Don’t Exceed Your “Brandwidth”
TOO WIDE, TOO FAST
Focus is the key to any brand building effort. But what if your buyer asks for something else? Do you run around and create it for them, or do you stick to your guns? Certainly, one more offering couldn’t hurt, and you would get that buyer...
5 Ways Consumer Brand Builders Can Sell from the Bottom Shelf
NOBODY LOOKS DOWN!
We used to laugh over how the bread salespeople would fight over the eye level shelf position in the stores - that is until we had a branded product of our own. Suddenly we realized how important shelf position was to building a consumer brand. So...
Consumer Package Goods (CPG) Brand Builders Must Keep on Inventing
THERE’S NO APP FOR THAT!
Creating a CPG brand is only the beginning. Now you must sell it. In the process, you’ll discover challenges that demand new and special tools that may not yet exist. For instance, when we were building the Barefoot Wine brand, we were confronted by the retailers’...
Your Brand Image is Only as Good as Your Customer Service
THANKS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION; I WENT WITH ANOTHER COMPANY
We love Tesla! We have friends who work there. We have written about their products. And we have nothing but admiration for Elon Musk, our go-to favorite entrepreneur. For us, Tesla is a shining beacon for a practical solution to the world-wide climate problem. They are...
5 Good Reasons Why the Marketplace Won’t Take Your New CPG Brand
DO YOUR MARKET ACCESS RESEARCH
“Go away!” “Forget about it!” “We don’t need it!” These are typical responses you can get when you try to gain access to the market with your new consumer brand. It is a shame to see perfectly good consumer package goods (CPG) brands getting shut out...
Do You Deserve Success if You Follow a Process?
“SIX FIGURES IN SIX MONTHS!” – NOT!
Now-a-days it seems like everybody wants to work from home and make six figures in six months! The internet marketing folks are quick to pander to those who are believers. They are also quick to take advantage of impatient and inexperienced views of what it really...
A Goldmine for Brand Builders is Hidden in The Calendar
IT’S ALL TIMING!
The calendar is a gold mine for brand builders in the consumer package goods (CPG) space. At Barefoot Wines, we used the calendar to lay out our brand building strategy two years in advance. We didn’t just look at it, we studied it! We wanted to...
UGG Makes a Beachhead – An Unlikely Brand in an Unlikely Place
“I JUST SERVICED THE HELL OUT OF MY ACCOUNTS!”
We have been fortunate to speak on the same stage and become acquainted with Brian Smith, the creator and founder of UGG footwear. Brian’s brand building success story has all the thrills and chills you can expect from a startup that never quit. When Brian found...
Startup Brand Builders Need to Take the Retail Sales Process Seriously
“WILL BE SOLD AT RETAIL”
Too many business plans over simplify the sales process. We have seen some that state under the sales section, “Will be sold at retail.” Good luck with that! As a society, we constantly underestimate the sales process. This popular “shopper’s” view of sales has no place...
3 Good Reasons to Give Your Distributor to Carry Your CPG Brand
IT’S NOT THE PRICE OR THE QUALITY!
You may think that distributors will carry your consumer package goods (CPG) brand because your price is so low or your quality is so high. You may think that they will provide it to stores in their territory because the packaging is so cool or the...
5 Ways to Build Your Brand by Selling Your Own People First
“I LOVE WHAT I DO!”
You want your people to take pride and ownership in your brand, right? You want them to use their experience, intelligence, and imagination to move it forward, right? But if you think, “They are well-paid and it’s their job,” you would be overlooking important keys to...
Now Is the Time for Green Brands, Regardless of What You Hear from Washington
DON’T MISS THE BOAT!
If you read the news, you might get the mistaken idea that green brands are done and we’re going back to our dependence on fossil fuels. Just the opposite is happening. Don’t give up on your plans for that green product or solution. There’s an expanding...
Label Design Sends a Comprehensive Message
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?
Labels communicate not only the contents, brand, and particulars of your product, but they also set the tone, expectations, and impressions with which you want your customer to view your product. We like to say, “The label is the only point-of-purchase advertising material that consistently makes...
Amazon Buys Bricks and Mortar!
I’LL MEET YOU HALF WAY
With all the hype these days about “the end of bricks and mortar retail,” it’s interesting that the world’s largest online retailer just bought a very physical, bricks and mortar national grocery store chain. Does Amazon know something about the limitations of on-line retail? Their acquisition...
Building a CPG Brand Requires Building and Maintaining Distribution
“WE DON’T CARRY THAT BRAND ANYMORE!”
Consumer Packaged Goods Brands are physical and therefore must be physically available to be purchased. All the brand building in the world won’t help if your brand is not available. We’ve seen tons of advertising money spent in vain because the brand builders did not pursue...
The United States Breaks Its Brand Promise
NO LONGER THE “GOOD GUY”
All our lives, the United States has stood for leadership. Its desire for a lasting peace after WWII helped create the United Nations, and its concern for the health and well-being of future generations resulted in bold initiatives to reduce greenhouse gasses. If the US was...
Your Package Is the Only Point of Purchase (Advertising Material) that Consistently Makes it to the Retail Shelf
WHAT? THEY THREW IT AWAY?!
The point of purchase (AKA POP) is the most powerful place in the distribution chain. It’s the only place where the product, the customer, the money, and the final decision all come together. No matter what you customer has seen online or in the media, they...
Brand Building Decisions Require More Than Process Knowledge
CHECKMATE!
Just knowing how the chess pieces move won’t win you the game. In fact, learning the process is just the beginning. You must learn the strategies of the game to be more likely to win. When it comes to parlor games we all know this to...