Last week, Lainey asked me to listen to Emma Grede’s Aspire podcast with Meghan Sussex and I finally got to it, just as As ever took a bit of a dive on the PR front.
Emma is a successful founder (including co-founding Good American and Skims, after selling an agency). The podcast is polished but friendly, it’s clearly a safe place for Meghan (but it’s also not two celebrities fellating each other in between adverts for pillows). Emma knows her stuff, she speaks business at a rapid pace, she is interested in the contract details.
But Emma can’t reach Meghan, who is so rigid and affectatious that listening to her feels like a stifling loop of catchphrases you’d read in Girlbossing 101: Boss Like A Girl Who Bosses. Meghan goes into the genesis for As ever by stating that multiple friends texted her at the same time to tell her that her jams made them so happy that it sparked an idea. Later, she mentions she thinks about the 15-year-old (yes, as in a teenager) saving up to buy something special. I would have liked a follow-up on that.
There are soundbites like “content and commerce can meet.” Gwyneth Paltrow has been saying for years, “contextual commerce” which, frankly, is snappier. But with Meghan, we don’t get any of the “I’d rather smoke crack than eat canned cheese” fun. It’s not even fun to fight about Meghan because her haters are deranged and her superfans are so humourless. I think that’s why she’s kind of deflated as a pop culture figure – we can’t analyse her business acumen because we can’t analyse her; there’s just too much baggage with how she’s been treated by the media in both relentlessly negative coverage in the UK and consistently positive coverage in the US.
The most interesting insight she shares about her business is the Netflix angle and how they are working outside of the existing marketing framework (e.g. shows like Bridgerton are pitched for collaborations with established brands like Bath & Body Works, Williams Sonoma and The Republic of Tea – which comes into play later). As ever is a brand first, with a separate TV show. She describes them as in conversation with each other, but not dependent on each other (which makes me think that With Love, Meghan, will take a long hiatus after season two).
She also name-drops Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria (a jam recipient), which also plays into the rumours that have plagued Meghan (she is difficult and finicky). She implies she puts opportunities into action through relationships. She flexes her connections and her professionalism, but because she has to be so vigilant with her words, this is the closest we get to any insight into how she does business.
Emma moves through it with interesting questions, like how do you grow the brand outside of the show? Who is doing quality control? Who has final say? How are you dealing with conflict, how is your staff organized, are you going to raise capital? But Meghan sidesteps with buzzy chatter but no meaning: iteration (a word I’ve never heard outside of work), authenticity, “it takes a village” etc. She doesn’t want to give up the details but it feel like we’ve reached maximum depth with Meghan.
It's not that she owes anyone anything – we don’t need her soul to buy her jam – but the amount of promotion required to hit whatever metric Meghan and Netflix want to hit has led to this endless loop of interview/baiting headlines/outrage/defense/product drop. It’s the Kardashian School of Marketing.
The jam is where it started but it is also the problem right now. Two problems really, but one is real and one is fake. As ever’s apricot spread can’t be delivered to some of the people who ordered it, and someone in the UK figured out what food manufacturing is.
Let’s address the latter. Do people think Meghan is making jam in her home? The UK tabloids are pretending they have been duped! Swindled! Hoodwinked! They are hot on As ever’s tail, tracing where the jam comes from. Then the trail “ran cold” (as if this is a murder mystery). Like the With Love, Meghan “that isn’t really her house!” furor, let’s pull the crayons and draw a picture for the Daily Mail.
Food manufacturing is often done through third parties, which requires an NDA. There are different ways to do it: co-packing, white labelling, and private labelling.
Co-packing is if I have a recipe, bring it to a manufacturer and they make it and package it for me. I retain the rights to the recipe and have total control. White labeling is when a manufacturer makes a generic product and I buy that generic product, label it and sell it as is. I have zero control over it. Private labelling is a mix: I can work with a manufacturer on a custom product that I sell. I have some control.
My guess would be that As ever uses different processes for different products: for the jam, she likely worked to develop a recipe with a team and then with a co-packer because it has to be shelf-stable, account for shipping, safe packaging etc. That’s not to say this isn’t her version of jam, but the tea (which some sleuths have traced to Republic of Tea - the same brand that did the collaboration with Bridgerton) or the crepe mix might be private labelling.
This isn’t a huge secret, As ever hasn’t made any false promises. The raspberry spread description states, “inspired by the recipe Meghan crafted in her home kitchen.” Inspired by. Not handcrafted by Meghan. There’s no indication that this is small batch. Back in April, Fortune reported on her products being made in the US, not in her house in the American Riviera.
The second issue is more pressing and real. The apricot jam sold out, then they couldn’t fulfill the orders. Same with the recent wine drop, which is “curated” by Meghan (for wine, this might be a white label and very a limited run). Sold out in an hour.
On the podcast, she said that selling out is not a strategy and she doesn’t want that disappointment to be part of customer service (remember, there’s a 15-year-old relying on this jam). But after months of saying she has the strongest team and the big partnership and the highest standards, when does As ever meet those standards?
It will get there but by then, will Meghan be on to the next thing? She briefly mentioned beauty and fashion to Emma (I could totally see them working together). What’s the over/under on white button-down shirt?
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