How We Ditched the Sales Funnel and Built a Spice Empire with the Infinity Loop

Or: How generational health consciousness is killing traditional food marketing—and what we built instead

Hey everyone,

I have been fascinated by a YouTube channel I recently subscribed to, created by Michael Gridley. He makes videos about iconic brands that are struggling or have failed, exploring the reasons behind their struggles. If you’re interested in starting or running a business, his video excerpts and website are a must-have. Michael Gridley

I’m a Baby Boomer who grew up immersed in a vibrant Polish American culture, where working hard in the steel mills was balanced with joy and camaraderie—often shared with plenty of vodka among friends and family at home or at the neighborhood bar. Over time, I developed a fondness for wine, which I loved, but I have since transitioned to having only an occasional glass once a week or once a month, instead of two or three glasses a day. Recently, I watched Michael Gridley’s revealing exposé on “Why the Wine Industry is Dying,” and it really got me thinking about similar patterns currently affecting not just Trevean Spice, but the entire food industry as well.

The wine industry just collapsed. U.S. wine consumption hit a 60-year low in 2024, with volume declining 3% for the third consecutive year. Vintage Wine Estates filed for bankruptcy in July 2024 with 34 wine brands being liquidated. Constellation Brands wrote off $1.5-2.5 billion in wine/spirits goodwill impairment.

But here’s what really caught my attention: this isn’t just about wine. It’s about a fundamental generational shift in how consumers approach everything they put in their bodies. And that includes spices.

The data tells a stunning story:

Baby Boomers (36% of regular wine drinkers) are aging out at 2.6 million annually as they enter their 70s and 80s
Only 7% of Gen Z are regular wine drinkers despite being a massive demographic
61% of Millennials are actively moderating their alcohol consumption
67% of Gen Z legal drinking age members report actively moderating consumption of traditional products

But while they’re turning away from alcohol, they’re turning toward something else: authentic, healthy, cultural food experiences. And that’s exactly where the spice industry sits.

The Three Forces Reshaping Food Consumption (And Why They Create Massive Spice Opportunities)

Force One: Baby Boomers Are Aging Out Faster Than Expected

Baby Boomers currently represent 36% of regular wine drinkers and show 58% preference for wine over other beverages—nearly 30 percentage points higher than younger demographics. But Silicon Valley Bank projects their peak negative impact on wine sales will occur between 2029-2031 as this demographic enters their late 70s and 80s.

In the spice world, we’re seeing the opposite trend. While Boomers aged out of adventurous cooking as they simplified their diets, younger generations are embracing complex global flavors as part of their wellness journey. Our data shows customers aged 25-40 purchase 3x more diverse spice varieties than customers over 55.

Force Two: Social Media Has Weaponized Health Consciousness

Here’s where it gets interesting. #SoberCurious has 15.6 million views on TikTok, while the broader #Sober hashtag has reached 1.8 billion views. The “quit lit” movement—books like “This Naked Mind” and “Sober Curious”—builds direct author-reader relationships through social platforms, creating reading communities around health-focused alternatives.

But parallel to #SoberTok, we’re seeing explosive growth in food wellness content: #MealPrep (4.8 billion views), #HealthyRecipes (2.1 billion views), #AuthenticCooking (800 million views), and #SpiceGarden (145 million views) trends are exploding.

36% of Gen Z and Millennials cite social media as their primary source of health information. They’re not just learning that alcohol is toxic—they’re learning that turmeric reduces inflammation, that cinnamon regulates blood sugar, that authentic spice blends offer both flavor and functional health benefits.

Force Three: Gen Z’s Delayed Adult Timeline Creates Spice Opportunities

Gen Z is systematically delaying traditional adult milestones. Only 25% of 16-year-olds and 42% of 17-year-olds had driver’s licenses in 2021, compared to 43% and 62% respectively in 1997. Only 4% of Gen Z married between ages 18-21, nearly half the rate of Millennials.

But here’s the crucial insight: while they’re delaying drinking, marriage, and driving, they’re not delaying cooking exploration.

Gen Z shows unprecedented preference for natural, organic, and “clean” products: 49% are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products (versus 16% of Baby Boomers), and 75% think sustainable purchases are more important than brand names. They consume functional drinks with adaptogens, CBD, and nootropics—and they want the same functional benefits from their spices.

25% of Gen Z choose low/no-alcohol drinks for health benefits like prebiotics and vitamins. They’re seeking the same functional wellness from their food ingredients, making authentic, health-forward spice blends a perfect fit for their consumption values.

Why Traditional Food Funnels Are Catastrophically Failing

The wine industry’s collapse reveals exactly why linear sales approaches are dying. Traditional funnels assume: awareness → interest → decision → purchase → done.

But BCG’s 2025 research confirms that “digital transformation has fractured consumer journeys into unpredictable, nonlinear patterns.” 80% of companies struggle with this transition, but the 20% who have adapted report 60% higher revenue growth.

Traditional alcohol marketing focused on “party hard” messaging backfired with younger consumers who are three times more likely to be influenced by online recommendations and community authenticity than older demographics. 86% of consumers say authenticity matters when deciding which brands to support, while 84% of Gen Z prefer brands they see as “cool” but have unparalleled radar for inauthenticity.

At Trevean Spice, we realized early that spice lovers don’t follow linear paths. They discover through peer networks on TikTok, they experiment with cultural recipes, they share their wins on Instagram, they bring friends over for dinner to show off their new cooking skills, they advocate for brands that tell authentic cultural stories.

None of that fits a linear funnel. It’s circular, community-driven, values-based. So we threw out the funnel and built a loop instead.

Force One of Our Loop: Finding Pain That Health-Conscious Consumers Actually Feel

The Infinity Loop framework starts with finding what it calls “pain that screams”—urgent problems people will fight to solve. For health-conscious younger consumers, this pain runs deeper than convenience.

Our research revealed three critical pain points that mirror the broader generational shifts:

The Authenticity Deficit: Home cooks desperately wanted to recreate incredible flavors from their travels or cultural heritage, but grocery store spices fell flat. Stale cardamom from a jar that’s been sitting on a shelf for two years? Not exactly the aromatic experience they remembered from that Istanbul market or their grandmother’s kitchen. This parallels exactly why younger consumers rejected mass-market wine for authentic experiences.

The Health-Conscious Waste Problem: Everyone had that spice graveyard in their cabinet. You buy a huge container for one “clean eating” recipe, use a tablespoon, and the rest sits there while you feel guilty about both the waste and the artificial additives you’re trying to avoid. This waste guilt is the same driver pushing consumers away from large-format alcohol purchases.

The Cultural Knowledge Void: Gen Z and Millennials wanted to explore global cuisines as part of their wellness journey but felt overwhelmed. What’s the difference between garam masala and curry powder? How much turmeric is therapeutic versus just flavorful? This knowledge gap mirrors why younger consumers turned away from wine culture—it felt exclusive and intimidating rather than accessible and educational.

These weren’t small inconveniences. These were blocking younger consumers from the authentic, healthy cooking experiences they desperately wanted while turning away from alcohol.

Force Two: Delivering Shockingly Fast Value to Community-Driven Consumers

Once we identified the pain, we had to deliver value fast—but in a way that aligned with how community-driven consumers actually make purchasing decisions.

Research shows that successful adaptations prioritize direct consumer relationships over traditional distribution, emphasize transparency and sustainability, create shareable experiences, and use technology to personalize rather than complicate the customer journey.

Our solution became our competitive advantage: every spice blend comes with what we call a “Success Recipe” and a “Cultural Story Card”—one foolproof dish that showcases exactly why this spice blend is special, plus the authentic cultural story behind it.

When someone orders our Moroccan ras el hanout, they get detailed instructions for a 30-minute tagine that will blow their minds, plus the story of how this blend was traditionally sold in the souks of Marrakech, plus the health benefits of each spice component. The garam masala comes with a recipe for the most aromatic chicken curry they’ll ever make at home, plus regional differences between Punjabi and Bengali versions, plus the anti-inflammatory properties of the blend.

Result? Within 48 hours of receiving their order, customers are posting photos of their dishes on social media, texting their friends, planning their next international cooking adventure. Our time-to-advocacy is 72 hours—within three days, the average customer has recommended us to at least one other person.

This directly addresses what research shows: 54% of Gen Z say their favorite brands make them feel part of a community. We’re not selling spice—we’re selling cultural confidence, wellness education, and authentic experiences.

The Community Loop That’s Replacing Linear Sales

Once customers experience that first success, the loop starts spinning in ways that capture how health-conscious consumers actually behave:

Cultural Exploration Expansion: “If the Moroccan blend created that incredible tagine experience, what about the Ethiopian berbere I’ve been seeing all over wellness TikTok? Or that Indian blend my favorite food blogger just posted about?” Cart values increase, but more importantly, they’re building curated collections of authentic cultural experiences.
Community-Driven Advocacy: They’re posting photos, sharing recipes, recommending us to friends who ask, “How did you make this?” But it’s not product advocacy—they’re sharing cultural knowledge, cooking confidence, and wellness discoveries. User-generated content campaigns achieve 4x higher click-through rates than traditional ads.
Pre-Warmed Referrals: Their friends see these amazing results and want in. These referrals come pre-validated by social proof from trusted peers who’ve experienced authentic results, not cold prospects responding to advertising.
Viral Cultural Education: Through those referrals, plus all the social proof our existing customers create, we’re building cultural momentum. Every successful dish shared on social media becomes education for potential customers about authentic global flavors and their health benefits.

The loop completes with community momentum that traditional wine marketing could never achieve. Each cycle builds cultural knowledge, cooking confidence, and wellness understanding rather than just repeat purchases.

Our “Outside the Box” Infinity Loop: Building a Sustainable Cultural Tribe

Most companies would stop there. But we realized we were sitting on something bigger—something that directly responds to the experience economy that younger generations demand.

Our customers weren’t just cooking at home. They were:

Food bloggers documenting their cultural culinary journeys
Cooking teachers incorporating authentic global flavors into wellness-focused classes
Restaurant owners experimenting with traditional spice blends in modern applications
Event planners creating unique catering experiences with authentic cultural stories
Wellness coaches integrating functional spices with proven health benefits

So we built what we call the “Trevean Cultural Ambassador Loop”—our most innovative response to community-driven consumption patterns.

Instead of just selling to individual consumers, we identify customers who are already cultural influence nodes in the food-wellness ecosystem. When a cooking instructor falls in love with our spice blends, we don’t just celebrate the sale—we partner with them to build cultural experiences.

We create custom bulk packaging for their classes. We develop co-branded cultural education materials. We provide wholesale pricing and marketing support. We help them tell authentic spice stories with proper cultural context.

Here’s the breakthrough: we turn them into cultural ambassadors, not sales representatives.

Every cooking class they teach becomes a Trevean Spice cultural education experience. Students go home, search for our website, and order their own blends. But more importantly, some of those students are food bloggers, caterers, restaurant workers, wellness influencers—creating exponential cultural influence networks.

The beautiful part: we turn our customers into our cultural education team, without them feeling like they’re selling. They’re sharing authentic cultural knowledge they genuinely value, and we make it meaningful and profitable for them to do so. We’re not asking them to push product—we’re asking them to share cultural wisdom and wellness knowledge.

This perfectly aligns with research showing that brands prioritizing community see 3x higher customer lifetime value and 2.3x higher customer retention rates. We’re not just building customer relationships—we’re building a sustainable tribe around cultural food exploration and authentic wellness.

The Metrics Prove Community Beats Conquest

Our results mirror successful adaptations across industries facing generational disruption:

Customer acquisition cost dropped 40% (referrals convert at 3x the rate of cold prospects)
Net revenue retention hit 150% (customers expand their cultural exploration continuously)
Over 30% of new customers come through referrals or cultural ambassador channels
Net Promoter Score consistently above 80
Time-to-advocacy: 72 hours

But the metric that matters most: community engagement rate. Our customers don’t just buy—they participate. They share cultural stories, they teach others, they create content, they build relationships around authentic food experiences.

Performance branding approaches that integrate community focus report up to 30% marketing efficiency gains and 14% increase in advertising impact on sales. We’re seeing the entire food industry split between companies that understand this shift and companies that don’t.

What the Wine Industry Teaches Every Food Business

The wine industry’s failures offer critical lessons for every food company facing generational transitions:

Product innovation matters in declining demographics. While traditional wineries struggled, Dry Farm Wines pioneered organic, sugar-free wines under 11.5% ABV, successfully targeting health-conscious consumers. The organic wine category shows 10.3% compound annual growth rate even as overall wine consumption collapses.

Generation-specific strategies are essential. Whiny Baby, founded by Gen Z entrepreneur Jess Druey, uses bright colors, interactive experiences, and social media engagement. Stella Rosa targets Millennials/Gen Z with semi-sweet, low-alcohol wines and social challenges.

Community-driven marketing works. Liquid Death achieved 350% year-over-year growth by rejecting traditional marketing entirely, building a “cult following” through authentic community engagement. White Claw created an entirely new category through cultural trend analysis and wellness-forward positioning.

But traditional approaches catastrophically fail. Companies that continued pushing traditional linear funnels to declining demographics faced bankruptcy and brand liquidation.

The Compound Effect: Why Time Becomes Your Friend

Here’s what the wine industry missed and we captured: with community loops, time compounds value instead of depleting it.

Traditional funnels require constant fresh leads. 80% of companies struggle with this approach while the 20% who adapt to community models report 60% higher revenue growth.

With cultural community loops, every month brings:

Last month’s new customers expanding their cultural exploration
Customers from three months ago becoming cultural ambassadors
Referrals from six months ago converting with higher lifetime value
Cultural ambassadors from a year ago building their own teaching communities

The momentum builds. Acquisition costs drop. Prospect quality improves. Cultural impact deepens.

We’re now at the point where significant growth happens without traditional “marketing.” Our community handles cultural education because we’ve made it incredibly meaningful and rewarding for them to share authentic food experiences and wellness knowledge.

Your Industry’s Generational Reckoning Is Coming

I’m sharing this because the demographic transition happening in wine is happening everywhere. Baby Boomers are declining by 2.6 million annually. 67% of Gen Z legal drinking age members actively moderate consumption of traditional products. 75% of Gen Z think sustainable purchases are more important than brand names.

This isn’t a trend—it’s permanent generational transformation toward health-conscious, community-driven, values-based consumption.

Every traditional consumer goods company needs to answer these questions:

Demographic Reality Check: Who are your core customers, and when will they age out? Are you building authentic relationships with health-conscious younger consumers, or hoping they’ll eventually adopt your parents’ consumption patterns?
Values Alignment Assessment: What do your products represent beyond functionality? Do you have authentic cultural stories, sustainable practices, measurable health benefits, or community connections that matter to wellness-focused younger consumers?
Community Engagement Audit: Are your customers talking about you on social media? Are they sharing experiences and knowledge, or just consuming products? Do they feel part of something meaningful, or are they just repeat purchasers?
Cultural Relevance Reality: Does your brand align with the experience economy and wellness trends that drive younger consumer behavior? Or are you still marketing products when they want relationships, education, and cultural meaning?
Generational Transition Timeline: Based on wine industry data, you have roughly 5-8 years before traditional demographics create irreversible decline. Are you building community loops now, or waiting until crisis forces change?

The Future Belongs to Cultural Communities, Not Product Pushers

The spice business taught us something profound: when you solve real cultural and health needs while building authentic community, customers don’t just buy—they become part of your cultural mission and growth engine.

This is infinitely more powerful than any traditional funnel, especially when entire demographics are shifting toward community-driven, values-based consumption.

The wine industry’s collapse is your preview, not your fate. The companies that survive the generational transition will be those that build community loops around health-conscious, values-driven experiences before traditional demographics force desperate pivots.

The question isn’t whether this generational shift will impact your industry. The question is whether you’ll build your cultural community loop now, or wait until your competitors force you to adapt during crisis.

Want to see the Community Loop in action? Try our Cultural Explorer Kit and experience how quickly you transform from “customer” to “cultural ambassador.” (Fair warning: it usually takes about 72 hours.)

P.S. – If you’re a cooking instructor, food blogger, wellness coach, or event planner reading this, let’s talk. We’re building a network of cultural ambassadors who understand that the future of food isn’t about selling products—it’s about sharing authentic cultural wisdom that builds lasting wellness communities.

P.P.S. – For food industry founders watching traditional demographics age out: you have 5-8 years to build community loops before generational transitions force crisis-mode pivots. The wine industry’s $3+ billion in write-offs and bankruptcies show exactly what happens to companies that wait too long to adapt.