You might think saying ‘no’ is simply a luxury of an established business that has the privilege to turn down an opportunity that isn’t absolutely dead-on perfect. But you’d be wrong. Saying ‘no’ is one of the fundamental business skills never taught in school, especially in business
The vast majority of CPG startups operate as B2B businesses. They don’t interact with their consumers, even when they sell DTC (!). They aren’t even curious about how ordinary people receive and use their products. As long as case volume sales grow, they’re happy. As
Adults hurled this phrase at me incessantly until the age of 30 or so. Apparently, that is the rough age when you should appear serious to everyone. Hey, I don’t make the rules here. I barely understand a lot of them. One of the critical elements
In Ramping Your Brand, I write about using a mature pack size mix as soon as you can afford the multiple production runs and inventory management. This is really important if market leaders have deployed lots of pack sizes already. This means the category culturally
As Generation Z assumes more and more influence in adult life, this truly digitally native cohort will shift how you need to spread initial awareness of who you are as a company (i.e., to the trade). While many new brands used physical trade events and
I’ll explain. But before I do, there are less than 10 spots available for the Q3 cohort. So, you may want to grab one now. OK. For the rest of you reading this, this is my best explanation of why it matters for CPG founders new
Sorry for the clickbait. This is not about current events or about 2024. This is an evergreen sermon on why you have to have a concise, crisp strategic plan, even as a Phase 1 consumer brand. You may have heard the phrase “strategic plan” before, even though
Here's a very short list sans any detailed explanation! Consumer Marketing = Consumer Marketing is any branded communication aimed at real humans before they enter a retail environment. The Essential Problem = No one knows your brand exists. Tip #1 - Favor Tactics That Yield Human Interaction Whenever
Most CPG innovators and founders are geeks of some sort. It doesn't matter if the geekiness was professional or amateurish or a committee of both. The point is that you isolated a problem, a gap in your category, and you filled it. Or
Last week, I asked folks on LinkedIn to suggest additional content for a larger, updated second edition of Ramping Your Brand; there were some excellent ideas. As of now, I’m looking to add two chapters: The Founder’s Role Across the Phases - This chapter will explore how