Quick Book Summary:
Ramping Your Brand is a guide for consumer brands looking to ride the skate ramp of exponential growth. The book focuses on how to scale your CPG Brand by leveraging data-driven strategies, consumer psychology, and market positioning. Above all else, new CPG Brands should take a very close look at their pricing, positioning, and how they are building velocities before attempting to scale too quickly.
Bret’s Book Notes:
- Doors do not equal profits.
- The Four-Phase growth cycle to scaling includes Testing, Transition, Scaling, and Sustained Dominance.
- Brands should now scale too soon. Before adding doors, brands should have a very strong foundation of high-use customers.
- To create the perception of a premium product (whether it is or isn’t), you need to price accordingly.
- You can drive repeat customer buying by aligning your brand and strategy with consumer psychology.
- Mass market growth too soon can and will kill your velocities and brand.
- How do you rapidly grow an undercapitalized CPG business, sustain that growth, and move past better-funded competitors? Lean into memorability.
- When you try to scale by adding doors, you will kill your velocities and ultimately lose distribution.
- To increase velocities at existing stores, you either need to increase the consumption rate (and purchase volume) or add individuals to the local shopper base.
- There is such a thing as being too highly priced, but remember that pricing is also quality-signaling. You cannot be a premium, cheap, brand.
- Ultimately, it is not the founder who chooses to ride the skate ramp; it is the consumer.
- The 4Ps of strategic planning: product, place, price, promotion