Eye for Retail
@EyeforRetail_
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Former founder of 9 figure consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. Now strategy and design firm for retail and CPG - retail store design, branding, packaging.
North America
Joined December 2022
Want to know the hard, slow path to building a CPG brand?. Me neither, that’s a terrible sales pitch. The surprising part? This path is also 10X more likely to result in success. I built a $100M CPG business. To do it all over again, this is the path I would follow:.🧵.
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@joerogan Tell me you’ve never listened to Joe Rogan without saying you’ve never listened to Joe Rogan.
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@TrungTPhan Yes! And you’d have to make arrangements to meet people and actually be there on time. Unimaginable now.
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Was in North Carolina this week. Is it the most underrated state? . Why does no one talk about this place? . It’s amazing - beautiful, clean, safe, good weather, little traffic, nice houses, nice people, affordable. What am I missing here?.
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@ShaanVP I just appreciate how much you are both milking this topic to drive traffic to the site.
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So Olipop pops up in a CNBC article out of nowhere. This is not the work of a PR firm. It is most likely a friendly reach out to CNBC from the investment bank representing Olipop in sale negotiations. You can tell this is not the work of a PR firm because:. a) there are no
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Eataly is a wonderful concept, bringing real Italian food to the rest of us. Beautiful stores. But it only just dawned on me what their real business model is. I was viewing it as a high end grocery store, but it's not. Each location is an ENORMOUS hospitality venue,
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Mr Beast discovering the realities of wholesaling your CPG product in retail. "We're in 10,000 doors!". Are you just. Let's take a little walk down to a few stores and see how it's playing out in the real world. Without a comprehensive plan to visit stores, merchandise the.
I spent 15 hours yesterday visiting Walmarts/Targets and seeing if they had inventory in the back and helping them put it out. This store was doing 0 sales and when I visited it had 0 product on shelf. I found these in the backroom and had them scan them in/I placed them on the
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Good luck Starbucks. You’re going to need it. New CEO Brian Niccol recently gave a short public address about his plan to turn the company around after delivering disappointing earnings news and stopping future earnings guidance. 🧵
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Not sure what this brand identity is communicating or who it is communicating to. It doesn't look like coffee, let alone suggest any expertise around coffee. Quite puzzling.
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Never ask:.A man his salary.A woman her age.A failing baked goods startup founder what they did with the $6M.
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Prime Hydration, co-founded by youtubers Logan Paul and KSI has become a big deal in a very short time. With retail sales of $250M in 2022 and now over $50M/month it has experienced an incredible rise to prominence. But Prime is destined to fail spectacularly unless they make
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DTC brand owners are used to a work life behind a laptop. Once you enter retail with a CPG brand, life changes. The retail game is very physical. The sales team needs to be logging miles in the car, wearing out shoes, pounding the pavement. Visiting stores, building
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It drives me mad when CPG or physical product people start talking about LTV/CAC (when 70% of their sales are in retail), ARR and MRR out of context, head of product, CRO, and then they want to hire a chief of staff. All before turning a single dollar of profit or having a.
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@CharlesPattson Introduce a couple of young children to this guy’s house and he’d be in a psych ward pretty quick.
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It drives me mad when CPG or physical product people start talking about LTV/CAC (when 70% of their sales are in retail), ARR and MRR out of context, head of product, CRO, and then they want to hire a chief of staff. All before turning a single dollar of profit or having a.
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This is exactly why a rigorous field sales management system is required. That means digital systems to manage call cycles and a culture of accountability. i.e. someone at Poppi should be hauled over the coals for this. Especially in beverage, where you are placing assets,.
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Impressive out of home advertising campaign by Olipop. The transition of brand positioning from pre-biotic health soda to everyday soda has brought a step change to the brand. The attention to detail in these pieces, with the real painted-on-brick mural sensibility, rather
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Vita Coco in an independent natural grocer. This is the type of retail location where brands are built. Whether it was Vita Coco, vitaminwater, RedBull or pick your household name. All were built in independent outlets first. Independents are generally more receptive to
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Damn these guys are good. Olipop has announced its third stadium sales deal, this time with the LA Clippers’ Intuit Dome. Make no mistake, these are huge wins. Coke and Pepsi traditionally lock down these stadiums with iron clad exclusivity deals. Just like airports. No one
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I'm told Poppi's retail sales across all channels for 2023 was $116.3M, including grocery, convenience and mass market. This is retail sales, so you can assume Poppi's revenue was around half that once you take into account retail margin, distributors and brokers etc. Even if
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You’ve seen this picture before. But it’s completely misunderstood. Described as one of the greatest rebrands ever and credited with the brand’s massive sudden growth and sale to Kellogg for $600M within 5 years of launch. As Peter Rahal described on the My First Million
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MUD\WTR just announced they are launching nationally in Target. This is a big move for the brand which has been almost purely DTC since launching in 2018, with the exception of some cafes and a few select retailers like Erewhon. They haven’t made a serious attempt at retail
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Hi 👋 there, this is Eye for Retail. I founded a $100,000,000+ CPG company. For the uninitiated, CPG = consumer packaged goods. And now I split my time between:. 1) Designing beautiful retail stores for big retail clients - more on that below. 2) Helping up-and-coming CPG.
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New - Stars and Honey protein bars. 15g of protein, incl. 10g collagen, 2g sugar. This brand is crushing DTC, selling so much that their retail launch is on ice for now. Good problem to have. Love the art direction. Inspiring story @Raineyetc
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CPG is a simple business. Not easy. Simple. Create a great product. Make sure it is different and has a good reason to exist. Package it beautifully and put it in front of the right customers, whether online or in stores. Oh, and make sure you can sell it for about twice what.
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To this day one of the worst ideas in retail. This is at a Walgreens, but they’re not the only culprit. The screens have ads running so as you approach you don’t even know what’s in there until you get close and it switches to product shots. Then of course the pictures often
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Hey 👋, this is Eye for Retail. It’s been a while since I introduced myself, so here goes:. I founded a $100,000,000+ CPG company. For the uninitiated, CPG = consumer packaged goods (think regular packaged grocery items). Now I’m building the family business. It’s a retail.
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CPG brands at Expo West this week as the Walmart buyer passes by
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Expo West revealed two trends that are likely to have very different outcomes. Create a business around the wrong trend and you could be in for a very tough road ahead. So where is the biggest opportunity in CPG right now?. Two trends that continued to be prevalent at Expo West.
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The daily struggle of a fast growing, bootstrapped CPG founder
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Say what you want about Poppi’s creative originality but bringing this level of effort to their brand experience to launch new flavors and a tall boy can is pretty impressive. This is a @drinkpoppi AI animation and pop up location in West Hollywood.
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Want to know a secret to your CPG brand winning in retail?. Something that today's killer up and coming brands know well?. @Olipop, @MidDaySquares , @drinksanzo , Truvani, @SieteFoods . They understand this. It starts with this picture below. The planogram. It's like a map
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For CPG brands in retail, VELOCITY > DISTRIBUTION, yet so many brands prioritize the opposite.
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The soda category is experiencing its Halo Top moment. The new wave including Olipop, Poppi and Sanzo are about to have a BIG summer. Halo Top made ice cream an acceptable daily habit for healthy people. These new sodas have bridged the gap between 150+ calories and 0
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It's easy for a small CPG brand to look at Big CPG and think "how can I compete?". The marketing budgets, the huge field sales and merchandising teams, the buttoned up supply chains. They are unstoppable beasts. Or are they?. It's all a matter of perception. Spend some time
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Vuori managing the transition from DTC to omnichannel with style
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Tips for CPG brands pitching big retailers:. Be armed with:. 1. a succinct explanation of the product and why it’s different. 2. samples to see, touch, feel and try if appropriate. 3. have all the necessary administrative information on hand just in case – price, margin, UPC.
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We know protein continues to be a huge trend, but how should CPG brands think about developing protein products that are both meaningful and different?. Clearly protein consumption is not a new idea. But unlike other short-lived trends that come and go, protein is an enduring
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Walmart is stealing from Target. Many have commented they had to do a double take that Walmart’s new private brand, bettergoods, wasn’t a Target product. And that’s exactly the idea. Already attracting higher income shoppers from Target and Trader Joe’s, Walmart has set its
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avoid linkedin today unless you’re ready for the super bowl of cringe.
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For CPG brands, VELOCITY > DISTRIBUTION, yet so many brands prioritize the opposite. Some jargon explained:. Velocity = the rate of sale of a SKU in a given store. SKU = stock keeping unit, which is a very specific product, variety, pack and size identified by a UPC. UPC =.
For CPG brands in retail, VELOCITY > DISTRIBUTION, yet so many brands prioritize the opposite.
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Attention CPG people: . Understanding where the rubber meets the road. DTC Performance Marketing.= .Retail Sales Execution .- .Compounding Benefits . Let me explain. For DTC brands who want to launch in retail stores, there is a fundamental mindset shift that they need to
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Want to know one big secret to your CPG brand winning in retail?. Something that today's killer up and coming brands know well?. @Olipop, @MidDaySquares, @drinksanzo, Truvani,.@SieteFoods. They understand this. It starts with this picture below. The planogram. It's like a map
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CPG people: Your product merchandising in retail stores is MARKETING. Even just on the regular retail shelf, like below left. If your product creates a recognizable block of color/brand/graphic/packaging form factor, then you are building familiarity amongst consumers. If you
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$30M revenue DTC brands collecting their profits after META takes their share.
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Native was a great acquisition for P&G. This should be reviewed as the gold standard for CPG acquisitions - bought at a smaller scale and a reasonable price, then plugged into their monstrous distribution system, expanded into new categories. The brand is a beast now.
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Friction kills sales. An open fridge will sell 50%+ more than a closed door fridge. Why? The way consumers behave in the moment is impulsive and often irrational. The easier a product is to reach, the more it will sell. And product merchandised without any intervening
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Manufacturing in-house? Are you kidding me?. Sounds like a ridiculous idea for most. But it is a huge unlock. Recently I’ve met a couple of young CPG companies that started with in-house manufacturing. Hats off to them. That’s really challenging because you don’t have the.
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CPG is a simple business. Not easy. Simple. Create a great product. Make sure it is different and has a good reason to exist. Package it beautifully and put it in front of the right customers, whether online or in stores. Oh, and make sure you can sell it for about twice what.
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For CPG brands, VELOCITY > DISTRIBUTION, yet so many brands prioritize the opposite. Some jargon explained:. Velocity = the rate of sale of a SKU in a given store. SKU = stock keeping unit, which is a very specific product, variety, pack and size identified by a UPC. UPC =.
For CPG brands, VELOCITY > DISTRIBUTION, yet so many brands prioritize the opposite.
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Only in Venice California could you find a fridge offering like this
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When a new CPG company begins to get traction, everything can feel like it's breaking. Chaos everywhere. Your systems were rushed and cobbled together based on low sales volumes. You didn’t worry too much about the accounting system you started with, or how you managed.
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Can-Tini espresso martini in a can. The word mark, color selection and proportions hold so well together. Beautifully done.
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Fishwife tinned fish. Packaging is off the charts bright, fun and lively. A design sensibility that thumbs it’s nose at the minimalist aesthetic. A touch of hispanic vibes via the colours and illustrations. Bringing sophisticated flavors to a tired old category including a
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Why does big CPG have trouble creating new brands?. A successful new CPG brand typically takes about 7 years to develop, launch, stumble a few times, gain momentum, become profitable and start to scale meaningfully. So what are the chances a big CPG could ideate, create, develop
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Sampling of food and beverage CPG products in grocery stores is lame. It’s a low-end representation of your brand. It’s not scalable. These are some of the bullshit reasons I’ve heard for why CPG brands don’t commit to product sampling. The real underlying reason for the
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I created a CPG business worth over $100,000,000 with multiple successful brands. Want to know the steps I followed every time to create a multi-million dollar brand?. Let me share with you this simple checklist:. 1. Start with a unique product idea. Obvious right? But most.
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Starting a new CPG brand? Brace yourself. If it takes off, everything feels like it's breaking. The copacker you started with is overwhelmed with the volume and incapable of scaling with you. The new copacker who finally agreed to work with you is saying you’re important to.
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@buccocapital Very creative interpretation of scale on these charts . Somehow the +7% is bigger than the -17%.
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New CPG brands often think about two paths to launching their business:. 1. Ecommerce – DTC (high CAC) and Amazon; or. 2. Retail – premium grocers, then big chains (cash intensive). But what if there was another way? . A path to sales and momentum without the huge upfront costs?.
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Tried Wilde Protein chips for the first time, very impressive idea. Everything was about protein at Expo West.
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Coke Zero exists because most men are incredibly insecure. Diet Coke was advertised for decades positioning it towards women. So when it became evident men wanted to consume more sugar free drinks, Coke was quick to recognize that men couldn’t bring themselves to buy a woman’s
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Hi 👋 there, this is Eye for Retail. I founded a $100M+ CPG company. For the uninitiated, CPG = consumer packaged goods. And now I split my time between:. 1) Designing beautiful and productive stores for big retail clients - more on that below. 2) Raising a large family,.
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@GuyDealership As a Tesla owner, not sure I like the thought of lining up behind every car on the road for a charge. Hopefully they make them larger with more chargers. Or more locations. Or both.
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A former PR executive from New Zealand turned her passion for beauty products into a $250M revenue business in four years. Her secret?. Identifying a cohort of people whose needs weren’t being met. A market segment of untapped demand. Affordable luxury. Why couldn’t clean
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Attention CPG people:. Understanding where the rubber meets the road in retail sales. In retail, Retail Sales Execution is the equivalent DTC Performance Marketing but with one huge difference:. It comes with compounding benefits. In the DTC world, the action happens in
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A CPG brand owner would have to be crazy to manufacture in-house. True. But it is also a huge unlock. Recently I’ve met a couple of young CPG companies that started with in-house manufacturing. Hats off to them. That’s really challenging in the beginning because you don’t have
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CPG brand placing a fridge?. An open fridge will sell 50%+ more than a closed door fridge. The way consumers behave in the moment is impulsive and often irrational. Opening a door brings the purchase to consciousness. More chance to reconsider. Less friction = more sales
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Expo West is this week. The Superbowl of CPG trade shows. Wandering the aisles can be inspiring, eye opening and overwhelming. It certainly gets the creative juices flowing to see the new products and ideas. So much energy. It might even tempt those thinking about starting a
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Received this DM today 🥹. Hey brother I hope you're doing amazing. 🙏 I messaged you summer of last year and we were just in our first year of launching our DTC CPG brand. Our first year we sold 30,000 units with zero advertising and hit a 37% return customer rate. Just word of.
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"We're going to be in 5,000 doors!" . Congratulations, but don't celebrate too soon. For a new CPG brand, this is the moment the actual work begins. The reality will soon become clear. Visit a few stores and you will see how it's playing out in the real world. Early on, you.
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BREAKING: Sam Altman leaves Open AI suddenly to buy an HVAC business in Lexington using an SBA loan. "I'm sick of working for the man. I need to build a nest egg." Altman said in a statement. "Might start a newsletter too." he added.
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Aesop just sold to L’Oreal for $2.5 billion. It takes a brilliant visionary to create something so valuable and enduring in the world of consumer products. Read this passage from a 2015 interview (by The Talks) of Dennis Paphitis, founder of Aesop as to why small details
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