I recently worked on a direct marketing campaign with mediocre results. I saw a 7.5% response, which in direct marketing would be considered very successful, but I was hoping for something north of 20%, considering the free offer provided. I don't have any historical data indicating that I should have gotten 20%; it's just the number I [...]
This post provides guidance for qualifying an idea for a CPG or consumer product business (B2C or a B2B2C). In my opinion, the process for qualifying idea for a CPG or consumer product business is really hard because your first iteration is NEVER the final and best idea. Your business idea should naturally evolve as you [...]
A question that I was recently asked is what are deduct from invoice fees with retailers? For dietary supplement products, what are deduct from invoice fees associated with doing business with Walmart, Target and club stores like Sam's, Coscto and Bjs; how about for grocery chains like Safeway or drug stores like Walgreens? To clarify [...]
A Quora question in retail distribution category that I was asked and my answer. Question: What do suppliers look for in their distribution partners? My answer: Here's how I evaluate distribution partners: 1. Reputation/history. Do they have a good reputation? Ask for referrals to other suppliers in your size range that you can contact for references. [...]
I was talking to a company recently about their product, a really nifty little item that I like and am actually using myself. As usual, when I first talk to companies about their products, I immediately begin to think over how to best market and sell their products. I am somewhat obsessed with figuring that [...]
There is an active military presence in the metro-Denver area of Colorado, which includes relatively frequent fly-overs by F15's and F16's. Most of the time, they are not moving that fast and you hear the sound before they pass overhead. Sometimes, they are moving really fast, and once-in-a-while, they are flying very low and moving awfully fast. When [...]
A small Canadian-based CPG company I know has built a nice brand with their products, but have limited U.S. distribution. They have a number of key things going on that has them at a proverbial cross-roads, making it difficult for them to determine how to grow and which road to take. Sales from their main [...]
This is a question posted to Quora. My answer is as follows. The best metric I use to measure the effectiveness of a sampling initiative by a CPG brand is to look at sales over the following weeks of the sampling event to determine if the baseline for sales has increased and is sustained. For example, [...]
Sue is out of town visiting family in Minnesota, so its been Romeo and I for the long weekend. We did a short and easy hike on Sunday. The GPX file is here. I also posted this hike on Everytrail and Wikiloc. Following the hike, we putzed around the South Platte River area in the [...]
Sue and I did a 7-mile hike with Romeo recently along a section of the Colorado Trail. I mapped out our hike in this KMZ file (image below). We were walking in and out of the Buffalo Fire burn area, whose boundaries I also drew on the map. Here's a few images from [...]
