Heidi Carney joined Grand Brands in January 2004 to help spearhead the marketing and customer service efforts. “I have been in marketing for most of my career and I have never seen a product that generates such genuine customer enthusiasm as True Lemon. I don’t think a day has gone by where we haven’t gotten emails or phone calls from people contacting us just to tell us how much they love True Lemon.”

What did you think when you first tried True Lemon?

I thought it tasted great and I knew that it was a wonderful alternative to fresh lemons and bottled lemon juice. I think I’m like many of our customers: I have children, I work, I’m health conscious, I like things that are convenient, I’m always watching my weight, I like things that are good for my family. As a consumer, True Lemon made sense to me on so many levels. The day I first met David, I probably had three old lemons sitting in my refrigerator and a bottle of lemon juice that I hadn’t really touched in months so I thought True Lemon really addressed a need in the marketplace.

So you use True Lemon at home?

I do. I actually cook, bake and season with lemon more now because I always have True Lemon on hand. Also, before I started working at Grand Brands, my main source of liquid was Diet Coke. I was not a huge fan of plain water but didn’t like any of the water flavors that were out there. Like many of our customers, I drink more water every day because True Lemon helps make plain water more palatable for me. I almost never buy fresh lemons any longer and I’ve completely stopped buying bottled lemon juice.

What do you like best about your job?

It’s really been exciting to see how far we have come in such a short period of time and I have to say I feel very lucky to be a part of this great team. It’s really a pleasure when you work some place where people share the same values. We are all really committed to our customers. We all share this enthusiasm for True Lemon and our new products. We all work really hard and we all respect each other. Also, as a working mother with three kids, I am really lucky to work for someone who values family and allows me the flexibility to be there for my children during the school day when needed. Family is really important to David and Aleck (David is the creator of True Lemon and the founder and president of Grand Brands and Aleck is his brother and Vice President of the company) and they honor the fact that family is important to their team.

What is the biggest challenge?

We are a growing company and, including everyone, we only have ten people in our home office and four people who help us on a part-time basis. With few exceptions, we do all the marketing, advertising, customer service and public relations activities internally so keeping up with the volume of customer emails and calls while simultaneously continuing to spread the word about True Lemon is sometimes challenging. However, it’s so much fun and it has been a wonderful journey. The challenges just make you continue to think how to be more effective, more creative and more efficient.

What lies ahead in terms of marketing and customer service for Grand Brands?

First and foremost, we will continue to keep our commitment to be as responsive as possible to our customers. We try and return all our emails within 48 hours; we appreciate and listen to customers’ comments; and we will continue to actively engage our customers’ in terms of both our existing and new products that we develop. In fact, the three new products we are launching in the beginning of 2006, True Lemon in the shaker bottle and True Lime in packets and a shaker bottle, came from customer requests. Next year we are also going to start doing some more traditional advertising and larger sampling programs to continue to spread the word about True Lemon and our new products so we look forward to that will be very exciting! I know I’m not objective but I really believe that True Lemon and True Lime are going to be very popular products and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this company.

You can contact Heidi via email at hcarney@grandbrands.us.