What Can You Do with an Entrepreneurship Degree?
SAVING TIME AND MONEY!
After 4 years in college studying entrepreneurship, you might get the idea that no one will hire you. After all, you studied to start your own company, didn’t you? Even though that is the primary objective, it’s amazing how many growing companies today actually prefer grads...
Don’t Get Boxed In By the Big Box Store
YOU CHASE THEM ‘TIL THEY CATCH YOU!
What is a big box store? It can be your dream come true or your worst nightmare when you are a CPG producer. Why? Because they can buy so much of your products at a time that they can make you dependent on them and ultimately...
Consumers are “Voting” for Earth Friendly Products
JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON …OR GET RUN OVER BY IT!
Nielsen, the CPG sales rating company, has been releasing reports indicating that consumers prefer sustainable products. Actually, consumers prefer products making sustainable claims. The implication is that the producers are living up to their claims. Then there’s the question about what the term “sustainable” means. The...
Business Based on Social Entrepreneurship Ideas Develops Strong Customer Loyalty
A SOCIAL REASON!
What is Social Entrepreneurship? It depends upon who you ask and when. The definition keeps changing over time and broadening to include an ever-widening group of enterprises that have a positive social impact. What they all have in common is that they either directly promote social...
Brand Positioning Examples in the CPG Space are Price Sensitive
JOCKEYING FOR POSITION
What is brand positioning? It’s relatively easy to identify your CPG product’s value proposition. But positioning your product in the harsh retail environment is quite another story. Think of the value proposition as a broad description of your products features, benefits, and what sets it apart...
How to Trademark a Logo for Your CPG Brand
7 Sales Strategy Tips to Increase Your CPG Sales Territory
WORKING BACKWARD
Effective CPG sales strategy planning requires a knowledge of, and respect for, the harsh realities of the retail marketplace. It’s a multifaceted landscape into which your product must fit, survive, and thrive. Due to the physical nature of the distribution system, there is a ridged process...
What Does Customer Service Mean To You? An Interview with the Founders of Barefoot Wine
SERVICING ALL THE PLAYERS
We are interviewed on this subject on a regular basis. The interviewers are usually podcasters, radio show hosts, or magazine writers. They are interested in practical and doable advice from a successful CPG producer. They want to know what customer service is for a CPG product...
How To Calculate Net Sales and not get Fooled by the Numbers
IT COSTS MONEY TO MAKE MONEY!
One of the biggest mistakes we see being made by new CPG branded product producers is they simply follow the net sales calculation formulas designed for accounting. This formula seems plausible and to the inexperienced, it may even seem complete. But it’s far from complete and...
The Risks of Rebranding May Outweigh the Benefits
“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BRAND?”
To rebrand or not to rebrand? That is the question! Whether it is nobler to be new and different or tried and true? More than a few brands have disappeared as a result of well-meaning rebranding and repositioning. This is especially true of CPG brands. Unlike...
Price Elasticity Can Break Your Brand
PRICING YOURSELF OUT OF THE MARKET
The price elasticity of demand is an economist’s way of describing what everybody who has ever had a business already knows: Generally, your price is determined by the market. Wouldn’t it be nice to raise your prices and see no decrease in demand? You’d be rich!...
Keep Your Sales Pitch Concise, Compelling and Compassionate
GETTING TO FIRST BASE!
In our many years in business and working as advisors to Startups, Buildups, and Buildout companies, we’ve heard hundreds of sales pitches. Most of them strike out before they ever get to first base. The ones that hit the ball squarely all have three things in...
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...
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...
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...
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...