We live in wild times! With an internet connection, credit card, and a few clicks of your mouse, you can create a global retail distribution point and create marketing that has global reach. To be honest, we take for granted just how easy it is to go from idea to a multinational functional CPG brand. We’re living in the golden era of CPG entrepreneurship because of these borderless ecommerce and social media platforms. It’s VERY important though to not misconstrue that ease for believing a one-size-fits-all commercialization strategy is acceptable. Globalization is at a crossroads. Connecting to the global economy stimulates competition and innovation and gives access to other markets. While it has reshaped global economies, it also came at a cost to our environment and our communities. Being a multinational functional CPG shouldn’t mean you seek parity globally. A better balance between global and local, so-called glocalization, would offer a better mix of both worlds. Global template…local adaptations.

Consumer interest in caffeine has never been higher with a collection of recent surveys stating on average three-fourths of American adults consume caffeine daily. While coffee has been powering Americans before America was even a thing, more recently consumers are increasingly grabbing some of the other “energy everything” product categories. It makes sense, right? We live in the “Age of the Endless Aisle,” where there are more options in every CPG category than during any other point in history. It’s that proliferation of caffeine-containing products and them being well-entrenched into the lives of most Americans that's causing “energy everything” to become a certified consumer movement. Whether hitting the gym, staying at the top of your game during busy workweeks, or simply preparing for weekend activities, consumers continue to reach for energy drinks and energy supplement that are packed with caffeine and oftentimes nootropic ingredients to provide a physical and mental boost. But are there evolving sociological patterns that could be driving the massive growth of energy and nootropic products?

Special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) experienced a phenomenal rise and fall in 2020 and early 2021. The frenzy fizzled out because of intensified regulatory scrutiny and changing market dynamics but does that mean SPACs are gone forever in the CPG industry?

Who doesn’t enjoy a trick, shortcut, or innovative method for accomplishing familiar tasks more easily and efficiently, right? While these type of “life hacks” are heralded throughout society, it’s fraternal twin, known as biohacking, feels like a strange cultlike mix of amateur DIY medicine and things you’d read in futuristic sci-fi novels. Maybe there’s now a “perception is reality” problem happening now, and it’s time for a much needed biohacking rebrand to “best self” for it to be a commercially valuable movement to the CPG industry.

The fourth-largest beverage brand in the U.S. market just launched an energy drink, which is cool, but shouldn’t industry professionals be more interested in what the Gatorade Fast Twitch product innovation means to PepsiCo’s entire sports nutrition portfolio strategy?

Isotonic beverages, sports drinks, hydration products…whatever you call them, blurring lines and new positionings are creating a fascinating CPG category. The hydration CPG category isn’t so much about invention today as it is about innovation. Invention is creating a totally new thing. Gatorade was something totally new. Today, if you want to create something that has a lasting impact on the CPG world, it needs to be combo of “new” yet “familiar.” Do something too closely related to the market leader and people won’t take notice but do something too novel and they’re confused. In the CPG industry, most successful products do not arrive out of nowhere; they’re remixes of existing ones.

As in-person trade shows come roaring back harder than Mike Tyson hitting you with an uppercut, it’s the perfect time to talk about how you can make an impact at these events without spending 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars exhibiting…

Knowledge about the relationship between the gut microbiome and overall health is moving at a rapid clip. An obvious gut reaction to that is by today’s consumers looking for more foods, beverages, and supplements that support gut health. Something else that seems extremely obvious to me is that there will be this sort of flywheel effect in the coming years and decades with new gut health research emerging, which drives additional consumer demand, that feeds more categorical innovation and product development. That increased market size feeds the additional research, and we start back up again bigger and bigger. We are in the early stages of a Gut Health Revolution, is your CPG brand ready to take advantage of it?

Did you know three-fourths of American adults consume caffeine daily? Whether it’s drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, turning to an energy drink midday to stay sharp at work, or mixing up a pre-workout powder before hitting the gym, caffeinated products have become an integral part of daily life. It’s that proliferation of caffeine-containing products and them being well-entrenched into the lives of most Americans that's causing the “energy everything” movement…

The cold, flu, and immunity supplement market skyrocketed in 2020, but should the pullback in 2021 and 2022 be worrisome or is the future bright for the category? The “COVID-19 Effect” undoubtedly pulled forward the demand for products a few years (which has now normalized), but this period more importantly changed consumer perception around immune health. That shift from only supporting your immune health seasonally to now making it a year-round pursuit is a big deal. Maybe the legacy immune ingredients with high consumer awareness or played out formulation approaches won’t see massive sales surges again in the near-term future and that’s OK. But it’s the massive wave of attention placed on immune health and investment put towards innovation that will open new opportunities…that’s exciting to think about and I predict it will provide strong categorical market growth.

In today’s business world, it’s hard to come up with an original thought. Once you acknowledge that, you start seeing things through a remix-filled point of view. The secret behind current innovations at CPG brands like Quest Nutrition and Snickers are that they’re rooted in remixing the past…their own past, well before most of its fans today knew about the original product offerings.

Rituals have the power to make life better. They can lead to habit creation, repeat purchases, and heightened involvement, making brand rituals a powerful strategy in any CPG entrepreneurs’ toolkit. Well-designed and popular brand-specific rituals are virtually impossible for competitors to imitate, no matter how similar or even superior their own products may be.

Sleep matters A LOT. It’s essential to every process in the body, affecting our physical and mental functioning the next day, our ability to fight disease and develop immunity, and our metabolism and chronic disease risk. Because of that…sleep is truly an interdisciplinary aspect of our health. Yet, if I was tasked to describe in one word the current state of sleep in America, I would use lackluster.

The fitness world has always been fast-changing, but did the life-altering last two plus years create additional opportunities for supplement brands to focus on endurance activity participants? More than ever, humans are beginning to realize that movement is an essential component in quality of life. In my opinion, endurance sports (regardless of the level), continue to grow as the fitness/wellness link strengthens. Sports nutrition brands will have to recognize that the market is less concerned about increased performance and more about health, longevity, immunity. Are you willing to look past the challenges caused by this market evolution and see its massive opportunities?

Competition is a central driver in business. Many see competition through a “winner takes all” lens, but that’s a mistake in the CPG industry. Instead, today’s businesses would be best served if they made friends with the competition. This article will explain the strategic concept that I’ve dubbed “brand new friends.”

As consumers commit themselves to losing the pandemic 15, the weight management category will continue to innovate and adapt. Whether it’s probiotics or herbal blends and extracts used in multifunctional supplements ingredients or indulgent-yet-healthy-foods and beverages, weight management isn’t dying anytime soon…it just might look a bit different now (and even more so in the future).

Your CPG brand has on average a few seconds to make a good impression before the customer moves on to the next option. Effective and appealing packaging design not only makes it more likely for one product to be chosen over alternatives, but it also reflects on the values of the brand. This is what makes packaging design just as important as the product itself. It has a major influence over the buying decisions of consumers. I provide 10 CPG packaging trends that can definitely help positively impact a brand’s sales activity.

With margin being squeezed in every direction, something must give to satisfy Americans that have been drunk on low prices for decades. I believe that contract manufacturers are peering through a massive window of opportunity. The internet provides them with the ability to go direct-to-consumer and remove various intermediaries (or middlemen). Toss in the power of celebrities and the consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) model could be extremely special.

Internet wellness challenges are perfect digestible SMART goals that promote action. They build new habits, identities, and communities.

The importance of developing functional CPG products based on customer needs is a no brainer, yet too many brand owners start their perspective, instead of a customer perspective, when coming up with new products. This is a major problem and one that can be fixed by implementing a demand side innovation strategy.