Monster Beverage Corporation, maker of Monster Energy drinks, is purchasing CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, a portfolio of craft beer and hard seltzer brands, for $330 million in cash. What? Why? OK. This shouldn’t be that big of a surprise for those of you that consume my content regularly. The deal gives Monster Beverage Corporation a foothold in the alcohol market through a nationwide network of breweries and distribution connections. This has been a goal the energy drink company has telegraphed since 2019 when CEO Rodney Sacks stated on an earnings call that they had an appetite for the alcoholic beverage market. So, why did Monster Beverage buy and not build or partner to make its alcohol dreams become a reality? However things play out in the future, this Monster Energy and Canarchy deal will certainly be an early case study to the converging beverage landscapes. Depending on success, it will likely set off a domino effect of other deeper strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

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Based on the popularity of this trend prediction video from the last three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Retail Industry Trends or Event Predictions in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predictions valuable to review as they likely still have huge commercialization value.

In no particular order, here are my prediction for Top 5 Retail and Commerce Industry Predictions in 2022;

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If you haven’t heard yet, Starbucks and Amazon recently entered into a retail partnership. This new store concept is called the Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go Experience. My gut reaction to hearing this news leak a few months ago was one of exuberance. Now that the first official location in midtown Manhattan NYC is open, it’s easy to see that these pickup-only Starbucks stores paired with Amazon Go are going to be a fucking work of business partnership art. While long-term plans for this partnership are still unknown, three Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go locations are planned for the initial test, with two more scheduled to open this year. So, why is this a really exciting retail partnership for both companies?

My Amazon Go Experience = https://youtu.be/pG_4FVLWtik

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Based on the popularity of this trend prediction content from the last three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Sports & Active Nutrition Industry Trends in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predictions valuable to review as they likely still have huge commercialization value.

In no particular order, here are my prediction for Top 5 Sports and Active Nutrition Industry Trends in 2022:

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Have you noticed that Quest Nutrition is impressively executing on a very difficult CPG strategy, yet The Simply Good Foods Company isn’t getting enough credit for it? In this latest episode, I'll utilize the 2022 Q1 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 1/5/2022 as the backdrop to provide broad health and fitness snacking market insights. In Q1 of fiscal 2022, both brands had strong retail takeaway growth, with Quest Nutrition specifically having more than 36% growth. Quest Nutrition also has seen massive success in its Quest Nutrition Protein Chips. It has been the single biggest contributor to the growth in Quest Nutrition household penetration growth and the product has brought in a significant number of new buyers that were incremental to the brand. Even with YoY growth more than doubling, the Quest Nutrition Chips could have been an even bigger impact to the brand if it wasn’t for lack of inventory due to outsized growth. Once more supply is brought online in 2022, there will be a huge opportunity for Quest Nutrition to continue extending into the salty snack aisle. “COVID-19 Effect” aided or not, I predict we will be looking back at this period in a few years and remarking on how catapulted the brand from a single-product category leader to a leading multi-category platform brand.

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How did J. Schall Consulting do in 2021? For those that only know me as a “content creator” shame on you, well I guess shame on me for not better explaining who I am and what I actually do for a living. I certainly don’t make money creating content, on the contrary, it costs me a shit ton of money in opportunity costs annually but don’t worry I’m not quitting anytime soon. The variety of business strategy content does serve as a great content marketing tool for my consulting company J. Schall Consulting. Believe it or not, 2022 will mark the ten-year anniversary of J. Schall Consulting.  Within the last almost decade, I’ve successfully built my boutique consulting company into a world-renowned leader in growth strategies for clients that are positioned inside the emerging and intersecting categories of functional food, beverage, and nutritional supplements. These CPG clients range in size from pre-launch to billion-dollar companies. They are also not always traditional consumer “brands”, as 2021 brought even more diversity in projects with one-third of all projects being on the supply side of the industry. These ranged from contract manufacturers to ingredient suppliers to agricultural technology to flavor companies and everything in-between. My projects focal points range throughout the full entrepreneurial ideation to consumerization cycle, with very few areas being outside of my wheelhouse. Before I get started with some recap statistics, I would like to thank everyone for making this my most impactful year ever. I know I said that last year, but we built on that momentum and that snowball rolling down the hill is growing in size. For those that trusted me by giving me some of your attention, I’m humbled and don’t take that for granted as I know the caliber of person that consumes my content and that time you give me is extremely valuable. For those that took it a step further and not only consumed but implemented something from my content into your business, you owe me dinner at the next trade show we are both at!  Just kidding and thank you to those that have messaged me privately saying something from XYZ piece of content helped you in 2021. For my clients, we anticipated that 2021 wasn’t going to be easy, but everyone kept a positive agile mindset. You trusted me and I can’t thank you enough for being a major part of my successful year. If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere, right?

Digital Nomad Lifestyle = https://youtu.be/31OBQDhl-ME

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Based on the popularity of this trend prediction content from the previous three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Functional Food and Beverage Product Trends in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predictions valuable to review as they likely still have huge commercialization value.

In no particular order, here are my prediction for Top 5 Functional Food and Beverage Product Trends in 2022: (1) Nutricosmetics and “Eating for Beauty” Markets Converge (2) Lab to Fork Becomes Red Hot (3) Sexual Health Isn’t Taboo Anymore (4) Putting All Your Cards on the Table Becomes Table Stakes (5) Commercialized Diversity

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Welcome to the 2021 J. Schall Consulting Awards. This is the third annual year-end awards show that focuses on better for you CPG product categories, along with the grocery, brick and mortar, and internet retailers. This is the pinnacle of award shows that are light on tradition, peppered with randomness, and heavy handed with personal bias.  While the awards categories were selected at random, the winners were thoughtfully considered and I provide my accompanying logic to make the content more insightful. A few of the awards categories include: ◼️ Best Better for You CPG Acquisition by CPG Competitor ◼️ Best Grocery Retailer  ◼️ Best Retail CEO ◼️ Best New Experiential Store Design ◼️ Best New Better For You CPG Beverage  ◼️ Best New Better for You CPG Food ◼️ Better for You CPG Beverage Brand of the Year ◼️ Better for You CPG Food Brand of the Year.

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Remember all those low barriers of entry that disrupted the functional CPG industry…well let’s just say things are becoming just a tad bit different now. The functional CPG space is incredibly competitive and very low switching costs at the consumer-level. That makes being a success story in the functional CPG market tough enough, but I do have some additional bad news. The way entrepreneurs historically did business pre-pandemic is over. Stop trying to hang on to the past, especially when you consider a scenario that few are talking about and that’s an elongated "COVID-19 Effect" situation. The quicker you learn to adapt/evolve, the more likely you’ll limit your business continuity risk. So, what am I talking about? The often-cited low barriers of entry within the functional CPG industry are starting to disappear, as the cost of starting a brand, growing a brand, and sustaining market share have increased substantially over the last two years.

This episode of the podcast will focus on five major themes of change:

While these might seem like distinct business concentrations, they are more interconnected than ever in today’s market. The functional CPG industry is entering a new era. One that will likely have higher barriers of entry. For functional CPG brands to prosper in the 2020s, they must embrace this new way of doing business or face higher business continuity risk going forward.

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Most times corporate marketing is extremely boring, but sometimes…it's different! Corporate marketing is a type of marketing that promotes the company as a whole, as opposed to individual products. Ultimately, the main goal of corporate marketing is to improve brand image, while strengthening relationships with your customers so they become brand advocates. When corporate marketing is working correctly, it should keep the flywheel spinning by attracting new customers, while engaging leads, and delighting current customers. For most companies, corporate marketing is performed through some boring tactic or strategy like writing a blog, press releases, posting dull things on social media, or regular investor reports if the company is a publicly-traded entity. What about the companies that do corporate marketing differently? That is what I want to highlight in this latest episode of my podcast. I collected ten examples throughout history that I think will be insightful, entertaining, and hopefully inspiring to all entrepreneurs.

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