Taja Dockendorf is the Founder, Owner, and Creative Director at Pulp + Wire, a female-founded, award-winning, full-service CPG branding and marketing agency. Pulp + Wire specializes in helping natural and organic foods, cannabis, hemp, and lifestyle brands discover their identities and create websites, packaging, and social media strategies that resonate with their audiences.

Taja has built P+W into one of the most in-demand, referred design houses in the Northeast, and her creative approach to a client-centric and holistic business model has consistently earned the company multiple graphic design and advertising awards. She is a regular contributor to Forbes, focusing on team culture in the creative space, and has been featured in The Dieline, Graphic Design USA, and Food Manufacturing Magazine, among other publications. Before Pulp + Wire, Taja co-founded multiple other brands and companies.

Many founders and brand owners maintain that their brand is “their baby” and should be an extension of their personalities. However, this mentality doesn’t always resonate with target audiences. How can you separate yourself from your brand to create a company that serves your target audience?

While your personality may fuel your brand’s vision, it doesn’t always define it. Award-winning brand builder Taja Dockendorf emphasizes conducting in-depth research into your target audience’s habits, preferences, purchasing decisions, and lifestyles to structure your brand. Once you’ve conducted sufficient research, you can begin creating products and designing packaging and logos. During this phase, it’s crucial to acquire and embrace customer feedback to refine your efforts and create a brand that best resonates with consumers.

In this exclusive episode of the Brand Alchemist Podcast, Taja Dockendorf talks about creating a consumer-centric brand that doesn’t just reflect your personality. She shares consumer testing strategies for the launch phase, delves into the research phases of brand-building, and explains why your brand isn’t really your baby.

Taja Dockendorf is the Founder, Owner, and Creative Director at Pulp + Wire, a female-founded, award-winning, full-service, CPG branding and marketing agency. Pulp + Wire specializes in helping natural and organic foods, cannabis, hemp, and lifestyle brands discover their identities and create websites, packaging, and social media strategies that resonate with their audiences.

Taja has built P+W into one of the most in-demand, referred design houses in the Northeast, and her creative approach to a client-centric and holistic business model has consistently earned the company multiple graphic design and advertising awards. She is a regular contributor to Forbes, focusing on team culture in the creative space, and has been featured in The Dieline, Graphic Design USA, and Food Manufacturing Magazine, among other publications. Before Pulp + Wire, Taja co-founded multiple other brands and companies.

With so much innovation and noise in the CPG market, brands must adapt and differentiate themselves from the competition, all while remaining consistent with their values and keeping the consumer at the forefront. What can you learn from five CPG brand founders who have balanced these responsibilities amid a rapidly evolving market?

When scaling your brand, you must ensure your products remain true to your company’s core. Junea Rocha recommends making small changes to your manufacturing over time, while Hector Saldivar warns against growing too quickly and instead suggests building relationships with key retailers and investing in channels that complement your products. Advertising in stores is no longer enough to capture consumers’ attention, so Alison Cayne has merged digital shopping with in-store experiences by offering consumers online recipes for her products. Whether operating in the restaurant or DTC space, consumer engagement and connection are crucial. Jake Karls has developed a brand persona that exudes positivity, and Nabeer Alamgir has dedicated his brand to fostering connections with restaurateurs.

In the Brand Alchemist Podcast’s exclusive compilation episode, Taja Dockendorf reviews her top five episodes. With insights from Junea Rocha, Hector Saldivar, Alison Cayne, Jake Karls, and Nabeer Alamgir, Taja reflects on generating brand engagement and connection, how to scale sustainably, and how to position your products in front of consumers.

Sara Cullen is the Founder and CEO of GEM, a multivitamin made from real food. After years of struggling with fatigue, inflammation, and digestive issues, she discovered she was nutrient deficient and created a transparent and sustainable solution made with nourishing whole foods. Sara is driven by a passion for sustainable farming and global agriculture.

The standard American diet falls short of the recommended daily nutrient intake, leading many people to be nutrient-deficient despite eating what they may consider a healthy diet. Modern supplements and vitamins don’t offer much of a solution, since most of them are little more than sugar-coated gummy bears. Find out how a CPG entrepreneur is revolutionizing traditional notions of multivitamins with a novel idea.

Sara Cullen suffered from various nutrient deficiencies for years until consuming plant-based supplements like spirulina, algae, and other seaweeds transformed her health for the better. With a strong belief that food is medicine, Sara began developing multivitamins made with nutrient-rich superfoods like ginger, orange, turmeric, and seeds. By balancing taste with health and wellness benefits, she has created an innovative product that subverts the vitamin and supplement category. Sara maintains that focusing exclusively on DTC rather than retail has allowed her to better incorporate consumer feedback into her products for continuous iterations and refinement.

In the latest episode of the Brand Alchemist Podcast, Taja Dockendorf interviews Sara Cullen, the Founder and CEO of GEM, about how she transformed her personal health struggle into a real food nutrition company. Sara shares why GEM doesn’t believe in mega-dosing, the company’s strategic growth choices, and how she developed the brand’s flavor profiles.