Interview with Yin Zou About GacLife: A “Superfruit” Drink that Combats Skin Aging

GacLife, an emerging superfruit-infused beverage brand, just launched the first line of gac-based wellness products that help promote skin and vision care. Supported by extensive scientific research and packed with 90 different healing compounds, the functional wellness water is an all-natural drinkable beauty boost.

GacLife was created in direct response to severe skin irritants and eye troubles we experience daily due to digital burnout. The tasty beverages are infused with gac fruit — a rare superfruit indigenous to Southeast Asia packed with age-defying antioxidants, including carotenoids, polyphenols, as well as Vitamins A, C & E.  Creating a drinkable skincare beverage using the high concentration of vitamins and nutrients in the wonder fruit, the gac-based product contains age-defying antioxidants including 70x higher lycopene than tomatoes, 75x higher vitamin A than leafy greens, 10x higher beta-carotene than carrots, 4x higher vitamin E than avocados, vitamin C, polyphenols, and flavonoids. One 12 oz. can of GacLife flavored water includes 20mg of carotenoids, which is equal to consuming in combined total: one regular size head of cabbage, five large tomatoes, fifteen large carrots, thirty bunches of spinach.

Founder and creator Yin Zou worked with Jimmy S. Firouz, M.D., FACS, an Anti-aging Specialist, to create this product and company. Yin Zou is a Business Development and Marketing strategists who helps companies grow their brand and achieve business objectives. Through her eight years of BD, Public Affairs and marketing experience, Yin believes communications is the key the deliver meaningful customer conversion, loyalty and a long-lasting success. Prior to founding Gac, Yin served as the head of Global Marketing and Director of Asian Business Development at Meed, a fintech company based in Santa Monica, California, for three years. In this role, she helped launch the company’s first foreign market outside of HQ, defined a scalable global organizational structure, built a robust localized team from scratch, and delivered tangible results in brand awareness, digital conversion and customer loyalty.

She recently discussed GacLife and her hopes for its future.

Meagan Meehan (MM) of Entertainment Vine: How did you initially get interested in health and how did that lead the creation of GacLife?

Yin Zou (YZ): When I turned 30, heavy workload and travel schedule working for a fintech company launching a banking app overseas was harsh on my health, especially my skin and vision. I tried to stay healthy by eating healthy, working out, taking supplements. But nothing I did was enough. When my friends in Vietnam introduced me to gac fruit and I actually experienced its health benefits first hand, I was very convinced that this is a fruit I would like to have in my life long term.

What I realized is that the fruit has not been commercialized in the US, and it is seasonal. Existing products containing gac are juice blends with loads of sugar and other ingredients I do not desire. Or they use process gac powder instead of natural gac puree or juice as their ingredients.

I assumed more consumers are just like me. They are also seeking all-natural healthy foods and beverages with simple, minimally processed ingredients, and no added sugar or bad staff. That’s what motivated me to create a product that not only packs with nutrients from gac fruit, but also uses the form that most people love the consume. Working with talented R&D specialist and nutrition advisors, I created gac + tropical fruits water and sparkling water packed in sustainable materials (aluminum bottles) that’s great for mother earth.

To verify my assumption, my team run some testing through social media ads driving people to a landing page to sign-up and we have great conversion results that made us confident on both the product and our business model.

MM: What does “GacLife” stand for and how exactly do the blends work? 

YZ: It stands for enhancing your life by adding Gac. Just one example, specific carotenoids in Gac have been linked to increased eye to hand coordination. Gac is the Vietnamese name for the fruit and we want to stay true to its origin. We use the exact Vietnamese spelling g?c to name our drink. GacLife also stands for a value – We shouldn’t be drinking plastic bottled water/soda that harms both our own health and mother earth. We want to stay healthy and hydrated, but we should do so in a way with minimal negative impact to our environment.

MM: What sorts of results can people expect to see and feel after drinking GacLife?

YZ: Our drinks are a natural beauty and health elixir. they contain high levels of antioxidant carotenoids from gac in an easily absorbable form as proven by science research. they go beyond hydration and tropic fruit flavor. Consuming them daily can boosts both skin, vision health and overall immune system.Lycopene in gac fruit also can help reduce oxidative and cardiovascular risks during exercise.

MM: Was it tough to get these drinks to taste good? 

YZ: Gac fruit was not pungent or too sweet like some other super fruits. It has 190 healing compounds, and a very mildly sweet and pleasant taste.

MM: How did you get these drinks marketed and are they in major retail stores? 

YZ: We researched the recent trend in F&B and determined that online direct-to-consumer is the best way to launch our product, control our marketing budget and generate revenues and growth more quickly. For example, Dirty Lemon is 100% online, Après is 100% online, Hint Water is 40-50% online.We will also enter the brick-and-mortar retail space but in a more strategic way.

MM: How many flavors are there and will you expand in the future? 

YZ: We currently have six SKUs and 5 flavors. We have three sparkling: gac+mango, gac+lemon and gac+passionfruit and three still versions: gac+lemon, gac+peach, and gac+pineapple. Yes, we will continue to introduce new flavors and will soon introduce a caffeinated version as some early adopters already expressed their interests in the product.

MM: You worked with doctors while creating this, so what were those collaborations like? 

YZ: We consulted anti-aging specialists to review the research literatures regarding the fruit and verify the statements we have on skin and vision care. We worked with a well-known nutrition lab to test and verify our product’s nutrition content and ensure the production process has the highest safety standards. We will continue working with more researchers to do trials studies in longer term, as well as support us develop our new product lines.

MM: Overall, what are your biggest goals for the future of “GacLife”?

YZ: We would like to introduce the fruit to more people in a easily accessible form and see more people benefit from it.

MM: Have you invented anything else or do you plan to? 

YZ: I am a first-time entrepreneur myself. I have prior experience of launching new products and ideas to foreign markets with great success. Now I am applying my experience to the first invention I have and I believe this is just the beginning.

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GacLife is available for presale online at gaclife.com for $22.00 ($3.60 per bottle). To learn more, visit the Official website. Use #drinkgac to join the conversation, and follow GacLife on Instagram.