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## When Pietra met Hank

Hank Laporte, the face behind the wildly popular [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/salt_hank), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmAWAnW3Jpk) and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@salt_hank?lang=en) page @SaltHank, came to Pietra in September 2023 with a problem. He had launched a line of curated salts a year prior with a previous manufacturer and needed to find a new supplier to help give his salt and seasoning a new life.

![](https://images.prismic.io/pietrastudio/Znxt1ZbWFbowe48h_9d29e10b-53ef-49a5-bd87-48afadaf9145.png?auto=format,compress)

## What Hank needed

To bring Salt Lovers Club back to life, Hank needed a partner. He was a one-man-show who was ready to lean on industry experts for guidance and assistance with everything from sourcing the right manufacturing partners to produce the seasonings, finding expert creative agencies to assist with branding and design work, selecting the best marketing tools for advertising to consumers, and locating the best [fulfillment](https://www.pietrastudio.com/blog/what-is-fulfillment) teams to manage the company’s daily customer orders. For Hank, transmitting a clear and consistent brand message to consumers was crucial. Pietra's multi-product branding strategy helped Hank maintain a cohesive brand personality across all products. For Hank, [Pietra](https://www.pietrastudio.com/) provided a one-stop shop for all of his needs.

## Finding the right supplier

When thinking about his company goals, because of his public image and established brand equity as a foodie influencer, product quality was incredibly important to Hank. He only wanted to bring the best spices, seasonings, and salts to his following and customers. While he had already put in the work to create custom blends with his previous manufacturer, he unfortunately did not own the formulas. This presented the opportunity to not only find a new supplier but to also improve on the blend recipes! The catch: Hank wanted to start with a low MOQ of 200 units seasoning blend. Oh, and he needed them to launch for the Holidays - just 2 months away!

Our team of expert sourcing managers quickly hit the ground running on vetting manufacturers on behalf of Hank. After speaking with 10 suppliers nationwide, we landed on Denver-based co-man, [The Spice Guy](https://creators.pietrastudio.com/supplier-profile/241827). Hank immediately flew out the following week to meet with the supplier team and began developing the recipes. After two days of blending, testing, cooking and sampling, Hank had nailed down 10 launch products!

![](https://images.prismic.io/pietrastudio/Znxt85bWFbowe48u_2c2e4800-a808-468d-9287-a8195506590a.png?auto=format,compress)

## Enhancing your product's brand identity with product line extensions

As soon as the recipes were approved by Hank and our team had successfully nailed down the seasonings and spices manufacturer, we prioritized a handful of product line extensions for Salt Lover’s Club. Hank was clear on wanting to use his public image to build a community that his customers could identify with and relate to. The easy answer - produce a supplemental line of cooking related merch to sell as a part of the shop! A strong brand identity can lead to increased sales for other products sold by the same company.

Hank wanted to more than just put the company’s logo on a t-shirt or a simple branded mug. He wanted to [create products](https://www.pietrastudio.com/blog/creating-a-product-from-stcratch) that his customers would love to wear daily! We began working with [DSG](https://www.pietrastudio.com/sourcing/suppliers/dsg-international/contact) to bring custom hats, sweatshirts, and other products to life immediately.

![](https://images.prismic.io/pietrastudio/ZnxuDJbWFbowe485_f463d93b-0444-418c-b075-10e608817143.png?auto=format,compress)

## Nailing the perfect branding & packaging for a successful brand identity

If you’ve ever watched Hank’s videos on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/salt_hank), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmAWAnW3Jpk) and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@salt_hank?lang=en), it’s clear that he adds personality to everything he does. For the initial relaunch of Salt Lover’s Club, Hank stuck with his original brand identity and packaging direction. Following the successful first couple of drops, Hank and his growing team refocused their energy on the question of “what’s next?”. Via his social following, Hank had a leg up on competitors due to his built in network of potential customers. However, his team knew it was time to level-up and begin thinking about the company’s retail presence.

Hank then leaned on Pietra’s expertise to find the best branding agency for his company’s needs. It was important to him that his brand’s identity stand out amongst other brands on the shelf, so packaging format and design was top of mind. A successful brand identity helps in creating long-lasting relationships with consumers by giving them a sense of personal interaction with the brand. However, after a few introductory meetings with design + strategy agency [Juicy Brick](https://www.pietrastudio.com/sourcing/suppliers/juicy-brick-ltd) it became clear that the team wanted to prioritize a full rebrand. The team immediately began working on developing the brand identity into some that is unapologetically, Hank, but also something that consumers identify with. The goal with Salt Lover’s Club has always been more than just top quality seasonings, spices, and salts. It’s always been about fostering a community of people that are obsessed with good food - we can’t wait for you to see this come through in the branding refresh this fall!

![](https://images.prismic.io/pietrastudio/ZnxuIpbWFbowe49C_f7e606cc-f70f-4aea-8020-ed7b0a76abf5.png?auto=format,compress)

## Leveraging marketing tools & fulfillment to reach your target market

As with building and scaling any brand, once you have nailed product quality and the product’s brand identity, it’s important to build brand equity and hit the right target market via a successful marketing and advertising strategy.

Pietra is uniquely positioned to assist here by offering marketing tool support + setup on sales such as IG Shop and TikTok Shop. Our subscribers also receive access to our members only fulfillment center located in North Carolina. Hank is leveraging both our marketing tools and our fulfillment center to support his brand.

## Launching your own seasonings line to attract potential customers

If you are looking to follow in Hank’s footsteps and launch your own high-quality seasonings and/or spices brand, we’ve outlined a few steps below to help you lay the groundwork.

1. **Market research**: Spend time considering what types of seasonings and/or spices your customers are most likely to be interested in. What are other aspirational companies? What value are you bringing to the consumer?

2. **Nailing recipes:** As a food centric content-creator, Hank was passionate about custom formulating his blends. Consider whether or not you are interested in custom blends or if private label might be a path for you. If you are unfamiliar with the term private label, it involves using pre-developed recipes/blends and ordering them direct from the manufacturer to sell to your customers.

3. **Decide on a supplier & start sampling:** Once you have decided whether custom formulation or private label is a best fit, it’s time to start vetting manufacturers for your company. When reviewing suppliers, it’s always important to ask the following questions:

   * What is your standard MOQ (minimum order quantity)?

   * What is your standard production lead time?

   * What are you development and/or sampling costs?

   * What is your standard development and/or sampling lead time?

   * Can you share any references to past work for previous clients?

4. **Consider your branding:** Whether custom formulating your own recipes to bring to market or simply creating custom branded private label recipes, landing on a cohesive product's brand identity is critical to a company’s success. Whether executing branding on your own or hiring a branding or design agency, it’s important to consider developing the following: logo, typography (fonts), colors, tone and voice, and target consumer profiles. Nailing down these details will inform future decisions such as packaging design + marketing.

5. **Source or finalize packaging:** Many manufacturers in the seasonings space will have a suite of available components for customers to customize with their branding. However, if you are looking to provide your consumers with a more unique packaging experience and capture you can work with [Pietra](https://www.pietrastudio.com/platform/sourcing-and-production/packaging) to source components and packaging through an additional supplier.

6. **Start production!**

## Top selling seasonings to consider for your business

If you are looking to launch a premium quality seasonings, salts, or spice company, below is a list of top selling spices globally!

* Pepper

* Salt

* Paprika

* Garlic Powder

* Onion Powder

* Cumin

* Parsley

## Conclusion

If you are interested in producing a seasonings and spices company, it's a market with relatively low barriers to entry! While the market is saturated, by uniquely positioning your company for your target market via unique branding, exciting advertising, and authentic marketing techniques you can see success just as Salt Hank has with his company, [Salt Lovers Club](https://saltloversclub.com/).

salthank.jpg

In 2 months, Hank Laporte partnered with Pietra to revitalize his brand by sourcing new suppliers, developing custom recipes, and enhancing marketing strategy.

How Salt Hank launched his seasonings and spices brand

Hank Laporte partnered with Pietra to revitalize his Salt Lovers Club by sourcing new suppliers, developing custom recipes, and enhancing his brand’s identity and marketing strategy.

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Meet Lisa and Mitalee, the co-founders of [Transcedence Coffee](https://transcendencecoffee.com/), where they're crafting their own coffee brand that combines diverse, global syrup flavors with specialty techniques and all-natural ingredients.

Last week, we caught-up with them to learn more about the secrets behind their brew. Here's their story:

## Why coffee? Why syrup?

We met in college while working as baristas at a small campus coffee shop. It was more than just a place to grab coffee—it became a space to take a break, connect with people, and recharge during the chaos of school. It's also where we fell in love with experimenting with flavors, creating seasonal drinks, and playing around with fun new ideas.

Flavored drinks were really starting to become the highlight of coffee shops all around us, and we noticed that there were a few big syrup brands everywhere that tasted artificial and chemical. The only other alternative was for baristas to hand-make small batches of syrup, which was inconsistent and inefficient. Transcendence was a solution to this white space, fun and premium barista-quality flavors in a shelf-stable, distributable bottle.

## Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your day one entrepreneur-self?

Cash flow is THE most important part of running a strong business and strong businesses take a long time to build brand affinity. While we're in the world of virality and seemingly overnight successes, well-built businesses take time to build real and long-lasting customer relationships and demand. Keep working hard and constantly adjust!

## What's been your biggest OMG, WTF, FML moment?

One of our coolest moments was being [featured on Miss Remi Ashten's YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQE6JzZutZ8), where she unboxed and tried all of our original syrup flavors. Lisa's been a huge fan of hers forever and it was so incredible to see her reaction and share our products with her subscribers! 

![](https://images.prismic.io/pietrastudio/Z9LglBsAHJWomfwA_pietra-marketing-customer-spotlight-transcendence-coffee-img-1.jpg?auto=format,compress)

## What's the craziest customer story that you've dealt with?

When we were baristas at a campus coffee shop, we had a customer on faculty come regularly into the shop who was obsessed with nachos. She requested that we get a nacho machine, even though we were a coffee shop, and our store manager ended up buying one after being asked a few times. We ended up all training on how to serve nachos from a carnival-looking nacho machine for this one customer. 

## What's the best not-coffee thing you've used your syrups on or with?

Overnight oats or chia seed pudding! It's such a great boost of flavor for a breakfast or afternoon treat. 

## What's your biggest business challenge?

Fundraising has been one of the biggest challenges and learning opportunities building a consumer brand in 2025. 

## What's your go-to flow state playlist?

Coffee Shop, Slow Jazz

---

Pietra is proud to partner with inspiring brands like Transcendence Coffee and more than 300,000 entrepreneurs worldwide, providing powerful tools and support to help grow their businesses. Curious about leveling up your brand? [Try Pietra for free](https://www.pietrastudio.com/sell-on-pietra/register) and see the difference it can make!

pietra-marketing-customer-spotlight-transcendence-coffee-img-2x.jpg

Discover Transcendence Coffee's journey from barista dreams to YouTube fame, crafting specialty coffee syrups with global flavors and all-natural ingredients.

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