Weekly Updates 07/31/23

The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

Good morning !,There are lots of ways to build a high-growth product. Here’s two of the 🔑s I’ve found to make the journey easier….When I started TeaSquares, the idea was to make the product an edible coffee replacement, something to help with hunger, energy, and focus.We called it a Tea Infused Energy Snack.Problem was, no one had any idea what the f*%k that was.Honestly, I’ve never gone looking for a “tea infused energy snack” in my life, and no one else did either.That’s when I learned lesson 1️⃣. Create a product with a large enough number of customers currently searching for the solution.The more you have to educate a consumer, the more 💰expensive it’ll be to grow your business. Consumers should instantly “get” what your product is and how it fits into their life.This leads to lesson 2️⃣. Chose a category with high usage and repeat rates. Someone who is buying your product weekly vs twice a year is way more valuable.I had a friend selling tea, that contained 40 servings. At a maximum, that customer was only buying once a month, and in reality, it was more like 4 times a year. Velocities were INCREDIBLY slow which meant the business was inherently unsustainable.Of course, there are other factors, but I’ve found these 2 to be incredibly powerful.

 😋 This Week in #CPG

A roundup of CPG news that happened last week brought to you by Amber Caro

🛒 👏 Whole Foods Market ➡ Actual Veggies expands to WFM with refreshed packaging (Hailey Swartz) 🥕 ➡ Steve's Family Foods is now available at WFM (Victoria Hoke)➡ Mezcla is now available at WFM nationwide! (Griffin Spolansky)🛒👏 Sprouts Farmers Market➡ GrownAs* Foods Classic and Truffle Mac & Cheese skus performed well in the innovation set and are now available in Sprouts nation-wide! ➡ Kokomio guava and original flavors are now stoked nationwide at Sprouts! (Nadia Gara)🛒 Other retail wins: ➡ Whoa Dough Cookie Dough Snack Bars are now available at a Schnuck Markets, Inc. and Dierbergs Markets near you. (Todd Goldstein)➡ ELEAT's chocolate and cinnamon 50g pots are now available on Foodbuy via Delicious Ideas Food Group. (Hugh Hamilton-Green)➡ Four flavors of Hummus Goodness are now available at Heinen's Grocery Store in Ohio! (Hannah (Hanady) Awada)➡ De La Calle Tepache is now available at Natural Grocers! 🛒 (Megan Abbott)➡ MsPsGFree launched into all 44 Mariano's Locations and won a Bey Good Foundation Grant from Beyonce Knowles-Carter. (Lisa Marsh)🔥 Product #launches: ➡ Mezcla launches 2 new flavors exclusively with Whole Foods for the next 60 days - Italian Pistachio Chocolate and Spanish Almond Butter Chocolate! (Griffin Spolansky) 🍫 ➡ Seal the Seasons has expanded their partnership with Nugget Market, Inc. to include organic blueberries and berry blend as well! (Patrick Mateer)

JOYFUL CO. REDESIGN

    CAPTURING     THE VIBE   

At the beginning of this journey, I shared how I was really unsure how to find the best photography for Joyful Co. I realized that getting great website content that customers would LOVE would be crucial to selling the whole vibe of our gifting business. So I started looking for people I admired and decided to do some work with Emily at Set Creative Studios.Emily and her team create vibrant, mouthwatering photos for CPG products and have an AMAZING recipe and food team. Now, our photos wouldn't need to show recipes (as the focus is on the box+products), but I knew they would do a great job capturing the vibrancy of the brand. So we just completed our first photoshoot last week (preview pic above) and I can't wait to get the rest of the shots! One step closer to our website launch...

WEEKLY UPDATES

  DON'T CUT    PROMOTIONS  

Are you feeling the pressure of these challenging economic times? Struggling to keep your business afloat and questioning the effectiveness of your marketing efforts? If you've ever wondered whether cutting promotions during tough periods is the right move, then this is a story you don't want to miss.

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  SECRETS TO    SELLING    ON AMAZON.COM  

Amazon.com is still one of the best e-commerce channels for food brands, but are you fully utilizing the platform? Three years into the TeaSquares journey I finally launched on Amazon and sold $120,000 worth of product on the platform during my first year. I did this by doing a deep dive and focused on learning and optimizing the platform.

Once you get past the basics, Amazon offers a TON of additional features that provide insights and new selling opportunities. I guarantee you’ll learn a secret or two you can apply

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Interested to learn more about Eco D2C?

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  THREADS 101  

If you work in marketing, you have been anticipating the launch of Threads - the newest app by the Instagram team that is essentially, Twitter.

Twitter has been a seemingly mess for a while and marketers have been somewhat excited about Threads launching (although it just brings more work to our plate). So, let’s dive in to everything you need to know about Threads:

Read more on the full blog

STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

127. Getting To Profitability

Building a profitable business is possible for CPG brands, but it takes focus to get there. Join me and Keith Kohler for a conversation on how to achieve profitability and build a sustainable business in the process.

We’ll be breaking down:

• Why profitability needs to be a clear go to reach it.

• How to analyze your P&L statement.

• Cash requirements and debt options for profitable brands.

• and more.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

DISCOUNTS

No Revisions offers marketing services for startups at prices anyone can afford. Save 20% off with code FOODBEVY.

Stripe is now providing $70,000 in fee-free processing for new and EXISTING customers. Save over $2000

NielsenIQ Byzzer platform provides data for emerging CPG brands. You can access 3 free reports using this link.

Mindful Goods is an awesome Amazon expert that can quickly get you started or optimize your pages for strong ROI. Get 10% of their services  use code FOODBEVY.

Maverick allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community.