Did you know that the self-help guru Tai Lopez (aka “here in my garage” guy) is the son of a professional bodybuilder? Why exactly could that useless piece of trivia knowledge be important now? Let’s connect the dots between what Tai Lopez has been focusing on professionally for the last three years and bodybuilding. In 2019, Tai Lopez and his business partner Alex Mehr founded the private equity firm Retail Ecommerce Ventures. The goal is to transform well-known undervalued retail brands into ecommerce success stories. Which retail brand in the bodybuilding world fits that description? In a recent press release, Retail Ecommerce Ventures stated they acquired the supplement online retailer Bodybuilding.com. While a lot of details are fuzzy right now, I'll explore why Retail Ecommerce Ventures and Bodybuilding.com believe this would be a potentially valuable strategic partnership.

Previous Tai Lopez (Retail Ecommerce Ventures) YouTube Video

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is an absolute Rockstar. Before becoming the Chief Digital Officer at one of my favorite digital-first CPG brands HighKey, he was the Co-Founder of the meal delivery company Factor_ that sold to Hello Fresh for almost $300 million. We cover a crucial story at the end of our conversation about how that exit event brought him zero monetary value. Ryan also shares his thought about the changing role of the CMO inside the CPG industry. Additionally, we talked about how platform arbitrage and mediocrity will no longer cut it when you’re trying to grow through DTC ecommerce. These are just some of the interesting topics we covered in this episode...  

Ryan Rouse LinkedIn

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Will the protein bar competitive landscape continue to be envious of market leader Quest Nutrition as the economy falls into a recession? In this latest episode, I'll utilize the 2022 Q3 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 6/30/2022 as the backdrop to provide broad health and fitness snacking market insights. In Q3 of fiscal 2022, both brands had strong retail takeaway growth, with Quest Nutrition specifically having more than 30% growth. I hate using the “R-word” before its official, but with the yield curve inverting recently you have a high probability of a recession happening soon. Even the Atlanta Fed GDPNow gauge is predicting the second quarter running at negative 1%. Coupled with the first-quarter’s GDP decline of 1.6%, that would fit the technical definition of recession. So, how does the nutritional snacking category perform during this recession? Also, how does the Simply Good Foods Company do in a recession? I think many of the assumptions laid out in this content will be a net-positive for Quest Nutrition and Atkins Nutritionals. It’s a decent setup for the company to likely thrive comparative to most of the competitive landscape. It’s going to be a wild period for any functional CPG brand, but I think humans will continue to invest in themselves and the categories will be resilient even though they are considered consumer discretionary and not consumer staples.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on today’s episode is an absolute gem of a person. We always have a blast when we talk shop, so I was excited when I finally persuaded him to join me on camera. Most recently, Nomit Shah was the CFO that quarterbacked Onnit’s exit to Unilever, but you’ll also hear him speak from the perspective of being a highly successful startup investor and advisor. Nomit shared his thoughts around the deepening role that CFOs need to be taking on during periods of uncertainty and the challenging marketplace. We also discussed what should go into the decision-making process when CPG brands are choosing a capitalization strategy. Additionally, I ask Nomit to provide insights on common land mines and missed focal areas that CPG brands run into when readying themselves for a liquidity exit. These are just some of the fascinating topics we covered in this awesome episode.

Nomit Shah LinkedIn

This content was supported by Parker. If you’re interested in learning more information about how Parker makes ecommerce growth easier, head over to www.GetParker.com or reach out to me directly and I’ll connect you with the relevant team member to set up your $500 sign-up bonus for this month.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

It’s been about two years since a pair of PepsiCo major events caused the great energy drink DSD shake-up, so why is the beverage giant again at the heart of another shock to the growing beverage category? According to a Bang Energy press release on June 22, 2022, effective immediately, both parties will enthusiastically and strategically cooperate in a nationwide joint effort to transition from PepsiCo distribution to Bang Energy’s new DSD partners. This officially puts an early end to one of the most toxic relationships in recent beverage industry history. One that underperformed from the very beginning and sapped Bang Energy of its historic growth momentum. So, now what? Does everything that happened in the last two years just go back to normal. Well…if you haven’t learned anything about the last two years…there’s a new normal that we all need to get comfortable with now. Fact is, Bang Energy is still the third largest energy drink brand with 7.3% dollar share of a very important beverage category. Those types of free agents just don’t come around ever, so it’s no surprise that many of the same DSD partners that helped Bang generate its billion-dollar momentum will be back in the mix once again. But it’s presumed the brand will no longer be able to command exclusivity at these DSD distributors that stocked offerings with other energy brands once Bang Energy exited. Do you kick out Celsius Holdings that’s grown immensely in the last two years…no! Do you kick out C4 Energy that has had impressive growth…no! Does many of the AB InBev DSD partners allocate less resources to growing the GHOST Energy brand…hell no! So, what’s the predicted strategic game plan now for the biggest energy drink portfolios after the Bang and PepsiCo spilt?

Energy Drink DSD Shake-Up of 2020

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is the "prebiotic dietician" and Founder/CEO of Uplift Food, Kara Landau. She was the absolute perfect guest to help me dive into the uber important functional CPG trend of gut health. Kara and I talked about how her company is making gut health approachable, how our health starts at the gut, and why taking an early investment from Mondelez International has helped her make an impact on Big CPG product development. We also tackle the fascinating convergence of psychobiotics and psychedelics that could be an important element in the future of mental health. These are just a few of the interesting topics discussed in this episode...

Kara Landau LinkedIn

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Gaming and esports can be described in many ways. It’s a vibrant and fast-growing sector of the economy. It’s a legitimate means of monetization in today’s attention economy. It’s an entertainment medium for billions of enthusiasts around the globe. With an increasing number of people playing, broadcasting, and watching esports, the already booming, multi-billion-dollar gaming ecosystem is without a doubt cementing itself as a straight up cultural phenomenon. So, why might gaming and esports also be one of the most misunderstood opportunities for supplement brands in the supplement industry right now? In this video, I will explore a variety of trending topics within the gaming supplements market and also speak with key members of the ADVANCEDgg team to provide some additional depth and first-person operator perspective to this content.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is Sal Frisella, President of 1st Phorm, which is one of the largest sports nutrition brands in the industry. This is not a conversation you are going to want to skip through…it was extremely fascinating from start to finish. Sal and I talk extensively through some of the special sauce aspects of 1st Phorm, including their best-in-class brand ambassador program, being 100% customer-centric, use of fitness challenges to change lives, and building a company culture that reverberates throughout their entire customer community.

Sal Frisella LinkedIn

This content was supported by Compound Solutions. In fact, you can find several Compound Solutions ingredients utilized within the 1st Phorm product portfolio, including the cognitive and physical performance enhancer, TeaCrine. If you’re interested in attaining more information on any of the unique, science-backed ingredients supplied by Compound Solutions, head over to www.CompoundSolutions.com or reach out to me directly and I’ll connect you with the relevant team member.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

How many different licensed SKUs have been commercialized within the active nutrition CPG categories since late-2016? If you said more than 200 and counting, then you’d be correct. Did that number surprise you? Well…it surprised the heck out of me and that’s coming from a deep practitioner inside the industry. That being said, how many are too many licensed SKUs in the active nutrition CPG categories? I don’t think we are anywhere near a dense saturation level when you look across the entire sales channel landscape. You might have an argument that specialty retail is getting heavier, but we haven’t hit the point of substantial diminishing marginal returns yet. In my opinion, licensing is just getting started in the active nutrition categories. GHOST Lifestyle was able to change the game with its first licensed product in late-2016, but it will take more than innovation to parity to push the supplement industry forward. It’s about being different…not better than incumbents in this next phase. To win, it will need to be done through depth of authentic storytelling that’s aligned with your sales channel strategy.

Track All Licensed Flavor Collabs in Active Nutrition CPG Categories

While I was putting this content together, I realized it was the third piece in an unofficial content series covering the licensing strategy inside the active nutrition CPG market...

This content was supported by Synergy Flavors. If you’re interested in learning how Synergy Flavors can help your CPG brand stay one step ahead of the competition by developing high quality taste solutions, head over to www.SynergyTaste.com or reach out to me directly and I’ll connect you with the relevant team members.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is a really great friend of mine Ronak Shah, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of the fast-growing nutricosmetics brands OBVI. Ronak and I talk a lot about the OBVI online community. How it was built. What they’ve done to keep it thriving past 50K members and why it’s the most important brand asset they own. We also breakdown of the mechanics of how OBVI was able to launch so many different SKUs with being a 100% bootstrapped brand. That includes some cheat codes that OBVI has stumbled on that helps them improve their cash conversion cycle. These are just a few of the interesting topics discussed in this episode...  

Ronak Shah LinkedIn

This content was supported by Parker. If you’re interested in learning more information about how Parker makes ecommerce growth easier, head over to www.GetParker.com or reach out to me directly and I’ll connect you with the relevant team member to set up your $500 sign-up bonus for this month.

FOLLOW ME ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS