Turkey & Reuben
In 2021, Noa Shneorson and I started a business venture, Turkey & Reuben. We created custom hats and apparel, partnered with individuals and local organizations, and sold online, in stores, and at markets.
After one year of operations, we had:
+ Produced and sold 650+ custom design hats
+ Donated over $700 to 5 different organizations
+ Partnered with 4 businesses and local organizations
+ Shipped to over 6 countries
+ Sold at over 10 pop-ups and markets
+ Retailed at Green Apple Books' brick and mortar store
T&R has since closed.
Brand
While locked down, Noa and I ordered lots of sandwiches- always a turkey and a reuben. This seemed like a playful, memorable way to represent the two of us. The name was always a conversation starter, and we discovered that many of our customers had a strong preference for one sandwich over the other. We quickly became a recognizable brand.
We thought about our brand as larger than our graphic identity. We had merch, we curated our booth presence to fit the T&R style (browns and tans, picnic, paper lunch bag, etc). We made a “Deli Tunes” playlist to share with followers, and play at our markets.
Process
We produced all our products in our home studio using Cricut machines and heat-transfer materials. This manual process was perfect for our small-batch operation and allowed us to create 1 of 1 products at a reasonable cost.
In-home production also enabled fast prototyping and experimentation for new products as we developed and iterated on designs.
We controlled the entire process from design to delivery.
Sales
We started the brand in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which meant that most sales, like everything else, took place online. The online shop was specifically designed and built to accommodate custom ordering, product reviews, browsing, checkout, and payment for all orders that we needed to fulfill.
+ Over 250 product SKUs available on our website
+ Over 3,200 unique visitors
+Visitors from 37 countries
Partnerships and Donations
Partnerships:
Run with Errol
Donations:
Website
Over 250 products purchased from our website
Over 3,200 unique visitors
Visitors from 37 countries
Over 850 followers
Used to grow our customer base through ads, hashtags, and engagement
Main method of communication/product release/market schedules
Campaigns
Running T&R gave us the opportunity to come up with creative campaigns. Sales, giveaways, and partnerships increased sales and customer interaction.
My favorite of our campaigns was one we called “Mystery Bundles.” These were two different collections of one hat, two stickers, and two postcards. Though you weren’t sure exactly what designs you’d get, you knew they would fall under the theme of either “California Dreamin’” or “Nineties Kid” (whichever you ordered). We created a “quiz” on instagram that would determine which bundle was “more you”. This customized approach, with an element of surprise, drew lots of interaction and excitement around this campaign.
