BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #1

Introduction

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #1

Welcome to the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.

I’m your host Dan Lohman. This weekly show is dedicated to getting your brand on the shelf and keeping it there.

Get ready to learn actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

LETS ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND GET STARTED!

Thank you for joining me for this first episode.

Let's begin by answering these important questions: Why am I launching the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast?

Who is this show for?

What can you expect to get out of it and why does it matter?

Who am I and why should you trust me?

Over the past several years, I have received multiple requests to do this show. Many of you have shared with me your pain points and frustrations in dealing with retailers, brokers, distributors, and so-called solution providers who over promise and under deliver. You have shared with me your frustration with the challenges of getting your products onto retailer shelves, expanding your distribution, and turning casual shoppers into loyal evangelists. You have also told me that you're tired of feeling like ATM machines, constantly writing checks and getting no value in return.

This show is for every brand and retailer who is not completely satisfied with their sales growth, merchandising, distribution, return on their trade spending investment, or their inability to compete against brands with seemingly endless resources and bottomless pockets.

This show is for any brand or retailer looking to grow sales, get their products in the hands of more consumers, compete more effectively in any economy and across every channel and it’s for every brand and retailer wanting to make a bigger impact in their community and avoid the common mistakes and pitfalls that derail most brands.

I use the term brand generically throughout my talks, articles, and this show. Retailers are also brands to their shoppers. More importantly, the strategies that will be covered work best when brands and retailers partner and collaboratively work toward a common goal. My focus is primarily on natural healthy better-for-you brands and retailers. My mission is to make our healthy way of life more accessible by leveling the playing field between you and the big brands.

Nothing happens until someone buys your product and shoppers can’t buy what they can’t find. The path to sustainable sales and getting your product in the hands of more shoppers is critical to increasing sustainable food production and sales. It is a key to more organic farming, healthy product innovation, reducing obesity and food allergies, and supporting a food ecosystem that is sustainable beyond tomorrow.

Nowhere is this more true than in natural. The competitive landscape is changing and the old strategies simply are not enough. Natural brands and retailers need to become more strategic. This does not mean compromising their principles. On the contrary, this is their strength and their principles should be at the heart of every strategy. This means focusing on the value they create and leveraging it at retail and with consumers. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for quality healthy products. Healthy products are responsible for most all of the growth across every category and across every channel.

There is a seismic shift coming to natural. Retailers like Whole Foods ®️ are beginning to adopt traditional category management practices. This will force other natural retailers and brands to rise to the challenge or be left behind. Their fate will be in the hands of big brands who rely heavily on these strategies to give them a significant competitive advantage. The result in this shift will be the adoption of these more advanced strategies by other natural retailers and brands.

You need to have a compelling selling story for retailers. They want to know who shops the category and how your product drives sales growth in other areas of their store. They want to sell more stuff. The harsh reality is that retailers already know how well your brand is performing on their shelves. They don't need or want some canned reports that every other brand in the category sends them. What they want is actionable insights that they don't have access to. I can help you with this.

The bottom line is that if you want to play at this level, you need to BE at this level. This show and my articles are dedicated to empowering you. I’ve built my entire career on outproducing every competitor by leveraging these strategies even well before the practice was formally named. I can help you do the same.

More importantly, traditional category management tends to overlook what makes natural, natural. This is the focus of all of the content I produce, the talks I give and this show. My area of expertise is on the consumer and the way they make decisions - well beyond traditional shopper marketing. The committed natural shopper is responsible for all the sustainable growth in every category. Similar to the initial ripple in a pond - these consumers, your consumers, are responsible for turning those tiny ripples into the huge tidal waves where natural products begin appearing on mainstream shelves. I’ll dig into this more in-depth in future episodes.

Remember the parable where you are taught to fish and feed yourself? That is the core focus of this show. Knowledge is power - especially when it comes to understanding the proven best practice strategies geared toward building your brand. Even if you don’t do the work yourself, I will teach you how to oversee projects to maximize their benefit - no matter who does the work.

Next, the way you can get the most out of this show is the most important question. This show is about you and for you! The quality of this show will improve with your input and feedback. I am continually striving to find new and better ways to help support you and your customers. I will cover the topics you are interested in including inviting guest experts to share their experiences. Share your thoughts, recommendations, and feedback with me. Together, we can raise the bar. My email address is dan@cms4cpg.com and my website is brandsecretsandstrategies.com.

So who am I, why am I doing this and why should you trust me?

For those of you who may be wondering what the CPSA means after my name, I am certified at the highest level of category management proficiency (Certified Professional Strategic Advisor).

I’ve been a merchandiser, grocery manager, store manager, DSD route salesman, a District Sales Manager, a national category manager, a consultant, trainer, mentor/advisor, etc. Some of the iconic brands I've worked with include Kleenex ®️, Huggies ®️, Dove ®️, Lever ®️ and several natural brands including Lundberg Farms ®️, MegaFood ®️, Pacific Food ®️ and many more.

I have had the privilege of training, mentoring, and working with literally hundreds of brands and retailers in every channel and at all levels. My business building articles have been published in every leading industry trade publication in the US and abroad - fast approaching 300 articles. I’ve been a keynote and featured speaker at industry events in the US and Mexico including ECRM ®️, BevNet Live ®️, Natural Products Expo ®️, Mexican Healthy Products Summit ®️, etc.

I am passionate about this industry and raising the bar. I love working with disruptive, innovative and entrepreneurial brands striving to make an impact in the world by solving some of the unique problems overlooked by big brands.

I’ve walked in your shoes. I understand your challenges and frustrations.

I’ve personally felt like an ATM machine with retailers, brokers, and distributors constantly demanding more money to merchandise and promote my products and then being frustrated when they sent me a deduction after skipping the promotion.

I’ve experienced first hand, consumer's frustration because they can’t find my product on their favorite store shelves due to out-of-stocks, poor merchandising, and inventory issues.

I know well the challenges of working with a disconnected buyer like when I begged the home office to send me ice melt during a blizzard only to be told that instead they were sending me a special purchase of outdoor patio furniture. It was November in Colorado.

I also know what it's like to spend months working to gain quality distribution only to have a competitive brand write a large check and get me kicked off the shelf.

Been there, done that! I could go on for hours.

More importantly, I also know what it's like to consistently outperform the biggest brands in the category and on the planet. Because of my creative out of the box thinking and my ability to apply the right strategies, I became the preferred trusted go-to vendor to validate my competitor's presentations for retailers.

I understand how to make sense out of the data maze. I have worked with all the syndicated data products and know how to get more from the data than others. I even worked for Spins ®️ and actually developed the distribution tracker and other key advanced reporting tools, and I convinced them hem to start selling retailer and store level data.

I developed advanced category management and trade marketing tools for Unilever ®️ and Kimberly-Clark ®️. I have mentored category managers and taught advanced category management theory and principles to buyers and retailers at the national level. I have become the expert and the go-to resource for many entrepreneurial, innovative and disruptive brands and retailers in the natural space.

Together we can help small brands get their products in the hands of more consumers making our healthy way of life more affordable.

I’m here to help you with a focus on empowering brands and raising the bar. My goal is to exceed your expectations.

Please subscribe to this show and share it with your friends and every brand looking for a sustainable competitive advantage. Please leave a review on iTunes ®️ and comment on my website.

Stay tuned and keep coming back for more great business building tips along with actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money. This podcast will continue to grow and evolve over time.

I have a free gift for you just for listening today. Retail math is critical to being able to do your job but have you ever struggled to remember key formulas? Text “retailmath” to 44222 for get my retail math cheat sheet. You can also download it along with today’s show notes at brandscretsandstrategies.com/session1.

This episode's FREE downloadable guide

Each of us needs to perform basic retail math calculations but it's not always possible to remember every formula, especially if you don't use them on a regular basis. Here's a quick cheat sheet with some of the most important formulas you need to know.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE STRATEGIC GUIDE: Retail Math Cheat Sheet

I look forward to seeing you on future shows!

Thanks again for joining us today. Make sure to stop over at brandsecretsandstrategies.com for the show notes along with more great brand building articles and resources. Please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and recommend it to your friends and colleagues.

Sign up today on my website so you don’t miss out on actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

I appreciate all the positive feedback. Keep your suggestions coming.

Until next time, this is Dan Lohman with Brand Secrets and Strategies where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.