The Longer Game

Product intentionality and the right team make the difference. Kevin Michaluk of Clicks Technology shares the journey.

In the world of ecommerce, one thing is always true: you can't sell crap. Well, you can sell it for a while, but eventually the negative reviews and the consumer experiences catch up to you.

The difference maker between brands is intentionality. Being intentional about design, the story behind the product, and how you tell that story is what separates brands that grow and tank vs the ones that stick around for the long haul.

Not only does product intentionality matter, but having the right team around you makes all the difference. Getting A players who are willing to be scrappy with you, solve problems, and who you know you want to be in the game with, whether you get an L or a W, is how you build great things and enjoy your work at the same time.

There's a reason people, and those cool inspirational posters, say teamwork makes the dream work. Kevin Michaluk, Co-Founder and President of Clicks Technology, has lived this journey through and through and he joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share it all.

Set down your phone, press play, and let the good vibes roll.

What they cover

1. Ecommerce has evolved like crazy the past 20 years; you can't run the same plays now that you did back then. You have to evolve with the times
2. Product intentionality is the real differentiator between brands. It all starts with the product. Without a real story behind the product and the quality to back it up, you're dead in the water

3. Hardware companies can't wait until they love the product to launch it. If they do, they've waited too long. When you do launch, you get a lot of data that enables you to go and improve upon that product, in a way that testing in the lab just can't provide. You just can't make a big mistake when it comes to the product because it erodes trust and is costly

4. So often people allow their what to drive their why. Your why is the reason you're doing something; the what is just the vehicle for your why.

5. Scale does not have to mean instant growth. So many people hear scale and think it's a hockey stick up and to the right immediately from launch. It can look like lessons learned over decades and eventually reaching greater growth but not all scale looks the same

6. If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Build great teams that you want to play the game with and that you're okay taking some Ls with. Losing could just mean a bad season.

Regroup, get the right players on your team and start stacking Ws together

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.
Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.
Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:
Kevin Michaluk, Co-Founder & President at Clicks Technology
Kevin is a tech industry legend and early smartphone influencer, best known as CrackBerry Kevin.

Connect with Kevin:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crackberrykevin/
Website: https://clicks.tech
Instagram: @crackberrykevin

About the Host:
Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher
Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology and The Longer Game Newsletter: https://thinkcartology.com and https://the-longer-game.beehiiv.com

#TheLongerGame #ProductBrand #BrandBuilding #RetailStrategy

Brands today are looking for all the levers. 

They want that extra edge to push their brand into the stratosphere. 

What if you could find an additional way to get in front of customers to grow your brand outside of traditional marketing and advertising? 

What if you could garner trust with consumers without them even knowing your brand? 

That's affiliate marketing in a nutshell. Influencers, Publishers, Media Companies, & Deal Sites are all different types of affiliates and Greg Potts, Senior Director of Partnerships at Levanta, joins us on today's episode to make sure we use the right mix to grow our brands. 

As affiliate marketing grows, it's become more than just selling products. Brand and affiliates need to have depth. 

What is the brand about? Why should I care what this affiliate has to say? 

Without those things, you become yet another voice in a sea of noisy content. 

Get your phone, your ring light, and get ready to start influencing people.

Season 4 Episode 17 — Greg Potts 

What they cover

1. Brands are looking for additional levers to pull to increase visibility and revenue and influencers are becoming one of those regular levers to pull.
2. Influencer marketing has evolved into what we now see as the creator economy. It's no longer just about selling a boat load of product. Consumers want to resonate with messaging behind the product.
3. Affiliates, especially listicles, or a list style article from a well known publisher ofter, can have massive impact on LLM rankings because of how they value that content. Don't just use influencers. Use the whole aresenal of affiliates.
4. Different sized brands need to have different playbooks but all great affiliate programs start with a great product. You can't sell crap for very long.
5. Timing matters for content. Expectations may be high for how well content will perform but don't be afraid to recycle or redo content if it didn't hit the first time.
6. People go to agencies because of their expertise. They are solving problems other people have never seen before. And bad experiences with agencies often require a reframing of brands approach the service, which really great agencies can help them do.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:

Greg Potts is the Senior Director of Partnerships at Levanta, where he leads global agency collaboration and growth. Before Levanta, he was a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Amazon. At Levanta he has partnered with over 200 agencies worldwide, helping their brand clients use Levanta's creator-powered affiliate network to grow awareness and sales.

Connect with Greg: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-potts/ 

Website: https://www.levanta.io 

Instagram: @gregrosspotts

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher 

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

Relationships are hard, right?

Right.

Being genuinely interested in another person, not focusing on yourself, takes you realizing you aren't the center of the universe.

It's true but we don't always see it that way.

And as humans have become more tech enabled, we've also become more isolated.

People are looking for connection.

They're looking for community.

They're looking for someone to get into the ring and do life with.

We're not just talking about business partners or spouses.

Brands that want to stand out today have to be authentically inviting customers on journey with them.

Jess Chan, Founder & Executive Chair, & Rachyl Neidecker, CEO & Partner, both at Longplay know a thing or two about successful partnerships and doing life together.

These two balance each other out well: one being more bold and the other more reserved. And they both help the other grow in the areas that need growing.

They have an authenticity and honesty between the two of them that is often lacking between brands and their customers.

They only way brands will win today is to be about more than just product.

They need a mission and purpose.

Go get your surf board, get to the ocean, and get ready to ride the wave with us.

What they cover

1. Partnerships are difficult and honesty, mixed with empathy, is necessary to make them work. But working with people you like makes your work better, so choose wisely.

2. AI provides so much production today that it creates noise.

3. Reaching humans doesn't mean being without tech.

4. Selling products was initially about riding the wave of ecommerce because of it's newness, that increased accessiblity.

5. Retention starts at the very beginning, which means your product has to be worth buying in the first place.

6. Starting a brand today is way different than it was a decade ago. Timing matters. Acquisition is more expensive and there is generally more production out there that makes noise.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:

Jess Chan and Rachyl Neidecker lead Longplay, an embedded operating partner for DTC and ecommerce brands. Over seven years, Longplay has worked with 200+ brands, from pre-revenue to $600M+.

Connect with Jess and Rachyl:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/19167192

Website: https://www.longplaybrands.com

Instagram: @longplay_brands

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com

For all the doom and gloom in the world surrounding GenAI, there are glimmers of hope. 

Ritu Java, CEO of PPC Ninja, is one of those glimmers. 

She joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to talk about how she's leveraging GenAI and creating superpowered teams, not replacing people. 

Amazon is complex. And the ability to synthesize and then analyze data takes a lot of time. 

GenAI has allowed her to cut that time down significantly and focus more on creating solutions. 

It's not just the time to create solutions. It's the quality of the outputs that are significantly better. 

While GenAI will certainly take some jobs away, she sees this as an exciting time for technology and advances of what us humans are able to do. 

Grab a splash of positivity and get ready to look into the future.

What they cover:

1. We live in an exciting era, where an individual's quality has improved dramatically, giving them a super power.

2. The speed at which change is happening makes it a much different day and age than previous tech advancements like the Industrial and Internet Revolutions.

3. The process is greater than an SOP. SOPs can limit creativity and create monotony.

4. Anticipating certain kinds of anomaly detection is difficult because it's very hard, if not impossible, to predict something that's never happened before.

5. Intent based shopping goes even deeper than getting what you want.

6. We're moving away from an era of keyword only shopping and driving the direction of "ranking" with demographics, i.e. showing up as the most relevant product for a specific group.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:

Ritu Java is the founder of PPC Ninja, a Advertising and Creative Services agency for the AI era helping brands scale with omni-channel advertising and AI-ready content. She's an award winning speaker and keynote speaker, spoken at over 200 industry events, including Amazon Accelerate, Billion Dollar Seller Summit and Prosper Show.

Connect with Ritu:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritujava/

Website: https://www.ppcninja.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ppcninja/

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com

As content marketing has grown, so has the volume of content being produced. Consumers are overwhelmed with content across platforms from all the brands that are vying for their attention.

The question now is how do you stand out?

How do brands actually reach their customers?

Tim Bradley, Co-Founder and Executive Producer at Pennant, gives us the low down on why video is the answer. Video has a way of articulating a point in a way that no other medium can but it has to be done right.

Pennant's video marketing trifecta of differentiation, demonstration, and validation is exactly how they establish a level of trust between brands and consumers that pulls them into the brand, leaving them with a desire for more.

You might think that telling every story and reaching every audience in that 60 second video is the way to go but the worst brand color is beige for a reason: it's safe and it conveys no message.

Grab a paint brush with some bright colors and let's start painting the path towards real connection with customers in this episode of The Longer Game.

What they cover

1. The consumer's journey starts with awareness, then consideration, and finally conversion.
2. With so many people in the buying committee these days at businesses, it takes time, months and sometimes years, to close the deal.
3. There's no silver bullet when it comes to content marketing. Talk with your customers and identify sentiments and themes in those conversations. Then learn from them and apply them to your content.

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The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

_________________________________________________________________________

About the Guest:

Tim Bradley is the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Pennant Video, a B2B video marketing agency that pioneered the Video Marketing Trifecta, a framework that helps technology companies build stronger mid-funnel strategies. With nearly two decades of experience, Tim has partnered with brands including Cisco, Hitachi, and Philips.

Connect with Tim:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-bradley-pennant/

Website: https://pennant.video/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pennant.video

_________________________________________________________________________

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

_________________________________________________________________________

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com

Pressure in the CPG world to raise capital, spend capital, and grow quickly is real.

Capital expenditure is a necessity with the push to get into more retailers, advertise, scale up production, build the right team, and the list goes on and on.

What if there were a different way?

What if you could be more intentional about your growth, build a strong footing in your community, and develop deep relationships that gave you leverage?

Wynn Austin, Founder & CEO of Wynn's Kitchen, is taking that approach, i.e. slow & steady growth. Building relationships with regional retailers like Erewhon over the course of several years has given her credibility and the velocity she needs to be successful and profitable. Big box stores may have never given her that chance, due to the time expectancy around building on-shelf velocity.

Grab your coconut aminos and let's start seasoning.

What they cover

1. Consumers are more health conscious than ever, which has impacted buying decisions over the past several years.
2. For better or worse, your body is incredibly adaptable. You often don't know how bad you feel until you get rid of certain foods from your diet and reintroduce them later.
3. Everyone has to be an advocate for their own health. We have access to so much knowledge. We just need to investigate and have conversations with healthcare professionals about our goals. We can use food and medicine as part of one holistic toolbox, instead of living in the extremes of either/or.

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The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

_____________________

About the Guest:

Wynn Austin is a San Diego based entrepreneur, mom, and joyful ambassador for healthy living. Born in Vietnam and raised in the States, she stayed connected to her roots through Vietnamese cuisine. After facing personal health challenges, she began a healing journey that meant cutting sugar, soy, and gluten, and she saw how many store-bought sauces hid sugar and highly processed ingredients. That led her to recreate her favorite Vietnamese dishes in a cleaner way and to launch Wynn's Kitchen, her line of better-for-you Asian sauces.

Connect with Wynn:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynnaustin/

Website: https://wynnskitchen.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wynnskitchen/

_____________________

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

_____________________

Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

Brands have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to channels. And the whole thing can be a bit confusing.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, however, is not casting a wide enough net.

Raj Shah, VP of Sales at Obvi, chops it up with us on this episode of The Longer Game to talk about how to approach channel expansion.

The number one thing every brand needs is more eyeballs. And you can't get more eyeballs if you aren't in the locations at which your customers shop.

Consumers today have access to more information than ever before and a myriad of options to choose from when it comes to purchasing. Not being where they're at means losing a net new customer.

Grab a scoop of collagen and shaker bottle, shake that thing up, and press play for another amazing episode.

What they cover

1. Don't settle for on narrow retailers. Think bigger and keep your net wide because visibility is important for the success of any brand.

2. Instead of asking yourself why, ask yourself why not? It changes the way you view things. Instead of liming you, it opens up your mind to a world of possibilities.

3. In today's day and age, you have to meet customers where they are, because you can't capture new customers if you aren't where they're shopping.

4. Listen to your customers and your buyers. Take the feedback you're receiving and be willing to make tweaks to your product. That level of openness can be the exact thing that opens doors for you.

5. Consumers have more information now than ever before. This gives them a lot of power. They decide where they purchase and when. That should be something that influences your channel strategy.

6. Trade spend shouldn't be viewed in isolation per channel. So many brands make the mistake of only looking at return per channel, forgetting consumers don't make purchasing decisions in a linear fashion. Always look at spend beyond each channel with a more holistic view.

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The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

_______________________

About the Guest:

Raj Shah is the VP of Sales at Obvi, a collagen and supplements brand. Based in New Jersey, Raj leads retail and channel expansion end to end, from earning buyer interest to executing on shelf, across accounts including Walmart and a fast-growing grocery footprint now spanning 22,000+ locations.

Connect with Raj:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raj-shah-114664247/

Website: https://myobvi.com/

_______________________

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

_______________________

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com

What makes a brand great?

Is their logo?

Their slogans?

Maybe, just maybe, it goes way deeper than that.

Good brands sell products. But good is the enemy of great. Great brands know their Why. Great brands have great products. They have great customer service. They obsess over achieving their Why and go above and beyond to get there. If more brands truly believed in their product and the reason they got started in the first place, well, we'd be inundated with great brands! Chief Commercial Officer & President of New Ventures at Bobbie, Sara Ahmed Holman, joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share why Bobbie is winning all over the place.

They know their Why. They obsess over getting the best product into the hands of moms so they can feel good about what they feed their babies. Don't sleep on this episode. Let your baby do that.

Grab a bottle, put in your headphones, and feed that baby!

What they cover

1. Staying true to your brand identity and knowing your why is crucial for all brands that want to have staying power.

2. Many brands mistake virality for brand building. Chasing the trend isn't what builds a brand. Chasing trends means you bend your Why around the What. And your Why should always dictate your What.

3. Breakout brands are the ones who are building the brand and trust over time with the consumer. One way you build trust is through great product, That is at the core of every iconic brand. It's absolutely essential that you have great product in order for you to have longevity.

4. We're in a dangerous situation right now where we believe that building something fast means we're building something great.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:

Sara Ahmed Holman is Chief Commercial Officer & President of New Ventures at Bobbie, the infant formula company that came to market in 2021. Before Bobbie, Sara led growth and partnerships at Innovation Endeavors, the venture firm founded by Eric Schmidt, focused on food, agriculture, and life sciences. Earlier she held operating and leadership roles at Lookout and Weebly (acquired by Square). A UCLA School of Law graduate, Sara co-founded the Food and Beverage Team at Bryan Cave and has advised numerous CPG and health startups.

Connect with Sara:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraahmed/

Bobbie: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bobbie-baby/

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology 

https://thinkcartology.com

Food & Beverage brands often start a business with a very personal why: a family member got cancer and needed healthier food, the founder went through a health crisis of their own, allergies led to creating a new formulation of a popular product. 

As your business grows, however, the demands can pull you in many different directions. 

Raising money, gaining entry to more retailers, adjusting product-market fit, Amazon growth; they all take your focus off of why you started this thing in the first place. 

Jordan Buckner, CEO of Foodbevy, joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share his experiences with why he started a business, why he eventually exited, and why he is helping other founders now on their journey. 

One of his biggest epiphanies came from realizing his identity was tied to being CEO of his company. He wasn't sure what could possibly be next if it didn't work out. 

The truth is simple: everyone shows up to the table enough. You don't have to achieve anything to be enough. You don't have to do anything to be worthy of being loved. 

Grab your favorite protein bar, take a bite, and let those neural pathways develop as we get started.

What they cover:

1. Founders often build from a place of passion or need and but not the proper business acumen to create strong unit economics, which make for a long-lasting CPG brand.

2. Right now it's very easy to start a food & beverage business in the beginning because of all the resources and the partners but there is a ginormous chasm between that and building a profitable and self-sustaining brand.

3. Brands often start with why but it's easy to lose it along the way because of the needs of the business pulling you in so many directions.

4. Successful CPG brands have to be built on an amazing product. You may be able to sell it once but getting consumers to keep buying is a different story.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest:

Jordan Buckner is the CEO of Foodbevy, a media platform that helps food and beverage founders grow from the early startup days through scaling, with inspiring stories, education, and connections to great partners. Before Foodbevy, Jordan founded and ran T-Squares, a line of energy bars, an experience that shapes how he supports founders today.

Connect with Jordan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbuckner/

Website: https://www.foodbevy.com

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com

Is retail dead? It appears that way but considering 80% of sales still happen in retail stores, what gives? 

Ecommerce and marketplaces like Amazon have provided an amazing convenience factor, changing how consumers shop. This has taken business from brick & mortar retailers but not without a fight. 

BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store) has emerged as a way to provide convenience while leveraging selection. Walmart, Target, Kroger, and many other larger retailers have enabled this to keep pace. 

But more is still desired. 

Al Schuster, President of Polaris Brand Promotions, joins us on this episode to make the case for why retailers need to make their stores experiential if they want to retain their customer base. 

It's not just samples but creating experiences that invite people in and engage them in a way that retailers just don't seem to be leveraging currently. 

Grab a sample, or 5, and press play.

What they cover

1. Retail is always changing but the changes have been more dramatic in the past 20 years with Amazon entering the marketing and now rapid tech advances at stores.
2. In store engagement is challenging right now due to stores providing better tech enablement, i.e. ordering on apps or at touch screens instead of from a live human.
3. Retail stores control the environment in the store but since consumers aren't shopping as much in stores or even in the same way, brands need to think long and hard about their investment in these stores and what that looks like to get the best ROI.
4. Ecommerce has a way of taking the shopping out of shopping. Think signage, music, looking at actual items, which removes the ability to both experience the product and shop by comparison.
5. Hiring a brand ambassador may be the one of the best things a brand could do today. Why? It builds engagement and real connection, something missing from current in store interactions. And in doing so, you build more brand ambassadors after the fact, giving your brand real momentum.

The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.

The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.

Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt.

Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.

Learn more: https://thelongergame.com

About the Guest: 

Al Schuster is the President and Owner of Polaris Brand Promotions, a nationwide experiential marketing and promotional staffing agency.

Connect with Al: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aschuster4379 

Website: https://polarisbrandpromotions.com

About the Host:

Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability.

Connect with Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher

Email: [email protected]

Sponsored by Cartology

https://thinkcartology.com