Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy are Out to Get You
FROM ALL SIDES!
It’s hard enough to make a buck these days. You’re going to need a whole lot more than a good idea. In fact, as we found out, you’ll need to take several adversarial forces into consideration. It’s like fighting a battle on many fronts at the...
5 Ways to Increase Your Working Capital
LEARNING HOW TO DANCE
Our friends were surprised to see us still in business after two years. They knew we were undercapitalized. They would say sarcastically, “I didn’t know you knew you could dance!” alluding to all the fancy foot work it took to pay our bills. We responded, “We...
Don’t Let “Marketing Myopia” Blind You To Your Customer’s Needs
“GOT IT!” – NOT!
There's No Such Thing as "Just The One Thing" We recently fielded a question from a young member of our audience. She asked us, “Just tell me the one thing that made your wine brand such a huge success.” We had to laugh, knowing that there...
How to Measure Brand Awareness of CPG Branded Products
DISTRIBUTION BUILDS BRAND AWARENESS
The more we see something, the more familiar we are with it. Even if we don’t engage, just the reoccurring exposure to it builds our awareness. The same thing happens with CPG brands. In other words, there is a direct relationship between branded product distribution and...
CPG Marketing is Promoting the Sale of Real Consumable Products
YOU CAN HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND!
What is a CPG? It’s a consumer packaged goods product. They are usually branded. Also known as fast moving consumer goods or FMCG, they are distinguished from the less often purchased, slower moving, and higher priced items (like houses, refrigerators, cars, or even electronic devises and...
HR Can Be A Blessing and a Curse for a CPG Startup
USE ONLY AS DIRECTED!
A wise old entrepreneur once told us, “The second person you hire will be your HR Director!” When we said, “Why is that?” he said, “By that time, the first one will have personnel problems!” Although he was being facetious, his point was well taken. The...
The CPG Space is the Best Place to be Entrepreneurial
SOLVE THE PROBLEM!
Got an idea for a consumer product? Want to see it at your local store? You’ve got challenges, serious challenges! Challenges that will require all the attributes of entrepreneurship. In fact, you will be problem-solving from the moment you get started. The first challenge is to...
5 Business Tasks That Can Be Outsourced
YOU ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE FOR SALES, ACCOUNTING, AND QUALITY CONTROL!
Focus on Sales As successful CPG global brand builders, we are often asked, “What is the biggest single mistake that new consumer product brand builders make?” Our answer is always the same, “They focus on production and not on sales!” Unfortunately, the first thing that goes...
CPG Packaging is Poised for a Sea-Change!
HERE WE GO LOOP DE LOO!
There’s a lot of talk these days about high tech. We all spent much of our time each day engaging with high-tech devices. These have their own health challenges like “tech neck,” impaired vision, and the loss of social skills. But some of the biggest challenges...
The Business Name Change Checklist Gets Longer When Your Products are Involved
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR NAME?
How to change your business name is relatively simple compared to how to change your product name. Some companies produce products under their business name so when they change their business name they may be changing their product name as well. So, let’s start with simply...
Be Careful What You Ask For with Performance Marketing
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
Try paying your salaries, your vendors, or your overhead with clicks, shares, or time on page. It’s funny how these terms have become measures of performance that brand builders pay for, but none of them will really pay your bills. Bills are hungry for bucks, real bucks....
Mass Marketing Tries to Target Anyone and Everyone
THROW A LARGE NET, OR USE THE RIGHT BAIT?
When we built the Barefoot Wine brand, people used to ask us why we didn’t use television commercials and radio ads to get the word out. Aside from the fact that we couldn’t afford that kind of advertising, it really wouldn’t work for a startup CPG...
5 Tips to Get Your Product on the Retail Shelf …And keep it There!
SUCCESS OR CHALLENGE?
Having actually built a national bestselling brand, we know from painful personal experience what it really takes to get your product on the shelf and, more importantly, keep it there. We didn’t just study the subject, come up with a new word, or debate what works...
Seasonally Themed Selling Make Your Products More Attractive
IS IT THEN ALREADY?
As retail store customers, we are all used to seeing the decorations and advertising materials in the retail stores changing with the holidays and the seasons. But as CPG branded product producers ourselves, we were surprised at how much effort and forethought seasonal selling really entailed....
4 Pillars of Organic Growth
IT TAKES PULL!
Organic growth requires a demand for your products that pulls them through the distribution system. Inorganic growth is fundamentally trying to push your products through the system. Organic growth takes place primarily as a result of word-of-mouth, quality, value, and third-party endorsements. Examples of inorganic growth...
Driving Sales of CPG Products Requires a Multifaceted Approach
THE WHOLE NINE YARDS!
People often ask us, “What was the one thing that made Barefoot Wine successful?” Our answer, “It was multifaceted!” Sorry, it’s usually not just “the one thing” that makes any CPG brand successful. However, we guess if you really want to boil it down to just...
Corporate Identity – Much More Than a Pretty Face
WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?
What is an identity? Simply put, it’s how people know you. Sure, they recognize you by your appearance, but they also attribute certain characteristics and behaviors to you as well. Your history, reputation, and goals also influence your identity. Corporate identity is much the same. It’s...
Product Packaging Must be Strong, Compliant, Compelling, and Responsible
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
Do you feel like you are drowning in a sea of containers? You are! Most consumer products must be contained in some kind of packaging. Consumer products are, well, consumed on a daily basis, and all those packages add up. Most of them are single use....