One of the enduring challenges in premium CPG innovation is that the founder(s) are usually category geeks. This makes it very hard for these founders to accept that even their early fans may not be so geeky. Fans may routinely gravitate to a specific attribute embedded in your offering. Differing groups of fans may
It all comes down to where your category more or less. But, before I explain, we need to go through some math. This is math that many founders don't do before being sucked into a social media retainer. The formula for evaluating the benefit of paid social to an
Understanding why your fans love your brand is essential to creating a quality playbook for exponential growth. Understanding who they are is less important, but critical to key aspects of execution. Founders new to consumer-packaged goods often focus only on who loves them and assume they understand why they do. In CPG strategy, who is like the soil in your garden. Don’t think of who as a big mosh pit of disconnected individuals. In
Where should I go for additional funds after my family? I get asked this question routinely, so I’d like to share the answer I recently gave on my PGS Live show. And it includes a counter-intuitive response you’re probably not expecting. #1 – Seed - Virtually all consumer brand founders begin with some kind of seed capital, whether from their
The vast majority of CPG startups in what I call the Death Funnel (trailing annual revenues below $500,000 wholesale) operate as B2B businesses. Their founders don't interact with their consumers face-to-face. They manage distributor orders, distributor relationships, and case numbers. They drink words from their brokers' mouths. As long as case volumes grow, these founders are happy. As long as their wholesale price can float operations
I talk a lot about planning your experiment as you Ride the Ramp. And measuring. And iterating. I did not discuss what to do when you encounter historically disruptive events, like a global pandemic. And what I recommend you do is usually reserved for large, multinational
There is nothing worse for a high potential, emerging CPG brand than to enter the right retailer the wrong way and thereby to squander inventory (potentially lots of it) that could be moving faster elsewhere. It's essential to seek partnership with high-potential retail chains, i.e., a
Modern POS analytics for emerging CPG brands. Learn how to manage exponential growth like a pro!
I launched my current business in 2017 with a series of LinkedIn videos, including why you need a strategic plan. Keeping you and your team accountable is the most important reason to write a straightforward plan consisting of three things: your revenue targets for 2-3 years maxyour
If you don’t know the behavior driving velocities off the shelf, you can’t really optimize marketing, promotions, channel strategy or much of your 4P playbook. As I write in Ramping Your Brand, most of your revenue as a CPG brand, especially as an early-stage one is