Engaging Customers with a Purpose-Driven Mission
Engaging Customers with a Purpose-Driven Mission
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In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Katie Kardell, Marketing and Sales Director at Century Farms Distillery. Katie pivoted after twenty years in the classroom to help Century Farms Distillery become one of the fastest growing native Iowa distilleries on their way to a national presence. Katie joins Emily to discuss the distillery's approach to promoting their bourbon, including their corn-to-whiskey program, trade shows, dabbling in digital marketing, and unique influencer marketing tactics.
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
00:33 Katie’s background and her journey to Century Farms Distillery
4:12 Expanding bottle sales across Iowa
7:34 Creating a mission that resonates with your customers
8:42 Century Farms Distillery’s three main areas of focus
10:39 Marketing to where your customer is
17:39 Social media tactics to increase your brand awareness
22:39 Growing a new SKU from scratch
25:37 What’s up next for Century Farms Distillery
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Katie’s episode:
#5: Staying Authentic while Scaling a CPG Brand | Nola Morris, Thelma’s Treats
#8: Sourcing, Supply Chains, and Scaling from Scratch | Lucy Dana, One Trick Pony
Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!
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This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com
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Emily Steele (00:13)
All right, we are live with another episode of Local Marketing School. We're back again. I'm Emily Steele I'm the host of the show. And today I have an exciting guest, Katie Kardell with Century Farms Distillery is with us. Katie, welcome to the show today.
Katie Kardell (00:26)
Hi, Emily. Excited to be here.
Emily Steele (00:27)
Thanks for, yes, tell us a little bit about yourself and Century Farms. It's a loaded question. Let's do it.
Katie Kardell (00:31)
Sure, sure, it is. And that's a lot. So, yep, I am originally from the Spencer Great Lakes community area. And my background is actually in the performing arts. I spent 25 years teaching, but graduated from Briar Cliff College in music education and theater, and then got my master's degree. And then life takes a lot of changes, and I have older kids, and I needed some...
Emily Steele (00:49)
Hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Katie Kardell (00:59)
freedom to my life. And so I went to work for some great people, Ryan and Amanda Bare, Amanda Bare own Century Farms Distillery here in Spencer. And they were looking to grow and needed somebody to enter the world of as many hats as we could put on me at one time, but called it marketing and sales when I first started. And, and that's, you know, kind of how I got to where I am. But Century Farms Distillery was, Amanda always says it comes out of her not having enough on her honey-do list for Ryan to do. And so Ryan was working a hit shift up in Alaska. And well, let's back that up just a little bit. They're both mechanical engineers out of Iowa State. And so they had worked in a lot of different industries, including space. And mostly Ryan was in the oil industry. They'd moved around the country, spent quite a bit of time in Texas.
Emily Steele (01:31)
Okay. Okay.
Katie Kardell (01:56)
ended up back here, back home to raise their kids closer to family. And Ryan did some work in the ethanol industry. Ethanol, really close to distilling, basically distilling, just not as fun at the end. And started with, started messing around with his own recipes and got really good at it. And all of his friends are saying, you know, you should be making this. And here's where Amanda says the honey-do list wasn't long enough. Next thing she knows, she's got plans for a distillery and the family is all working together to build what is Century Farms distillery from the ground, from scratch, from their own plants. We didn't bring in a bunch of equipment. The still is handmade and will be the only one anybody's ever seen like that. That was in 2017 when they bought the building. 2019, they opened the doors. They hired me in 2022. And we've just kind of been building from that. Our primary focus is on bourbon. And we work individually with family farms, which we'll get into, you know, who who've that part of that story and what that has to do with our marketing. But yeah, that's in a nutshell, that's who we are and that's what we do.
Emily Steele (02:57)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, my question is, do you like bourbon now that you work there? Is that a thing? Cool. Okay.
Katie Kardell (03:06)
Yes, but I liked bourbon before that so Yeah, yeah, I mean I've got a I've got a little bit of a family history and just the appreciation of what is bourbon and I remember my grandma having her kind of secret bottle of Blandons and Probably, you know probably knew a little bit about it before I before I showed up But you know you had a little cold and grandma would take a little nip of it's okay but yeah, no, I mean I probably have learned a much deeper appreciation of the nuances within the whiskey industry, but I was a huge, huge red wine fan and envisioned having my own wine bar someday at one point. So it's not a huge jump into the bourbon world, but yeah, now I, again, from every angle of it have a different appreciation. So.
Emily Steele (03:42)
Mm -hmm cool. So you started in 2022 which is only a couple years ago from you know recording this and What was the main focus like when you came in is like getting people into the actual location like what were you thinking about then?
Katie Kardell (04:14)
Sure. So when they started and you know, every native Iowa distillery probably lives with the same concept of that footprint. And you have your bar, ours is called the Tasting Room, where it becomes kind of a community hub. And a lot of activities happened within there. The bar was open. We've had a food truck, which is, we own the food truck, but somebody comes in and out as they fill out a contract for that. So there were reasons for people to come. We had live music. We had, again, different events there. But when I came on, the whole goal was to move the bottle sales from being very, very hyper local to expand them across the state of Iowa. And so while the title was marketing and sales, the focus at first was very much on the sales end of it, which I have feel a little bit like I maybe even had less of experience in than I did the marketing part of it. I own my own theater company. And so the marketing and how you do that was something that was kind of organic. It was never formally trained, but the sales part of it and going out and do cold call sales was new. But that's where I started. And the whole idea was, is this, we're here. If it doesn't do this, what are we going to do? So how can we kind of take that part off and move that? So That's what I first did.
Emily Steele (05:06)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember some of like, that's cool. Like, do you remember some of those early wins? Like, you're cold calling and you're like basically like, what is the ask? Like, how does that go? Like, do you remember the first wins you had?
Katie Kardell (05:35)
sure. Actually, so and I started right around here thinking, okay, I'm going to go to every liquor store that I either know the manager, nor they know somebody I'm related to because I have a huge family. Go all those safe places where they were even if they weren't interested, which actually they were very interested, but I felt like they may say yes, just because it was me. Because I'm not sales is for somebody who can handle rejection and I can I can withstand only so much.
Katie Kardell (06:14)
I found that out. But probably my first big wins was actually when I did leave the area and went down to Des Moines because we decided it's the largest area in Iowa. And the way licenses work for hard liquor in the state, we self-distribute, but it all goes through the Iowa ABD in Ankeny. So we can sell across the entire state with little to no restrictions in that way. and so go to the biggest market. So I went and spent some time down in Des Moines, starting with liquor stores and just going in and talking about who we were. And I think the big win is anytime I can talk about our story because our unique value proposition and how we see ourselves is different than anybody else's. So while right away they're like, it's another sales rep. Let's see, can I stock these shelves so she doesn't see me?
Katie Kardell (07:09)
But once we started talking about who we were, they're like, wow, that's really interesting. And so that part, when I found enough in myself to be like, it's not about me if they say no, but if I get the chance to get this far into my sales pitch, then we're going to get along. We've got a lot to talk about. So.
Emily Steele (07:11)
Totally. Yeah. Yeah. What really clicked with people? When you talk about your value prop, is there something that really resonates with these individuals?
Katie Kardell (07:35)
yeah. So our our mission is supporting sustained family agriculture. And while I say everybody's got to farm somewhere in their family, in Iowa, it's not you know, you're not like seven degrees of separation there. It's it's usually knocking on your back door. And so on the side of every bottle of whiskey that we make, there's a QR code. That QR code takes you directly to the story of the family where that corn was raised in that bottle since we make single barrels.
Katie Kardell (08:04)
So the story of every farmer, and we've worked with over a hundred farmers now. So that right there is like, okay, you're not just buying a bottle of booze. You're buying a family story. You're buying a connection. Whether that bottle's from your hometown or the area that you grew up in or somebody that you knew, or you just happened to live on a farm and you're like, hey, man, I wish we could have done something like this. There's a lot of ways to connect to it. So.
Emily Steele (08:06)
Mm -hmm. Mm. That kind of reminds me, like, one of the questions I wanted to ask you is, like, the corn to whiskey program. What is this? Tell us more.
Katie Kardell (08:37)
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, and that's where this all started was in the corn to whiskey. Farmer brings us 45, 50 bushels of corn that makes roughly a thousand bottles of finished bourbon. In the contract, so it's a contract between us and the farmers. In the contract, the farmer is going to take home 60 bottles of that liquor. They can do their own custom label on the side of it that's only available to them.
Katie Kardell (09:07)
And then the remainder of the bottles, they can also buy additional bottles on top of their contract at a discounted rate, it turns out to be. But the remainder of the bottles is what we sell to the general public with that QR code. So when we look at the business, there's like three different major buckets as to how we earn money. So you've got your corn to whiskey and those contracts. It's a right now, are we at? It's roughly $5,000. Give or take a little bit. $5 ,000 to do the contract. We pay them for their corn, so we're paying like $7.50 on the bushel, but essentially $5,000. That's one bucket, and so there's marketing to those people, the farmers. And then there is the tasting room, which is that community hub, the bar.
Katie Kardell (10:04)
And that's a different group. The demographics aren't the same, although some of them cross over, but its purpose serves differently. And then what my...my primary focus for marketing is on our bottle sales and that consumer product that is B2C, B2B when we're talking about those liquor stores and bars and restaurants. So three different areas that we work in.
Emily Steele (10:20)
Yeah, okay, and like such different strategies I imagine and like the creativity and sometimes more like do you find that when you're marketing to farmers like it's a total where do you find like where are they hanging out?
Katie Kardell (10:36)
Yeah, so we've got, where are they hanging out? So there's still a lot in the print media. They do like, a lot of them do like it in print, but they also, while they're out in the tractors, apparently the tractors these days can almost drive themselves. I'm not here to say I've witnessed this, but yes, they, so they're on their phones, they're on their iPads, so digital marketing works with them.
Katie Kardell (11:11)
But does the digital ad look the same as the digital ad that is going to, you know, the Des Moines millennial that is looking for a farm to table restaurant that is serving single barrel bourbon? Yeah.
Emily Steele (11:22)
Yeah, yeah. So talk a little bit about that strategy. You're trying to target that individual. What are you doing there? What's working?
Katie Kardell (11:34)
So, yeah, what's working? When we're looking at the farmers, we also do a lot of trade shows, but when we're looking at the individual buyer of a bottle, obviously, you put in all your keywords. We've got bourbon drinkers, and we've got whiskey drinkers, and we've got the Iowa distilleries is another catch that will grab them. But what I find is...that a lot of the just going out and meeting them where they are and going into, we now have an outside sales person that we just recently hired. So our events, yeah, our events can pick up more, right? When there's more people, more hands on deck, he can go out and do tasting events more often. We can, yeah, we're hosting a...national bourbon day event coming up here pretty soon where we're going to just kind of blanket a whole bunch of people out and make sure that when they're talking bourbon, they're talking about our bourbon. But yeah, yeah, you've got you've got to find them in the moments that they're the actually they're thinking about something else because we're a little scrap scattered as consumers now, right? We're like doing something else and that ad pops up. I don't want to be the the annoying. jumps out. Yeah, there it goes. I don't want to be, you know, in in there in an inconvenient space, but we need to be in those spaces when they're when they're just kind of passing by because it takes how many how many repetitions before they stand at the store and ask for it if it's not already there ask for it or they see it and they're like, yeah, that was that thing. So.
Emily Steele (13:02)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Is there like, is there a lot of search intent to look for whiskey or bourbon like based on geography? I'm so curious.
Katie Kardell (13:26)
so that's a big thing in the wine world. but it hasn't, it hasn't been as much in the whiskey industry. we, I would say that I've not found anybody in the United States that's doing that Tarwar, Tarwar specific traceability, that far back. You'll, you'll a lot of times see a lot of distilleries are corner source within 15 miles of our distillery. What we want to create is a local product that can be consumed anywhere.
Katie Kardell (13:53)
So it's local to whoever that farmer was, right? So it becomes local to Polk County. It becomes local to, just trying to come up with a Minnesota County and I hadn't got it.
Emily Steele (13:54)
Sorry, Minnesota.
Katie Kardell (14:10)
When I drew a complete blank. Nobles. There we go. Nobles County. You know, so the, and we have farmers across the United States. They send us their corn in a pro box. So we've got farmers, corn coming up from Texas, corn coming from Maryland or Indiana or Ohio. So the goal is to be in all 99 counties in Iowa and then all, at least one farmer from every state that produces corn.
Emily Steele (14:14)
Okay, so cool. And people produce farm in every state. Is that like, no.
Katie Kardell (14:44)
No, not every, nope. No, I want to say it's 38. Please don't quote me on that number. 38 states produce corn.
Emily Steele (14:51)
I will not quote you on it. I'm not prepared for all these questions. I'm just genuinely curious where you can grow corn across the states, you know? Okay. Yes.
Katie Kardell (14:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot more than I thought when I researched it to like kind of give numbers for a, you know, for a presentation. I was like, wow, that's a lot more. That is a lot more places. Cause when you're in Iowa, you think we're, we're the only ones that really good at it.
Emily Steele (15:07)
We're the only. And maybe we are, I don't know, you know?
Katie Kardell (15:18)
Well, I think there's a reason that a lot of the bigger whiskey producers in the United States actually source their corn from Iowa. In fact, there are other, will remain nameless vodka producers that are producing corn vodka that are using Iowa corn.
Emily Steele (15:27)
Okay. Okay. I mean, we're kind of a big deal here. We'll just say. Yep. It is what it is. Okay. I love that. So you're focused on like those really like they're hyper local stories, but they're local to the consumers in those areas. And is it like, if you're going to distribute in those areas to like, that has to be a whole new process as well, right? Because then you're going to have to find ways to get the word out as you get into those new cities too, right?
Katie Kardell (15:39)
Right? Yeah. Yeah. So we, we right now have license to individually distribute in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota are distributor states. So we have distributors there that we ship to and they move the product through the, the channels there for us. We have explored the licensing in other states. You have to learn each one of them individually.
Katie Kardell (16:30)
So what we did for now, because we're in that growth plan, right? What's the next step? What's the next level? Is we went out and looked for a company that does that. They carry the license. We ship to them. From there, they carry the licenses for all these different places. So right now we can ship through that company direct to consumers in 37 states plus Washington, DC.
Katie Kardell (17:00)
And so right now, yeah, right now that's my biggest learning curve is learning how to market in all of those different places kind of that lie on the fringe of what is our focus, which is growing bottle sales in Iowa.
Emily Steele (17:00)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how are you starting? Like what is, what have your learnings been as you're in these new areas and like, how do you build that buzz? Like, or what are you experimenting if you haven't quite found like what's clicked yet?
Katie Kardell (17:28)
Right. The easiest access was to go right to social media first. And, you know, yeah, bump the Facebook, Instagram ads and target those areas. But then also I'm learning about Google ads very fast and what worked and what I understood for here versus how to make a national or somewhat national campaign has been a little bit trickier. Just in understanding what kind of feedback helps. But we're seeing some movements that way. Because it wasn't our primary focus, it was a little bit all right that there is a lot of learning going on. But getting to the social media is the easiest part of it for those national campaigns.
Emily Steele (17:59)
Cool, cool, cool. And obviously, we've been working together a bit with Hummingbirds. How have you tapped into the creator, influencer, whether it's Hummingbirds or beyond that, would love to just hear your perspective on it.
Katie Kardell (18:29)
Yeah. So, it was a great, suggestion from somebody that we worked with that has really nothing to do with, the marketing part of it, but her and I were, we're discussing some others, some other things and what, what would work. I mean, she's always, she's always there to help with, with whatever the task is, but she's like, mentioned another guy's name, works with Thelma's and says, I think you should check out the hummingbirds." And she's like, I don't know much about it, but we were talking about the other day and I immediately thought Katie could use this. So I did a quick Google search. I was like, yeah, I'll set up a meeting. We'll figure that out. And it's super helpful because our local anywhere fits right with that idea of one, I couldn't afford a huge influencer. Two, we get lost in their message. Three, We're not available everywhere. So if they have a big following, is their following right where we needed to target? Do I have enough control over where I'm placing that information? Are we big enough for that yet? But it kept going back to that local message on the side of our bottles said we really needed something that allowed us to be specific in those communities and being from Iowa, we know we're a long ways from anywhere all the time. so how could we make people feel like we were important enough to show up in their feed, from that angle, if that, makes sense. So, so yeah, that's that. And, and we've talked actually, Mallory and I about now that we are on that 37 state strategy, how do we grow into those other, because we focused all of our, influencer effort into Des Moines, Iowa City and the Quad Cities so far. But how do we what is our next? Yeah, what is our next look at that? Yeah.
Emily Steele (20:29)
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Super cool. No, I appreciate that. And I like anyone listening like I wasn't like Katie, you don't have to talk about how many birds if that's not a strategy, but if it adds color to you, I just think it's so fascinating. Like, I am an awe that you came from like your background and how you're like Google ads, advertising on meta and like organic social and like it's is it primarily you like from a marketing standpoint, you have support like anyone on your team? It is you.
Katie Kardell (21:00)
Well, I have the most amazing bosses, but yeah, no, I'm the one doing those things.
Emily Steele (21:05)
Incredible like just to be able to really hunker down and figure out those channels I think anyone listening can like deeply understand that like Google ads like takes so much like a level of expertise and really figuring that out for that channel and figuring out a creator strategy is very different and then you know Facebook who of like Facebook and Instagram ads is also totally other play like from the creative you need and the messaging so I mean shout out to you for figuring this out and like just being so eager to learn and grow.
Katie Kardell (21:40)
Trying and grow is the really important keyword in all of that. And again, with Ryan and Amanda, there's a lot of support for we learn a lot when we, you know, when something doesn't go right, like how do we go back and fix that? What can we, how can we learn to do that better? And that's definitely been my Google ads experience.
Emily Steele (21:42)
Yep, I remember the first Google Ads I ran years ago and how wrong I did them. But you just don't know until you do it wrong, I guess. It's a pretty complex world in there.
Katie Kardell (22:11)
And even when you do it wrong, yeah, even when you do it wrong, it's a long time before you knew you did it wrong. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Mm -hmm. Yes.
Emily Steele (22:15)
You're like, how much did I spend to do that wrong? Trial and a lot of error. Here it goes. I love it. Any sort of experiences or memorable moments that you've had over the last couple of years in your journey that you're really proud of or would want to share?
Katie Kardell (22:35)
Yeah. So when I came on and we were primarily focused on the whiskey end of it, we also make vodka and a lot of distilleries start out with vodka because it doesn't have to end up in a barrel and sit for, you know, two to four years before you get your money started coming back on it. But a friend of mine, I was doing a cold, well, it's not a cold call. I've known him since he was little, but at his bar and he goes, Hey, Katie, we've got a big problem here, Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka has been discontinued. And he said he owns a golf course bar. He's like, there's going to be brawls out on the golf course. I don't have something to fix this. What can you do about it? He was like, so curious about my new job. I'm like, I don't I don't make the booze. I just I just sell it. So I went back and I said to Ryan, I was like, so this apparently is a problem. I've researched the numbers I dug up like Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka, huge in Iowa in the Midwest but not anywhere else. So they decided to change the distiller over to something else. And so there's this hole and it took a while for Iowa to find out because there'd been so much stock product that it, yeah, right. So then I'd looked at all these numbers. I'm like, yeah, we want in on that. So Ryan went back to, I call it his little chemistry lab back there. And, you know, through trial and error got to something. We sampled it out with a lot of the liquor stores, bars, and restaurant managers up the lakes and everybody I mean, hands down, I'm not making this number up, overwhelmingly said it was better than the Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka and we set them side by side. So we're like, we have something and it has gone over really, really well. So I'm super proud of like just following that, you know, using the data, using what we had, what we knew the potential was and actually watching that kind of grow. It feels a little bit like having a third child.
Emily Steele (24:01)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Katie Kardell (24:24)
And then my other one would be when I first started, Century Farms had several different names for its products. We had the Prairie States Bourbon Line, we had Open Gate Vodka, American Classic Whiskey. And now we did a little grow up last year, grow up, glow up, and re-labeled, worked with an amazing company, Trilix in Des Moines, to re-label and do a rebranding to put it all under the Century Farms label to have some cohesiveness between that that really helps our customers identify one product line to the next and doesn't keep us, you know, leaving everything so independent and then having to start all of that marketing awareness over again every time. So those would be my two big wins since I started, I think. Yeah.
Emily Steele (25:04)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Those are fun projects. Like when a branding project is completed, just the satisfaction, like the dopamine hit. I want that all the time. Right? I know I'm like, that's going to be worth it. I feel that. I think you alluded to kind of like what's next for Century Farms. Is there anything else like coming up or on the horizon that would be worth sharing before we wrap?
Katie Kardell (25:19)
Yeah, well, every bourbon whiskey distillery can't wait until they get to their four-year mark where they're dumping four-year bourbon. So, I mean, we started in 2019, but you have to have enough to start selling it first. So right now we are on the verge. The next thing that everybody's really going to see out of us is four-year corn whiskey and four-year bourbon is coming out. And so that's a really, really important...Whenever somebody at a tasting event says to me, don't you have any six or 10 year? I was like, well, you have to be around six or 10 years to do that, or you should be, otherwise you're sourcing it from somewhere else. But we, you know, because ours that single barrel nature, we just have to sit around and be patient. And some farmers buy a lot more of their product than the contract. And so therefore, how much is left out of every contract is, you know, a variable that we have to live with. So it does have that kind of highly allocated feeling when it comes down to it.
Katie Kardell (26:33)
It's a finite amount. You really liked that barrel. There are only this many bottles left. So the four year will be a really exciting, exciting time for us.
Emily Steele (26:34)
Is that like a specific date that happens or is it just like more too broad at this point?
Katie Kardell (26:48)
If I look at my barrel dumping sheet, it'll say this is the date that this barrel can be dumped at, whether or not we dump it on that date and what the packaging and stuff like that. So we're not really giving anybody any promises yet. And also, if that farmer jumps in ahead of it and goes, yeah, we're gonna buy this much more. I'm like, now we only have 60 bottles. So what are we gonna do with that? So no promises to be made, but I would say the corn whiskey is gonna be later in the summer and the bourbon into the fall.
Emily Steele (27:21)
Okay, it's just around the corner really. So that is so exciting. Yeah, yeah, for real. Well, this is so fun. Thank you for taking time to share a little bit about yourself and Century Farms. If people are like, I gotta get myself some Century Farms, like should they visit the website? Where can we point them to?
Katie Kardell (27:24)
So if you're in Iowa, I would say go to your local liquor store and just ask for it because if they don't already have it, they can order it. That helps spread the message for us. But we're getting to the point where, especially in that Des Moines area or up around us, you shouldn't have a hard time finding it. If you are outside of the Iowa area, Southern Minnesota and all of South Dakota has distributors shipped as well. So again, it's kind of an ask for it, but the easiest way for people outside of Iowa to get a bottle of bourbon is to go to our website on our shop page. It'll take you to how you can have it delivered right to your door and by specific farmers that are available at this time.
Emily Steele (28:10)
So cool, amazing. Well, thanks for being on the show today and yeah, I look forward to watching your growth.
Katie Kardell (28:15)
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
