Does your startup the right match for your interests, passions and talents? Only you can answer that question, but here's a list of books I have read over the years that will help. Book Yourself Solid: mostly about creating a successful consulting business, but does a good job at helping you understand how to grow a [...]
Take a look at the following back-of-the napkin P&L. This is from an actual early-stage business. The product retails for $40 and wholesale cost is $20, which is the gross revenue to the business. COGS is fairly hefty because the business is small and does not yet have the volume to bring down its [...]
If you are a startup or small company, it's common wisdom to not compete on price. If price is all that differentiates products in the same category, then customers will buy from the lowest-priced competitor. This means that competitors will constantly be pricing their products lower and lower to win business to where eventually, no [...]
This is a Quora question I was asked to answer. The full question is as follows: What do distributor contracts look like, and do they ever allow companies to sell products themselves? If so, how is the margin controlled so that the company doesn't undercut the distributor? We are looking to begin selling a consumer [...]
A few weeks ago, I talked to two different companies. Both were lamenting at how difficult it was in growing their company. I delved a bit into each one's respective operations. I could not find anything major that they were doing wrong. In fact, both businesses were growing. One had just landed a major customer, although only [...]
I read an article recently about instead of selling just try to make it easier to buy. It got me thinking of a few ways this plays out in my work: Messaging vs. product: do I focus on more messaging/advertising or do I focus on improving and making a better product that drives word-of-mouth marketing and [...]
I like Seth Godin's blog. He put up a recent post about how he broke his nose walking into a glass door. While I have yet to do that (break my nose, that is), I can certainly sympathize because I seem to always find many ways to hurt myself. My problem is that I tend to rush [...]
The available methods that I know of for in-store advertising methods and strategies for a CPG company, which vary by retailer, are as follows: Packaging (see here for all about packaging); Point-of-purchase: shelf tags, posters, flyers; Shippers, displays, stand-alone end-caps, and shelf displays; In-store looping videos; Price promotions: coupons displayed at shelf, in a retailer’s [...]
The importance of packaging for a CPG product is significant. Here's why: A study done by Proctor and Gamble 25 years ago indicated that consumers pushing a shopping cart down the aisle of a supermarket look at packaging for 1/6th of a second before they decide to stop and look. According to the Food Marketing [...]
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 [...]
