On the road to becoming a $100M brand, Mid-Day Squares has faced plenty of challenges. Anyone who has followed this buzzy brand on their reality TV-style journey knows. But when the time came to address the growing pains caused by an overwhelm of deductions and lack of visibility into their trade spend and overall growing business, we were honored that the Mid-Day Squares team chose Promomash as their partner to solve these challenges and fuel growth towards the big goal.
The first "functional chocolate" snack bar brand startup founded 4 years ago is a modern-day CPG David and Goliath story. From going up against Big Chocolate brands like Hershey’s to making the decision to go vertical and build their own manufacturing facility, the three partners – siblings Lezlie Karls and Jake Karls, and Lezlie’s husband Nick Saltarelli – took risks and made big bets. And those bets have paid off with rocket-ship growth in distribution and retail doors.
That brings us back to the deductions and trade spend challenges. The Mid-Day Squares team knew they didn’t have the time or resources to handle this on their own. They set on a search for a trade promotion management and deduction management solution that could keep up with their pace of growth. After looking at several different vendors, they ultimately chose Promomash.
“We were searching for so long [to figure out] how we were going to manage trade spend and get our deductions in order,” Saltarelli said in a joint announcement with Promomash CEO Yuval Selik at Expo West 2024. “It’s a mess – if you’re a food entrepreneur, you know what a mess it is to deal with, and we looked far and wide.”
Why Promomash?
When it comes to why the Mid-Day Squares team chose Promomash among the other alternatives, Alex Trinh, VP of Revenue, boiled it down to a couple of key differentiators.
First, working with a vendor whose CEO and founder had been in the brand owner’s shoes before was important. “Having someone that’s so used to how [everything] works within the industry” influenced the decision, according to Trinh.
Secondly, Trinh explained that as a brand heavily invested in data, Mid-Day Squares was already using Crisp. The team knew there was added value to be gained through the exclusive Promomash integration. “We use Crisp on a day-to-day basis…pairing it up seamlessly with Promomash has really helped,” he said.
“The Biggest Differentiator Has Been the Team So Far”
Upon signing up in late 2023, the Mid-Day Squares and Promomash teams quickly turned to onboarding and implementation of the CPGenius trade management system.
“Implementation and to be up and running within a couple of weeks was crucial for us, so we wanted to make sure we had the proper onboarding to make sure that we were live…we had deadlines to hit, we had budgets to prepare, so Promomash definitely helped us with that,” said Trinh.
Five months later, the Mid-Day Squares team is reaping the benefits of handled deductions and clear visibility into their trade spend and overall business.
“We sell in the US and Canada…to have [the data] separate for us is a game changer and it really gives us perspective,” said Trinh. “Sometimes you’re too much in the weeds, so Promomash allows us to take a step back and see the forest for the trees.”
While the big-picture view into the entire business has been valuable for the team, Trinh also explained that the level of in-depth visibility in Promomash on trade spend sliced several different ways (including by account, promotion, and product) allows them to see which initiatives are working and what new initiatives they may want to try. Ultimately, Promomash has empowered the Mid-Day Squares team to be smarter with their money.
“The view that you have in Promomash really gives you that visibility super quickly…I work with our CFO hand in hand, and it’s been great to help us make quick decisions,” Trinh said.
Among all the benefits the CPGenius platform has unlocked for the Mid Day Squares team, Trinh says, it’s the support he and his team have received from the Client Success team at Promomash that has truly made the difference.
“Honestly, the biggest differentiator has been the team so far,” said Trinh. “I know for software, the team typically isn’t part of the value proposition, but for Promomash, 100%.”
Want to see how Promomash can help your brand? Book a demo to see why Mid-Day Squares and so many other leading CPG brands are choosing Promomash.
