Harley Sutton, founder of Thanks Naturals, is all in on TikTok, using the platform to transform her all-natural beauty and wellness brand into a social commerce powerhouse. In this interview with Joseph Tarnowski, recorded on location at ECRM’s Everyday and Holiday Cosmetics, Skin, Fragrance & Bath Session in Dallas, Sutton shares the various ways in which she uses TikTok to stay engaged with customers and sell products.  

This includes tapping into TikTok’s organic affiliate model, sending out 200 samples daily to real users who create authentic, unscripted content, and hosting TikTok Live where she broadcasts for hours every day to answer customer questions in real-time, build deep community ties, and drive immediate sales on TikTok Shop. She also broadcasts live from retail locations to drive traffic into the stores. Ultimately, Sutton’s goal is to host TikTok Live broadcasts 24/7/365. 

Sutton shares everything brands need to know to incorporate TikTok Live streaming into their business, including equipment and setup, when, where, and how to broadcast, and different ways to engage the audience.

Bubbles & Mane,is a hybrid salon/spa concept in Astoria, N.Y. that offers a variety of beauty and wellness services in a beautiful, community-focused space. Just launched last year, the 2,500-square-foot facility spans two floors and offers a full-service Hair salon and color bar; luxurious head spa; nail, pedicure, and body wrap treatments; and a full-service spa with traditional facials and medical aesthetic procedures. 

In addition, it has more than 50 linear feet of space featuring clean beauty, wellness and lifestyle products carefully curated to make the look, feel and vibe of the place. To find some of these products, Owner and CEO Michelle DeMartino worked with RangeMe on an Immediate Opportunity campaign to find local, woman-owned brands that reflected her mission as well as the aesthetics of Bubbles & Mane.  

In this episode, Michelle takes us through a tour of the location and its offerings, shares details on how she worked with RangeMe to curate more than a dozen innovative brands for her retail space – one of which virtually sold out during the holidays!  

She also shares some of the unique activities and community events Bubbles & Mane will ost, as well as its expansion plans into other major U.S. cities.  

In this episode, Joseph Tarnowski speaks with Casey's Chris Stewart, VP of Merchandising, Phil Wilhelm, Senior Director of Center Store, and Lee Wilburn, Senior Director of Package Beverages, for an update on its 2nd Innovation Summit. This was the second Summit the 2,900+ store Midwest convenience chain held in partnership with RangeMe, during which selected brands met in-person with Casey’s category leaders for the opportunity to get on the shelves. 

Among the topics discussed are:  

• An update on brands onboarded from the 1st Innovation Summit 
• New brands that are in the process of being onboarded from the second Summit 
• Casey's 'test and learn' process with new brands 
• Enhancements to the Summit process, including an earlier timeline, focus on quality over quantity and a deeper level of engagement with brands during the in-person meetings 
• What Casey's looks for in brands and products 
• Advice for brands looking to participate in future Summits 

This is a must-listen episode for any brands looking to get on the shelves at Casey's! 

This episode features the full panel discussion on the CPG Growth Journey from the recent ECRM/retailmediaIQ Founders’ Innovation Day event held December 10 in NYC. 

The panel, moderated by ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski, featured three brand-owners, each at varying stages of growth: Obi Linton, Co-Founder of Nicobi Foods, a 5-year old brand that is growing fast; Luke Schneider, Founder of Fire Department Coffee, which launched about a decade ago and now has national distribution; and Hector Saldivar, Founder of Tia Lupita Foods, which successfully exited this year with a sale to Vilore Foods.

The founders shared insights about each stage of their brand’s growth journey covering the following topics:

• Early-stage funding: Creative ways to secure capital and resources to support growth
• The value of patience and perseverance for early-stage brands
• The value of taking a focused approach to growth
• When, why and how to pursue an exit strategy

This was a fun and engaging discussion, with a ton of takeaways for brands looking to successfully navigate their growth journeys!

In this episode, Joe from ECRM sits down with Kiowa Kavovit, founder of Eco Bandage, to discuss her journey of creating a waterproof, colored liquid bandage and skin protectant that "seals, heals, and conceals." What began with a Shark Tank appearance at age six has evolved into a decade-long formulation process to create a sustainable, flexible liquid bandage that replaces traditional sticker bandages. 

Kiowa shares her first major retail success with Meijer and details how the brand recently secured a Golden Ticket at Walmart's Open Call. The conversation also covers the critical pivot from minimal eco-packaging to retail-ready boxes to combat theft and improve shelf presence while still keeping to Eco Bandage's mission of sustainability. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

Product Innovation: How Eco Bandage offers a cellulose-based, flexible alternative to "crusty" liquid bandages, available in various skin tones and fun colors. 

The "Bleeding Thumb" Pitch: The story of how Joe accidentally sliced his finger before a meeting, allowing Kiowa's mom to demonstrate the product live and secure an order from Meijer. 

International Retail Expansion: The brand’s growth trajectory, from winning the ECRM Buyer's Choice Award in 2024 to launching internationally in Canada’s Sobeys stores. 

Packaging Strategy: Why the company shifted from loose bottles to a "two-pack" box design to solve shelf-footprint issues and offer better value, and how it leveraged ECRM's Contract Manufacturing events to do so. 

Future Innovations: A sneak peek at upcoming product lines, including liquid pimple patches that can be worn under makeup and clinical applications for hospitals. 

Throughout the conversation, you'll gain insights on how to best engage buyers and category managers, and what it takes to grow your CPG brand! 

How do you successfully launch an international brand into the competitive U.S. retail landscape?  

In this episode, Taylor Schaly, shares how she did it for Trainers Choice, a Canadian orthopedic support brand that can be found in most of the major pharmacy and grocery chains in Canada, including Shoppers Drug Mart, Pharma Choice, Loblaws and Metro, as well as in many independent retailers.  

Taylor discusses the company's unique "clinic-to-shelf" origin story, its commitment to sustainability using eco-friendly material for its supports and braces, and the strategic meeting that landed them a major deal with Ingles Markets via ECRM.  

In this discussion you'll find a masterclass in buyer meeting best practices, with actionable advice on pre-meeting research, tailoring your pitch, and the critical importance of follow-up for any CPG brand looking to expand distribution. 

Molly Blakeley, the dynamic founder of Molly Bz Cookies shares the secrets behind building an unforgettable brand and scaling a CPG business.  

Molly, who has been a serial entrepreneur since her teens, began her CPG journey as a single mom with only $150 to her name, to now having her gourmet cookies, known for their "weird" combinations like Hot Cheetos and Boba, sold in thousands of stores across the U.S. 

In this podcast, you'll learn: 

• The Power of the Pivot: Learn why pivoting is the "best skill" and how turning a "no" into a "yes" is a serial entrepreneur's mantra. 
• The importance of resilience: How to embrace failures as valuable lessons 
• Building retail partnerships: Molly shares her key advice on getting your foot in the door with a retailer, and the critical need to never make a move until the purchase order's ink is dry. 
• Scaling production: Discover how Molly manages rapid growth by working with eight different co-packers across the nation, specializing in everything from indulgent cookies to R&D. 
• How to Be UNFORGETTABLE: Get tips on standing out at buyer meetings, from creating a unique "shtick" to utilizing QR codes that link directly to a video about your brand. 

 Molly also discusses major wins through RangeMe and ECRM, her divinely-inspired flavors, and her phenomenal success with an exclusive cookie for Walmart, The Founder, which was developed in under 24 hours. 

In this episode, Fire Department Coffee Founder Luke Schneider, a former firefighter and Navy veteran, shares the company's inspiring journey – which began in 2016 as a direct-to-consumer business with a single blend and now is a successful national brand with several lines of products in approximately 10,000 stores.

Much of FDC’s success comes from adopting a highly-focused strategy rather than chasing high door counts; Luke is not afraid to walk away from a potential retail deal if it's not an ideal fit. This deliberate approach has led to its highly successful partnership with Walmart, which originated from a meeting at Walmart's Open Call event. Now Luke returns to the event every year to speak and mentor other startup brands. 

Luke also highlights the importance of having a vibrant brand culture and building a solid team of experts, and creating engaging, humorous, and educational content that builds a loyal community and keeps the brand top-of-mind, rather than merely promoting products. 

Emerging brands will learn what it takes to build and grow a successful brand, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls along the road to success!

Eco Bandage, The Crystal Charged Co. & FlickaFly are brands that have squeezed every drop of opportunity out of ECRM and RangeMe. Not only have they landed retail wins and gathered valuable insights from buyer meetings at ECRM Sessions across the Health & Beauty Care, Food & Beverage and General Merchandise Categories, but they have also found packaging and ingredient suppliers as buyers at ECRM’s Contract Manufacturing Sessions. 

On top of this, Eco Bandage recently landed a Golden Ticket at Walmart’s Open Call from its RangeMe submission and will soon be on the shelves at that retailer’s stores!

In this episode, ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski speaks with the four people charged with the success of these brands, three of which are family members: The Kavovits – Andrew, Jennifer and their daughter Kiowa, as well as Jennifer Baxter. 

Jennifer Kavovit and Jennifer Baxter are Co-Founders of The Crystal Charged Co., which makes Chakra Drop, a crystal filtered water that just landed a deal with Home Goods from ECRM’s recent Beverage Session. 

Kiowa Kavovit is the CEO of Eco Bandage, a colored liquid bandage that’s sustainably made and packaged, which landed a deal with Meijer from last year’s ECRM Health Care Session and the Golden Ticket from its Open Call event. 

Andrew Kavovit represented FlickaFly, an innovative fly swatter, at ECRM’s Impulse: Front End & Checklane Session to get buyer feedback for future development.

Andrew and Jennifer Kavovit also run Hatched Hub, an incubator for brands that helps launch new products, like Eco Bandage and Chakra Drop, and scale up existing ones. 

Fresh Scents’ Andrew Allen and ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski are HUGE fans of LinkedIn, and post and engage with people on the platform regularly. At a recent ECRM Session, they got together to each share what they love about the platform, and how they use it to support their efforts in connecting with other CPG retail industry folks.  

They covered a lot of ground in this one, including: 

• Overall LinkedIn philosophy 
• Types of posts that do well (and those that don’t) 
• How they each come up with ideas for content 
• Building their networks 
• Engaging with other people’s content 

They had a fun and insightful conversation, which could have lasted hours but for the fact that Andrew had a meeting scheduled and had to split after 30 minutes! 

Lots of great LinkedIn knowledge dropped here that will be useful for brand-owners looking to use the platform to support their existing sales efforts.