To Pivot or Not to Pivot
Here’s a free preview of content from my upcoming Nov. 8 paid training:
Pivoting is a sexy Silicon Valley term pushed by venture capitalists who don’t want their ‘kids’ to languish too long in failure before making relatively cheap pivots to new audiences, features, etc.
But pivoting in consumer packaged goods is much riskier and comes with a long timeline before you know if it even worked. It takes a much stronger stomach than some digital fintech ventures with no actual fixed costs.
In my new paid training, I kick off with my professional criteria for making the call as a consumer brand. ALL of these conditions should apply.
Here they are:
- sub-30% topline growth rate for three years straight plus…
- your original UPCs don’t grow same-store velocity (SPP or U/S/W) organically off-promo and without consumer marketing
- adding new UPCs hasn’t shifted the business to exponential growth plus…
- you sell in multiple merchandising categories now, multiple product formats in the same category, OR have the R&D capital to move the business into a new one
- (optional) you have recent UPCs that ARE generating exponential growth organically (with minimal trade support and no consumer marketing) plus….
If your business qualifies, I encourage you to make a small investment. Learn my detailed process for determining the new UPC mix and how to measure the transition carefully to ensure the pivot minimizes the topline disruption.