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November 8, 2021
In honor of Pi Day, this month’s Customer Spotlight features Katz Gluten Free, makers of gluten free pies, donuts, cakes, and more.
Gluten free on the rise
While gluten free is a booming category today, Katz Gluten Free has been on the leading edge of allergy-friendly baking since its founding in 2006. The story starts with Mrs. Katz, who found that her two gluten intolerant children were missing out on birthday celebrations, donuts at school, and snack time with friends, with no gluten free alternatives available. She decided to make them herself, and the results were so delicious that she opened a bakery and began selling frozen baked goods in retail stores. The brand has seen double and triple digit growth years ever since, with Katz’s donuts, cakes, and other sweet treats distributed widely across the natural channel and among large retail chains.
Data as the missing ingredient
Now a leading independent gluten free supplier, the Katz team became increasingly interested in data to help inform the continued growth of the business. But they were still relying on their partners and customers for important information about their retail channel. This limited visibility into Katz’s product categories as a whole and their ability to stay ahead of the curve as a partner to retailers and distributors. The leadership team realized they needed a more robust data solution, and decided to expand their capabilities with Crisp.
Refining the recipe for growth
The Katz team is eager to become a more data-driven company, but their plan is not to start drinking from a firehouse. As Marketing Director Roberto Cruz explains, “As a small company, our plan to ramp up to higher data and insight capability is more about evolution than revolution.” The Crisp platform makes it easy for his team to access priority metrics such as sales performance by geography, banner, and warehouse. Geographic heat maps are particularly valuable for Roberto’s team, because activities like advertising and promotions are often run on a market-by-market basis. With a live-feed of sales data down to the zip code, Roberto can now design targeted campaigns in key markets, and share target locations with his media partners — insights that would only have been known anecdotally before.
“With the complexity in our product line, getting product-level data easily from Crisp is invaluable as a marketer.” — Roberto Cruz, Marketing Director
With over 100 products in the Katz family, Roberto says it’s invaluable to see the product lineup as a whole and identify what is growing, what isn’t, and why. With this information, he can prioritize products as a marketer. His team can also analyze product assortment and combinations: for instance, identifying two products that sell particularly well together, and applying those insights toward another retailer. The Katz team can also leverage data in key activities such as New Product Innovation to help validate product priorities in its pipeline.
It’s these actionable insights that the team finds most important. As Roberto explains, “It’s one thing to build a report, but then, what are the implications and actions moving forward?” Using Crisp to understand performance at an account level, uncover learnings, and ultimately apply them is what helps the business evolve. With an eye on velocity, Katz’s sales team can also bring these insights into buyer conversations. As he explains, “From reports, you can build insights, and then build a data-driven case for additional items, increased shelf space, or more merchandising. The key is to create value for our partners by leveraging the data to generate valuable consumer insights.”
A Pi Day everyone can enjoy
In honor of Pi Day, Crisp ordered boxes of Katz’s frozen pies for all of its team members to enjoy at home. The pies are gluten, dairy, nut, and soy free, so everyone can partake — and they were delicious!
