The Longer Game

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

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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]

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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

Humans have a tendency to shy away from failure, and for good reason. 

It hurts. It could cost us our jobs. 

But what if on the other side of that failure lived an innovation that drove amazing change? 

Maybe we'd think about failure differently. We think so. 

R.J. Talyor, CEO & Founder of Backstroke, joins us on this episode to talk about his favorite subject: failure. 

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 

Walt Disney also said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." 

The current economy surrounding AI has a lot of hype but also a lot of potential. There is this potential for us to leverage AI to allow us to be more human, yet we tend to focus on the dark side where humans are no longer needed. 

Sure, change is coming. 

People will lose jobs or remain out of work because of AI tech implementation. 

But could there be more that lives on the other side of that? We think so. 

Grab your goggles and swim cap and let's dive right into it.

What they cover

1. AI has evolved dramatically from the 1950s to where we are now in the world of generative AI. It's enabled us to do things better & faster.
2. All the AI hype about job replacement and destruction is an alamarist signaling for attention. The reality is change is on the horizon and there will be job loss but the potential is incredible.
3. Beyond the AI hype is true creativity again. AI allows us to take the things machines can do well off our plates and truly lean into our humanness, i.e. creating art or building relationships.
4. AI needs a why and an end goal to truly be functional. You can't just implement AI technology. You need to know why you're doing it and what you hope to achieve at the end of it for it to truly be a successful project.

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: 

R. J. Talyor is a leading voice in email marketing and applied AI. A veteran of ExactTarget, he founded Pattern89, acquired by Shutterstock in 2021. Today he is Co-Founder & CEO of Backstroke, helping brands use AI to drive 10 to 30% more revenue from email, SMS, and mobile.

Connect with R.J.: 

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

Website: https://www.backstroke.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

Being a Founder is hard. There are an endless barrage of obstacles facing you at any given moment. Doing that with a Co-Founder, well that often feels harder because now you've got two people who need to make the decisions: two people who aren't always on the same page.

What if we told you there was a better way to do it?

What if you could build with a Co-Founder by leveraging your strengths and taking ego out of it?

Well your day has arrived. Kiki Couchman, Co-Founder of Sourmilk, joins us on this episode to discuss what it's like to intentionally build a CPG company as a big fish in a small pond, how to be a great Co-Founder, and why your gut health is so damn important. Kiki and her Co-Founder Elan Halpern has something special going on here.

We dive into the excitement of early stage building, showcasing how being scrappy is an amazing skill set.

Unsure of the difference between an influencer and a content creator? Yeah we cover that too. Grab a spoon, your sourmilk, and get ready for earful.

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: 

Sourmilk is an NYC-based, women-founded brand creating organic, grass-fed, Greek-style yogurt designed specifically for gut health. Kiki Couchman is Co-Founder, building Sourmilk to make gut health accessible through everyday food.

Connect with Kiki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-kiki-c-242929112/

Website: https://sourmilk.com

Instagram: @getsourmilk | @couchwoman

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