Win at Retail Using Category Management Strategies with Dan Lohman

06/12/19 • 41 min

Food Business Marketing | Brand Strategy Tips to Build Real Food Brands

Building a relationship with grocery retailers is about more than just making a great product they can put on their shelf. You need to have a real understanding of who your consumer is, what else they put in their shopping carts, and why your food or beverage brand provides value to a store beyond the profit margin on an individual sale.

Today on the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva talks with Dan Lohman, a CPG and Natural and Organic Industries Strategic Adviser. His company, Brand Secrets and Strategies, helps provide brands with actionable insights and strategic solutions to get on more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers. He’s also the host of the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast.

In This Episode:

Why category management is so important for developing deeper relationships with retailers.
What most people get wrong about category management.
How to focus on market basket to help grow your retailer partners’ total sales.
The questions you need to ask to develop your brand story.
What retailers want to see to justify stocking your product.
Why you don’t want to have to keep reacquiring the same customer.
Why issues at the store ultimately reflect on your brand, not the retailer.
How to get data and what to do with it.
What Dan did when a competitor showed up with a big check to get his product off the shelves.

Resources:

In This Episode:

Why category management is so important for developing deeper relationships with retailers.
What most people get wrong about category management.
How to focus on market basket to help grow your retailer partners’ total sales.
The questions you need to ask to develop your brand story.
What retailers want to see to justify stocking your product.
Why you don’t want to have to keep reacquiring the same customer.
Why issues at the store ultimately reflect on your brand, not the retailer.
How to get data and what to do with it.
What Dan did when a competitor showed up with a big check to get his product off the shelves.

Resources:

Previous Episode

Developing New Food & Beverage Products, with Lindsay Wisener

Research and Development (R&D) is one area many brands need help with in order to bring an idea to life with new product samples or to scale your recipe to production level. In this episode of the Real Food Brands Podcast, host Katie Mleziva sits down with Lindsay Wisener, an independent beverage development consultant working on everything from baby formula to plant-based protein drinks. She’s the Owner/Principal Consultant at WiseBev, and shares with us the ins and outs of product development.

In This Episode:

Hear Lindsay’s path to owning her own beverage development lab.
How small businesses can get what they need from R&D experts.
Why flexibility is key to a successful development process.
What you need to know when you work with R&D.
The role packaging plays in which shelf your product winds up on.
How to effectively develop new product lines and extensions.
The key to great product testing.

Resources:

Next Episode

3 Tips for Speed to Market with Emma Nelson

Sometimes you get a brilliant, game-changing idea and the best thing is to get it to market as quickly as possible. The problem is that it’s not as easy as coming up with a great recipe in your kitchen and then immediately scaling it. You need to source commercial ingredients, work around suppliers’ and co-packers’ limitations, and make sure you have the certifications your brand needs to reflect your values.

Today on the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva talks with Emma Nelson, Principal at G’Day Foods. She uses her expertise in commercial development to help brands make their products work at scale.

In This Episode:

How Emma got into the food industry.
Her three biggest tips for getting a product to market more quickly.
What makes for commercially available ingredients.
Why you need a “gold standard” formula.
The importance of understanding your co-manufacturer’s and suppliers’ timelines.
Why working with suppliers is a give-and-take relationship.
Why it’s so important to know where you can make concessions with your formula.
The factors you might not consider when you make a go-to-market timeline.

Resources: