Shelf Help: The Tactical CPG Podcast

On this episode, we’re joined by Courtney Shane, Founder & CEO of Challenger Brand Group.

Courtney led turnarounds for iconic brands like Windex, Tollhouse, and Windex and now brings big brand rigor to emerging, challenger brands.

We dig into how to think like a P&L-minded marketer, what she had to unlearn from “Big CPG,” the initiatives that change trajectories like nailing price-pack architecture, packaging design frameworks and storytelling strategies tailored to core stakeholder groups.

Courtney breaks down what belongs in a tight creative brief, the most common packaging mistakes she sees, and how to evaluate when you need a refresh versus a full rebrand. We also get tactical on “owning a color and designing for real store lighting.

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Episode Highlights:

🎯 From corporate turnarounds to challenger brand operator
🧠 What to unlearn from Big CPG when you’re scrappy
📊 Price Pack Architecture for early-stage brands
🗂️ The anatomy of a strong agency brief
📦 Packaging pitfalls that kill clarity at shelf
🎨 Why “owning a color” creates true brand blocking
💡 Small packaging tweaks that reliably lift velocity
🛒 How store lighting impacts design choices
🔁 Refresh vs. rebrand: how to decide
📖 Storytelling for consumers, retailers, investors, and employees
📈 Trends and challenger brands Courtney is watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - The Challenger Brand Group
03:15 - Turning around Nesquik
06:22 - Turning around Windex
08:45 - (Un)learning from “Big CPG”
10:23 - Game-changing strategies and initiatives
11:59 - Pricing strategy
18:42 - What a well-rounded agency brief looks like
20:42 - Common packaging design pitfalls
24:00 - Owning a color
28:21 - Most and least impactful packaging tweaks
29:37 - Lighting environment and packaging design
31:14 - Packaging refresh vs full rebrand
33:35 - Storytelling
38:14 - Brand and trends Courtney is tracking

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Links:

Challenger Brand Group – https://www.challengerbrandgroup.com/
Follow Courtney on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneyfshane/ 
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by BJ McCaslin, the Co-Founder & CEO of Holy! Water, the beverage brand pushing the boundaries of function, combining ketones, nootropics, functional mushrooms, and in some SKUs, THC. 

A 20-year beverage veteran who previously built and exited Coco Café to Vita Coco, BJ brings a rare blend of street-level intuition, scientific curiosity, and battle-tested entrepreneurial grit.

We dive deep into commercialization realities, the brutal economics of beverage, and how BJ approaches brand-building like an anthropologist.

We explore the fast-changing C-store landscape and where functional beverages fit in, and what it actually takes to build strong distributor and broker relationships.

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Episode Highlights:

💧 The 15-year journey behind Holy! Water
⚗️ Building a functional beverage with real “feelings”
🧪 Ketones, mushrooms & nootropics
🛠️ The harsh realities of beverage commercialization
🧭 Why brand-building starts with anthropology
🌿 THC vs non-THC SKUs
🚨 How BJ is responding to the potential hemp ban
💊 Vitamins vs painkillers
🏪 Why C-stores are the next frontier for functional drinks
📈 Broker & distributor strategies that actually work
🔭 Trends and brands BJ is watching closely

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Table of Contents:

00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Holy! Water origin story, product evolution
07:17 - Commercialization journey
10:09 - Anthropological approach to brand building
13:41 - Learning on the fly
17:43 - THC vs non-THC SKUs
22:07 - How BJ is reacting to the hemp ban
24:07 - Vitamins vs painkillers
27:41 - The C-store channel
30:51 - The evolution of functional beverages in C-stores
32:38 - Building strong distributor and broker relationships
37:42 - Brand and trends BJ is watching

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Links:

Holy! Water – https://enjoyholywater.com/ 
Follow BJ on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjmccaslin/  
Follow Adam on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Chris Wendling, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Carbone Fine Food, the fast-growing brand translating the iconic Carbone restaurant experience into the grocery aisle. Since launching in 2021, Carbone has quickly become one of the top-selling premium pasta sauce brands in America, expanding into club, mass, and specialty retailers.

Chris shares how his sales leadership background helped build marketing structure around a rapidly scaling business. We talked about the journey of implementing a formal marketing strategy, refining brand storytelling, and aligning the team around north start metrics. 

We dive into how Carbone leverages restaurant expertise to inform innovation, the thinking behind its new Italian Simmer Sauces line and the philosophy that guided the recent label refresh.

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Episode Highlights:

🍝 The story behind Carbone Fine Food’s rapid rise
📈 Building a scalable marketing structure from scratch
🤝 Lessons from leading marketing after years in sales
📊 Using restaurant data to guide retail innovation
🔥 Launching the new Italian Simmer Sauces
🎨 The strategy behind Carbone’s packaging refresh
📍 Defining and tracking true north-star metrics
👀 Emerging brand and consumer trends Chris is watching

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Table of Contents:

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Carbone Fine Food origin story
04:11 - Implement a formal marketing strategy / structure
12:16 - Leading marketing after years in sales leadership
20:51 - Leveraging restaurant data to drive product strategy
24:42 - The Simmer Sauces lines
29:33 - Label refresh
33:30 - North star metrics
37:04 - Brand and trends Chris is watching

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Links:

Carbone Fine Food – https://www.carbonefinefood.com/ 
Follow Chris on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherwendling/ 
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ 

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Jeff Bull, the Chief Creative Officer at Uncle Arnie’s, one of the fastest-growing THC beverage brands in the country. Jeff is the creative mind behind the Arnieverse - the nostalgic, fun-first brand world that has helped propel Uncle Arnie’s from a California cult favorite to a nationwide force across both dispensaries and the booming hemp-derived beverage market.

With deep experience in brand identity, visual storytelling, and product strategy, Jeff has shaped everything from Arnie’s character system and packaging architecture to its flavor development, channel expansion, and launch playbooks.

Jeff breaks down how Uncle Arnie’s was born, why beverages have become the dominant on-ramp for new cannabis users, and how the brand balances playfulness with potency and compliance. He unpacks the creative and strategic evolution of Arnie’s as it scaled from dispensary shelves into mainstream retail, what the hemp market unlocked for the company, and how they approach new SKUs, flavor development, and launch assets.

We also dive into the role of budtenders, the fundraising journey, how creative leaders should think about entering the THC beverage space, and the trends Jeff sees shaping the next wave of cannabis and hemp innovation.

Use code Jeff33 to get 33% off anything at unclearnies.com

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Episode Highlights:

🍋 The origin story behind Uncle Arnie’s
🥤 Why THC beverages are exploding in popularity
🌿 The rise of hemp-derived THC and its impact on brand strategy
🎨 Building a distinctive, joyful visual identity
📦 Packaging that balances fun, clarity, and regulatory accuracy
🛒 How dispensary shoppers differ from mainstream hemp consumers
🧪 Flavor development and new product roadmapping
🚀 The creative playbook for new product launches
👥 The critical role of budtenders and frontline retail staff
💰 Lessons from fundraising and scaling a cannabis brand

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:57 – Uncle Arnie’s origin story
02:55 – Why THC beverages are all the rage right now
04:26 – Why beverages are the on-ramp for many
05:43 – Predicting the future
07:35 – Brand identity and brand evolution
10:32 – Visual identity and packaging design
16:02 – Dispensary channel consumers vs hemp market consumers
20:47 – Product strategy and roadmap
25:09 – New product launch assets and strategy
26:59 – The importance of budtenders and frontline retail teams
29:48 – Fundraising
31:49 – Recommendations for creative leaders coming into hemp bev
33:19 – Brand and trends Jeff is watching

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Links:

Uncle Arnie’s – https://unclearnies.com
Follow Jeff on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreybull/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Scott Marcus, CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Zones Kitchen, the mission-driven frozen foods brand rooted in the research behind the world’s longest-lived communities. 

After helping scale Vital Farms to the point of IPO and beyond, Scott set out to build a new kind of food company.

Scott breaks down how he and his co-founders, Dan Buettner and Matt O’Hare, transformed decades of Blue Zones research into a modern CPG platform. We explore what it takes to build a Public Benefit Corporation from scratch, how the team approached R&D and formulation, and the principles guiding their product roadmap. 

Scott also dives into packaging strategy, pricing, distributor and broker selection, and what he sees shifting across the frozen aisle and the broader better-for-you landscape.

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Episode Highlights:

🌍 Turning the Blue Zones lifestyle into a CPG brand
🏢 The decision to be a Public Benefit Corporation
🧪 How clean, nutrient-dense R&D actually happens
🗺️ Structuring an intentional product roadmap
🚀 The core ingredients of a successful product launch
🎨 Packaging, color strategy & communicating trust
💲 Pricing strategy
🥶 Why the frozen section is changing faster than people realize
👀 The emerging brands + trends Scott is following

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:55 – Blue Zones (Kitchen) overview
05:07 – Scott’s next adventure
07:44 – Crafting a compelling story
12:22 – Public Benefits Corporations
15:04 – Public Benefits Corps vs. Certified B Corps
17:54 – R&D and formulation
21:09 – Product roadmap strategy
22:56 – Keys to a successful new product launch
25:17 – Visual identity and packaging design
27:23 – Own a color (or not?)
29:23 – Pricing
35:11 – Distributors and brokers
42:04 – The frozen section
48:33 – Brands and trends Scott is watching

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Links:

Blue Zones Kitchen – https://bluezoneskitchen.com
Follow Scott on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-marcus/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Audrey Burger, the former President of Primal Kitchen and the founder of Pace Setters, a consultancy that helps CPG brands sharpen their strategy, strengthen their commercial foundations, and transition from an emerging brand into a long-standing, scalable business.

With deep experience in go-to-market strategy, portfolio planning, retail storytelling, and post-acquisition integration, Audrey brings a rare blend of BigCo discipline and emerging-brand speed.

Audrey breaks down what a retail-ready launch really requires and how she helps brands build smarter commercial plans, avoid preventable missteps, and grow shelf space over time. She also unpacks the rise of private label, category dynamics she’s watching, and what the strongest brands do differently when entering new channels.

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Episode Highlights:

📈 How brands can build a sharper commercial engine
🛒 The anatomy of a retail-ready product launch
🧮 Forecasting mistakes that cost brands real money
🧱 How to earn and grow shelf space over time
🧪 Why brands actually launch new SKUs—and how to know if you should
🏭 Integrating new SKUs into operations without chaos
🖥️ Optimizing PDPs for velocity and conversion
📦 Packaging design that improves shopability and brand recall
🤝 What it’s like joining a newly acquired & integrated CPG team
🏪 The accelerating rise of private label
🔭 Trends and brands Audrey is paying attention to in 2025

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Table of Contents:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:50:02 - How Audrey is helping brands
02:37:28 - A well-rounded retail ready launch plan
04:33:11 - Common forecasting pitfalls
07:54:13 - Fighting for more shelf space over time
10:32:02 - Why a brand launches a new SKU
12:27:24 - The keys to a successful product launch
14:30:05 - Integrating new SKUs into the production schedule
16:20:15 - Optimizing product detail pages
18:16:08 - Packaging design
26:15:18 - Joining a newly acquired and integrated team
31:09:24 - The rise of private label
35:55:00 - Trends and brands Audrey is watching

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Links:

Pace Setters – https://pacesetterscpg.com
Follow Audrey on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/audreyfburger
Follow Audrey's Substack – https://pacesetterscpg.substack.com/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Ian Tecklin, the Founder & CEO of Ripi, a recently launched, fast-growing upstart that’s redefining frozen pasta. Ian spent years in M&A and early-stage investing before partnering with Top Chef alum Joe Sasto to bring chef-level pasta to the masses through an accessible, freezer-friendly format.

With explosive early retail traction and a growing fan base, Ian shares an inside look at how Ripi developed its formulations, chose its first SKUs, and built a distinctive brand identity in a sleepy category.

We dive into R&D, how he selected and onboarded co-packers, and why launching with the right hero SKUs matters in frozen. Ian unpacks what most brands misunderstand about the frozen aisle, why packaging architecture matters more than founders think, and how Ripi thinks about shelf placement, facings, and competing behind a condensated glass door.

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Episode Highlights:

🍝 Building Ripi: a chef-led, premium frozen pasta brand
🧪 Formulating restaurant-level pasta that scales
🏭 How to choose and work with the right co-packer
📦 Why product set is critical in frozen
🎨 Packaging architecture that wins in the freezer aisle
🛒 Retail go-to-market & early traction
📊 Tactics for capturing more shelf space
❄️ What brands misunderstand about the frozen category
🧭 Advice for entrepreneurs entering frozen
🔭 Trends Ian is paying attention to

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Table of Contents:

00:00:00 - Ian Tecklin intro
00:41:08 - Ripi origin story
03:55:13 - Formulation and R&D
07:56:11 - Copackers
12:41:22 - Go-to-market SKU decisions
15:15:24 - Brand identity and packaging design
21:43:19 - Retail go-to-market
26:49:12 - Capturing more shelf space in a competitive category
30:17:19 - The frozen category
35:25:10 - If Ian could redesign the frozen section
37:33:02 - Recs for other frozen entrepreneurs
39:45:05 - Trends Ian is watching

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Links:

Ripi – https://ripifoods.com
Follow Ian on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-tecklin-44655698/ 
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ 

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Marc Brown, Founder of ONOIN - the newly launched pre-chopped, flavored onions packed in 100% olive oil that can be used as topping, marinade, a base for a sauce, or any scenario where you want to spice up a meal.

Before launching ONOIN, Marc spent years leading R&D and commercialization at brands like Clio Snacks, Danone, and Hain Celestial, giving him a rare mix of chef-level intuition and big-CPG scale-up discipline.

With deep experience in formulation science, co-man development, and taking products from kitchen to retail shelf, Marc brings a brutally honest and highly tactical perspective on what founders actually need to know before going to market.

Marc breaks down why most early formulations are unscalable, how to avoid ingredient traps that kill margin, and what to look for in a co-packer long before you sign an MSA. He unpacks his full commercialization playbook - from securing your IP and managing redundancy to navigating the retailer-distributor-broker maze.

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Episode Highlights:

🧅 The origin story behind ONOIN and building a new pantry category
🔥 How to simplify your R&D and avoid unscalable ingredients
🏭 What founders overlook when choosing a co-packer
🔐 Securing your formulation IP and protecting the process
📦 Packaging: aesthetics vs. operational efficiency
⚙️ Redundancy, risk mitigation, and readiness for scale
📉 Commercialization pitfalls that derail early brands
🥄 How consumers are actually using ONOIN
📈 Channel strategy: DTC vs. retail vs. distributor
👀 Trends Marc is watching across food and kitchen shortcuts

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Table of Contents:

00:00:00 - Marc Brown intro
00:56:12 - Origin story and intro
02:48:01 - Where the brand sits in retail
03:52:13 - Consumer education
05:12:05 - How Marc is using ONOIN
06:37:17 - R&D and formulation
10:03:21 - Nailing down a copacker
12:11:27 - Brand identity and packaging design
16:03:02 - Copacker evaluation process
21:01:13 - Redundancy
23:13:14 - Securing formulation IP
24:30:24 - Commercialization
30:03:07 - Scalable ingredients
32:30:25 - Packaging design: aesthetics vs efficiency
35:12:11 - Copacker KPIs
37:12:04 - Learning lessons
39:22:16 - Trends Marc is watching

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Links:

ONOIN – https://www.eatonoin.com
Follow Marc on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-brown-41500546/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Jenny Thielen, CMO at Green Seed North America, and a seasoned CPG marketer who’s spent her career helping food and beverage brands find their footing, grow distribution, and scale sustainably. 

Jenny shares a wealth of insights on what it really takes to win in retail today - from how to de-risk growth and avoid costly pitfalls to how to build true shopper marketing muscle that drives velocity without burning cash. 

We dive into her playbook for helping international brands successfully launch in the U.S., how to tailor both product and messaging for a new consumer base. 

Jenny also breaks down how to approach retail media, what brands are still getting wrong about shopper marketing, and the key lessons she’s learned from Green Seed helping Siggi’s, Quorn, and GoGo squeeZ grow from early-stage to household names.

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 Episode Highlights:
🌱 How Green Seed helps brands de-risk growth
🇺🇸 The playbook for bringing international brands to the U.S.
🥛 Siggi’s, Quorn, and GoGo squeeZ growth stories
💰 When and why Green Seed takes equity
⚠️ The biggest pitfalls Jenny sees emerging brands make
🛍️ What shopper marketing really looks like today
📈 How to think about retail media networks
🔥 Trends and brands Jenny is watching right now

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:00:00 - Intro & Overview
00:47:23 - Green Seed origin story
04:19:08 - Siggi’s growth story
08:01:03 - Quorn growth story
09:55:27 - GoGo Squeez growth story
11:09:28 - When and why Green Seed decides to take equity
13:53:22 - De-risking growth for brands
16:01:25 - One of most common pitfalls Jenny sees brands make
17:14:03 - The playbook for bringing international brands to the U.S.
20:29:21 - Tailoring messaging and recipes for the U.S. consumer
28:54:10 - Expanding beyond the ethnic aisle
30:50:13 - Shopper marketing
34:40:11 - How brands can get shopper marketing wrong today
36:19:13 - Shopper marketing for brands selling $5–10M/yr
39:11:22 - Retail media networks
41:33:00 - Trends and brands Jenny is watching

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Links:

Green Seed North America – https://greenseedna.com
Follow Jenny on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferthielen/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees. 

On this episode, we’re joined by Sierra Thomas, Founder and CEO of Tropink - the Hawaiian-inspired, functional beverage brand made with real tropical fruit, vitamin D, broad spectrum hemp (no THC), and a little bit of carbonation.

Sierra spent a decade in media and music before going alcohol-free in 2010. She’s bootstrapped Tropink thus far, scaling into premier retail locations across her home state of Oregon. 

We dive into Sierra’s formulation journey, why she chose broad-spectrum hemp over isolate, and how she navigates compliance and food safety. She unpacks packaging choices (and a sustainability miss she fixed), go-to-market strategy, and retail tactics that actually move cases. We also get into upcoming SKUs, fundraising strategy, and the trends she’s watching.

—---------------

Episode Highlights:

🧪 From bench-top trials to co-packed, tunnel-pasteurized runs
🌿 Broad-spectrum hemp vs. isolate and how dosing/COAs build trust
🧂Alternative sweeteners
🎨 Brand identity that “feels like a sunset” and why it matters on shelf
♻️ Shrink sleeves vs. digitally printed cans: a sustainability pivot
📣 Turning the Super Bowl into a rebrand launchpad
🛒 Oregon-first saturation, menus, and placements that fit the audience
📈 Velocity levers & independent retailers
🧭 New SKUs, no-THC stance, bootstrapping, and the NA wave ahead

—---------------

Table of Contents:

00:30:03 – Origin story
05:38:11 – R&D, formulation
11:48:19 – Hemp extract: broad spectrum vs isolate
15:36:14 – Sweeteners
17:27:07 – Brand identity and packaging design
23:03:18 – A packaging learning lesson
25:48:06 – Leveraging the Super Bowl for a rebrand launch
27:42:25 – Go-to-market
30:44:06 – Retail tactics
36:25:20 – New SKUs around the corner
40:01:01 – Hemp THC?
41:01:04 – Fundraising (or not)
42:07:10 – Trends Sierra is watching

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Links:

Tropink - https://tropinkdrink.com/
Follow Sierra Thomas on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-collins-4a200216/
Follow me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ 

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.

Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.

Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.