Kum & Go's playful branding reportedly on new owner's chopping block
Some of Nadia Trimnell's finest work has vanished from the Internet.
A former Kum & Go social media marketing specialist, Trimnell was discussing her photoshop skills with a potential freelance client last week. She took the client back to November 2020, when the locked-down Western world obsessed over a photoshoot featuring pop star Harry Styles in Vogue. Styles stood in a yellowing field, in a dress.
Trimnell took advantage of the ensuing social media discussion, as she usually did while working for the Des Moines-based convenience store chain. She pasted the image of Styles and the meadow in front a lush, red-and-black Kum & Go building. Then she posted the picture on X with the caption, "we welkum everyone in our stores but especially harry styles."
About 12,000 users liked the post. About 1,000 reposted it in their own social media feeds.
But last week, trying to point a potential client to the work, Trimnell couldn't find the post. She searched further. She said someone had deleted almost all of her posts, an execution that she believes unfolded in the wake of Utah-based Maverik's acquisition of Kum & Go last year.
"It's really disappointing, to be honest," said Trimnell, a Des Moines native. "We created something so strong and so fun and cool, especially in the Midwest. I'm kind of shocked that they would just delete everything without putting a tribute to it."
In fact, according to a convenience store trade publication, the 65-year-old Kum & Go brand is on the verge of dying altogether. Veteran marketing industry analyst Mitch Morrison wrote on convenience store trade news website CSP on Monday that Maverik executives will rebrand Kum & Go's 400 stores into Maveriks "by 2025."
A Maverik spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. Kum & Go spokesperson Taylor Boland told the Des Moines Register that "Maverik has not announced any confirmed plans outside of rebranding stores in existing Maverik markets."
In his article, Morrison cited anonymous sources who said Maverik executives believe customers like their own company's name better than Kum & Go's. He cited another source who was concerned about "the inadvertent double entendre" of Kum & Go's name.
More: Tanner Krause's 'dream job' was Kum & Go CEO. He no longer holds that post. What's next?
"Which brand do you think will have more appeal to a new audience: Maverik or Kum & Go?" Morrison quoted one source saying. "No disrespect to Kum & Go, but the answer is pretty clear."
However, based on the two companies' social media reach, the answer may be clear ― in Kum & Go's favor.
The Iowa-born brand touts about 66,000 followers on X, the messaging platform formerly known as Twitter; Maverik has about 10,000. About 180,000 people follow Kum & Go on Tik Tok; about 9,000 follow Maverik. And Kum & Go's Instagram has about 50,000 followers; Maverik's about 46,000.
"It's really unfortunate that such an incredible and iconic Iowa brand that we worked really hard to build will be no more," said Ariel Rubin, the company's former director of communications.
Kum & Go's modern brand began with the CyHawk, took stances on gay rights
Kum & Go's online following began to grow in 2019, when Rubin joined the company after working in communications for the United Nations Development Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross. A friend of the Krause family, the founders of the Kum & Go chain, Rubin said he wanted to make people care about the convenience store that started in Hampton in 1959.
As of spring 2019, when Rubin joined, Kum & Go had about 18,500 followers on X. The company generally posted innocuous messages, advertising pizza slice sales and showing pictures of hands holding Kum & Go soda cups.
He said employees and executives understood the innuendo of the company's name. He wanted to have fun with that.
"Let's see if we can be clever about this and engage with people beyond the name," he said of his strategy at the time.
In August 2019, he recruited Trimnell to operate the brand's social media accounts after reading about her in an Instagram post by BIPOC iowa, an account that highlights the state's Black and Indigenous residents. Trimnell, who had been working in social media for a local property management firm, said she liked the idea of creating an online personality for Kum & Go.
She quickly angered some people in the state by attacking a sacred cow: Iowa State football. After the annual Cy-Hawk game, which Iowa State lost on a fumbled punt return, Trimnell posted an image of a stick figure labeled "Hawkeyes" kicking a stick figure labeled "Cyclones" down a stairway.
The post, a play on a popular meme at the time, drew ire from some Iowa State supporters, who had just lost to their cross-state rival for the fifth time in a row. Cyclones fans threatened to boycott the convenience store. One user replied to the post with a picture of cut-up Kum & Go rewards cards.
"We were a little scared, to be honest," Trimnell said.
Rubin deleted the Tweet and apologized. He and Trimnell met with then-Kum & Go CEO Kyle Krause and Brand Marketing and Communications Vice President Kate Gibson Overby.
Trimnell and Rubin said the four of them outlined a loose social media strategy. They agreed that Kum & Go's accounts would not take sides with Democrats, Republicans, Cyclones or Hawkeyes. Otherwise, Trimnell and Rubin could operate with little oversight, reacting to memes and other online trends quickly throughout the day.
The company increased its following. About 100,000 people liked a post on X making fun of Casey's General Stores, the other Des Moines metro-based convenience store chain. About 100,000 people also liked a post in which Kum & Go made a mock threat against a user who made fun of the company's name.
Kum & Go's accounts quickly hopped on meme trends throughout each day, often playing on its own name. Trimnell said fans began following the company closely, lining up outside newly opened stores in Denver and Ames before 6 a.m.
"We were able to build such a strong community," Trimnell said. "I never posted what I looked like or who I was. The idea was to make them want to know: 'Who is Kum & Go? Who is Mr. Kum, the overall boss?'"
Evelyn Meyer, then a 20-year-old intern for the company, made posts for Kum & Go's Tik Tok account, pretending that she had taken over the account against her bosses' wishes.
More: Michael Miano hopes to design an Iowa soccer team look that will say 'this is where I'm from'
The posts drew accolades. CStore Decisions, a trade publication, gave Kum & Go awards in 2021 for best social media engagement on Twitter and Instagram. AdWeek published features on the company's online brand strategy.
Meyer said she was devastated by the report that Maverik would kill the Kum & Go name.
“This decision is going to up in flames,” she told the Des Moines Register in a text message. “What is the appeal of Maverick’s (sic), genuinely? What makes Iowans want to go to Maverick’s (sic) as opposed to Casey’s?”
She said Kum & Go was the perfect brand to grow online, given the number of jokes concerning its name. She remembers reading forums as a teenager, with people outside the state posting about the company and debating whether a place called Kum & Go actually existed. People posted pictures of the Kum & Go merchandise they acquired.
She said she made the TikTok account “one big joke.” But she learned Tuesday that someone had removed her posts from the account.
“I want people to be able to giggle like a middle schooler when they drive through Iowa,” she said. “Is nothing sacred?”
The company began collaborating on merchandise with Budweiser in 2020. After gay online streamer Justin Moore joked about the company's name, Kum & Go collaborated with him on shirts that read "Kum & Gay Rights," with proceeds going to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention in the LGBTQ community. The company also collaborated on clothing with HOMOCO, with proceeds benefitting the Transgender Law Center.
The company posted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Last year, before the sale to Maverik, Kum & Go posted "protect trans kids. Period" on X. That post has since been deleted.
"This is really transgressive stuff for a state like Iowa," Rubin said. "Any state, really. But certainly Iowa. That was really cool leadership from our brand."
Maverik CEO was previously ambiguous about dropping the Kum & Go name
Announced in April, Maverik's acquisition will create one of the largest convenience store chains in the country. As of last year, according to CSP Daily News, Maverik and Kum & Go were the 21st and 22nd largest convenience store chains in the country, respectively.
Maverik CEO Chuck Maggelet told the Register in August, after the acquisition closed, that he was going to rebrand Kum & Go stores in Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming ― all states where Maverik already operates. He said he wasn't sure what would happen to the Kum & Gos in Iowa and eight other states.
"We are very much prepared to operate as two different brands," he said at the time.
But in CSP Daily News on Monday, Morrison wrote that Maverik wants to continue to expand, and executives believe they need to focus on one company identity. Maverik, which is based in Salt Lake City, markets itself as an "adventure" store that attracts outdoors enthusiasts.
"It's probably easier to focus on one brand for efficiencies and brand/consumer awareness," Morrison wrote that one source told him.
More: Maverik, new owners of Kum & Go, plans regional headquarters in downtown Des Moines
But those who helped build the Kum & Go identity in recent years believe such a move will undo a lot of goodwill, particularly in Iowa. Rubin also pointed to efforts by former CEO Tanner Krause to increase employee wages and promote more workers from part-time to full-time status.
"It was a really strong push to show up for the community and show up as a humane, human-rights centered company," Rubin said.
Tyler Jett is an investigative reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett. He also accepts encrypted messages at tjett@proton.me.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Known for its cheekiness, Kum & Go brand reportedly set to be scrapped
