Simon Cutts, SPINS
The key to growing market share is allowing retailers to understand your product. One, what are the points of parity to what's in the market, but two, what are those points of differentiation… Positioning your product as a solution to capturing their share of trend growth is that next level step there.
Every single retailer I'm working with, high up on their list, is talking about sustainability. Avoid greenwashing but highlight your sustainability efforts and really take credit for what you're you are doing, because that allows those retailers to then ride your coattails essentially and take credit for being part of that that movement.
I love all my retail partners, and some of them have some quirky process. I've got a category manager who refuses any samples in styrofoam boxes and he's got that in his notes for the review process.
You need to understand well before your meeting with them who they work with [as distributors]. And understanding how you can present distribution solutions truly helps grow that relationship. If they're a KeHE primary, they don't care about how many UNFI divisions you're in, or if they're a UNFI primary, they don't want to hear about what KeHE programs you're supporting.
The last piece of this making it easy for the retailer is to be ready to support. It's not always just about item and price. It's about images, it's about digital promotions, it's about supporting their loyalty program, and learning how to speak their language. And what I mean by that is, if they have a loyalty program, don't call it their loyalty program, refer to it as the actual name that it is. And all of a sudden, you are that business partner to them, you're speaking their language, and that really helps them embrace what it is you're doing to help grow their sales. And meanwhile, you're increasing your market share.
Jean-Pierre Comte, Barilla
We came in the U.S. in 1996… in a market which was first extremely fragmented. You didn't have at that time any national brands coast to coast… The second fact that you need to have in mind is that Americans at that time were eating, I would say, an average quality pasta, which was far from the authentic Italian pasta that we that we were bringing… So we came to the market with this authentic Italian pasta, number one in Italy, always al dente. And in between I would say 1996 to 2010, we hammered on these points of difference… And so we came from zero market share in 1996 to about 20, 22 percent in 2010.
Then the game became different, because from there, we realized that there were some barriers to consumption in the U.S. The three key barriers to consumption of pasta, were one, the belief that pasta makes you fat... There was a second barrier to consumption, which was ‘I love pasta, but it's not easy to make.’ You need 10 minutes to boil the water and then 10 minutes to cook the pasta and you need another pan for the sauce and you'll need another 10 or 15 minutes to clean up the mess. And then the third barrier to consumption is that that pasta is a little bit boring. It's the same thing, it's the same recipes, or it's the same shapes. We developed innovation and communication to address specifically the three barriers, and not only, I would say, steal some market share from our competitors, but build the category.
[Comte said Barilla currently has about a third of the U.S. dry pasta category, private-label store brands have about a third, and the other third is divided about numerous other brands.]
Tracey Halama, Vital Proteins
Vital Proteins is a 9-year-old company based here in Chicago. And we have become a billion dollar brand that was acquired by Nestlé Health Sciences, partially acquired in June of 2020 and then full acquisition at the end of 2021.
Going back to the early days of Vital, number one, it was about building a product that hadn't been built before. So I think differentiation is so important.
I think we did a lot of things over the years, we made some big bets, we had some big failures. I think when you're starting a brand, it's all about willingness to take risk on and willingness to swing for the fences a little bit… We did a lot of trial and error over the years, and most of our big bets paid off, some of them didn't. But I do think that taking risk, and always being curious and challenging what traditional CPG thinking might be.
If we followed a traditional CPG thought, we would have focus-grouped all of our products before launching them, we probably would be about a $25 million company right now. Because a focus group and an extensive product development launch is about 18 months. If you want to capture that market share, you have to move very quickly. And those were things that we continue to do, we continue to work with a sense of urgency — and even now being part of the world's largest food and beverage company — we still are not averse to taking risk. And I think that if you're going to continue to be that market leader or continually strive to increase share year on year, you have to do things that are different than that of your competitors.
Pete Maldonado, CHOMPS
We launched the business back in 2012. We started back then as the little direct-to-consumer business, really focusing on little niche and fitness communities. So it was CrossFit. It was Whole 30, Paleo, Keto… But you know, the thing about it is we launched within these communities when they weren't they were on an upward trend. And as those communities grew, it gave us a platform to continue building our brand.
Fast forward about five years into running a business when we launched at Trader Joe's, which is our very first retailer. Overnight, we had the product in millions of people's new hands and mouths. We went on taste, and we know that we're very confident of that. And so just having millions of new people try the product overnight, that that put us on the map. And the one thing I would say, though, I think a lot of advisors would tell you and a lot of people in this industry would tell you to use that momentum to continue building your brand, go land the Walmarts and Targets and the clubs and all the other channels. We didn't do that. We took well over a year. And all we did was build that relationship with Trader Joe's and we're still there today.
In terms of building market share, it's not always about getting the new doors, it's actually less about that. It's more about same-store sales. And then on top of that, it's the incrementality. What are you doing that's different? And then how are you going to bring new customers to that category and help that category manager actually build their sales, because if all you're doing is stealing from the next guy on the shelf, you're doing nothing that adds nothing to the category… We're up against behemoths, there's Jack Link’s, Slim Jims, all the big guys in this category, we're not gonna go head-to-head with them. They could squash us, right. And so what we're looking to do is bring in new customers to this category. And that's exactly what we've done.
In 2018, we ran through a whole bunch of data that we had, and we ended up finding that about 75 percent of our customers were female. And so we realized that our brand was extremely differentiated in the category. If you think about what was going on in the meat snacks category, it was so masculine, like all the brands, it was the if you look at the packaging, it's the blacks, it's the reds, it's very masculine, they're talking about Sasquatch and all that. And it's just so manly. There was nobody that was female friendly…. We were actually finding — and I actually had this exact same experience too which is why I did sticks instead of jerky — was that jerky is tough, like it's tough to chew. And females I think really gravitated towards our sticks because they were a lot more tender and just easier to eat.
Clara Paye, UNiTE
We are the world's first globally inspired protein bar. I had zero experience in food two years ago... I ran my family's plumbing manufacturing company for about 17 years, and then jumped over here when I saw a need in my own personal life. And I think being that naïve, not having a ton of CPG experience, was actually my superpower because I created something authentic. And it was authentic to me. And I knew that there were a lot more people like me, who didn't see themselves reflected in wellness and on the shelves.
Our first customer was Walmart, which gave us national distribution from year one. It was a lot, but having experience in distribution and operations, I knew how to get those products in on time and in full and speak the language of logistics and supply chain. Between 2020 and now we've never had a back order and we've never been out of stock, and we've had countless supply chain hiccups in our industry. We've been able to pivot, reformulate, do things that are out of the box thinking.
I think it comes back down to differentiation, really having a product that is a creative to your category, where you're not cannibalizing, you're not making the 10th chocolate-flavored protein bar, you're doing something different, and you're bringing somebody new into the set.
So the best feedback I get is when somebody writes me an email and says, ‘Thank you for finally making a flavor for us, or this reminds me of my grandmother, or this reminds me of my childhood,’ and just nostalgia. On our packaging, we really lead with the flavor, it's the first thing you'll see. We've made that kind of our core marketing way to grab attention, because yes, we're never going to be able to compete with Quaker Oats and everybody else on the shelf next to us. Our packaging has to do the work for us. And we're still the only ones really doing these global flavors in our space [UNiTE’s flavors include Churro and Mexican Hot Chocolate, which new diversity-focused flavors to be introduced at Natural Products Expo West in March]. We were the first and so we are kind of the leaders. So as we come out with new flavors, we will continue to lead and innovate and create flavors that represent all people and all places.
