Does your CPG brand have a solid strategy to move products off the grocery shelf? Most companies focus too much energy on getting a product ON the shelf but have zero clue how to sell it OFF the shelf once it gets there.  Most of the big retailers only give one chance for new brands to succeed, so having a solid plan in place is crucial to your product’s success.  Let me help you with those details. In this blog, you will learn how to think about building your shopper marketing plan and which tactics you should consider for your shopper marketing plan. Below you will find the 5 sa ..read more

2020 dramatically changed the retail landscape - especially for food and beverage brands. As we all looked to practice social distancing and sheltering at home, consumers’ shopping behaviors changed suddenly, drastically, and permanently. We are opting for contactless shopping experiences, buying groceries online more than ever, and if we are going in-store, we’re not browsing for new products. Did you know: online grocery sales have grown by nearly 53 percent year over year in 2020? In this new disrupted retail environment, it’s become increasingly important for food and beverage brands t ..read more

Table of Contents How to move product off shelves and into people's carts Higher absolute cost (but reasonable per unit moved) tactics "All you, baby" tactics Retailer-dependent tactics Don't forget the fundamentals! How to move your products off shelves and into people’s carts You’ve done step one - you’ve secured a distribution deal and your food and beverage product is finally going to be available in stores. Now comes the hard part: getting your product moving off the shelves! How do you get your product into people’s shopping carts and into their homes? Before I answer that qu ..read more

Last year, I asked several food CPG communities to participate in a consumer research survey to gain insight into how you think about your ingredient sourcing. Through this project with Planet FWD, who is building a platform to connect regenerative, sustainable, and climate-friendly food producers to food and beverage brands who want to take a bite out of climate change, I sketched out the landscape of how small and large brands source ingredients and what your pain points are. Over a series of 20 structured discovery interviews and a much broader survey of nearly 40 CPG brands, I was able ..read more

This post is part 2 of a series that I'm writing with Sandra at Distro Talk. She's a Sales & Distribution Manager in NYC that runs an amazing course, Distro 101, to teach food founders all about Sales.  In Part 1 of this series (What's Your Deal? Placements & Promotions), Sandra taught you the 101 on all things promotion. Now, let’s talk about how to use that information to create a strategic plan for supporting your in-store distribution with marketing and sales. In addition to talking about how to think budgeting, planning, and prioritizing your sales and marketing, I'll addr ..read more

Let’s talk about the two main funding paths for food and beverage CPG brands and how your funding changes how you run your business. For almost all CPGs, funding is a necessity as you’re building your business. I will pull back the curtain on this sometimes opaque subject by drawing on my experiences at Harvard Business School, as a food founder myself, and as an executive for 3 CPG start-ups so you can make an informed choice about how you raise money. Read this post if you're a food brand that needs funding and you're wondering where it's going to come from  you want to understand ..read more