Road Trips with People Building and Growing Emerging Brands.

Discussion points

• How AI is changing the CPG industry- including a definition of generative AI and how AI can be harnessed to assist an emerging brand across multiple disciplines. AI is math, not magic! How AI can clean your datasets and can customize the output in the custom manner a specific retailer likes to review brand data. Which AI tool should an emerging brand use? Hint: Start with ChatGPT and just start using it. How AI can help an emerging brand grow by driving speed, scale, and efficiency. Example: Claude.co is a great AI tool for web site development. A fan of Jose Altuve: small, but powerful!

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Discussion points

• The importance of innovation in healthcare products and how best to communicate innovation to the consumer: the art of storytelling and explaining the science clearly are paramount How to best educate the consumer on Amazon. Imagine you are the shopper – what process do you follow and what do you want to learn when in the shopping process? A detailed discussion about how to best utilize video to educate consumers and how you can manage production costs Consumer health trends in 2025: What Alex is seeing and some of the sources his firm finds useful An F1 fan and a Williams supporter. Pulling for the “challenger brand”- just the way we like it!

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Discussion points

• The origin story of the brand led by people that had been helping other DTC brands grow- and saw an opportunity to build their own
• What motivated them to move into brick & mortar retail? And how they learned the DTC playbook does not translate perfectly to the brick & mortar environment
• Some hard truths about brick & mortar distribution: slotting, trade spending, deductions and other matters a brand will have to deal with
• What to look for in a contract manufacturer- and it goes far beyond price alone
• Hiring, managing and working through rough patches with your brokers. Hint: treat your brokers like they work inside your company and not as an outside vendor to your company
• Finally, a Knicks fan!

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Discussion points

• The Sircle Team has a focus on brands in traditional brick & mortar distribution. They are very focused on helping drive sales and hit sales velocity hurdles
• We spend time discussing 'social interest' versus 'social media'.
• The potential risk to an emerging brand of bringing on creative people that may focus more on art than on creative and content that drives the brand
• The benefit of working with boutique marketing agencies that do a very few (or one!) thing VERY well versus a larger integrated agency
• Key to work with agencies that not only know the social networks, but they know your category.

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Discussion points

• How Floret supports brands of all sizes (from Small to large brands) manage their deductions. Understanding the types of deductions
• How Floret started, and the gap Tanay saw in the market
• What does Floret look for when deciding to work with a brand
• How much savings can be realized when working with Floret
• How Floret is different from other deduction management platformswww.tryfloret.com

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Discussion points

• That no matter how hard they tried in the early days to kill their brand- the team kept plugging away and learning. Eventually evolving to a winning commercial approach
• With a mission driven brand- the mission must make sense to the consumer that the tie to the brand is logical
• While the brand mission may be a differentiator in the category and help you secure some retailer meetings and distribution- the products must perform and sell in order to remain in distribution
• Why it is best to focus on your top skus and to have a unique growth plan with each retailer versus 'getting too clever with your plan'
• Counsel on what to expect when taking on an investor
• In the very early days of Soapbox, his landlord thought he was up to 'illegal activities'!
• David is offering a special discount for listeners of the Road2Retail podcast. Go to www.soapboxsoaps.com and enter the promo code: Road2retail20 to save 20% on your purchase!

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Discussion points

• What is the Naturally Network and how does the Naturally Network help small/emerging brands?
• What is the CPG Academy? What does the Academy offer Naturally Network Members?
• The introduction of the Retail Launch Pad: An on-line learning platform
• Why establishing pricing is critical to brands starting out. Kate shares the definition of COGS and her margin calculator.

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Discussion points

• The genesis of her idea was, that as a mother of three, she was burning a lot of time taking time off from work, going to the doctor, then the pharmacy when it was pretty clear that strep throat may be present. 36MM doctor visits for strep each year- split 50-50 kids and adults She highlights the time and expense necessary to get a medical device approved Why Checkable is opting to go to brick & mortar right away vs a DTC strategy How to think through taking on investors when you are a pre-revenue business A fan of the Cheers brand (note: we are too!)

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Discussion points

• The dry spell for transactions in the consumer space that may be resolving now and the conditions that drove that environment
• A brand that wants to sell needs to demonstrate they have the "head room" to keep growing. If you are a smaller brand- strong profitability is vital
• Post covid, unit level economics and profitability are now looked at closely versus simply history of sales growth
• What are the steps and approximate timing of a transaction when a brand enters a sell process?
• Advice on what profile to look for in an investor when an emerging brand looks to take on outside capital

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Discussion points

• 80% of people want to know the sex of their baby in advance
• The importance of deeply and truly understanding your consumer and their needs
• How they helped to build a new category delivering incremental sales to retailers
• How the SneakPeek team used insights to develop new packaging for retail
• The changes they have made to their approach to marketing as the brand evolves from DTC only to brick & mortar retail
• A Blue Apron fan!

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Discussion points

• Taking over the business from successful, innovative founder: Martin Hoke
• How to position, manage and grow a product that is roughly 5X the cost of most solutions in the category
• The point of difference of your product must be clear to both the consumer and potential retail partners
• Make a little, sell a little, learn a lot! No learning better than live selling to the consumer
• How important it is to control your pricing across channels and retailers
• Working with investors, advisors and your Board. Alignment is critical!

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Discussion points

• What is the Specialty Food Association (SFA) and how are they supporting small and emerging brands via their Makers Prep Course?
• We discuss all the details around this show and note the next FSA show set for San Diego in early 2026.
• What should first time and exhibitors and attendees due to maximize their investment of time and money?
• What were the biggest trends at the show?
• What were the coolest and most innovative brands at the show?
• What are the best practices for following up after the show?https://www.specialtyfood.com/

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Discussion points

• A recap of Todd's experience as a long time merchant at Walmart and Sam's Club.
• The familiar refrain of the importance of differentiation for your brand relative to competitors.
• Todd discusses MPG's "end to end solution" his firm offers to help emerging brands manage their business. These services are also offered a la carte so founders can offload certain important tasks to experts in order to spend their valuable time on the aspects of their business they enjoy.
• Authenticity and a great story are common characteristics of emerging brands that gain traction with consumers.
• A detailed discussion around actions a DTC/Amazon only brand needs to consider (and nail) when considering the move into traditional brick & mortar retail.
• And finally- we have found a highly dedicated Mizzou fan.

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