How Daniel Scharff Built the World’s Largest CPG Brand Community (And Why It’s Just the Start)

Summary

Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman

Episode: How Daniel Scharff Built the World’s Largest CPG Brand Community (And Why It’s Just the Start)

Release Date: July 29, 2025

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Introduction to CPG

In the latest episode of Coffee N° 5, host Lara Schmoisman delves into the intricacies of the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry with expert guest Daniel Scharff. The conversation begins with Lara’s quest to understand the true meaning of CPG, setting the stage for an in-depth exploration of the industry’s landscape.

Lara Schmoizman [00:00]:

"I need to find out what CPG is. So today I brought you an expert and let's talk CPG. So welcome Daniel."

Daniel Scharff [01:03]:

"CPG for sure is consumer packaged goods. So it's the name of this industry that me and most of my friends work in."

CPG encompasses a wide range of products beyond just food and beverages, including beauty products, health supplements, pet products, and emerging categories like CBD. Daniel emphasizes the high-velocity nature of CPG items—products that consumers repeatedly purchase, such as soaps and snacks.

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Diverse Categories within CPG

The discussion highlights the diversity within the CPG sector, distinguishing between various product categories and their unique challenges.

Lara Schmoizman [02:32]:

"I really thought that CPG was just food and beverage. And then I started understanding that CPG covers a lot more than that."

Daniel elaborates on how different categories like beauty products and food/beverage have distinct market identities and operational strategies. For instance, beauty products often have higher profit margins and are better suited for e-commerce, whereas food and beverages rely heavily on retail grocery distribution and face challenges related to perishability and logistics.

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Challenges in CPG Distribution

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the complexities of getting CPG products into retail stores. Daniel shares his insights into the distribution process, including the financial and logistical hurdles brands must navigate.

Daniel Scharff [05:15]:

"It's a big expensive channel and it has all of the reward if you can, you know, scale in it."

He explains the role of distributors in the supply chain and the various fees involved, such as slotting fees and distributor markups. For example, a product priced at $4 retail might only bring $2-2.60 back to the brand after retailer and distributor cuts. Additionally, getting shelf space in major retailers like Whole Foods or Kroger requires significant time and investment, often taking up to a year for approval.

Lara Schmoizman [16:21]:

"Those fees, what are those deals, what are the advertising commitments that you have with stores?"

Daniel Scharff [16:27]:

"Slotting fees, which is typically if you get into a big account, there are costs that they actually have. Like they need to go change all the price tags and, you know, they're taking a chance on a new brand."

This segment underscores the financial commitment required to enter and sustain a presence in the retail market, highlighting the importance of a robust strategy and product performance.

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Building the Startup CPG Community

Daniel Scharff introduces his brainchild, Startup CPG, the largest community for CPG founders. This platform aims to democratize access to knowledge and connections, removing the financial barriers typically associated with industry expertise.

Daniel Scharff [09:17]:

"Startup CPG is the biggest community in the world for the founders of all of those kind of products."

He discusses the community’s features, such as a Slack channel with 30,000 members and numerous events connecting brands with retailers. These initiatives facilitate direct interactions, like the recent event in Chicago where brands met with a Whole Foods buyer, significantly aiding their path to retail shelf placement.

Daniel Scharff [11:00]:

"We do 100 events a year and a lot of them are focused on just getting those brands connected to the retailers."

The community not only provides a support network but also offers practical tools and resources, helping founders navigate the often daunting CPG landscape without incurring prohibitive costs.

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Strategies for Retail Success

Lara and Daniel explore tactical approaches for CPG brands to thrive in retail environments. This includes leveraging in-store demos and understanding sales metrics.

Lara Schmoizman [20:44]:

"When you go into a store, it's something that I see a lot of people doing demos."

Daniel Scharff [20:52]:

"Demos for sure."

Daniel explains the cost-benefit analysis of in-store demos, acknowledging that while they incur upfront costs (e.g., $200 for a demo), they are crucial for brand visibility and consumer engagement. He uses the example of Hellman's Mayo, illustrating how high-volume sales from established brands set a challenging benchmark for newcomers.

Daniel Scharff [22:04]:

"It might be okay... one a week, you might actually get to stay on shelf."

He reassures emerging brands that incremental sales growth can demonstrate their potential to retailers, fostering long-term shelf presence even if initial sales are modest.

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Community and Expert Guidance

The episode underscores the vital role of community and expert advice in overcoming CPG challenges. Daniel advocates for utilizing platforms like Startup CPG to gain insights and connections, while Lara emphasizes the importance of founders focusing on their core competencies rather than getting bogged down by tasks outside their expertise.

Daniel Scharff [23:52]:

"You can join Startup CPG via our website. Our resources are free for brands."

Lara Schmoizman [24:28]:

"If you're a founder, concentrate on being a founder. Don’t spend your time doing an Instagram post because it's going to take you four times more..."

They both agree that leveraging community resources allows founders to prioritize strategic growth activities, ultimately leading to more sustainable business development.

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Key Takeaways and No-Nos in CPG

Towards the end of the episode, Daniel shares critical advice for CPG brands, highlighting common pitfalls to avoid.

Daniel Scharff [23:46]:

"You need to have your packaging checked, make sure you're not making any ridiculous claims or not falling into any, you know, like ambulance chaser traps."

Lara Schmoizman [24:13]:

"Packaging needs to be amazing, but less is more."

He emphasizes the importance of accurate packaging, strategic planning, and financial honesty. Daniel also stresses the importance of community support and avoiding overcomplicating the brand’s strategy.

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with Lara encouraging listeners to engage with Startup CPG and build their own supportive networks. Both hosts reiterate the significance of community, strategic focus, and leveraging expert insights to navigate the competitive CPG landscape successfully.

Lara Schmoizman [25:15]:

"Community is so important... learn from direct experiences."

Daniel Scharff [25:34]:

"Everybody out there has tried to do this already. There's no sense in you trying to figure out like how do I launch a brand."

Listeners are left with actionable insights and resources to propel their CPG ventures forward, embodying the podcast’s mission to transform business ambitions into reality—one episode at a time.

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For more information and to join the Startup CPG community, visit larashmoisman.com or check the episode notes below. Don’t forget to subscribe for more actionable strategies and inspiring success stories!

Transcript

[Lara Schmoizman]

Foreign. This is Coffee Number five. I'm your host, Lara Schmoizman. Hi everyone. Welcome back to Coffee Number five. My coffee is ready, hot and ready for another great chat. So I over time I heard about these three letters. Circumstances. Cpg, cpg, cpg. And you know those words that you end up giving for granted, you kind of know what it is, but you really don't know what it is. But people keep talking about it. And finally one day I said I need to find out what CPG is. So I went to my friend Google and I asked and wow, CPG means so much more than what you would think that it means. So today I brought you an expert and let's talk cpg. So welcome Daniel.

[Daniel]

Hello. Thank you for having me.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So, so happy to have you here. And so what's cpg?

[Daniel]

CPG for sure is consumer packaged goods. So it's the name of this industry that me and most of my friends work in. One that everybody will be familiar with even if they aren't familiar with the acronym. If you've ever walked into a 711 or a whole Foods, most of the stuff that you're looking around and seeing is, is a consumer packaged good. So anything basically in there that's not like produce or you know, from the deli that isn't really wrapped for you to buy and scan at the register, that the rest of the stuff is all consumer packaged goods.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So, so this includes beauty products, includes toys.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, definitions can vary a little bit, but you know, at least the way I look at it primarily would be food, beverage, health, beauty, beauty, you know, wellness supplements, pet products, alcohol, you know, a lot of the emerging CBD stuff. Basically anything that is, I would say more high velocity type products. So like okay, you could have a toaster, which it is technically packaged often for a consumer to buy at a store. But traditionally the CPG category would look at more high moving products. Stuff that you might buy over and over again, like a bar of soap you need a bunch of times unless you have a.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Create that loyalty also to the brands.

[Daniel]

Yeah, right, right. So yeah, mainly that like higher velocity type stuff. The kind of stuff I have to.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Confess at the beginning I really thought that CPG was just food and beverage. And then I started to understanding that CPG covers a lot more than that.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I think probably most of us in food and beverage really self identify as cpg. Probably. I mean, but it does cover a lot of other things. But you know, if you talk to an alcohol founder, they're like what Industry are you in? They would probably say Bev alk, like beverage, alcohol be like, oh, are you in cbg? Well, yeah, also that you know, sort of like if you ask somebody from Texas, like where are they from? They're like Texas. Whereas a lot of other people might say like the US or something. You know, like people have different identities depending on which category that they're in. But I would say food and beverage, we identify with CPG very hard because a lot of us will work across different companies in the space as well. You know, I think beauty products definitely have their own kind of identity. They would say more, you know, beauty and. But you know, the things that unite us in CPG are just the similarities in the business models. Most of us are pretty focused I would say on retail grocery. So it differs in different categories. Like in food and beverage, we're really focused on if you're creating a better for you product, probably trying to get into whole foods at some point and building your brand that way in like higher end natural type stores, maybe eventually getting big enough to get into the Walmarts and the Costco is getting that mass adoption. Right. But these like retail, like a lot of us focus on that. I would say there are some differences. People who are more focused on beauty might have a lot more options in the E commerce space.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I really think that the different situation there is in how you ship products and to maintain the products and beauty you can ship it and in three, four days. Food, not everything, a lot of things need they are, can go bad.

[Daniel]

Yeah. And if it's refrigerated or frozen, it adds a lot of cost cost to the product. But you know, I think it ultimately also just comes back down to margins. So you know, a beauty product, you might have a little tube of something that costs 80 bucks and it weighs almost nothing. And that then gives you a lot of budget to try to acquire customers online. And as most people know, the cost to acquire customers online, like the marketing costs through things like meta, like all that stu went up a lot.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I know that.

[Daniel]

Yeah. So it went up a lot. You know, they made those changes with the operating system about tracking people and you know, so it with food and beverage it doesn't work out quite so well because the product's a lot heavier and it's a lower price point. So just generally again just stereotyping here but like, you know, generalizations are not always true. In general, food and beverage would be more focused on that grocery volume like trying to really eventually knock it out of the park at Kroger.

[Lara Schmoizman]

But also, I think it's something with the user experience, someone in the food. You want to see how it looks, you want to taste it. It's like, that's why you have so many demos in. In supermarkets and even Costco. Tell me that you didn't go to Costco and you try out and things.

[Daniel]

I loved it as a kid. I would go, yeah, I think to some store that was a predecessor to Whole Foods, like, mom, can we go and run around and just eat all the free cheese and bread samples and yeah, food is a. Yeah, like, it really helps when you can just try something instead of just hearing about it.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah, it's a lot. Goes a lot more in your senses because you can see it, you can try it, you can smell it.

[Daniel]

Yeah. It's funny, you know, sometimes I ask the buyers for stores, like, how do you actually try a beauty product versus food or beverage? Because I feel really confident about food or beverage. You can look at the ingredients, you can try it. You can know if you would want to buy something like that. You know, often with beauty, a lot of it is about, does this have the impact that it's supposed to does. Is this an effective product? Product? And a lot of that stuff requires a routine. Right. And you can't expect.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I mean, beauty products, you really cannot see if it works in, like, until three months at least.

[Daniel]

And. And that's like, you know, you as a consumer might take a gamble on a product every couple months. Like, all right, now maybe I'll try this. But imagine you're the person who's making those decisions for Whole Foods or, you know, Sephora, wherever. Like, you're not going to just all of a sudden add in 10 new products to your routine every 30 days and try them all and see if they work. It's impossible to know that, you know, when. When the buyers who make decisions about what products go on shelf, it is pretty interesting to hear how they actually will assess it.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Oh, tell me more.

[Daniel]

You know, a lot of it is on the fragrance of. Of a beauty product like that, you know, so they'll obviously look at it and see labels, see what the ratings are, if there are any. But yeah, they're like, they. They'll smell the thing and like, oh, is that like a nice. You know, that matters a lot more than I hear them talk about the importance of that even for, like, food and beverage and how in food and.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Beverage, how decision of.

[Daniel]

I mean, I think a new product. Yeah. I mean, I can't speak for every buyer out there. But I think in general, I mean, you know, they want products that the consumers are looking for and they just taste more than anything. Like, the thing has got to taste good and then hopefully it performs on other things. Like, it's cool, personal.

[Lara Schmoizman]

They don't have at least, like, a few people trying it?

[Daniel]

No, they. I wouldn't say they have, like, panels of people tasting stuff. I will say, okay, when you're a founder for a CPG company, or let's say you're just like a expert product developer and taster, you should be able to get. To get to the point where you can taste a product even if it's not for you, and know if somebody who likes that kind of product would like it. I never got there. I was the CEO for a beverage company. I have a. I think a pretty strong palate, and I think I'm very good at tasting the, you know, complexity in a beverage and being like, okay, this is actually too watery and I need more body in it here. And this aftertaste I don't like. But ultimately I can only really say if I like it or not. I can't taste a blueberry flavor and say if somebody who really likes blueberry is going to like that flavor or like, I don't. I don't really drink matcha. And so I can't. I just, like, can't taste.

[Lara Schmoizman]

But I don't think I could be doing that job. I would be so bad. There are some things, actually, I was talking today about the beverage, like, how anyone likes that. I'm, like, very judgmental. But people buy it and drink it.

[Daniel]

I. And I. Yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of the same way. I'm like, I don't understand how anyone could like, this kind of a. Whatever, you know, I mean, just certain things that I personally don't really drink that much, like kombucha or matcha. But there are plenty of people who are super passionate about them. And whether that's a natural thing for people to like, it's programmed in, or maybe it's an acquired taste or, you know, people really, I don't know, learn to love it. Who knows?

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah, learn to like it. So let me ask you a question, because you started something very special that is called startup cpg. Tell us a little more about that.

[Daniel]

Yeah, definitely. So startup CPG is the biggest community in the world for the founders of all of those kind of products. And the reason I started it is because eight years ago I was working at One of these CPG companies. And I looked around and just saw how hard it is. You know, everybody out there is trying to get money from those kind of brands. If they're the person who knows the name of the packaging company that you probably need to talk to, they might be like, okay, give me a retainer and then I'll tell you the name of that person. It's just like they have to pay for that. They have to pay for everything.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I know, it's horrible. I'm a connector. I'm an introduction. And I will never occur to me to try someone to have as a client just to give an introduction. Introduction.

[Daniel]

Yeah, yeah. And that, I mean, you need that money too, because you're eventually going to have to pay the slotting to get into a big grocery store and pay the distributor fees and all these other things. So.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Okay, okay, hold on, hold on. Let's talk about that for a minute. Let's put the thing on that. Keep telling us about startups, cpg, because those are all the questions I want to ask.

[Daniel]

Yeah. So it's very hard. Anyways, that's the point. And so I've always been a community builder. Like going back to my very early career days, I would always just take what I was doing and get excited about it and want to build community around it and find other people who wanted to share knowledge. And so I just started building this community and it was always going to be free because I didn't want to be yet another person charging brands and entrepreneurs who are trying so hard to build this thing. And so, you know, fast forward, basically a lot of, like, after a lot of work and. Excuse me, after a lot of work and a lot of, you know, growing the team and just trial and error on different kind of initiatives, we are now the biggest community in the world for these founders. So we have an online slack channel with 30,000 people in it. And the coolest thing is. So imagine that packaging question. You can basically go in there if you're a brand and ask any question you want, like, hey, does anyone know who manufacturers this kind of a product that could help me? And someone will just give the answer. There's no, like, yeah, hire me or have a call. No, just give the answer and then they know you're somebody who actually knows this stuff. Because we have so many great experts in the community who actually do love to answer those kind of questions and give help. That that's the community that we have created for all of them. So it is the biggest and free community in the world for all of the founders in that space. But on top of just being a place where I think we can help people with connections and knowledge, we do a lot more. The main thing that they really need is help getting into retail distribution. And so we. We actually do 100 events a year and a lot of them are focused on just getting those brands connected to the retailers. We want to do. Like last week we did an event in Chicago where the brands could come and meet the person who is the quote, unquote, forager for Whole Foods in the Midwest, who is fantastic. And she just came to the event and tried every single product there, and everyone got to talk to her. There was a huge line of people. And that's kind of the promise of this. It's called Grocery Run. That's our national event series where we're connecting brands with retailers in their local markets. And we don't charge brands thousands of bucks for this. We just like really try to cover our event fees. And it's fantastic because so many brands are getting yeses from those buyers and getting on shelf and starting their journey or continuing their ascent.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And founders only think that they need at the beginning is a 2 cents and they need validation, the confirmation of what they did. It's okay. And they. It's so frustrating to be a founder. And many days you are like, why did I do this? And so you just sometimes having someone who's in the industry and telling you you're in the right directions mean everything.

[Daniel]

And that might not even always happen, but at least we are just in their corner. We are unapologetic cheerleaders for every early brand. But it also can be an important conversation because you can, you might talk to that Whole Foods buyer and they're like, hey, you know what? This packaging is not going to work and here's why. And they have a lot of insight because they've been doing this forever.

[Lara Schmoizman]

At least you get someone is telling you the truth. I feel like in this have, I mean, I seen this thousand times or more, that you have your friends who are either loving it and they're not going to say something wrong or like they're not coming. They're no one to comment. So it's just in case they say anything.

[Daniel]

Yes.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Then you have all these experts who want you to sign a contract with them just to give you their two cents. And every expert is going to tell you different. Two cents.

[Daniel]

Yeah. And I mean, the buyer is not the ultimate, like, authority in the industry, but they do have a lot of information and you might hear it for. If you hear it from two or three buyers, then you really do have to take it seriously. But yeah, it's very important and they might give you helpful feedback like, hey, if you just change this, then we could look at it like, okay, yeah. And then they like that you can work with them. So we do that. We also like you have a podcast. So I have that in the CPG industry. The podcast that I host is number one in the industry. And what we try to do is have guests that can really educate the founders. And so I love to especially have those buyers on there because they, they do want to hear from. Like two weeks ago we had the Total Wine and more buyer, which is that's a national retailer. And it's so like just for whatever reason, people just don't know a lot about them and how to get in the stores and what do they look for, what do they want? And I was so excited to get.

[Lara Schmoizman]

That's amazing. But can we talk for a second what it really takes to get into stores or distribution? Because it doesn't mean that immediately because you get in stores, you're going to start getting a lot of money. First of all, getting to retail is an investment.

[Daniel]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you have to be committed to it as a channel. And so because it's not just about getting the store, but also the distribution to get your product there. And so you kind of have to do both things at once. In let's say food and beverage, there are kind of two big main broadline distributors who hit a lot of the like natural and higher end conventional grocery stores. So you know, you can kind of go and pitch directly to those retail chains, let's say. And like even on our website we have a list of all of them that are out there. You can get it under founder resources. It's you know, all of the grocery stores out there in the country and which distributors they pull from. If you go get a yes from the grocery store and they're big enough, then they can actually force the distributor to carry you. Alternately, you can try to like get a bunch of little ones to say yes and also be pitching the distributor. The nice thing is once you're in with a distributor, then you just go around and figure out who else do they serve and try to pitch those accounts so that you can really leverage this distribution system that you're in. But you know, I think the main thing to know is it's a big expensive channel and it has all of the reward if you can, you know, scale in it. Because just that still in this country, com is important and will grow and take share from it. But at least, especially in food and beverage, 85 to 90% of the volume is done through the stores. And so you need to be present in the stores to get that volume. And it. But you're good. There are going to be a lot of fees and things you need to pay along the way and understand what those are about.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Those fees, what are those deals, what are the advertising commitments that you have with stores?

[Daniel]

I mean, there are a lot of just overall business fees that you're going to have. But let's say. So like if you sell, like if you start with the shelf price, right. Let's say that I have a product that is on shelf for $4, right. It. Now that's. So that's the consumer price. But then the retailer isn't paying that much, right. Because they need to make margin on it. So let's say the retailer, I don't know, maybe they want like a 33% margin on that product. So, you know, if that's the case, maybe they're paying like, let's say, you know, 250 or something a little bit more than that. Let's say 260 for the product. And so they're then making a $40 off that $4. And then they're happy they've got their margin. But you're not getting that 260 in your pocket. Right. Because there's also a distributor involved and they need to be paid for their services. And so, you know, depending on the account, like, everyone kind of knows that, you know, if you get in with Whole Foods, there's this sweetheart deal with UNFI where it's only like an 8% markup, but it could be for smaller stores, as much as 30%. So now that $4 product that's being sold in stores that the retailers buying for, let's say 260, okay, maybe the distributor is actually paying you in your pocket, like you know, 180 or 2 bucks for it and then going out and getting it to the store. So, you know, think about basically getting half then of the retail price in your pocket, plus there's other stuff because, you know, you always buy things that are on sale in the store. And you know, who do you think pays for that? Mainly the brand. And you know, there's product that spoils or, you know, gets damaged. You know, you have to pay these things called slotting fees, which is typically if you get into a big account, there are costs that they actually have. Like they need to go change all the price tags and you know, they're taking a chance on a new brand. And so typically you have to give them like a free case per store of each of the products. And that can be a huge expense because think like you might be getting into a thousand stores, right in which would be a dream.

[Lara Schmoizman]

When you get to a store, it will be very unlikely that you will get in all the stores.

[Daniel]

Right, right. Yeah. I mean, you got to work your way up. I mean, you know, let's say that like in a meaningful way, there are 25 to 30, 000 grocery stores in the country. You know, far more in like convenience and drug and stuff. But for grocery. It's. Excuse me, maybe it's around that number, like, I think, you know, a good number in your first year in market, you might be trying to get into like 500, a thousand, 3,000 stores, something like that. And so like smaller regional chains, you might be like, yeah, can I launch in all of your 20 stores? They might say yes. You know, if they really like your product. If you're talking to Whole Foods, Albertsons, Kroger, they're not going to give you all. They have so many stores. Walmart is not going to give you all of their thousands of stores. Whole Foods, which is about 580, I think they just, you know, they, it takes a while to sell into them. Like their review, they're like right now, let's say it's, you know, we're in middle of 2025 for my category. Oh, I'm like launching a granola business. They might say, hey, we're going to review that in February 2026. And then those products that we like, we're going to take on shelf in, you know, mid-2026. So you're like, oh, you might be a year out from them even like placing you if they say yes. So it can just, it just can take a long time. And then they might be like, good one region because we don't know you. And if people are really going to like this.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So. And what happened if you don't sell, let's say you have a new product that the stores take it. I say we're going to do X amount of stores. And then they found out it's not doing so well. So what?

[Daniel]

So I mean, well, the sad part of that is ultimately maybe you're not on shelf for much longer, right? Because like the store doesn't get Bigger, they have a finite amount of space. And so when they're taking you in, they're kicking someone else out, who that has happened to. So it is your responsibility as a brand to figure out how you're going to make sure it moves. How do you do that? Number one, you have a great product that has great packaging and that performs well that people are going to want to discover and try and then hopefully buy again, maybe tell their friends about, who knows, maybe go viral. But you know, I would say tactically there are a lot of things that you would do to actually try to get people to try the product. And so some of those I mentioned before.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Excuse me, let's go. So when you go into a store, it's something that I see a lot of people doing demos.

[Daniel]

Demos for sure.

[Lara Schmoizman]

So has a cost.

[Daniel]

I love demos. Yeah. So I would think about it this way. Like if you go into a store and someone's there sampling a product, probably that cost them, let's say $200 to have somebody in there demoing the product and you're going to lose money as a brand when that happens because it's very unlikely that you're going to actually even sell $200 worth of product. Maybe you can if you're like higher price point, you know. But ultimately this is an investment. You're trying to get a lot of people to try it and hopefully convert some of them to freque customers. And you know, I think one thing that'll surprise a lot of people. Well, like okay, take the mayo category. How many Lara jars of mayo? Like let's say the most popular mayo, let's say a Hellman's Mayo. You know, I don't know if you, I don't know if you're a mayo eater, but like, okay, so you know, Hellman's Mayo.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Yeah.

[Daniel]

Which is, you know. Okay, so how many of their, like the 30 ounces, the number one seller, if you take let's say like a Walmart, you know, like, like a normal Walmart in a given week, how many jars of that Hellman's mayo, like the 30 ounce one do you think? Take a guess.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I, I don't know. I'm really good at number no.

[Daniel]

1. No one can guess. No, if you, unless you like know the industry, it's so hard to guess this. Okay. I would say a lot of people when I ask them that, they're like, I don't know, like a couple thousand is really not. It actually is very surprising even that like top selling product in the Category. I don't know the guessing. I, I, I've seen the number of years ago, but it might be okay. So for Hellman's, the top seller in that whole category, it might be 80 units per store per week. But if you take the now let's say like you have Lara's Mayo that you launch, right? And then it's like a new one.

[Lara Schmoizman]

You would like one. One a week.

[Daniel]

Yeah. No, but that would actually. That's right. Like you could launch it and sell one a week because you're not Hellman's and no one knows you. But one a week, you might actually get to stay on shelf. Especially if you're at one a week today and then next month you're at like 1.1, you know, because you did some demos and somebody tried it and then like six months later you're at 1.2. You know what, you have a growing brand because the buyers, they don't expect anybody to immediately sell as well as the leader.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Really good news for the brands out there.

[Daniel]

Yeah, buyers get it. They, they just, they want to see that you are a growing brand. You know, that you can bring incremental sales into their category. They know, like, is anyone out there, like, just like, hey, you know what, I'm going to like eat more Hellman's right now? Probably not. They're like, maybe they eat it historically, but they're also open to trying new things. Or maybe even like, okay, you have this new mayo brand that launched, that was a celebrity backed one and that's bringing a lot of new people into the category. And the mayo buyer likes that because they want to sell more mayo. And if they're getting like somebody who typically was buying only prebiotic sodas and they're like, oh, this influencer has a mayo. May come buy some mayo. That's a dream for the buyer. So you know, you can sell a smaller amount.

[Lara Schmoizman]

That's so fascinating. So Daniel, before we go, what's a no no in the cpg?

[Daniel]

Oh, there are so many no nos. But I mean, I think just like you need to have your packaging checked, make sure you're not making any ridiculous claims or not falling into any, you know, like ambulance chaser traps, which you can easily do. So I'd say that's one thing. And then I think also say for.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Packaging, I mean, I from the marketing pla side, look at the rules, talk to an expert, get a few IC in it. The packaging of course needs to be amazing, but less is more. Don't try to over Complicate it in the.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, I think that. And then, I mean, I think just having a good strategy, like really okay, how much, like be honest about how much money you have or if you're going to raise money, have a good strategy. Don't try to tackle everything. Just really think ahead of time about what it is you're going to try to do, where you're going to try to grow. Save your money for that and use community. You know, if you are in this space, definitely feel free to join startup cpg. You can do that via our website. Our resources are free for brands. You can go in there and join our Slack channel.

[Lara Schmoizman]

I have something to say. Community is so important. I always tell my clients, go and network. I mean, I can introduce you a lot of people in the industry, but you need to make your own community, talk to your peers. I mean, I'm a marketer, I'm not a brand founder. So go and talk to other brand founders. Learn from direct experiences.

[Daniel]

Totally, totally agree. That's the main thing is because you have, I mean that's the whole premise for our community is there. Everybody out there has tried to do this already. There's no sense in you trying to figure out like how do I launch a brand? What do I need to know about packaging when everyone can tell you that already and free you up to just focus on the things that make you uniquely you and that are going to set your brand apart.

[Lara Schmoizman]

Okay. And I have one more thing that I always say to my clients. If you're a founder, concentrate of being a founder. Being a founder, the CEO is a lot of work. Don't try to spend your time doing an Instagram post because a, it's gonna take you four times more than someone who knows how to do it and probably you're gonna do it wrong. And all the time you didn't do something else that you need to do to move your brand.

[Daniel]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I talk to people a lot even in the early days about like maybe keep your day job so you have money than to pay that Instagram person to go and do the stuff that you're not that good at.

[Lara Schmoizman]

That's. That's a good one. Right? Daniel, thank you so much. For you guys. We're gonna put all the notes in the chapter notes, links for the startups, GPT, gpsg.

[Daniel]

We get that a lot.

[Lara Schmoizman]

But we'll put all the notes in the chapter notes so you can join the community and you know how to reach out. And thank you so much, Daniel, for being here with with us today.

[Daniel]

Thank you. All right, take care, everyone.

[Lara Schmoizman]

And to you guys, I will see you next week with more coffee. Number five. Find everything you need at larashmoisman.com or in the episode notes right below. Don't forget to subscribe. Was so good to have you here today. See you next time. Catch you on the flip side. Ciao, ciao.