that. I welcome your, your thoughts on that, and any listeners who want to reach out to me on LinkedIn, I want to hear your thoughts. I mean, I'm figuring this out. Yeah.

Speaker C: I mean, inherently, if you think of the, uh, the journey, and so if you are road tripping and listen, there's. And especially now, people are a little afraid to get on airplanes. And so, uh, you know, the recreational business is, uh. This last year has skyrocketed because mom and dad say, hey, kids, get in the car. This is where we're going. Uh, and so even if you're only going in your state or crossing a few state lines, if you really think of the channel, uh, you mentioned grocery, which, listen, I've got a lot of grocery partners myself, but if you really think of where they're stopping, it's the convenience stores. And so, you know, having that first of all, in a strategic perspective, having, uh, a, ah, roadside thinking, got to stop and get gas, you're in your car, you got the kids, you got to have snacks in the car. You know, convenience store might be your best, uh, avenue to explore. Um, so that would be my, uh, two cents of advice.

Speaker B: Here's the challenge. A lot of other roadside retail stores like Loves and Pilot, don't necessarily want to stock Stuckey's product because they see us as competition. Even though we're this tiny little flea, maybe pecking at the back of an elephant, we are in that competitive space for them because we are on the interstate highway system, albeit we have 67 licensed locations. That's it. There's hundreds and thousands of these others, but it's sometimes more challenging to get in those spaces. Whereas A Ace Hardware is a great partner for us, they carry nostalgic candies, so we fit right in that product placement for them. Right at the point of sale, right at the cash register, and right next to the. You're in Tennessee. The Goo Goos. The Goo Goo Clusters. Anywhere you see a, uh, Moon Pie or a Goo Goo Cluster, Claxton Fruitcake, Naco Wafers, any place that carries those, they should be carrying Stuckey's candy as well. So we kind of cross different,

Speaker A: uh,

Speaker B: marketing channels in that respect. But how to have a cohesive brand is something that I'm really working on to make sure that even if you're buying us at, ah, an Ace Hardware store, you think, okay, this is a great snack. That reminds me of when I took that family road trip.

Speaker A: I think you're building it with your social media presence. I mean, we all know that you're very active across Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram. You've been pulling so many wonderful stories from Stuckey's past, and sharing those, that starts to build momentum. People start to see it. They start, they start to resonate with them of, oh, I'm going on a road trip. I've got to try this. I remember seeing a story about this log roll. What has been some of your favorite stories that you've pulled out of the archives that you never even knew about until you started digging?

Speaker B: I think my Favorite story is my grandfather's real, just Boots on the Ground learning. There's, uh, a lot of stories related to that. But my favorite related to that is how he selected where to site his stores or how far apart to space them. And he would get in his car and get a cup of coffee and start drinking when he was on the road, and when he needed to pull over and use the facilities, that's how far apart he would space the store. So his coffee story, that one's one that people really like. Uh, that's awesome. There's so many great stories, and there's some that I just grew up hearing, and I tell them, and people are like, oh, my gosh, that's great. You know, like, he really had some ingenuity and how he went about running his business. Uh, another great one is during World War II, he, uh, almost had to go out of business because sugar was rationed, and he needed that essential ingredient to make his product. So he had to pivot, and he started making candy for the troops. And if you make candy for the troops, you could get sugar. And also, he was helping the war effort, so that, of course, was very important as well. But he pivoted his entire business model because of that. He had to suddenly box his candy, which he has been serving fresh in the stores. So then when the war ended, he made these attractive designs for his boxes, and the GIs returning home remembered having Stuckey's in their ration kits, and they started stopping again. So what he had to do to pivot really made the company so much stronger as a result. Uh, another war story was that coconut was rationed and he managed to make coconut pies. And people couldn't figure out how he was able to get access to coconut when nobody else could. Well, turned out he was shredding cornhusk and flavoring them with coconut and putting them in his candy.

Speaker C: He couldn't quite do that today because of regulations, but that's a fantastic story.

Speaker B: This was, I think, before a lot of the Food and Drug Administration, but I love that. So some of these stories, he probably would wince if he knew I was sharing them, but the people like them.

Speaker C: I'm curious. We talked about retail locations or potential retail partners, and honestly, I didn't even think of Ace Hardware until you mentioned, sure enough. Absolutely, they carry those things. However, I also know that I can go online and, uh, on your website and have stuff shipped to my house. So I'm just curious without giving away trade financials and secrets, just kind of what's your plan or your thinking? Brick and mortar versus a D2C play in terms of. Because obviously our landscape has changed dramatically. People buy things. So is it a 50, 50 mix of distribution, sales, or, uh, what are you guys kind of planning?

Speaker B: I can't give you a percentage, but I can say the sales and where we're generating our revenue from is not in our branded location. So we have to follow that. How we're making money now is what we need to continue doing. If you're doing something well, keep doing it and try to do it better. Having brick and mortar locations is extremely expensive. Not just building the stores, which can cost, minimum, a million dollars if you're looking at a new location. And then renovations of an old location can be anywhere from 250,000 way up to more than a million dollars. So the capital needed up front for brick and mortar, plus the operations is tremendous. So I have a company that I bought as is. So that's one of the challenges. If you're an entrepreneur and you're starting from fresh, you can come up with whatever business model you want. I don't have that. I have a lot of advantages and that it's a recognized brand to some people. There's some warm memories associated with Stuckies. But I also got a lot of stuff with getting the company, and some of the stuff is that we don't own any of our locations. They're all independently owned and franchised, and we don't have a director of operations. The franchise system, frankly, is flawed, and we are now transitioning to a licensing system where we are really focusing our time and energy on the product. And the stores are going to be more where you can buy some of our product. And I'm trying to narrow down, frankly, the number of stores we have. In a perfect world, we would only have 10, maybe 20 Stuckey stores, brick and mortar. But those 10 or 20 would be amazing. They would be a highway oasis where you would want to go out of your way to stop. It would be a destination. So that's what I'm looking for. And then the products will be selling online. We'll be selling to our B2B retail partners. And you can get our, um, amazing products in all sorts of channels. That's our recipe for growth. Right now.

Speaker A: Let's talk about marketing tactics and strategies, things that you're learning as you're going. What are some of the different tools you've deployed that you're seeing immediate success with, and which ones have you tried and tested?

Speaker B: It haven't we're limited in that we really don't have much of a budget for marketing. It's pretty much me doing the marketing. We don't have a firm. I have a couple of freelancers that help me with specific skill sets that I lack, most notably graphic design. And I also have a wonderful guy who helps me with writing some of the text for my E Blast. And he's very good with long, like narrative story, almost storytelling. So I have someone who helps me with some of that. But it's very limited outside support. So keep in mind, like, our marketing channels are largely determined by our budget. So it's just posting on social media and it's, it's me. It's me posting and I'm telling my story. So I'm turning what I think could be viewed as a disadvantage that we don't have a lot of money and it's just me into an advantage. Okay, yeah, we don't have a lot of money, but we have a great story. And how many CEOs are out there every day telling their story like Stuckey's is? So that's what we're doing. And what's resonated and surprised me the most is LinkedIn. I had one post on my one year anniversary about how the company was really turning around and how I just believed in this scrappy brand. And last I checked, we were at 980,000 engagements. So we're almost at a million engagements with that post. That's insane. Like, I struggle to get one or two Twitter likes for the Stuckey's feed. Now my personal Twitter feed is doing much better, but I'm almost at 10,000 followers. But, um, I'm less interested in followers and I'm just getting on Pinterest. I'm learning this with Pinterest. Uh, Pinterest is not about the followers, it's about the engagement. And I think that is more important. So I'm really interested in the comments that people write, how they engage with the brand. Am I sparking a conversation that to me means more than anything. And so that's what I'm hunkering down on, is telling my story and trying to get word of mouth marketing. That to me is worth more than any ad budget that I could ever have to have people who really have experienced the brand, who are loyal to the brand, telling their friends and their coworkers how great Stuckey's is. So that's what I'm after. I'm after word of mouth marketing.

Speaker C: How many? And I didn't count on the website, as I was going through. How many SKUs do you currently have? Oh, my gosh. And now with the plant and some of the arrangements that you're doing, you know, what are you going to? What's the thinking of how many you're going to go to?

Speaker B: I don't know if you can hear me taking deep breaths, because that is a point of, um, frustration. We are working on the skew rationalization, as I call it. I literally want to take a machete to our SKUs. We are, we are greatly reducing our skus, but we currently have about 600 SKUs, which is way too much for the type of business that we're operating. And so I'm working with. We own a distribution center. So the cool thing that we're now evolving to is being vertically integrated. We are manufacturing our product from the p cam processing and shelling to taking those pecan pieces and manufacturing it into delicious candy products. We have a distribution center that we operate, and we have franchise retail locations that we can distribute to. So we're getting more vertically integrated, which is a really great way to move the company forward. But this integration process is not without some pain points. And one of those pain points is looking at all the SKUs we have and really doing a deep dive into what is selling and what isn't. And some of these we're just going to have to be really tough and cut them. And so I'm working with the distribution center to look at what's our dead inventory, what's not moving. We've got like 300 fuzzy posters that have been sitting in inventory for 20 years, maybe. I think Spencer Gifts may still be operating in a few malls. Spencer Gifts, we'll take some of those. And we have, um, wind chimes that are not all that attractive, in my opinion, and some Britney Spears slap bracelets. But now that she's trending on Twitter, maybe I can move some of those. Yeah, right. Free Britney. So we've got all sorts of just random merchandise that isn't telling a story. So getting back to marketing, I want our, uh, merchandise to tell a story. I don't want it to be the scarcity mentality that we frankly had been operating out of in recent years, where here's a bunch of closeout crap, and we're just going to sell it at Stuckey's because we got it on bargain special. I don't want us to be that place anymore. I want us to have everything we do reflect the story of this brand. I want our Souvenirs. I want our novelties to be a story. A rubber alligator, a plastic snow dome. Um, want it to be part of the brand. Everything we do should be a touch point to this brand. It should be thoughtful. It should be deliberate. Shouldn't be just we're buying random crap and throwing it on the shelves. So I'm cutting down a lot of the skews so we can tell that story.

Speaker A: Well. I think it's smart business. So what's the one thing you want the brand to represent? When somebody hears the word Stuckey's, what should they feel?

Speaker B: Road trips. Fun, Adventure. America. You know, everything we do is classic Americana. The pecan being America's native nut. The road trip being a uniquely American experience and one that's evolving. I really think people are rediscovering how great the road trip is. And we've got a whole new generation that's not rediscovering it. They're experiencing it for the first time. And so I want us to be. Even if it's not necessarily the road trip, but it's that sense of fun and adventure. I want you to get that even if you're getting a log roll at your ace hardware store.

Speaker A: The experiences, what matters.

Speaker B: That's right.

Speaker A: So when you think about. We do have an advantage now with data. Being able to get insights into shopper behavior, where they're moving, what's trending. How are you? Have you been able to tap into any of that?

Speaker B: Not really. It's such a challenge for us because we don't control our store operations. We don't have a classic franchise. Like I said earlier, we're switching to a licensing program because that's the reality of where we're at. So we don't control our POS system, our point of sale. We don't have access to that data. What we know is what our stores buy from us. So we can see what SKUs are moving that way. And I certainly pay attention to that data. We also see what's selling online. We completely control that sales portal. And then I tap into Google Analytics and I check that every week. Uh, here's an interesting factoid. The week I started Stuckey's, I went on, I opened a Google Analytics account, and I looked. The number one search for Stuckey's was whatever happened to? And I checked it last week. The number one search was, where can I find a Stuckey's? The number two search was candy products. So people are still looking for the candy. Even though I love the Sonic Burger's. Founder once said that his customers like to talk skinny but eat fat. So people still love a good candy bar. So candy was number two. And number three, this was very interesting, was searching about me. The CEO in History is number three. And I love that. Like, and it's not so much this is not talking about me, it's talking about me as the brand representative that I want them to associate me with. The story of Stuckey. So the fact that it was actually the search was together CEO and History, that was the third most requested search. So we have limited data. But what we do have access to, I really do pay attention to and it is helpful. Do you all have any advice like, how can I get access to data? How can other entrepreneurs who can't afford a big data analytics firm? How do you tap into data if you're an entrepreneur?

Speaker C: We can, we can have a sidebar conversation about that. Because that could be a three hour conversation. It is possible. But I think you touched on something, um, as we kind of close out the episode, I think you touched on something that's really important. I think you have a distinct advantage with your family name because there are not a lot of historical brands that the founder, third generation, as I'm wearing my Jim Beam shirt, which has been sold to a Japanese company, uh, is still involved in the business. Uh, and even the master distillers at Jim Beam, their last name is. No, it's not Beam anymore because of marriages. And so you've got a distinct advantage. And I think, uh, you're on a path that is gonna succeed. And everything you said reminds me, I recently was a clearly Canadian, which we're all about the same generation that was the late 80s, early 90s, massive brand that kind of fell to the wayside. And we bought it nine, uh, years ago and relaunched it and it's doing very well, et cetera. You're doing all the right things. So in the craziness of what is going on, it will come. It's only been a year, so the personal advice I can give you is I think you're going down the right path and patience is just something that, uh, needs to happen. But, uh, uh, it's a fascinating brand and we really appreciate you coming on the show. It's very cool.

Speaker B: Thank you. I'm a very impatient person. It's hard for me M. But I try to slow down and focus on taking one step at a time, one road trip at a time. We're building back this brand well.

Speaker C: And I think you said a couple things too. You've got a platform and road trips. You've got the foundational products that you love in pecan and nut based and candy based product. All those other things will come forward. So again, we appreciate your time and it's a fascinating story and your journey's even more fascinating family history. I think you've got a whole closet full of things you can start to activate that you just haven't been able to release yet.

Speaker B: Well, when this is all over, we should take a road trip together, do a podcast.

Speaker C: Perfect.

Speaker A: Let's hit the amusement parks and then we'll find a beach for John.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker C: Now, in my defense, and it's not too far down the road from Stephanie. I don't go to the populated beaches. I've got a few, few, you know, few nuggets of places nobody is. And there are white sands on the Gulf that you can walk for miles and you won't see a single person.

Speaker B: I'm with you on that. My favorite beach is Cumberland island, which is off the coast of Georgia and it's a national park. And they only let so many people on a day. And it's a really special place. You can see wild horses. So I love secluded beaches. They're wonderful.

Speaker A: We're down for that when that time comes. In the meantime, love the story, uh, love the passion, love the history.

Speaker B: Thank you so much. Been a pleasure.

Speaker C: Thanks, Stephanie.

Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the why Marketing podcast. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast on itunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts and give us a five star rating while you're at it. Until the next time, Sa.