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...
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...
One of the most common questions our audiences ask is, “What keeps you going in the face of adversity, setbacks, and roadblocks?” They want to know what it takes to keep going - no matter what! Basically, they are looking for the ingredients of tenacity and...
Unless you are selling direct to the consumer, your consumer brand lives or dies on the basis of chain and box store authorizations. Without access to the marketplace you simply can’t grow your brand. Especially when your brand is unknown and has no sales track record...
We are often asked by aspiring, start-up, and growth-phase entrepreneurs, “If distribution is so important to success, how do I build a distribution network for my product?” Distribution management is the most over-looked building block in building any consumer branded product. Many producers feel that they don’t...
Every brand builder faces no-sayers. Some of them may have your best interests at heart, but others may not see the opportunity. How do you know who to listen to? We were honored to be guest speakers last week at the University of North Carolina at...
Being successful in the limited and controlled wine business makes us a target for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own wine labels. Many new producers think that all it takes to be a success is a compelling label, a cute catch phrase, and a...
We recently spoke to several hundred Accounting Students at Lethbridge University at their Calgary campus. As brand builders, how could we resonate with this audience? How were we going to inspire accountants? Cost Accounting, that’s how! Yes, it turns out that without great cost accounting there...
In this series we have been examining threats from inside your own organization that can kill your brand in the New Year. Now is the time to be on guard against them. As we like to say, brands are not murdered by the competition, but die...
In most companies the legal department is referred to as “compliance.” However they do far more than make sure your company complies with the laws and regulations governing your industry. They protect you from liability exposures and potential lawsuits. They protect your intellectual property including trademarks,...
In this series, we have been discussing how to recognize the various ways your own people can inadvertently hurt your brand. Your company is ultimately only as valuable as your brand equity. Your brand equity is based on the likelihood that your branded products and services...
It’s hard to believe that your own team can damage your brand, but most brands are killed from self-inflicted wounds, not murdered by the competition. As you start out the New Year, be vigilant that your own people don’t take action that inadvertently hurts your brand....
We learned a lot about building an international brand during the two decades we grew Barefoot Wines. Most of it we learned the hard way, and that is why today we share our lessons in this blog devoted to brand building. Although we were successful, we...
This is a great time of year to renew your brand promise. Just like renewing vows in marriage, you recommit yourself to your brand promise. But unlike marriage vows, the promises are not yours. They’re the sum of your customers’ perceptions, expectations and beliefs about your...
It was storming that night in 1996 when Michael slowly drove up the long dirt road that lead to his humble farmhouse in the rural hills of western Sonoma County. He was careful not to spin out in the mud nor get grabbed by the treacherous...
We are often asked, “What was the biggest challenge you faced growing the Barefoot Wine brand?” People are always surprised by our answer, “out-of-stocks.” It’s the biggest problem facing any new brand. Some purists try to make a distinction between brands and products, often because they...
We’ve often said that entrepreneurs are brand builders. Unlike sole proprietors, or even those creating a legacy, most entrepreneurs, sooner or later, want to have a capitalization event. That may take the form of a merger, IPO or cash infusion by a new partner, but it...
We often hear, “Follow your passion” as the universal prescription for happiness and success. But we say “Follow your opportunity, passionately” as a more plausible road to success. Opportunities abound! The key is to find a way to take advantage of them using your passion. So...
The best brand building signs and merchandising materials we ever saw were in the dumpsters of the very distributers who were expected to use them to sell the products of the brands they represented. What were they doing there? Because the distributers only had a limited...
We are posting this blog from Norway where we came to support and present at the annual “Mixer” which supports entrepreneurialism at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. This is the largest technical university in Norway and has a robust entrepreneurial program...