Behind the brand: Happy Wolf’s Jana Goodbaum on influencers, storytelling and core customers

In the world of marketing, few leaps are as bold as going from working at a corporate giant to becoming a startup founder. Jana Goodbaum, former Head of Integrated Marketing Communications at Tim Hortons, traded in her office for the whirlwind of launching Happy Wolf, a kids’ snack brand that champions clean ingredients and parental peace of mind—and which recently celebrated their 1-year anniversary. In this exclusive Marhub.ca interview, Jana dishes out wisdom on everything from influencer strategy to the importance of speaking directly to your customers, wherever you might find them. Let’s go behind the brand with Happy Wolf.

What was your marketing career journey like?

I joined Tim Hortons in 2016, starting with a short stint in market research, which I found very interesting. I quickly transitioned to advertising, which we called integrated marketing communications. I quickly fell in love with the storytelling side. 

Tim Hortons is a massive brand with many facets and plays an important role in Canadians’ lives. Being able to find and share stories that could move the country was the most rewarding part of marketing at Tim’s.

I worked my way up, leading advertising  for our U.S.-based business first—smaller compared to the main business—and eventually led the advertising side for Tim’s Canada for several years.

How does market research at a startup like Happy Wolf compare to doing it at a massive brand like Tim’s?

I tried to mimic the structured, scientific methods I learned at Tim Hortons but on a tighter budget. It wasn’t as rigorous—recruiting a representative sample without paying for experts is tough. For example, I’d walk around my daughter’s gymnastics studio on Sundays, handing out sample bars with QR code cards and asking parents to have their kids try them and fill out a survey.

It wasn’t fully representative—just parents at the same gym in North York—but I set up the questionnaire the same way I was trained to. When we needed a final go/no-go decision, I went to a lab to validate, paid for it, and begged for discounts. I maintained the same level of scrutiny as at Tim’s, where I had to defend decisions to stakeholders and executives. This time, I used the research to convince myself it was worth pursuing.

What’s the key takeaway for founders bootstrapping high-quality market research?

Talk to as many people as you can and don’t let your own biases lead.

You can replicate the same rigorous methods of big brands with Google Surveys or SurveyMonkey. It’s not expensive, but finding participants is the challenge. Tap into Facebook groups, friend groups, or school parent chats and ask people to take five-minute surveys. It adds up if you keep at it.

In FMCG, the fridge is extremely competitive, and you proved demand with a DTC approach. Can you walk us through that initial momentum-building phase?

We knew from the start that being a DTC (direct to consumer) brand forever wasn’t our goal—it’s not the right fit. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to buy snack bars separately from my regular groceries online and deal with the extra hassle.

But you can’t just tell a store, “Trust me, this is going to be great.” We needed to show reviews, reorder rates, and prove demand. DTC is essential for getting into retail; nationwide distribution from the beginning is crucial for attracting influencers. This generation relies on influencers, especially for kids’ food, so we knew they were key.

Being in just a few stores in one city wasn’t enough—influencers in L.A., Chicago, or New York wouldn’t promote a product their followers couldn’t easily access. So, DTC was non-negotiable. 

We couldn’t justify a massive advertising push for customer acquisition; instead, we gifted products to about 50 carefully chosen influencers. This was a major investment—covering shipping, product, and a small gift adds up—but we knew the right voices mattered more than follower counts. We targeted influencers who aligned closely with our ultra-clean snacks, avoiding artificial flavors or additives.

It was a gamble since product seeding doesn’t guarantee posts. They might just use or discard it. But when someone with a large audience posts or makes a video praising your product, it’s a huge win.

If you could attribute Happy Wolf’s first-year success to different channels, how would you weigh them?

We put our eggs in fewer baskets and we’ve really focused on influencers, organic social, and trade shows.

Are trade shows essential in the food and consumer goods world? 

They’re where you meet grocery store buyers and chain representatives. You get face-to-face time and the chance for them to taste your product. Sending samples often doesn’t get results, but at a trade show, you have their attention for a few minutes for your pitch and sampling. Our first big opportunity came from Expo East, and we later secured another major chain at Expo West. It was a big investment, but it paid off.

You’re an incredibly accomplished marketer, but you ended up working with a big branding agency, Red Antler, for packaging and messaging? How essential would you say professional, specialized help is for marketers starting their own brands?

You don’t need to launch with a big agency. We were fortunate to have a pre-existing relationship with Red Antler. My co-founder had worked with them on his previous brand and brought them in for a rebrand that elevated it to a world-class level. I admired them for years, and he knew he’d want to work with them again if he started a new venture, which he did this time from the beginning.

It’s not necessary—you can start scrappy and grow until you can afford a branding agency. They’re not essential, but they’re highly skilled. I know what I’m good at—setting a vision and giving feedback—but I’m not the creative genius who can execute and bring that vision to life, especially with graphic design. I can use Canva, but that’s my limit, and it’s enough to launch. Without that relationship, we would’ve started with Canva, rebranded several times, and eventually worked with an agency.

Was there anything you thought you knew about marketing that launching this brand proved wrong?

I wouldn’t say “wrong,” but my background was with a big brand where my main role was to grow brand love, not awareness. We had nearly 100% awareness, so my focus was on affinity, loyalty, and visit frequency. Now, with Happy Wolf, it’s the opposite. We have a small, passionate group of moms on Instagram who are our biggest supporters, but outside of that, we have almost no brand awareness. I underestimated how challenging it would be to build that.

PR is a good example. We haven’t started yet—we’re just considering it now. At Tim Hortons, people would talk about us no matter what we did, so my role was to keep the conversation positive and guide it. Now, it’s about figuring out how to make press care about a small, unknown kids’ snack company. It’s a different challenge, and I’m learning as I go.

How are you planning to move beyond your core DTC followers and brand advocates to get mainstream coverage and PR for Happy Wolf?

We’re figuring it out as we go. What we’re realizing is that our core audience—the parents supporting us on our organic channels—are as interested in my story as they are in the product itself. That surprised me. I’m a mom who saw a gap in the market and created a solution. Our behind-the-scenes content performs best. From a PR perspective, we’re starting to think focusing on our journey as founders might be more compelling than just the product’s clean ingredients.

If you were to create a “Snack Brand Launch Playbook”, what would be the most important chapters?

Let’s be honest, I need to buy that playbook, but that’s another big thing—it doesn’t exist. 

No one tells you what to do, and I always joke that’s what I miss from corporate life. It was ambiguous, and I was figuring things out, but there were always people to go to for guidance, direction, and goal setting. Now, we’re writing the playbook as we go. I wouldn’t say I’m ready to publish it—I’ll come back to you in a few years—but knowing who you’re building for is crucial.

We used to study marketing and learn about customer personas or archetypes, whatever you want to call them. Truly understanding who you’re building for, who you’re talking to, and what they want from the product, communications, and everything you do is powerful. Many brands try to talk to everyone and end up not knowing their specific audience. Knowing who you’re talking to is vital. Keeping communication open with your customers has been invaluable at every level.

Nobody has time for it, but setting up Zoom calls or DMing customers, even when you don’t feel like it, is essential. These early supporters are the ones who will help build you up.