David Shukri’s Post

*TRIGGER WARNING* Mentions chocolate. Aha, 'a nice Cadbury Wispa chocolate pot' I thought. The familiar purple packaging was like a beacon of trust - I knew what I was going to get, the quality, the flavour. Except, I didn't. From the moment I touched the pot, and felt the packaging, a foreboding sense of doom started to circle as I realised that this wasn't the chocolate delight I was hoping for. As I dug in, I was confirmed - I could have bought a supermarket's own brand version for less than half the price, and it would have tasted the same. So next time, avoid the Cadbury Wispa pots and just grab the cheapest ones you can. Because at least you'll be expecting those ones to taste of bland fuzzy mousse with a hint of fake chocolate. ----- The moral? Make sure your product lives up to the marketing hype. Some products you can make look really nice and heighten the experience for the customer. Others, you can't. #marketing #chocolate

A blast from my food reporter past: Walmart is introducing a line of premium store brand food, its largest food brand launch in decades. Already the country’s largest grocer, Walmart is introducing Bettergoods to attract new, often higher income shoppers more frequently and to encourage current shoppers to spend more. Walmart has grown a lot over the last few years and it's looking for ways to keep that going. “We didn’t always show up for customers that were looking for this range,” said John Laney, head of grocery for Walmart U.S. The new line features more adventurous flavors and health call-outs like cardamon rose raspberry jam for $5.24, curry chicken empanadas and gluten free muffin mix. It is a big strategic bet for the retailer as it competes for customers with Costco Wholesale, Trader Joe’s and Amazon.com’s Whole Foods, which also have extensive store brands. Walmart already owns one of the largest food and consumable brands in the U.S.: Great Value. Those products often come in nondescript packaging and include everything from butter to toilet paper. The roughly 4,000 products are meant to be similar to national brand items, but cheaper.  In 2020 executives did a full private brand line review. It found consumers confused about how Great Value products differed from Walmart’s other brand, Sam’s Choice. That brand was created in 2013 as a more premium range. Over the years it became too similar to Great Value and its packaging didn’t stand out to shoppers, said executives. Bettergoods is a bigger bet and investment from Walmart in the space. How do you think Walmart's new food brand will impact suppliers and competitors?

Multi-brand food manufacturer Kwality Foods has introduced an all-new packaging in its breakfast cereal category. Click on the link below to know more.... Pagariya Foods I Naresh Pagariya I Dheeraj Jain #kwalityfoods #breakfastcereal #packaging #pagariyafoods #retailnews #retailtrends #retailsector #retailindustry #retailing #retailresults #retailupdates #businessnews #retailgrowth #retailindia #retailsectornews #retailresults #retailtrends #retailbusiness #ir #IndiaRetailing

Did you fall for it? 👀 Every April Fools’ Day, brands try and fool the masses. This year, food manufacturers such as Heinz, Babybel and Cadbury launched 'new' products that had everyone guessing. Did Heinz's Ketchup Toning Shampoo fool you or was it Terry's Chocolate Orange Juice? 🤔 Share your top pick for the best big-brand April Fools' Day prank in the comments! 👇 #TheCollectiveNetwork #TCN #FMCG #FoodManufacturing #AprilFoolsDay

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. If I could have a redo… I loved my time leading innovation at Post. I had a literal treasure trove of iconic brands to play with and the ability to create new ones. We believed it was important to: 1. Respect the brands and the consumers who love them 2. Believe that they can do and be more than they are today #2 led to the launch of Honey Bunches of Oats (HBO) Granola Chips The premise was how do we bring the bunches to life in a new and fun way. We had: Great taste - buyers begged us to launch them Several clear use cases as a snack, a yogurt topping, even on ice cream - I know… What we didn't have: Expertise as a snacking powerhouse. Let me explain. We were able to get distribution in the cereal aisle and it made sense. Cereal shoppers love HBO and they love to snack. But. We were around only morning cereal solutions so our frame of reference was very limited. Consumers had a hard time seeing us as more because they came down the aisle with a distinct job in mind. What I should have done: Licensed the brand to a snacking expert. They would be able to push us into new parts of the store and as a result new occasions. So here's the lesson. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Break the rule and you might be ok but you probably won't be great. #innovation #consumerproducts #brandbuilding #brandidentity #positioning

Landmark win for Minor Figures in US retail - Two of our Barista Oat items are now available at H-E-B (Lakeline in Austin pictured). Massive gratitude to Jeff Ogan and Melanie Ledesma at H-E-B for the partnership. We do not take it lightly to be sold in one of the most loved retailers in America. Huge shout out to Gary Hamilton at Yin Yang Naturals for his ongoing partnership and bringing this launch home. Some things about Minor Figures at US Grocery/Retail: 🎯 Fastest growing brand in the top 10 in both dollars and units (don't sleep on inflated dollars when units are down) 🎯 +76% with 3 Barista Oat skus cycled - no falsely inflated numbers in category. We are best at what we do. 🎯 #3 Oat Milk brand in category 🎯 #2 Barista Milk brand in category

It's always an insightful read when checking out various Grocery trend predictions for the upcoming year. Fresh Thyme Market I'm here for #5; bring on the Mangos 👏 Oddly enough, Costco Wholesale was offering dark chocolate-covered mangos this past week! 👀 #cpgtrends #predictions #grocery #midwesterner

200 YEARS?!?!? Little bit of a story time today, On my way to work the other day, I saw an advertisement for Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate. Standard, usual poster. Purple background, the milk pouring into the chocolate. So I thought nothing about it besides, wow. I really want some chocolate. So I guess you could say the advertising worked. Yet I did notice something. Right at the bottom, in big bold text “bringing you chocolate for 200 years”. This had me thinking. They used the image of the standard original dairy milk chocolate. The same one I suppose they’ve been doing for 200 years now, but you see their chocolate today and they have so many combinations and creations. Over those 2 centuries they’ve “adopted” new flavours. In a sense the dairy milk is Cadbury’s “legacy software”…. What’s your favourite flavour of Cadbury’s? #LegacySoftware #SoftwareDevelopment #Chocolate 

High food prices driving Private Label Revolution. “It’s not lost on retailers that the fastest-growing retailers have the fastest-growing private-label programs,” said Steve Oakland, chief executive officer of TreeHouse Foods 🍞 Consumers love Trader Joe's, ALDI USA and Costco Wholesale’s   Kirkland products so much that they have devoted fan accounts on social media. 🍞 Walmart launched a premium food brand in late April called Bettergoods. 🍞 Ahold Delhaize, owner of Food Lion, Stop & Shop and other chains, announced in May a target to increase the companywide share of private-label sales to 45% by 2028, from about 38% today. During the pandemic CPG companies gained the upper hand since many had more robust supply chains than their private-label competitors....and were able to raise prices without much resistance. More and more consumers have had enough and are buying more private label products with better quality and lower prices. Walter Holbrook April Waits CASEY GOLDEN Dustin Fuhs Jamie Grill-Goodman Daphne Howland https://lnkd.in/gKnkuY5d

The way weight loss is addressed in the US has shifted and brands are picking up on it. Nestle's Vital Pursuit is launching a $5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss. What are your thoughts on this? What other ways do you see brands tailoring items to fit this type of consumer?