Road Trips with People Building and Growing Emerging Brands.

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

Please subscribe to the Road2Retail podcast on iTunes or Spotify or our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on LinkedIn.

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

On today’s episode we discuss what it has taken for Doug and the team to make Sweet Loren's the #1 'better for you' cookie dough in the USA.

On today’s show we speak with Buck Robinson- the President of Media Manager Marketplace. Buck and his experienced team have a long history of helping non big budget brands test and learn their way into the world of offline media (TV, print, radio, etc). You don't need a seven figure budget to make a positive impact on your business with offline media. Right up front, Buck discusses how offline media is not a substitute for digital and social- but simply another piece of a comprehensive marketing/media plan to drive demand for your brand. At times, brands are happy being on a retailer's shelf; retailer's like brands moving off their shelves.

On today’s episode, we speak with Marc Perez - President of The Menper Group. Marc leads a family owned business intensely focused on delivering health and wellness products to the US Hispanic consumer. Marc discusses how they think about expanding their business, the way they have structured their sales organization, and how they vet suppliers. In addition, Marc reflects on his time as a private equity investor and offers his insights regarding what he looked for in brands and founders before committing capital.

We hope you enjoy today's show and will follow the Road2Retail podcast on iTunes, or Spotify. You can also find Road2Retail on LinkedIn and YouTube. Please leave us a review and consider sharing the podcast with colleagues who may find the content interesting as they look to drive their business.

On today’s episode we discuss the important actions small, emerging and challenger brands need to make when preparing to raise money with Genevieve Gilbreath - Co-Founder of Springdale Ventures. Given her experience, Genevieve discusses the keys to successfully raising money and the importance of having a good "match" with an investor.

Road2Retail: Episode 47. Today we speak with the Founder & CEO of Backstroke - RJ Talyor. RJ is a multi exit entrepreneur in the technology space. His latest venture is helping brands and companies utilize email marketing and AI to grow their businesses. RJ discusses how their service works, how to manage budgets and discusses their methodology to ensure nothing offensive gets generated and distributed by their service. Email marketing can deliver a high ROI and budgets of all sizes can be deployed effectively. Finally, RJ shares his thoughts on raising money, what he looks for in his investors and, interestingly, what he wants investors to know about him.

We hope you enjoy today's show and will follow us at The Road2Retail podcast on iTunes, Spotify or follow us on LinkedIn or YouTube. The link to follow the show on Spotify is right here:

On today’s episode, we speak with Andrew Weiss- the founder and CEO of the Partnered CEO. Andrew has been a part of the teams driving sales of several CPG brands. His biggest achievement is building the largest plant-based protein brand: Vega. Andrew shares his experiences building brands both his successes and the things he'd like to do over. We also discuss the importance of generating consumer demand and building a winning sales team. Hint: don't cut corners with your sales organization!

We hope you enjoy today's show and will follow the Road2Retail podcast on iTunes, or Spotify. You can also find Road2Retail on LinkedIn and YouTube. Please leave us a review and consider sharing the podcast with colleagues who may find the content interesting as they look to drive their business. The link to follow the show on Spotify is right here:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5MmvhUk...

Show Links

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