Basic needs for a New Consumer Goods Brand

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Basic needs for a New Consumer Goods Brand: 

David Biernbaum 

Funding in place including for:

  1. Retail fees and cost to do business with retailers.
  2. Basic Marketing, Promotion, and Advertising.
  3. Manufacturing, Inventory, Warehousing, Distribution
  4. Cash flow 

Most Common Reasons for Disaster in the first Year:

  • Lack of adequate and proper funding
  • Presenting the retail market pre-maturely
  • Lack of business/marketing plan
  • Lack of marketing energy (funding/plans/execution) after product makes it to the shelves.
  • Inability to ship on time /out of stocks
  • Entering into unfavorable deals and terms with retailers.
  • Pre-mature hiring of reps and brokers
  • Not having finished goods, live samples, lack of complete sales presentations, lack of proper materials and incomplete information to do business.
  • Inexperience working with chain drug, mass, and supermarkets retailers
  • Improperly managing reps and brokers and their activities.

Most basic needs before hiring and deploying reps and brokers and going to market at retail: 

  • Finalized package design with exactly the right information and graphics.
  • All display vehicles in place with live samples of open stock and individual samples and ready to ship.
  • High and low resolution images in place for all products, all sizes, and all displays.
  • Complete PowerPoint Presentation that includes every retailer interest and discussion point.
  • Completely finished goods ready to ship “now.”
  • Plan of action (on paper and ready to explain) for ramping up demand for retail customers
  • All sales materials ready for use: (Sell sheets, pricing, complete specifications, images, etc.)
  • Web site in place and up and running – fully functional for consumers, retailers, and reps.
  • Complete “office” staffing (or systems) in place ready to do business 24/7.
    • Ready to work with brokers
    • Customer Service for retailers
    • Customer Service for consumers
    • Warehouse, shipping, transportation, information systems, etc.
  • Broker Territories completely planned and laid out. (Do NOT let it simply evolve broker by broker!)
  • Broker contacts ready to use.
  • POG/placement suggestions/deletions/POA with information and illustrations or photos.
  • Complete broker selling kits ready to dispense for use! (Including all sales materials, samples, sell sheets, fact sheets, company data and instructions to do business, etc.)
  • Any commercial, ad, or brand promotion needs to be ready to “show and tell.” Any links, print advertising, viral, video, etc.  (You might get only one chance to show your “energy” and this is of paramount interest to buyers.
  • Marketing Research Data / Visual – Metrics and stats information to build our case!
  • Consumer Research and testimony (visual and ready to explain.)
  • Category information Data / Visual – Building our case for category expansion.
  • All “how to do business” written and printed details need to be clearly outlined for reps. (Terms, shipping points, shipping information, returns, retail ad budget parameters, and company contact information, commission’s administration, etc. etc. etc.)

Trade Shows planning:  Sign up and be completely prepared and ready!

  • ECRM
  • GMDC
  • NACDS Marketplace
  • Other

Trade Advertising planning:

  • Chain Drug review
  • MMR
  • Drug Store News
  • Other
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