Native American Natural Foods’ Tanka Bar has grown from a small local health food to the most popular snack product sold by Recreational Equipment, Incorporated…commonly known as REI.
As the Pine Ridge Reservation-based Tanka Bar manufacturer prepared to attend yet another natural foods expo, we visited with company president Mark Tilsen to discuss the growth and popularity of the small-town Lakota business.
Kyle, South Dakota is located at the heart of the Pine Ridge Reservation. It’s 86 miles from Rapid City and a world away from many areas of the country. And it’s here that the idea for creating buffalo-based food products that promote a traditional Native American belief in wellness was born.
Mark Tilsen says Tanka Bar was the company’s first product. Introduced at the 2007 Black Hills Pow Wow…the buffalo-meat and cranberry health snack is now available in 8000 locations across the country.
In order to attain that growth, says Tilsen, the small reservation-based company has had to find alternative means of advertising.
“We’re a company that’s never been able…we’ve never been big enough to afford an advertising campaign,” Tilsen explains. “So…we…we really focus our growth on really telling our story and sharing what we’re about on social media. And then we do hundreds and hundreds of tastings all over the country to introduce the product. And we’ve found the most effective way of getting people to love our product is to get them to taste.”
But along with growth, says Tilsen, has come intense competition.
“We were the first company to introduce a meat and fruit bar into the category,” advises Tilsen. “And now that category has grown where you have major players…like General Mills and Hershey and Hormel…which is creating a lot of intense competition for us. But it’s also building the category up. And as the original premium product in the category, we’ve learned that this competition actually helps us grow.”
Evidence of that continual growth is the 5 new Tanka products Native American Natural Foods released this week. As for entities like General Mills. Mark Tilsen says such competition only magnifies the success of a 17-person business in the heart of Lakota country.
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