How Poo~Pourri Uses Humor to Humanize Their Brand


March 28, 2016

suzy batiz on brand

When your business category is taboo, how do you get people to talk about it? Suzy Bátiz is the inventor and entrepreneur behind Poo~Pourri, an innovative brand that is literally changing the way we go to the bathroom. As founder and CEO, she’s built everything herself including one of the most engaging brands of the day. Grab some reading material and join us in the loo for this week’s On Brand podcast.

Enjoy This Episode Now

About Suzy Bátiz

Suzy Bátiz is the founder and CEO of Poo~Pourri and is an expert in entrepreneurial intuition. A serial entrepreneur, she created an exponentially growing enterprise worth $300 million without borrowing a dime or enlisting a single investor. Today Suzy teaches other entrepreneurs the feminine approach to business – how to harness intuition, body intelligence, and creative energy to achieve a natural flow state of success.

Episode Highlights

So, what’s the story behind Poo~Pourri? “A stinky husband!” laughed Suzy. In all seriousness, her husband was somewhat responsible along with her brother. Both pressed Bátiz, an expert in essential oils, to find a way to trap bathroom odor. It took a year but she did it. But how do you take something like this to market?

How do you build a brand around a taboo subject? “I had to use humor. Think about it. We only tell fart and poop jokes to our close family.” Why is this? It builds closeness and familiarity. The same thing we want customers to have with our brands. This humor and voice is present across every brand touch point, especially their innovative packaging.

A photo posted by Poo~Pourri 💩 (@poopourri) on

‘Natural’ isn’t a brand. While Poo~Pourri products are all natural that’s not the only definition of the brand by a long shot. “It’s one of the characteristics of the brand but you can’t bank your whole business on that. You have to go back and personify, humanize your brand.” This is a pretty revolutionary idea — especially in the natural product category — and one that’s often overlooked by many. How often do businesses mistake a key trait or characteristic of their brand?

How has Poo~Pourri maintained a strong brand throughout their growth? “It would be easy to forget about ‘her,’” Suzy shared, noting that the Poo~Pourri brand is personified internally as ‘her.’ That’s because Suzy knew that the brand should be “beautiful and feminine. I hated those ugly cans. Plus I loved the juxtaposition of beauty and toilet spray.” This brand personification has been brought to life recently in a series of online videos.

When they have a problem, they realize that it’s because they forget about ‘her.’ “What would she do? We have to honor who she is.” This unique brand personification is also helpful when involving the rest of the team. “It makes it easy for the village to take care of her.”

How does Poo~Pourri communicate their brand story internally? “We make the voice of our brand loud and pass stories like our ancestors did — by the campfire. We have weekly lunch and learns or ‘campfires’ where we tell stories about the brand.”

They also have Poo~Mandments! The First Poo~Mandment? “We only do epic shit.” We wouldn’t expect anything less of Suzy and the Poo~Team. Speaking of which …

Does this unique brand inform who Poo~Pourri hires? Absolutely! “I’m still the lsat interview. If they make it to me I know already that they’re technically fit. I test people people — What’s your favorite curse word? What’s your spirit animal? — to see if they know how to play.”

What’s one thing Suzy would tell brand builders today? “If you just started, you know more than you think you do.”

What brand has made Suzy smile recently? “Moon Juice. It wasn’t a humorous smile — I got something from them and I really love their whole packaging.”

To learn more about Suzy and Poo~Pourri, head over to poopourri.com.

As We Wrap …

Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community …
Recently Gini Dietrich gave a shout out to our recent episode on customer service featuring Jay Baer. Thanks Gini! See you both at this fall’s Social Brand Forum.

Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.

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Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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is a strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World and Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. He is the Chief Brand Strategist at Brand Driven Digital, an educator at the University of Iowa, and host of the On Brand podcast. More about Nick.