Whether you're taking your brand from clicks to bricks or just starting to consider launching a consumer packaged goods (CPG) product, it's essential to have a clear understanding of what you need to have in place. Let's call it a launch checklist. We call it our Brand Review. As you look to expand into brick and mortar or take your product to market, even online. One, make sure you're messaging and marketing is well done. We suggest you use a story-based framework because this will ensure that your brand is the guide and the customer is the hero of the story. Your brand will play a strong role in the story. But if you make it the hero, you'll end up confusing the customer and losing out. You want to know that your certifications are in place. Does your product say it's non-GMO? But you have non-GMO Project verification. It's made with organic ingredients, but does it have USDA Organic certification? You might make it without any gluten-containing ingredients, but is it gluten-free certified? Have you reviewed your pricing and product specifications to ensure they're a good fit for the brick-and-mortar space, which is distinctly different from the online space? We'd like to review your profit margins. Do you have the margins built in for the retailer, the distributor, trades spend, brokers, etc.? Are sell sheets, one-pagers, and other marketing materials ready to go? Have you done a recent competitor analysis? Have you done a true SWOT, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats evaluation?
Your distributor partners, your retail partners, and your broker partners will expect this to be ready for them. Do you have policies in place like a MAP policy? What is a MAP policy? Do you have a Minimum Advertised Price policy to ensure that retail partners recognize you as a partner, not a competitor, in your online sales? Do you have a new placement policy? Have you evaluated trade spend? What is trade spend?
Your promotions, your slotting allowances or free fills. Your trade spend is not promotions that you're doing outside of retail. These are the promotions you're doing in retail. The money you spend to drive consumer awareness about your brand is a different bucket of money. Do you have product images and appropriate renderings? Renderings, meaning it looks like a real-life image if you don't yet have a finished product. Do you have renderings for shippers or floor displays?
Do you have renderings for palettes, shoppable palettes for club stores. Do you have an activation plan in place? What is activation? That's your new product launch. You have a new item kit. You have demos planned. What is a new item kit? Do you have just a cardboard box you're to ship things in? Or do have something well done, like Madeof here did, that has lots of information on it. It's exciting to receive in the mail. When that sits on a buyer's desk, they're going to recognize it. It's going to stand out.
It's got information inside. They're not wasting any space. Or are you just going to use a plain cardboard box that's going to get lost among the other boxes? How valuable is that product launch to you? If you were in your favorite retailer, the one that is a perfect fit for your brand, is that worth $10? Probably not. It's probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year potentially. And for some retailers,
In some products, if it's a couple SKUs could literally be worth millions of dollars. Are you skimping on that? Do you have a demo plan in place? How are you going to introduce that product to consumers? That's part of that activation plan. Are you going to use coupons or now more commonly digital rebates? What comes first, the distributor or the retailer? We understand the difference. It's not difficult, but sometimes people get these things confused. We'll let you in on, well, it's not a secret but the best salespeople and brokers will let you know that your retailer drives your distributor model. Because if that retailer prefers a particular distributor, more often than not, they will be the one setting the direction.
You need to know the difference between distributors such as KeHE or UNFI. There are specialty distributors that focus on a category, such as a kosher distributor. Maybe you have retailer-specific distributors like Lomar, who services Hy-Vee. Are you prepared for deduction management? Do you have access to data that could be IRI, Nielsen, SPINS or at least things that are tied to your brand online? And there are a variety of ways to collect data, but do you have it? Brokers. What is a broker?
Is that who helps you buy a house or helps you invest for your retirement? No, brokers. They're integral to this process. They're an extension of your sales force. They're not a necessary evil. They're a key partner. But what are they? What do they do? Are they help or a hindrance? Trade shows? Should you do them or not? It depends. Like most answers in business, it depends. But they're varied. Fancy Food, Expo West, Newtopia Now, just to name a few. This is just a brief example of a good checklist, a retail launch preparation list to help you move either from clicks to bricks or you're in the idea stage. Your widget tastes great. It does what it's supposed to do. It helps make you stronger. It's a better tasting protein powder, whatever the case may be. But as you head into retail and this applies even if you're going online because eventually most brands do work their way into retail. Have a solid plan in place. If you understand what these things are and you would like help navigating the realm of retail, we would love to help you. You can click below on our link to schedule a no-obligation call. If you're unsure what these things are, click this link.
Schedule a no obligation call. We'll be happy to help you navigate this list. Even if you don't end up doing business with us, we want to help you have the best chances of success. This is Bryan Bootka with VP Solution. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Make sure you like this and follow us here on LinkedIn or YouTube wherever you're seeing this.
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