This is a Quora question and here is my answer. Buyers are very busy and have tough jobs. Obvious ways in which suppliers can be helpful are strong product sales, marketing and tradespend support, and limiting out-of-stocks. Category management by the supplier also helps the buyer and can position the supplier as a strong category [...]
The KPIs for CPG depend on the channels sold. If sold direct-to-consumer, the top metrics I track include: Marketing spend; Message engagement rates (email, social views, social shares, hashtags, etc); Click throughs; Conversions; Average Order Value; Cost per click; Cost per visitor; Cost per order; Cart abandon rate; Cancels/Declines/Returns rates; Return on advertising spend (ROAS) [...]
This is a Quora question and here is my answer. Here is a general list of requirements before approaching retail: Have a unique and differentiated product, enough to capture consumer attention. Have prior sales history, either online or in smaller retailers to prove your product(s) and brand will sell. Have marketing support to help build [...]
I am not a big fan of surveys, for the following reasons: Customers don't want to say what they really feel because it may reveal their deep biases that they are reluctant to share with anyone; They don't want to be seen as wrong; They don't want to be seen as ill-informed; Customers don't want to hurt [...]
Here's why I think Facebook's Reactions is so impactful. Marketing is ultimately about the marketer having an emotional impact on the customer, or buyer. We humans purchase and make decisions based on emotions much more than on logic. The ability for subscribers to now categorize a Facebook post by emotion let's Facebook know more about [...]
This is a Quora question: Brands and Branding: What are the barriers to entry for CPG companies (Food, HPC)? What prevents new on-trend brands ("better for you") from displacing established brands? My answer is as follows. There are two key reasons, from my perspective. Brands that come up with new products with small improvements over [...]
Markup depends on the retail channel in which you sell. Specialty/natural channels run 50-65%, drug is 45%, grocery is 35%, mass is 30%, and club is 14%. If you sell direct to consumers, then the anchor price on a single unit of your product would equal that specialty/natural channel price. In my experience and opinion, [...]
This is a Quora question. This is my answer. The general goal in consumer products is 20% EBITDA (earnings before interest and taxes) profit margins. But these are commodity products and the category is probably competitive, so it's possible EBITDA is less, may 10%-15%. Cost of Good Sold (COGS) on a product like this is [...]
This is a Quora question. My answer is as follows. AngelList and http://F6s.com have fairly comprehensive lists of startups. Although more heavily weighted towards tech, you will still find CPG's. https://www.f6s.com/programs looks like it has a comprehensive list of accelerator programs that startups can apply to. Some funds are CPG focused and you can go [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked and here is my answer. I've never sold lighting products, so can't tell you for sure. But I have sold home improvement and margin in that channel to the mainline (Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, Menards, etc) averages 30-35%. If you are talking a lighting retailer, which I [...]
