One very common, under-discussed behavior on American holiday weekends? Re-examining one’s life. It happens quietly a lot, sometimes in open conversation as well. What is usually going on is a fiery debate over priorities. And how much harder you want to push your top priority anymore. Which,
You will most likely accumulate tons of negative feedback about your brand over the years unless you are the next SkinnyPop and found a gaping, ‘easy’ innovation hole in a sleepy category managed by the arrogant (at the time, at least). The key is finding the
As of 5:00 PM EDT on Thursday, May 10, 2023, Beyond Meat has created a highly seasonal, lower midmarket, negative EBITDA business that peaked at $464M in annualized sales in 2021. Here is the annual net revenue trend since 2016, which I’ll return to shortly.5 Recent
Memorability. It's the most critical growth pillar for premium CPG brands. Why? Because you don't have the cash, credibility, or sales network with which to leap to 80% ACV in mere months. So, how do you enhance it? Design a superbly positioned innovation at the head of
I tell folks to stop joining all these local ‘startup clubs’ that popped up during the glory years of easy money and low barriers to entry. Virtually all of them were created and/or funded by the investor community as an easy, local watch list. Mostly angels.
Most early-stage consumer brand P&Ls exist on the knife edge of survival. Most are losing money until a certain point up the Ramp. In my most recent episode of Startup Confidential, I share thoughts on a dark topic: knowing when to shut down. I don't know
In my book - Ramping Your Brand - there is a line that gets at the fundamental danger in CPG innovation, the fundamental threat to above-average memorability in a crowded, oversupplied marketplace. "Rarity in its purest form—rare ingredients, rare flavors, rare sensory textures,
Sprouts is the only publicly traded retailer featuring natural/organic goods. It is our only public indicator of the sector's health with which we can track what is going on long-term. Sprouts has some biases, but I believe they’re constructive for reading the direction of this sector.
If you hang out with old school sales pros from the natural products industry, you will often encounter a belief that distribution (in the right locales and channels) is all you need to grow with an ‘incremental’ product. They are used to low EBITDA businesses
(This is a continuation of Monday’s disturbing post). So, it’s now time to get constructive about measuring ROI(return on investment) in marketing. And it's not about the standard of your sales team or finance. You need both a smarter and more realistic way to measure impact. Or,