Kevin’s Natural Foods: Market Analysis and Innovation to Create a Niche

Consequently, it took more skill, time, planning, and overall effort to make the lifestyle changes they were gunning for. Time constraints, stress, and other priorities would get in the way of people’s good intentions and, over time, make it hard for them to stick with their diets. What’s more, a big “ah-ha” moment came when we started hearing that people were getting bored with eating the same foods over and over again. They didn’t have the time, knowledge, and/or energy to become a home chef on top of their 50-hour workweeks. These insights ultimately shaped our mission to empower even the busiest people to eat clean without sacrificing flavor. We set out to remove the barriers that made eating clean hard by making it seamless and delicious with Kevin’s Natural Foods.”

Shortly after launching, Kevin’s Natural Foods confirmed the tendencies that emerged from their market research. “No matter how much you prepare, you never know how a brand is going to resonate until you get it out in the market,” Kevin tells us. “It wasn’t until the line launched in Costco and Whole Foods, about a year after coming up with the concept, that I could envision how fast the growth would come. Once thank you notes from shoppers that found the products started pouring in via social media, I knew it was time to ramp up.”

Product development will continue to be a central aspect of their business model. “We are always thinking about how to give shoppers more culinary shortcuts, flavors, and, ultimately, more meal solutions they can cook up on a busy weeknight,” Kevin says.

Along with new flavors and diversifying their product offering, the company has also been expanding its network of distribution channels. While they continue to sell their prepared meals online, they also successfully sell on Amazon and at a variety of retail stores across the country, including Whole Foods, HEB, Raley’s Supermarkets, Schnucks, Save Mart, Winn Dixie, Bristol Farms, Better Health Store, Costco, Publix, and The Fresh Market.

While Kevin’s Natural Foods has experienced impressive business success since launching several years ago, their company mission goes beyond simply increasing the bottom line. Selling healthy Paleo and Keto Certified prepared meals to people with limited time has undoubtedly worked financially for the company. However, the brand also takes pride in helping people to live healthier lives even when they are constantly on the go. For families whose busy work, school, and extracurricular schedules make healthy eating challenging, Kevin says that “I want busy parents to know that it’s possible to provide those meals, and we’re here to help prepare them quickly and easily!”

Lastly, in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the company has also been on the frontline of a holistic response. Instead of simply buying a year’s supply of Ramen Noodles or other “easy to prepare” foods, Kevin’s Natural Foods is committed to helping families in its hometown to access nutritious food options.

In a news release, Kevin says that “access to nutritious, easy-to-make meals made with clean ingredients during this epic crisis is a necessity for all.” The company announced it is giving more than 6,500 two-serving meals to Second Harvest, which aids residents of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, and the Mother Lode counties.

In the words of founder Kevin McCray, the company decided to invest in third-party certifications early on in the process of growing the brand because, “we liked that the lifestyle diets had a way of convening people around a set of principles that they could readily understand and implement in their own lives.” The company was also partial to diets rooted in ancestral health because of Kevin’s personal experience using the Paleo diet to manage an auto-immune disorder.

It was the feedback from consumers. However, that confirmed the practicality and usefulness of independent, third-party certifications in establishing a foothold in the market niche they had discovered. “We really appreciated how useful certifications could be when we heard from consumers that they used them for their own litmus test when navigating products on supermarket shelves,” Kevin tells us. “For example, even people that weren’t religious Paleo diet connoisseurs liked seeing that a product was Paleo Certified because they understood that meant that it wouldn’t be loaded with artificial ingredients and refined sugar. It became a resource for shoppers trying to work better habits into their lives.”

Besides boosting their Paleo and Keto Certification, Kevin’s Natural Foods is also Non-GMO Project Verified and Certified Gluten-Free. Among those certifications, Kevin says that the “Paleo and Keto certifications have been particularly useful because they gave us an objective measure to reference when customers wanted to understand what qualified our product for these certifications. There are a lot of ways to interpret the diet guidelines, and having a third party like the Paleo Foundation gives us an objective set of principles that are well-defined and regularly scrutinized.”

Despite the fact that the pre-market analysis showed an enormous sector of the population looking for healthier, quick food alternatives, getting the word out to those people required some strategic planning. “As a new brand, it was important for us to quickly raise awareness about the line and the product benefits (including the certifications) to an audience that was on the hunt for innovative, clean products that would help them eat better,” Kevin says.

Social media advertising and marketing allowed the company to target people who specifically showed interest in healthier eating habits. “We target health-conscious consumers online mainly via social media,” Kevin mentions, “and we consistently highlight the certifications in our messaging, and they have become a favorite product benefit.”

Its third-party certifications form a fundamental part of a holistic marketing strategy as a company that delivers its meals directly to customers and sells via different online and brick-and-mortar retail venues. Not only has the brand leveraged its certifications to attract individual customers via social media, but it has also utilized those certifications to conquer new retail markets.

“Our Paleo and Keto certifications appealed to retailers for many of the same reasons they were helpful for us. They wanted to have merchandising events and promos that gave their customers unique product solutions that their customers valued,” Kevin tells us.