“If you’re not staying unhinged, you’re not building a memorable brand.”
What happens when an Emmy-winning TV anchor walks away from the newsroom to help build one of the most talked-about baby formula brands in the country?
Kim Chappell (Chief Brand Officer at Bobbie) sits down with Cody Plofker (CEO at Jones Road Beauty) and Connor MacDonald (CMO at Ridge) to explore what it means to take create a purpose-driven brand in a highly regulated, deeply emotional category. Kim shares how a journalism career shaped her instinct for storytelling, why trust is her team’s most important metric, and how Cardi B landed in Bobbie’s inbox because she was already a customer.
From navigating the 2022 national formula shortage — and the $300M in revenue Bobbie deliberately walked away from — to launching the first breastfeeding billboard in Times Square with Molly Baz, Kim breaks down how bold creative decisions get made inside a fast-moving startup. She also digs into Bobbie’s partnership philosophy, the brand values that guide every campaign, and why celebrating customer cancellations has become one of their most powerful retention moves.
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Rivo
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Richpanel
https://9ops.co/richpanel
Aftersell
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Chapters
00:00:00 Cardi B Came to Us
00:10:57 How Celebrities Find You
00:17:26 Bobbie’s Brand Pillars
00:21:52 From TV Anchor to Startup
00:28:10 Marketing Master’s Degree
00:35:37 Omnichannel Campaigns
00:42:26 Bobbie’s Origin Story
00:45:53 The Formula Shortage
00:54:48 Celebrating Cancellations
01:00:08 Bobbie’s LTV Challenge
01:03:43 Building Trust From Zero
01:08:43 Sleepless Nights Collab
01:13:07 The Partnership Funnel
01:15:00 Rapid-Fire Questions
E108: News Anchor to Chief Brand Officer: Kim Chappell’s Untraditional Path
