Ready to Roll

Define your brand early in the game.
One of the things Target found appealing about Kodiak Cakes was the unique position the company carved out in the pancake and waffle mix market. Clark made the decision many years earlier to focus on producing whole-grain, all-natural products. He resisted the temptation to add a white flour pancake and waffle mix into his product line because he knew it would make his company no different than dozens of larger competitors.

Aim for excellence.
For Clark, offering a quality product has proven to be worth more than any amount of promotion or advertising. “It does take time for a big company to look at you,” Clark says. “If you don’t have a really excellent product that has a unique place in the market, the big guys are not going to look at you. It doesn’t matter how much passion you have. You really do need to have something unique, different and good that people talk about.”