Road 2 Retail

Episode # 82. Today we spend time discussing media with Buck Robinson - CEO of Retail + Response. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. Learn more at www.road2retail.com. Buck does a great job explaining in great detail how "traditional media" can help emerging brands drive awareness quickly in...

Episode # 81. Today's show we speak with David Koifman- VP of Sales for Kickfurther. A unique financing firm small and emerging brands need to have on their radar. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. Learn more at www.road2retail.com. The Road 2 Retail team and David discuss how Kickfurther can hel...

Episode # 80. On today's show the Road 2 Retail team runs through the brand details to double check for your brand as we roll into 2025. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. Learn more at www.road2retail.com. Consider today's episode a "pre-flight checklist" of details to make sure you are on top of wit...

On today's show we visit with Nancy Kalish - Founder and CEO of Rule Breaker Snacks. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. Learn more at www.road2retail.com. Nancy takes us through several of her key experiences establishing and growing her brand as well as sharing some key insights for other emergin...

Greg shares his approach to handling the emerging brand business challenges he has encountered over the course of his career. Some of the topics we discuss cover include: - Research is important, but so is getting your product into 'real people's hands' and getting their feedback directly. Art meets science! - Octonuts' key points of difference were "nutrient density", cl...

Episode # 77. On today's show, Bruce Montgomery and Tracey Priest discuss how a small, emerging or challenger brand should think about working with a broker. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. There is always a lot of discussion around what a broker does, what will they do for my brand, when do you hi...

Episode # 76. On today's show we speak with Paul Kenny - Operating Partner at Stride Consumer Partners. Paul discusses his views on the importance of the Sales function within an emerging brand. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. Paul has had a long, successful career building CPG brands of all sizes...

On today's show we visit with Rob Clemons of the rapidly growing emerging brand: Wonderbelly (VP - Supply Chain & Operations). Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. On today's podcast we discuss some of the learnings and actions this fast-growing brand has taken on their journey to date. These includ...

Episode # 74. This week veteran advertising executive Neil Foster (CEO of Agency Habitat) joins us on the Road 2 Retail podcast to share his thoughts and experiences with growing emerging brands. Please subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube channel. Plus- give us a follow on LinkedIn. On today's show Neil shares with us his views on the following topics:...

On December 4, 2024 the Road 2 Retail attended The Founder's Innovation Day program in NYC put on by ECRM and Retail Media IQ. Today we recap the program with Wayne Bennett, SVP Retail for ECRM/RangeMe. Wayne and his team organized this fantastic event bringing together emerging brand founder's and leading retailers where the day focused on the role emerging brands play in their categories. Other...

On today's show we spend time with Patty Klingbiel - The President at the market research firm - The Connell Group.  Patty and the team at The Connell Group have been helping consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands of all sizes, and at all stages of their lifecycle, plot a growth path forward successfully for many years.  On today's show some of the topics we cover in depth include:     1) The need f...

Episode # 71 Big Chalk's Rick Miller is back to share some new data about the state of the consumer as we head into the holiday shopping season. Rick Miller, Head of Sales & Marketing Effectiveness at Big Chalk, returns to share with us new data about the state of the consumer from their Tradeoff Consumer work. According to the National Retail Federation, approximately 19% of annual retail sal...

How to understand the effectiveness of your Retailer Media Network Ad Spend Episode # 70 An overview of these emerging platforms with Incremental's Executive Vice President - Skye Frontier. Subscribe to the Road 2 Retail podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, our YouTube channel and follow us on LinkedIn. On today's show we speak with Skye Frontier - Executive Vice President at Incremental. Skye's fi...

Understanding Your Consumer and Utilizing Research to Drive Your Brand Performance On the show today we spend time with Rick Miller, Head of Sales & Marketing Effectiveness at Big Chalk. Rick takes us through a detailed discussion covering: 1) What research tools should a brand utilize to ensure they understand their consumer and their brand's role in the category 2) The three key pieces of da...

What you need to know when buying or selling an emerging brand. On today's show we spent time with Rusty Ray of Alantra. Rusty has spent his career buying and selling brands (with a focus on healthcare) - offering counsel to both buyers and sellers regarding the best approach to executing a winning transaction. Among the key discussion points, Rusty offers his views on: 1) What a buyer should be a...

Thinking of joining an emerging brand? Thinking about bringing in outside talent? On today's show we speak with Hayes Reilly- Managing Partner at PeopleSuite. Hayes has had a long successful career placing senior executive talent with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) firms of all sizes. Today we cover two topics in depth: 1) How does an emerging brand founder or leader expand their leadership team as...

The Road 2 Retail team recently spent some time with Brandon Pogue- cofounder of TruLabs. TruLabs produces a great tasting and uniquely formulated product in the very competitive hydration space. Brandon tells us about how the brand morphed into a hydration focused brand and their commitment to a "science based and consumer approved" product design. Our discussion covers topics including: - The bl...

On today's show, Bruce & Tracey discuss how to go about expanding your small, emerging or challenger brand with an existing retailer. Often, brand leaders get distracted by defining growth as "more retailers" when growth actually means building and expanding your brand intelligently. However, the smart play may be to expand with a retailer you are already working with and having some success v...

Gaylord shares with us the backstory of launching their unique infant care brand - Buddle. Their team invested a lot of time and resources upfront on R&D, consumer testing, and pricing before making the move to selling product. The discussion also covers: - Buddle's launch hiccups (everyone has them!) - His view on building out a team and advisory panel that are highly skilled in their areas o...

On today's show we are fortunate to spend time with Elliot Begoun, the founder of TIG Brands. Elliot discusses their very comprehensive approach to helping founders grow their emerging brands by focusing on building a sustainable business and not just a brand. Elliot describes how TIG Brands utilizes 'The Collective' allowing brands within their ecosystem to utilize subject matter experts and then...

Learn how emerging brands can effectively work with Amazon from Anu Bliss - General Manager of Digital Commerce at The Emerson Group Getting your brand on Amazon is all many small, emerging and challenger brands think they need to do to be successful. As we learn in our discussion with Anu today- it is far easier said than done. The Amazon beast is constantly changing, and your business must be mo...

Getting an Emerging Brand Ready to Promote on Facebook On today’s episode, Erin lead's us in a discussion around what it takes for a small, emerging or challenger brand to get set up to advertise on Facebook. Specifically, we cover: - Do you know the process for setting up a business account on Facebook? - What do you need with regard to content (images and copy) to attract consumers? - Resist...

An Approach to Investing in Small & Emerging Brands Today we discuss investing in small, emerging and challenger brands with the co-founder of Loft Growth Partners- Andy Whitman. Over the course of his extensive career investing in small brands, Andy shares his thoughts on many topics including: - Raise money for the right reasons- not because others are - Don't raise too much money too so...

How to source, manage and utilize an influencer for your brand Many small, emerging and challenger brands are anxious to work with influencers to help build their brands, but where to start and how best to proceed? Alexis offers her insights into the critical role establishing goals for an influencer program plays (awareness, conversion, change in positioning, etc?), how to identify an ideal influ...

On this episode of the Road 2 Retail, we speak with Corey Scholibo, co-founder of Dayo and Wile. Corey and the Road 2 Retail team explore Corey’s experiences starting mission-driven brands such as Wile and Repurpose. Corey shares his experiences in developing these brands that resonate with both retailers and consumers. Corey also shares his insights into: • Best tactics to drive consumer demand •...