The CPG Scoop's Podcast

Mehek Khera joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Mehek is the founder & CEO of Niramaya Foods, bringing back the promise of health through Indian inspired cooking techniques, her grandma's recipes and real foods + spices. Niramaya Foods makes dips & snacks that make heritage inspired nutrition hyper accessible and easy for the average American consumer. 

After 10 years in different sectors of retail, Mehek had some health setbacks and realized that what she grew up eating at home, also a staple in billions of Indian homes - is missing on the shelf. After a long chronic health battle, she became a nutrition coach and now creates shelf stable food lines filled with Heritage Inspired nutrition for the busy modern consumer. Storytelling through dance is her secret passion and storytelling through food is her daily profession. 

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Mehek:

• Authentic storytelling is crucial in CPG marketing, and brands should leverage various platforms like TikTok to connect with consumers.
• CPG companies should be nimble and responsive to consumer needs, learning from their feedback and making necessary changes.
• The future of the CPG landscape involves bold flavors, clean labels, and products that support consumers' health and nutrition goals.

Marc Walkin joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Marc is a passionate and innovative marketing leader with over 15 years of experience. He has held a diverse set of leadership roles building modern brands in both retail and CPG such as Stop & Shop, Popcorners, Beech-Nut and Staples. Every position Marc has held had the common thread of building from the ground up from brand transformation to corporate strategy to breakthrough shopper & digital marketing playbooks. Marc is looking forward to continuing to leverage his experience and entrepreneurial spirit to make Turbyne’s mission a reality. 

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Marc:

• Understanding the shopper journey and creating a coordinated approach is crucial for success in the industry.
• In-store tactics, such as sampling and shelf displays, are underrated and can drive sales.
• Building a modern-day playbook and testing strategies in selected markets can lead to incremental growth.

Tina Manikas joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Tina is a dynamic agency leader, known for her focus on vision and relentless pursuit of compelling commerce and brand activation strategies, capabilities, and solutions to grow brands and solve commercial business problems.

As president of Tracy-Locke, she has been leading an award-winning brand to buying agency and is now a leader of global connected commerce in the evolved Omnicom Commerce group. Leading teams and solutions for major clients from large to challenger brands - Pepsi to Diageo to Mars to Pizza Hut and more. Prior to Omnicom, she has led and created agencies, with deep expertise in CPG and has been a passionate industry speaker and thought leader on commerce driving creativity and solutions.  

As a past president of the jury at Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia, and an advisor at Effies US, Tina has helped evolve the categories of activation and commerce in these awards programs. She has played a key role in helping those who set the benchmark recognize outstanding commerce strategies and work, while also staying ahead of where the industry is heading.

Tina was named advertising woman of the year by the Chicago Ad Federation in 2019, and there is even a Tina Manikas Day in Chicago proclaimed by the Mayor! She serves on boards including the Off the Street Club in Chicago and the Chicago Foundation for Women, and she is a big supporter of female leadership and growth. She is super proud of the teams she’s led that have won Effie awards every year for the last 20 years. She is a retail geek and loves all things commerce and behaviors. She is a proud intrapreneur, and she has three kids and ten godchildren.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Tina:

• CPGs need to focus on value and joy in the buying process to compel consumers to choose their brands.
• Being nimble and partnering with others can lead to success in the ever-changing CPG industry.
• Finding balance and being present in different aspects of life is so important for personal well-being.

Susan Lambert, Director of Shopper Marketing and Customer Insights at Massimo Zanetti Beverage, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Susan has spent her career in CPG with companies large and small, starting in Sales then moving into Marketing and Insights. Susan truly loves studying consumer data - what people do, what it means, how to reach them, how we connect our brands to meet these needs, what are the white spaces in our portfolio, etc.

She has demonstrated strengths, including highly effective consultative selling, development of marketing strategies for both new and existing products, team leadership, expert proficiency in analytics, market research and sales management with demonstrated results.

Susan is very much a family person, and enjoys hanging with them in her "not work" time.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Susan:

• With consumers having many paths to purchase, we need to, very closely and customer by customer, optimize the way we can convert our products and help them convert products in stores. 
• Micro-influencers that are aligned with your customer base can return very strong ROIs, low investment, great content, and great engagement.
• People are still looking for convenience, and are very interested in sustainability, but that definition varies by the cohort.

Cely Moreno-Mosier, Sr. Director of Retail Media Partnerships & Shopper Marketing at Pepsico, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Cely is a seasoned, marketing professional with progressive experience in driving brand growth while providing shopper leadership in our highly competitive categories. With a comprehensive understanding of the marketing lifecycle, she focuses on using data-driven insights, all while keeping the consumer at the forefront. She has held roles across the and-to-end marketing including brand, shopper, sports marketing and capabilities. Currently, as the Senior Director of Retail Media Partnerships & Shopper Marketing at PepsiCo, Cely spearheads initiatives to cultivate robust relationships with retail media suppliers. Her team is responsible for developing innovative retail media strategies and capabilities and ensuring a positive return on investment across PepsiCo’s marketing media mix that they partner with Retail Media Networks.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Cely:

• About her word to describe CPG marketing is "strategic", Cely says that it is really an approach about being very methodical by knowing consumer needs, being thoughtful, and taking into account market trends.
• Personalized and localized marketing is going to continue to matter more for consumers and truly be what helps unlock growth in the future.
• When the marketing community begins to think about AI, they should think about the consumer first and what makes them tick. That will inform what the future holds and what will be created next.

Alli Ball, Founder & CEO of Food Biz Wiz, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Alli Ball is the founder & CEO of Food Biz Wiz and the creator of Retail Ready®, an online program providing strategic support, curated curriculum, and values-aligned community for producers of packaged products in the food industry. As a former grocery buyer-turned-wholesale consultant, Alli has helped thousands of emerging brands understand what it takes to get on the shelf and have high sales once you’re there.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Alli:

• About choosing "doable" has her word to describe the CPG industry, Alli says that she hopes listeners get out of the cycle of judging themselves for what they should and shouldn't be doing. What's doable for your brand in this season of business?
• We're seeing experiential marketing coming back little by little post-COVID, and Alli would love to see more of that throughout the rest of the year into 2025.
• Throughout the rest of the year into next year, Alli thinks we're really going to see this tension behind newer brands saying no to big distribution and bigger retailers saying they still need them in big distribution.

Maria McManus, Vice President of Marketing & Innovation at Deep Indian Kitchen, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Maria is the Vice President of Marketing & Innovation at Deep Indian Kitchen and member of the brand’s leadership team.  She joined Deep 4.5 years ago to help lead the brand’s strategic, high-growth initiative, and has since seen the brand grow more than 5x and expand to over 22,000 doors.  Maria has 17 years of brand management and innovation experience in the CPG and retail industries across large and small companies like Unilever, Bai Brands (pre- and post-acquisition) and Target Corporation.  Maria holds a BA from George Washington University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.  She lives in suburban New Jersey with her husband and two children.

On a personal note:
I'm incredibly proud to be scaling the Deep Indian Kitchen brand while achieving break even (or better) returns on marketing investment and driving Deep Indian Kitchen to be the #1 fastest selling brand in Natural Frozen Entrees.  All of this, while being mom to two children under five years old keeps me on her toes!

Fun facts:
I’m a former trick water skier, completed the NYC marathon and loves to sail.  Oil painting, drawing and spending time with her family are her favorite ways to unwind.

Our favorite moments from this episode with Maria:

• Everything that we do has to have an impact. 
• Showing authenticity through product quality, copy, and visuals carries forward a brand's experiential essence.
• Getting the right team in place is critical for growing and scaling.

Lewis Goldstein, CEO of Better with Buckwheat, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

Lewis says his career has a pattern to it: he is drawn to organizations that have a mission he believes in, create products or services that enhance people's lives, have inspiring leaders and are competitive. He has worked at major brands including Sam Adams, Snapple, Kiss My Face, and Organic Valley, and has gravitated toward craft, natural, and organic consumer products. He is inspired by his upbringing in an entrepreneurial family who prioritized healthy eating (read: macrobiotic household).

He is motivated by a passion to support consumers’ healthy lifestyles, building a track record of branded sales growth and product innovation. In notable posts at Organic Valley and Kiss My Face, he drove triple-digit revenue growth, developed strategic innovation capabilities, grew brands’ emotional connections with consumers, and expanded brands into new categories and distribution channels.

He thrives on the front lines building disruptor brands that connect emotionally with people who want their purchases to enable change in the world. He hires great teams and enables them to take ownership of their success and get out of their comfort zones where both personal satisfaction and business success can be found. 

While at Organic Valley, he was gifted a package of Maine Crisps. He loved the product, understood the market potential of better-for-you snacks, and was inspired by the Maine-grown buckwheat that forms the basis of the naturally gluten-free crisps. He joined the Maine Crisp board of directors for a 2-year term, and became CEO in November 2022. In his first year as CEO, they tripled sales revenue over 2022 levels. He presided over major operational and marketing initiatives including a rebrand, a new product line with three SKUs; onboarding a new national broker; and increasing points of distribution from 400 to 2,000 across the country. They are on their way to becoming category-defining brand in buckwheat’s trajectory as the next superfood in the natural & organic sector.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Lewis:

• It is okay to take risks and make mistakes. 
• We need to recognize that what we put into our bodies is one of the main contributors to what we get out of life.
• 2024 is full of big aspirations for Maine Crisp (hint, hint: launching at Whole Foods, Thrive, and other regional natural food chains). 

Ben Miller, VP of Original Content for Shoptalk & Groceryshop, joins Jennifer and Risa for a special Shoptalk recap episode of CPG Scoop!

Ben is endlessly fascinated by retail. He started as a grocer, working for Safeway in marketing, commercial and investor relation roles. He is constantly curious, though, and soon discovered working for just one company wouldn't be enough. He soon found himself agency-side, consulting to help CPG's develop their business by providing great customer understanding and insights. He loves travel, have constant wanderlust, and have spent more than two decades now working on global retail. He still lives (mostly) in London, working mainly on European and US retail, his two favorite places in the world.

He became totally fascinated with the digital transformation of retail and growth of eCommerce, so it didn't take long before he started hanging out and speaking at Shoptalk. He now gets to lead Shoptalk & Groceryshop's Original Content programme globally, working with amazing insight partners to bring brand new research to our shows. He gets to go on stage and interview some fascinating industry leaders, and he’s helping give his retail voice to shape our strategy and keep ensuring the relevancy of the world's best retail events.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Ben:

• Good conversation on the buzz around retail media and how retailers are coming to market.
• What can we learn in the CPG space from other sectors to drive volume?
• A tease of what themes we can expect at Groceryshop this fall!

Allie O'Brien, Vice President of Marketing at Harmless Harvest, joins Jennifer and Risa on the latest episode of CPG Scoop!

At Harmless Harvest, Allie leads brand building and all go-to-market executions for the brand. In her four plus years at Harmless Harvest, she’s crystalized a mission and vision for the purpose-driven brand, launched a direct to consumer e-commerce platform that keeps loyal brand lovers hydrated, and developed fun and impactful brand awareness campaigns that firmly place the brand in culture and generate buzz and conversation around the brand’s deliciously refreshing coconut beverages and tasty coconut yogurts. Prior to joining Harmless Harvest, O’Brien worked at The Clorox Company on brands like Hidden Valley Ranch and Kingsford. Outside of her virtual office you can find Allie on a trail, river or bike, exploring Montana, where she lives with her husband and pup, Pico. O’Brien holds an MBA from the Berkeley Haas School of Business and a BSFS from Georgetown University.

Our favorite takeaways from this episode with Allie:

• Why she chose iterative as her one word to describe her approach to marketing in 2024 and how that inspires her team at Harmless Harvest.
• How launching into a new category triggered a team-led analysis of how to properly repackage and showcase their new product.
• As marketers, we should believe that our work is driving the business.