Welcome to Day 18: Episode 290 — How To Make And Sell Products Your Customers Want
Day 18 of 30 Days to Prosperity

If you want to dramatically improve your innovation, reduce the cost of new item failures, and create products shoppers are eager to buy before they ever hit the shelf, then today’s episode is for you.
Because the truth is this:
Natural is the R&D engine for the entire CPG industry.
Innovative ideas start here.
Trends start here.
New product categories start here.
And the brands that win are the ones that co-create with their consumer long before they show up in a category review.
Let’s dig in.

How Big Brands Actually Innovate (And Why It Hurts Them)
You’ve heard me tease this before, but let’s go deeper.
Most big brands design innovation around one objective:
Keep the manufacturing line running efficiently.
Why?
Because efficiency → lower cost → deeper discounts → higher volume → better margins.
Their innovation process often looks like this:
Take an existing product
Change a flavor or a label
Shift the positioning
Call it a “new item”
Validate it with a generic focus group
Push it onto shelves with heavy promotional spend
That’s not innovation.
That’s iteration.
And it’s why big brands frequently miss emerging trends until it’s too late.
Even worse, focus groups often mislead them. Why?
Participants usually aren’t actual buyers of the category
They don’t understand the problems natural brands solve
They can’t articulate the emotional and functional value the core consumer cares about
Their buying behavior doesn’t match what happens on-shelf
As a result, many products that test well in focus groups flop at retail.
Meanwhile, natural brands—brands like yours—are solving real problems for real people.
This is the opportunity.

The Traditional Innovation Playbook Is Broken
Let’s walk through the standard process you’ve been taught:
Create a product
Pre-print packaging
Manufacture a large run
Pay slotting
Ship to dozens of stores
Hope for perfect retail execution
Promote heavily
Cross fingers
You get about six months to prove the item before buyers reset the shelf.

This approach is:
Expensive
Slow
Risky
Inefficient
Wasteful
And most small brands simply can’t absorb the cost of failed innovation.
So let’s talk about the better, smarter, more profitable way forward.

Your Loyal Community Is Your R&D Department
Earlier in this series, we spent time on how to build a thriving community outside of traditional retail —people who know, like, and trust your brand.
Here’s why that matters:
Your ideal customer already knows what they want you to make next.
You just haven’t asked them yet.
Instead of:
Guessing
Hoping
Spending money on focus groups
Launching products blindly
You can co-create with your most loyal fans.

Imagine this:
You ask your community a simple question:
“What flavor should we launch next—chocolate or banana?”
You instantly get:
Real buyer feedback
Passionate responses
Clarity on demand
Direction for your R&D team
Then, when you launch the winning flavor, you already have customers waiting for it.
This is how you create:
Faster launches
Higher success rates
Lower costs
Pre-sold innovation
Clarity on your branding and marketing
A connected community that feels invested in your growth
Innovation stops being a gamble.
It becomes a shared journey.

Your Email List Is Your Most Profitable Asset
Let me take you behind the curtain.
When you sell through a retailer—brick-and-mortar or online—you are renting space.
You don’t own the relationship.
You don’t know:
Who bought your product
How often they buy
How they use it
What they want next

Your email list fixes that.
You own it.
You control it.
You can nurture it.
And you can grow revenue anytime you want.

This is why I recommend every brand:
Sells on their website
Builds a robust email program
Uses segmentation tools
Personalizes communication
Uses QR codes on packaging
Adds value with recipes, tips, exclusive deals
Invites customers into a connected community

Your list becomes your:
Innovation lab
Launchpad
Feedback loop
Profit engine
Insulation against retail risk
Remember:
Your best customers don’t shop in only one place.
You need to serve them everywhere they shop.

Let Your Community Guide Your Innovation
Here are a few simple ways to tap into your community:
1. Ask Them What They Want
Send an email or social poll:
“Which flavor next?”
“What problem should we solve next?”
“What’s the biggest frustration you face today?”
These questions deliver gold.
2. Send Samples Before Launch
This is where segmentation matters.
Send:
Version A to Segment 1
Version B to Segment 2
Then ask:
What did you love?
What would you change?
Would you buy this regularly?
Would you recommend it?
You’ll know whether a product is a winner before you spend money on packaging or slotting.
3. Bake Their Feedback Into Your Retail Story
Imagine telling a buyer:
“We surveyed 6,000 of our core shoppers.”
“82% said they would buy this flavor monthly.”
“27% asked for larger sizes.”
“Here are 30 customer testimonials.”
That’s not just a new item presentation.
That’s a pre-validated success story.
Retailers love that because it reduces their risk.

Real-World Example: How Co-Creation Drives Breakout Growth
You’ve heard me share earlier how I helped brands run informal Facebook surveys.
Let me connect the dots.
One client:
Had inconsistent placement
Poor merchandising
Limited distribution
No clear shopper insights
We surveyed their fans:
“Where do you look for us in the store?”
“Which products do you buy with ours?”
“What’s the problem we solve for you?”
The insight was clear as day:
Their fans expected the product to be in produce.
Not snacks.
Not dairy.
Not beverages.
Produce.
We then paired that with:
A small, targeted data purchase
A clean fact-based story
A simple merchandising recommendation
Result?
They went from under $200k in annual sales to over $3 million in less than a year, with placement in 1,600 stores—all in produce.
The magic wasn’t in guessing.
It was in asking.

Co-Creation = Lower Risk, Higher Profit, Faster Wins
Let’s recap the advantages of co-creating innovation with your community:
Reduces guessing and risk
Eliminates wasted packaging runs
Gives you real-time feedback
Pre-sells the product before launch
Provides testimonials for retailer presentations
Strengthens your relationship with your customer
Increases your retail influence
Extends your runway by avoiding expensive failures
This is how you win.
This is how you future-proof your brand.
This is how you create products your customers can’t wait to buy.

Day 18 Action Item: Ask Your Community One Simple Question
Today, post one question to your community (or email list):
“What should we make next?”
Or
“Which flavor would you choose: A or B?”
You will learn more from that one question than from a dozen expensive focus groups.

In Closing: Build With Your Customers, Not For Them
Innovation becomes easier and far more profitable when you stop trying to guess what customers want…
…and start asking the people who already love you.
This is how natural brands lead.
This is why natural is the R&D of total CPG.
And this is how you make innovation a competitive advantage instead of a financial risk.
Tomorrow, in Episode 291, we’ll talk about How to Launch New Items With Precision — the exact steps to ensure your next innovation succeeds on-shelf and online.
If you’ve been enjoying this challenge, please subscribe, share the series with another founder, and Downloads the free series guide to go deeper into these strategies
Your brand deserves this level of clarity.
You have everything you need to build products your customers are eager to buy.
Let’s keep climbing.

For additional inspiration listen to the following podcast episodes:
Episode 51 An Unsung Hero Changed The Way We Celebrate Food, Ahmed Rahim with Numi Organic Tea and OSC2
How An Unsung Hero Changed The Way We Celebrate Food. In this episode Ahmed shares how he launched and grew his brand by giving his community a touch of home while introducing I new community two new flavors and experiences. His story it's truly inspiring.

Episode 94 Reinventing Favorite Foods with a Artisan Vegan Cheese, Miyoko Schinner with Miyoko’s Kitchen
This is a great episode about how Miyoko built a company from scratch. And highlights over successes and failures as well as all the struggles she faced in creating a disruptive brand that is now a fan favorite. Miyoko is a Champion and leader in the plant-based community. We talk about the importance of this growing segment and how you can leverage the strategies we talk about throughout this entire series to confidently grow and scale your brand.

Episode 97 Disrupting the Category with a Creative Packaging Strategy, Greg Steltenpohl with Califia Farms and Odwalla
Greg launched his brand as a mission and a commitment to cleaning up a category. From his iconic packaging who is innovative flavors, Greg shares how he makes Products his customers are eager to buy. You can learn a lot from Greg on this episode.

Episode 185 Tofurky The Hottest Food Trend in Plant Based Products, Seth Tibbott with Tofurky
Seth’s story is the iconic founder story. His story is a lot of fun to listen to as he talks about the different challenges he had and how he build a cult like following for his brand. What makes seth’s story so impactful is his perseverance and commitment the solving a fundamental need for growing community. Learn how a hippy created and grew vegan meat company and how he leads the hottest growing trend in the category - plant-based foods.

Tip of the day: Natural is the R&D for total CPG. Natural products are driving the profitable trends. Co-creating with your loyal tribe can dramatically improve new item launches while streamlining innovation giving shoppers products they are eager to buy.

Thank you for listening. This episode has an accompanying video with illustrations and additional information I can’t share on an audio podcast. You can watch it at retailsolved.com/30daychallenge.

You can get the show notes for this episode by going to RetailSolved.com/Session290. Tomorrows episode is How To Become An Expert In Your Retail Partner.

This episode will build on today’s conversation. Thank you for listening. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.