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- Weekly Update February 28th
Weekly Update February 28th
Does Your CPG Brand Have a Cause?
First off, I want to acknowledge the horrible war happening in Ukraine right now. I'm disgusted that innocent people are being killed and families are being separated for no reason except the desire for power by one person. My heart goes out to all the people suffering directly and indirectly.
In light of these events, this week I want to talk about the good your brand can do in the world.
PS. If you were forwarded this newsletter, please
.
Doing Good in the Neighborhood
What I love about the current generation of founders is that almost all want to leave the world better than they found it. Brands are supporting causes including social justice, environmental sustainability, animal rights, and more. One question I see brands struggle with is how to incorporate these values into their everyday business practices so they can scale?Consumers are looking for brands that reflect their personal values, and are making an impact in the world. According to recent research, 62% of those surveyed believe that brands have a responsibility to have a positive impact on the environment and 54% agree brands have a responsibility to make people's lives better. (report)That said, "Sustainability" is a low priority in actually purchase decisions by consumers. The top 3 purchase criteria are still Price/Value, Taste, and ingredients. Only 12% of consumers rank "sustainability" as a "top three" purchase priority for packaged food. (report)
I experienced this personally with my brand, TeaSquares. We produced energy bites to help you stay focused and alert, while also having a social mission to employ young adults from disadvantaged communities. Our product was creating a new sub-category within energy bars and required a lot of education. I discovered that while customers loved the mission, the majority would only buy if they tasted the product and liked it first. It was a great reason for people to feel good about continuing to buy from us, but it wasn't a primary decision factor in purchasing from us the 1st time.
If your product requires a lot of education already, having a social mission can sometimes make the story even more complicated.
If we had a simpler product, say a low carb high protein bar, a category with strong existing demand, then our social mission could've helped us differentiate from the competition.
Some products are built because of a social mission. Take Kate Flynn's
as an example. They make organic health foods in zero-waste packaging. Creating a more sustainable supply chain is their reason for being, and they offer simple pantry stables including almonds and brown rice, products that require no education and have strong demand. This way, Kate can focus only on educating about their zero-waste packaging, and not about the product inside.
Does your social commitment need to be scalable?
One pushback I received from investors was "great, TeaSquares employs young adults from disadvantaged communities to work in the manufacturing facility, but how does your social mission scale if you move to a co-packer?" My response was that we would hire and train individuals to work in our sales/ management operation. It was tough for them to imagine hiring people into these "white-collar jobs", but we had great success as part of our internship program.
Investors (and many consumers) are looking for a simple buy-one, give-one program, popularized by Tom's Shoes. As a positive, it makes it easy to track your impact. Other times, it can just come off as a marketing ploy and be the first thing to get cut when budgets get tight.
Supporting Major Events
If you choose to donate to causes like the war in Ukraine, be sure to do so in a transparent way that doesn't feel like marketing. Donating a percentage of sales or revenue can feel like marketing, without any goal of what that number is. How often do you see brands actually share the final donated number? Rarely.
Let's see how this plays out for a company that makes $1000 in additional sales with $200 in profit for that period.
Donating "10% of profits" will only be $20.
Donating "100% of profits" will be $200.
Donating "10% of sales" will be $100
Donating "100% of sales" will be $1000.
You can see these are big differences. Another way is to set out a monetary goal: "we will donate 100% of profits until we can reach $1,000"
What have been your experiences? Join the conversation in the Foodbevy Slack (e-mail me for an invite).
Jordan Buckner
Foodbevy
DRIVE TARGETED TRIAL AT WHOLE FOODS
Are you looking to increase targeted trial and retail sales at Whole Foods Market (WFM) stores in the USA or Canada? Or perhaps you’re going after a new WFM listing at Expo West?
If so, Social Nature can help!
Social Nature’s active community of 800,000 natural shoppers visit Whole Foods stores regularly to try new products through Social Nature's Digital Demos.
Map your exact retail store list to our community’s WFM shopping habits (this can be national or regional).
We help you move new products quickly off shelves with free product trial vouchers.
You get to decide on the number of in-store visits you’d like based on your growth goals, and we take care of the rest.
GET YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT R&D AND CO-PACKING TEST RUN CREDITS FROM THE IRS THIS TAX SEASON
Did you know that the IRS offers tax credits for your R&D work?You can get refunded for:
Product Development work (ingredients, labor time, facility rental)
Co-packer test runs
New flavor formulations
and more.
We've partnered with Leyton to offer this service to the Foodbevy community. They do all the paperwork and you get cash. If they can't help you claim any credits, you pay $0.One of our brands, Natural Stacks received has received $100,000+ in tax credits from the IRS, I personally talked with the founder about it. As long as you're doing $100,000+ in sales you likely qualify.Reply to this e-mail with questions or schedule a call with their team below.
STARTUP FRIENDLY DIGITAL MARKETING EXPERT
If you're looking for help with your e-commerce marketing, let me introduce you to Christina Rice and the team at
.
They believe the first (and arguably most important) best practice for advertising your E-Commerce brand online is “
make purchasing from you quick and easy”
. If you want your brand to be memorable and highly regarded, it is crucial that you do everything in your power to make the online shopping experience for your potential customers as effortless as possible. From how you execute your advertising to how you build your website, you should be making the user experience as
convenient
and
direct
as possible.
They have startup-friendly rates to help founders with:
Blog Writing and SEO
Performance Marketing
Paid Facebook and Google Ads
E-mail Marketing Campaigns
Social Media Management
and more
Christina is a hands-on owner, offering free consultations prior to agreeing to do business. She believes that not only does it take a strong digital strategy but there must be a comfort level with the agency you entrust your brand to. Spend 30 minutes learning how sO2digital can help you.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE: 31. Crowdfunded Debt and Equity
So this is a really cool one if you’re looking to raise money. I talk with Ben from SMBX about crowdsourced debt, a new way to raise money through microlending that doesn't require you to give up equity. We also talk about equity crowdfunding and when to utilize each for your business.
LOOKING FOR HELP WITH FUNDRAISING OR RECRUITING?
Dave Adams and Alex Gould of
have recently joined our platform. They bring their extensive experience in hospitality, brewing, and food production backgrounds. Dave spent the last 10 years building the Green Flash Brewing Co. brand and was instrumental in their recent acquisition. Alex has been an entrepreneur, held interim COO and DOO titles, and has led nationwide expansions with companies from startup to sale.
Together they now lead a division within
, a boutique professional and executive recruitment agency, in their efforts to aid startups find the right talent and funding partners. Their unique approach and methodology allows them to take their own experiences and network to partner and build the next generation of industry leaders.
DISCOUNTS
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- Maverick Lab
allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community. Foodbevy members save 40%. Reply to this e-mail for an introduction
- Chop
is a
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- Stripe
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The Accountrepreneur
is your go-to outsourced CPA and CFO firm for the food and beverage industry. Receive
- Airtable
can store information in a spreadsheet that's visually appealing and easy-to-use, but it's also powerful enough to act as a database that businesses can use for customer-relationship management (CRM), task management, project planning, and tracking inventory.
With your help we're building an amazing community of Food and Bev entrepreneurs helping each other!
Jordan
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