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Soylent Cacao + Nectar — New flavors for the new year
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Got violently sick from my last batch of 2.0 and don't know if I can ever drink it again. While I was fully refunded, I do not think they escalated the situation appropriately. On paper I like their mission, but they should go above and beyond to figure out what is causing people to get so sick and keep customers informed.
@goeric So sorry that you went through this. A refund isn't "making it right" in this situation. Having your sole product cause customers to become violently ill is the stuff of founder nightmares. (Having a detailed, board-approved emergency plan is the best way to manage situations like this. That plan can handle immediate cures up through re-engagement.)
@goeric I haven't gotten sick from the bars or 2.0 myself, but... just curious, what do you think would make it right in this situation?
@kicksopenminds I think it's a terribly difficult situation to deal with. On one hand, they can't shut down operations because of one issue (though you can find others discussing the same experience), on the other, they can provide escalated customer service to people who went through such a terrible experience (they didn't). I think acknowledging there may be a real problem with the product (from somebody more senior than a support person), reassuring me they were going to get to the bottom of it, and keep me updated every step of the way would go a long way (not what happened).
At this point, my assumption is, even if a problem was found, they would never acknowledge it to me because that would be admitting fault and risking that going public. But I offered to send the bottle back for testing (or another bottle from my same case) and they refused it, saying that knowing the batch number was enough (I can't imagine testing trace elements from my offending bottle or another bottle wouldn't be better, maybe I am wrong). If they did actually test it, find an issue, and let me know that it will never happen again, I would go back to consuming the product.
It would be nice to get a bit more info on what Nectar actually tastes like beyond just being "fruity," but I was super impressed by the taste of Soylent's food bars which also didn't really have a description at all, so I'm optimistic.
@brendonbigley It tastes like the milk from a bowl of fruit loops, with the fruity flavor slightly more concentrated.
Yay! New Soylent Flavors. I love the regular drink, but I'd love to shake it up. (pun intended) Cocoa 🍫 sounds good, and Nectar 🌸 sounds interesting. I'd love an option to switch out two regular bottles in my next shipment for these.
From the website:
These additions to the Soylent Drink line demonstrate the Company’s commitment to ongoing innovation. Following the successful debut of Coffiest, the Soylent product team has followed up their work with a series of new flavors. Cacao’s essence of velvety chocolate and Nectar’s custom-made fruity taste developed in the Soylent test kitchen are the perfect complements to Original and Coffiest. With a macronutrient profile matching Soylent Drink’s Original flavor, Cacao and Nectar deliver 20% of daily nutritional requirements in delicious and convenient packages.
I honestly don't mean to be antagonistic or negative, because I think this is a really smart/interesting product, but isn't it (as Apple might put it) a "bold" choice to use the name "Soylent"? Isn't there a lot of (let's call it) "baggage" with that name? Or am I missing something? I have to believe this gorilla has been addressed internally and externally, but I'd love to hear more about that decision.
@omicaustin the Soylent CMO talked about it last year at an event called Hustlecon:
tldr: it's great for grabbing attention. gets a lot of discussion from people any time they put out any marketing. I guess that you could compare it to "any press is good press"
@_jacksmith Thanks for that video. Certainly an interesting decision. It's unquantifiable, but I wonder to what extent the name will ultimately hurt vs. help their longterm growth.
@omicaustin i think it's reached the point of return now. they sent out a survey a few years ago considering changing their name as so many people told them to. but the proposed names were terrible. i think Soylent works nowadays, has a lot of press attention. their audience is also more millenials than people who would have watched the 1973 film i'd say
@_jacksmith You might be right. Only time will tell I guess. FWIW, I'm not a millennial (though comfortably under 40), I've never seen the movie, but I still get why the name is problematic. Some cultural themes have a very long tail. Either way, it makes for an interesting marketing case study.
Yes! I am very willing to replace a few meals with Soylent, but the original flavor was a turn off.
It's not often that a company in the health food industry gets their branding down to a science and does it right. I've seen a lot of similarly branded drinks at chains like Whole Foods where a bunch of the stuff is finished with this matte product design, but the simplicity Soylent employs on their entire branding scheme works perfectly. I'm a carnivorous big-meal eater but if I ever wanted to get on a diet or drink my fruit, Soylent would have my business.
Nice work
@kkdub Haha, good point - I guess my best answer is the shape of the bottle. I think that pretty much covers that, does it not?
@kkdub This conversation made my day a little more enjoyable. Very to the point haha. Also, i just noticed it says "Ready to drink" but that's not "drink me" so maybe they should make it say "drink me food" and then the brand will be unbeatable lol
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