Some large corporations looking to capitalize on Juneteenth now that it's a federal holiday were met with backlash. After one such debacle with Walmart WMT Black-owned ice cream brand Creamalicious, suddenly saw a surge in demand.
Liz Rogers, founder of Creamalicious, told Yahoo Finance Live that they were really excited about the brand, just expanding, and just meeting all of the Creamalicious fans across the country. It's been extremely inspiring. It's been amazing brand awareness, to say the least. Walmart pulled a Juneteenth-themed ice cream product in May after consumers took to social media to criticize the big-name retailer, alleging it copied the red velvet cheesecake flavor from Creamalicious. Demand for her ice cream soared overnight, according to Rogers.
Creamalicious, which boasts Southern-inspired ice cream flavors, had been growing before the controversy and made its way into stores like Walmart and Target.
Rogers said I'm the underdog and that's why I'm creamalicious. These brands are giants. I looked up to these brands when I was growing up. They have great staying powers. They have a huge machine behind them. I don't compete with the bigger brands, so that's what I try to do. I created my own dessert category. Rogers said that having a Black-owned brand is a piece of it, but we shouldn't lead with that because I don't think any brand is leading with the color of their skin. She stressed how important it is to support minority-owned businesses like hers that don't have all the resources to compete in crowded markets, and expressed support for the 15 Percent Pledge, which encourages retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands. Walmart and Target have yet to commit to the pledge, which has been signed by other companies like Sephora, Macy's and Yelp. I do like the 15% Pledge because there has not been an African-American in mass production, as it relates to ice cream that's national, in the masses, Rogers said. We have African-American-owned ice cream manufacturers that are regional. I'd like to see more of that. She added that we do have the opportunity to go into the retailers, but we do need resources to stay and to sustain the brand. Resources need to be allocated to smaller businesses. It needs to be an even playing scale. Rogers expanded their brand's visibility by partnering with McAlister's Deli to produce an ice cream version of the restaurant chain's signature sweet tea.
They're super famous for their iced tea, which was a really cool moment for me because I got an opportunity to taste their iced tea, make the ice cream with the iced tea flavors and components, and really bring a two-in-one dessert to market, Rogers said. I'm doing a lot of that. Rogers said she built a strong team that's prepared for whatever challenges and opportunities may come, whether they're more brand deals or social media virality.
Rogers said that Creamalicious is extremely innovative. We're very agile. We're able to move on things a lot quicker when things come around in opportunities, because we're able to move on things without having to go through so much red tape. You can follow Edwin Roman on Twitter.