http://www.b2bwholesalermag.com/legallean3.html
LEGAL LEAN is a new, mood-boosting drink made to help consumers unwind after a stressful day – and its horizons are unlimited.
As the Orlando, FL-based parent company says on its web site (www.legalleanstore. com), the product allows user to “cool down after a workout, or chill before bed. Our mixture of herbs and nutrients pro-motes a state of enhanced rest and bliss.
This helps the body and mind find peace. Countless trials have been done to create the perfect natural mix. Enjoy calming effects without losing great taste. A spe-cially formulated blend includes natural
herb extracts, proprietary ingredients, and essential vitamins. Unlike lean made with scheduled or dangerous ingredients, our product is a dietary supplement made with the customer’s safety in mind.”
“Legal Lean syrup has been our flagship product,” says Nick Anderson, the three-year-old firm’s owner and
director of sales and marketing. “It has been on the market for two years now.”
As the company told consumers, whole-salers and retailers in its creative mar-keting campaign, it was the first legal syrup product on the market, and revo-lutionized the syrup trend in the smoke shop/convenience store industry. Its logo, showing the signature cup with pur-ple liquid, is well recognized in the industry.
“Now the syrup genre seems be a staple product for all smoke shops across the coun-try,” Anderson says, “and is continuing to gain momentum and attracting popularity within the new demographics and markets.”
COPYCATS & CROOKS
Anderson says that his new and biggest challenge is “dealing with liars, copycats, counterfeiters, undercutters and crooks in the industry. When we first started we were the first legal syrup to go mainstream. Now there are over 20 brands, many of which saturate the market and lower the margins by selling their products cheaper than ours in an attempt to take some of our marketshare.”
Indeed, he and his team have even had to deal with some-one counterfeiting their product. “We have learned that you must be doing something right when people want to take the time to copy and counterfeit what you are do-ing,” Anderson reflects. “I think it as compliment, and it just drives me and my team to work harder to outshine the competition to stay at the top of the syrup game. Our natural instinct is to work hard, and no matter how big
we get never get complacent or lazy.”
That is easier said than done in a grow-ing, still volatile market. As Anderson confirms, “The game is always chang-ing and moving, so we must keep pushing. The minute you start slacking off and slowing down, someone new will come in and take the market right
out from under you. We learned that in this industry everyone knows everyone, so you must be honest and do as you say you are going to do. If you don’t, in the long run it will come back to bite you, and eventually you will be squeezed out of the industry for being dishonest.”
LEGALLEANSTORE.COM
DOING THE LEGWORK
Recently, Legal Lean has attracted attention from some major corporate convenience store chains and distribu-tors such as Murphy USA. In 2016, the management team developed a creative internet-marketing strategy, and at-tended major trade shows like Champs, ASD, BiG Show. They also placed advertisements in all the major smoke industry publications.
“We have made countless internet-marketing programs through social media, and even did some music collabo-rations with hip hop artist Bezz Believe and Kevin Gates to help to build exposure to the brand,” Anderson relates.
In 2017, the five-member team continues to travel across the country “doing the legwork,” Anderson explains, go-ing store to store and distributor to distributor to con-tinue to spread the products to new demographics, and even visiting existing distributors, to further build rela-tionships across the country.
“As we know, this business is all about relation-ships,” he explains. “We are in it for
the long haul, and are here to stay as we continue to evolve with the trends and counter culture.” He hopes to end
this year with solid dis-tributor relationships in all 50 states, and build some corpo-
rate convenience chain partnerships.
Management hopes to take its new product Coco Loko to even bigger markets and demographics than Legal
Lean Syrup. Says Anderson, “We have built some strong relation-
ships and alliances over the years that can really help us all grow to that next level.”
Coco Loko, infused with raw cacao, will continue to revo-lutionize the recreational herbal supplement genre of the smoke shop/convenience store industry, Anderson feels. ‘With our strong marketing campaign, and as we continue to educate consumers on the benefits of the trend of snorting cacao, we are certain that this product will catch on and become a hot product on store shelves for years to come.”
Of Coco Loko, Anderson adds “the blend creates syner-gistic effect of an endorphin rush, serotonin release, and a natural rush of feel-good energy.” The demographic is primarily the partygoer raver who wants to get a quick and euphoric energy rush “to help them party and dance the night away without the crash. Cacao can even benefit athletes looking to gain the competitive edge with a nice steady energy rush, similar to a ‘runners high’.”
Anderson feels that his company’s biggest chal-lenge until now was building trust and credibility, “to have people believe in our product and truly get behind us. It was tough educating people on the concept of syrup-sipping, since it was so new and took a lot of marketing, adver-tising, and legwork to teach the industry and educate the consumer. At the beginning, many peo-ple did not believe we could
sell a syrup that nobody ever heard of for a $15 retail price and survive. We proved our doubters wrong.”