Road Trips with People Building and Growing Emerging Brands.

Thinking of joining an emerging brand? Thinking about bringing in outside talent?

On today's show we speak with Hayes Reilly- Managing Partner at PeopleSuite. Hayes has had a long successful career placing senior executive talent with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) firms of all sizes.

The Road2Retail team recently spent some time with Brandon Pogue- cofounder of TruLabs. TruLabs produces a great tasting and uniquely formulated product in the very competitive hydration space. Brandon tells us about how the brand morphed into a hydration focused brand and their commitment to a "science based and consumer approved" product design.

On today's show, Bruce & Tracey discuss how to go about expanding your small, emerging or challenger brand with an existing retailer. Often, brand leaders get distracted by defining growth as "more retailers" when growth actually means building and expanding your brand intelligently. However, the smart play may be to expand with a retailer you are already working with and having some success vs getting involved with another one.

Gaylord shares with us the backstory of launching their unique infant care brand - Buddle. Their team invested a lot of time and resources upfront on R&D, consumer testing, and pricing before making the move to selling product. The discussion also covers:

- Buddle's launch hiccups (everyone has them!)

- His view on building out a team and advisory panel that are highly skilled in their areas of expertise

- Why they have launched exclusively online and what Buddle will look for in a partner when they think to move into brick and mortar retail

- Their goal to build a community as well as a brand

- How marketing performance metrics differ for an emerging brand vs those of an established brand

- How Gaylord thinks about raising money and what he looks for in an investor

On today's show we are fortunate to spend time with Elliot Begoun, the founder of TIG Brands. Elliot discusses their very comprehensive approach to helping founders grow their emerging brands by focusing on building a sustainable business and not just a brand. Elliot describes how TIG Brands utilizes 'The Collective' allowing brands within their ecosystem to utilize subject matter experts and then their "Accelerator" process to grow these brands once the foundation is set. We also learn why the tardigrade is superior to the unicorn!

Learn how emerging brands can effectively work with Amazon from Anu Bliss - General Manager of Digital Commerce at The Emerson Group

Getting your brand on Amazon is all many small, emerging and challenger brands think they need to do to be successful. As we learn in our discussion with Anu today- it is far easier said than done. The Amazon beast is constantly changing, and your business must be monitored very closely. Anu goes into detail on the following key points:

- Before getting started with Amazon, make sure you fully understand the financial and operational implications of working with Amazon

- Confirm that you have worked through the financials of working with Amazon

- Amazon changes its strategy on the fly and along with these changes- fees and the cost of doing business with Amazon can change as well

- Provides a crisp explanation of the differences between being a 1P vs 3P seller on Amazon

- The importance of fresh, compelling content about your brand

- How to avoid head-to-head price comparisons with other retailers

- Understanding the critical importance of the Buy Box

- Given the traffic on Amazon- every day has a Super Bowl audience!

Getting an Emerging Brand Ready to Promote on Facebook

On today’s episode, Erin lead's us in a discussion around what it takes for a small, emerging or challenger brand to get set up to advertise on Facebook.

An Approach to Investing in Small & Emerging Brands

Today we discuss investing in small, emerging and challenger brands with the co-founder of Loft Growth Partners- Andy Whitman. Over the course of his extensive career investing in small brands, Andy shares his thoughts on many topics including:

- Raise money for the right reasons- not because others are

- Don't raise too much money too soon

- Investors want a "reason to believe" in what you are doing

- The importance of your current gross margins

- What materials you should have available to share with potential investors

- Loft Growth Partners offers a number of resources on their website for small brand owners to utilize

How to source, manage and utilize an influencer for your brand

Many small, emerging and challenger brands are anxious to work with influencers to help build their brands, but where to start and how best to proceed? Alexis offers her insights into the critical role establishing goals for an influencer program plays (awareness, conversion, change in positioning, etc?), how to identify an ideal influencer, how to evaluate the impact of your program, and how to manage, compensate and collaborate with your influencer. For all this and much more- please give the show a listen!

On this episode of the Road2Retail, we speak with Corey Scholibo, co-founder of Dayo and Wile. Corey and the Road2Retail team explore Corey’s experiences starting mission-driven brands such as Wile and Repurpose. Corey shares his experiences in developing these brands that resonate with both retailers and consumers. Corey also shares his insights into:

• Best tactics to drive consumer demand

• Lessons in raising money

• Best advice for emerging brands just starting out

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On today’s episode, the Road2Retail team speaks with Wade Yenny - an experienced retail buyer with several high-profile natural and specialty retailers. Wade shares his views on the importance of differentiation and his observations related to small, emerging and challenger brands. Wade shares his insights on the following topics:

• How important is traction for a brand online before going to retail?

• What are the critical elements of a retail presentation?

• Consumer demand tactics that he has seen work

• Hits and misses he has seen small and emerging brands make over his career

Please

Dan Mack is a passionate advocate for challenger brands like those we work with and try to help here on the Road2Retail podcast. Dan shares his views on

what small, emerging and challenger brands really need to think through prior to making the move into a regional or national retailer. He points out

the challenges all of these brands will undoubtedly face, and he offers his views on how to best prepare to be successful at retail. Note: it is not easy nor is the move into retail for the faint of heart!

Dan Mack is a passionate advocate for challenger brands like those we work with and try to help here on the Road2Retail podcast. Dan shares his views on what small, emerging and challenger brands really need to think through prior to making the move into a regional or national retailer. He points out the challenges all of these brands will undoubtedly face, and he offers his views on how to best prepare to be successful at retail. Note: it is not easy nor is the move into retail for the faint of heart!

A detailed discussion with Eric Koppelman - CEO of Ruby Jewel Ice Cream Sandwiches

Today we were fortunate to spend some time with Eric Kopplelman to discuss how he and his team are building out their brand of super premium ice cream sandwiches. He leads with a very interesting history of Ruby Jewel and how they went about bringing the focus of the business back to the core: delicious ice cream sandwiches. Eric also provides detail around the following topics:

- As you consider retail expansion- ability to hit velocities is vital

- Sales is a profession and not anyone can do it

- Take the time to really understand working with distributors- it is a complex relationship

- Solid plans are a must - as is the ability to be flexible

- Dealing with investors: their expectations and yours when accepting their money

Many small, emerging and challenger brands are truly different- and some are

not. Some are very authentic and simply find ways to keep going and

evolving while others can't change fast enough to survive. After years of

studying challenger brands extensively- Dan shares his 10 Traits winning

challenger brands possess. Give the show a listen to hear Dan

walk us through this list - they are also in the show notes on iTunes and

Spotify.

Larissa Dannenberg, Vice President of Consulting at Market Performance Group, shares her views on how brands can best work with Retailer Media Networks.

Retailer Media Networks (RMNs) are an emerging vehicle with many of the nation's largest retailers. After years of watching Amazon build out their massive advertising business, many retailers have responded by building out their own advertising platforms. How a brand should approach and work with these new media options is the focus of our discussion with Larissa. She provides insight and counsel around the following topics:

- Brick & mortar retailers have a massive footprint (stores) - RMNs help them capitalize on this advantage

- Don't jump into multiple relationship with RMNs until your basics are covered: PDPs (product detail pages) are optimized, your image carousel is current and communicates your brand benefits, etc.

- Brands need to completely understand what they are getting into with these relationships. Understand fulfillment, attribution expenses - understand your "all in" cost of doing business

- Select one account that has an excellent shopper match to your brand demographics and go deep. Figure it all out with one account- then expand.

- RMNs are strategic initiatives for these retailers - so understanding how to best work with these platforms to grow your brand will become increasingly important