CPG Brand Growth Tips

We are the alpha partner for TikTok Shop and we’ve compiled the best practices and blueprint to drive business outcomes. Over the last decade, and across all platforms, we have generated over $2.5 Billion in creator commerce, online and offline. Here are Influential’s five tips for leveraging TikTok Shop: 1. Craft engaging content: "Prioritize engaging content that is specific to your vertical and is differentiated from your competitive set, integrate and highlight products to benefit from occasional virality." 2. Ride the trend wave: "Leverage popular TikTok trends like songs, sounds and filters. Trends can catapult your shoppable posts to the FYP.” 3. Product launch opportunities: "Use TikTok Shop for product launches, create anticipation and excitement around new releases." 4. Educational content works: "Show your products in action! Explain all the problems your product solves." 5. Optimize your shoppable posts: "Keep videos between 30 and 45 seconds, showcase product usage, work with top influencers with high ERs, add clear CTAs and use emojis to point to the buy button. #influential

Tiktok Shop is an incredible opportunity for a lot of consumer brands, but few know where and how to get started. Last week I sat down with Zain Ali, founder of Zainith Agency, who lives and breathes TikTok Shop. Here’s are a few insights from our hour long convo: 1. Speed wins. TikTok expects 1–2 day fulfillment. If you can’t ship fast, you’ll struggle. 2. Price matters. $20–30 is the sweet spot to see momentum. 3. Samples are your ads. Expect to send 100–300 per month and give it 3 months before judging results. 4. The halo effect is real. Viral TikToks spike Amazon + retail sales even if you just break even on TTS. 5. Volume is the game. 200–300 creator videos/month is baseline. The biggest brands push 1,000+. 6. Creators = your engine. Outreach bots help, but re-incentivizing your top 10% of creators drives ~90% of revenue. If you want the full deep dive, check it out below: #socialmediamarketing #tiktok #cpg

I have spent years in the highs and lows of the consumer goods industry but never seen a pricing climate quite like this. Manufacturers are getting squeezed from every direction-tariffs, skyrocketing raw material costs, and relentless supply chain disruptions. The old playbook of raising prices to cover costs? That’s dead. Why? Because consumers are feeling the pressure too. A 2024 Nielsen report makes it clear: today’s shoppers are scrutinizing every dollar they spend, and brands that aren’t strategic about pricing risk losing market share fast. Here’s what I’m seeing from top CPG brands that get it: 1️⃣ Walmart is investing heavily in AI-driven pricing models to keep costs competitive-e-commerce now makes up 18% of total revenue. 2️⃣ PepsiCo is doubling down on pack-size innovation, offering smaller, affordable options to maintain volume without excessive discounting. 3️⃣ Luxury brands are using price elasticity models, testing demand thresholds before rolling out increases-avoiding consumer pushback. 4️⃣ Supply chain resilience is non-negotiable. Companies are shifting manufacturing away from China, despite short-term cost spikes, to avoid future geopolitical risks. The smartest brands aren’t just reacting. They’re rethinking. They’re moving toward Revenue Growth Management (RGM) frameworks that help them: ✅ Optimize pricing and promotions (because blanket price hikes are a losing game) ✅ Focus on margin-smart growth, not just revenue ✅ Leverage data analytics to make smarter, faster pricing decisions Brands that don’t evolve risk eroding profitability or pricing themselves out of the market. CPG leaders who master strategic pricing, operational efficiency, and consumer-driven value creation will own the future of this industry. Are you adjusting your strategy, or just reacting to rising costs? Because in 2025, only the most adaptable brands will win. #CPG #FMCG #PricingStrategy #RevenueGrowth #ConsumerGoods

Here is the Playbook I'd use to find a balance of DR and Brand if I were to do it again. If you’re looking to find a way to invest in brand in a way that’s accountable to revenue so you can get out of the DR and Discounts race to the bottom, this post is for you. Or, if you're seeing increasing customer acquisition costs with no end in sight and know you need to find a way to invest in the longer term growth of the business, but can't because you're not able to measure the revenue impact, this post is for you. Chubbies' transition from a fast-growing, money-losing, short term revenue obsessed brand to a fast growing, profit generating, short AND LONG term revenue obsessed brand was a multi-year mess, but helped save the company. Based on everything we learned, here's how I might approach it if I were to do it again Hope this helps -- ⚖️The 3-Month Playbook for Balanced Performance Marketing 🏆Goal: Drive as much resilient revenue as short term paid revenue with your paid marketing ✍️Definitions: Resilient Baseline Revenue: - The revenue you have left over when you turn off short term ads and discounts. - Revenue from organic search, direct and organic social referral sources with short term influences removed to get to true base. Paid revenue: Revenue that’s not from resilient baseline or from email / sms 📊Results & Measuring Success 💥 Immediately: Increased quality engagements (shares, saves, comments). 🔍 30 Days: Boost in branded search, organic, and direct traffic 💵 30-90 Days: Increased revenue from organic search and direct, with high revenue per session Part I: Mindset Shift 🤔 Step 1: Rethink ROAS 🚫Increasing ROAS doesn’t drive profit growth 🔻Lower ROAS is the goal 💡Ensure team knows that Part II: Get Your DR Right 📊 Step 2: Optimize Short Term DR 🧐Run short-term incrementality tests. Ensure spend is incremental 🧮Use Marginal CAC to inform where, when and how to allocate spend Part III: Start Small. Start Now. 💸 Step 3: Put Money Behind Existing Top Organic Content ✅Use 5% of budget to boost old posts with high shares, comments and saves ✅5% for conversion-optimized ads from top organic posts ✅5% for engagement optimized ads from top organic posts Part IV: Create Content Machine 🎥 Step 4: Hire Hungry Content Creators Hire 3 creators who are hard-working learners and loyal customers 🎯 Step 5: Define Your Brand's Content Arena Identify your brand’s unique gaps (product, positioning, etc.) and the feeling/moment you want to own 🎬 Step 6: Content Machine ✌️Double your video output every week until you can’t 🛠️Constantly improve concept quality 🔻Constantly decrease cost per content piece Part V: Go From Testing to Balance 📈 Step 7: Test, Measure, and Learn Track results and apply lessons in an objective way 🆙 Step 8: Scale Budgets and Incorporate New Content 🔁Go back to Step 3 and increase budgets 🤗As the Creative Machine makes new content, incorporate it 🌗Get to 30% - 50% of budgets

“It feels like a perfect economic storm,” shared an anguished CMO from a $300mil tech company, adding, “Our buyers are hesitant because of the overall economic uncertainty, new entrants are disrupting our category, we just expanded our product line, and no one knows what will happen to the government funding that benefited our industry,” they detailed. Nodding empathetically, I realized it was time to update my recession playbook with a GenAI-first mindset. Polish Your Positioning: Ensure your brand is perceived as a "must-have" rather than a "nice-to-have." This involves clearly communicating the unique value and necessity of your product or service. [Use Deep Research to help explore options. And test synthetic research from companies like Evidenza or Subconscious.ai for speedy insights at 50% of traditional research $s]. Sell Your “Speed to Value”: When CFOs become CFNOs, the only “yes” you’ll hear is for those products or services that can deliver a fast return on investment. [Run recorded customer calls through a customized GPT to isolate speed-to-value quotes and context. Identify customers who get value faster and can quickly double down on that segment.] Call Your Customers: They may be in the same or worse economic turmoil. If they are, make a customer for life by offering better terms on your current contract in exchange for a longer deal and a high-quality testimonial. [Run a Deep Research assessment of their industry seeking insights into how they could outperform competitors in a recession]. Elevate Your Executives: Individuals get 10x the organic reach on LinkedIn than companies yet few brands scale executive thought leadership. [Create a Project on ChatGpt or Claude that includes brand guidelines, past writing by each exec and other parameters. Then, ask the exec to dictate 20-25 minutes of their latest thinking and let your top editor run with it. The goal should be 2-3 thoughtful weekly posts from these execs. Bonus points, if they record vertical videos, a medium LinkedIn is heavily favoring. Breaking news: LinkedIn now allows you to promote individual posts.] Balance Your Budget: You know your CFO is coming for funds. Get ahead of this. Draft two plans, one at the current budget and one with a 20% cut. Go back through company data from the early days of the pandemic and show the lagging impact of those budget cuts. [Run projections on the impact of budget cuts on pipeline via LLMs. And show how your GenAI tests should yield massive savings in the coming years]. Value Your Visitors: With the dual whammy of declining organic site traffic and fewer buyers in the marketplace, every qualified site visitor must be treated like royalty. This means rethinking your landing page experiences and enabling answers, not navigation. [We are currently testing two LLM-driven tools, Webless.ai on RenegadeMarketing.com and Salespeak.ai on CMOHuddles.com. We'll share results at CMO Super Huddle] What's in your recession playbook?

The CPG industry is kind of obsessed with "driving trial." I've been on this bandwagon too, until a founder recently shared with me an interesting learning he gathered from his own data: Most consumers who jump on trial offers just love free stuff and will rarely ever buy the product again. It was a good reminder that brands should focus way more on things like: ✅ Building a strong, engaged audience, fostering a community around the brand. ✅ Leveraging UGC and reviews/testimonials to provide social proof. ✅ Creating remarkable products. Mediocrity won't cut it. ✅ Strategic partnerships and collaborations to borrow relevant audiences. ✅ Celebrating and catering to the individuality of your customers through exceptional customer service and personalization. Of course there is a time and a place, and best practices for trial programs... ➡ Use them to create FOMO through urgency and scarcity. ➡ Work with Aisle because you get phone numbers and can nurture customers via text. ➡ Do in-store demos because they're low lift for the customer, it's a treat for them while they're shopping, and they are already in the purchase mindset. ➡ Do attention-grabbing giveaway events to create buzz and viral content creation opportunities (think splashy food truck handing out free ice cream in Union Square). But if you're needing to invest most of your time and energy into always-on promos/discounts/freebies you're just pouring water into a leaky bucket. 💦 There are no shortcuts. Digging deep with your customer and your brand is ultimately the way to achieve long-term success and customer loyalty. 💡 #marketing #branding #cpgmarketing #cpg

If I were brought in to drive growth at a $10M+ DTC brand, here’s how I’d approach it: No fluff. No vanity plays. Just high-impact moves that shift the bottom line. (It's tempting to dive into rebranding or launching new channels. However, impactful growth often stems from focusing on foundational elements.) Here's how I'd approach it: Step 1: Figure out where the money’s made → Which products drive the highest margins, LTV, and repeat purchases? → What SKUs actually scale profitably with paid media? I’m not touching the ad account until this is crystal clear. Step 2: Clean house on performance marketing → Audit every dollar spent across Meta, Google, and email. → Consolidate campaigns, kill what's not working, double down on proven angles. → Creative is the lever. Not targeting. Step 3: Choose 1 hero product to lead acquisition → Ideally something high-margin, low return rate, with a story. → This becomes the core of all TOF messaging + landing pages. → Simple scales. Complexity kills. Step 4: Rebuild top ads with new content → Take the top 5 hooks and redo them with fresh UGC, statics, and cutdowns. → Launch 10+ ad variations ASAP. → Start developing a creative strategy process. Paid media dies without fresh creative input. Step 5: Patch the leaky funnel → Is the site fast? → Are PDPs clear? → Are we using urgency, bundling, cart optimizers? → Are email flows even sending? You don’t need more traffic if you’re wasting the traffic you’ve got. Step 6: Get email working while you sleep → Start with flows: welcome, cart abandonment, post-purchase, winback, VIP. → Then layer in 1-2 campaigns a week that don’t feel like a sale but still convert. Step 7: Test 3 offers in 30 days → Think: gift with purchase, bundle + save, free shipping thresholds, subscription perks. → Speed is leverage. You don’t need months to validate an offer. Growth isn’t about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things in the right order—with urgency. Curious—what would your first 3 moves be? If you’re a brand doing $1M+ in revenue and need help with growth, please DM me and let’s chat.

The first thing I’d fix in any marketing plan? It’s not what you think. I see brands jump to tactics. More ads. New funnels. Flashy creatives. But none of that matters if you miss the real problem. Here’s what I’ve learned after 15+ years in growth marketing: Hope isn’t a strategy. Marketing isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing it right. Every high-growth campaign I’ve led-startup or scale-up-started here: → Find the core problem your customer faces. Not your product. Not the latest trend. Not what you *wish* the problem was. The REAL pain. The one that keeps them up at night. How do you do this? I use the same 3 steps every time: 1. Conduct deep research • Ask real customers about their biggest headaches • Look at data and analytics (what are they struggling with?) • Listen more than you speak 2. Align your message with their problem • Speak their language (not your jargon) • Show you understand what hurts • Position your offer as the fix 3. Iterate with feedback • Test your message in the wild • Watch what gets a reaction (good or bad) • Adjust fast-market needs change all the time When you focus your marketing on the problem, you do more than sell. You build trust. You make people feel seen. Remember: - Problem-first beats solution-first every time. - You can’t fix what you don’t understand. - Hope is not a strategy. What’s one problem your audience faces that you need to dig deeper on? #MarketingStrategy #GrowthMarketing #LeadGeneration #DigitalStrategy #ProblemFirst

Consumer Brand Marketing Leaders, Lately, I’ve had the chance to work with a different sector of companies: PE-backed, lower middle market, more B2B...and always growth-minded. And it’s brought a new lens and sharper focus to something I learned long ago: 👉 Brand isn’t window dressing or a style guide. It’s a Revenue lever. It drives conversion. It supports pricing. It builds loyalty. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙩𝙝. In my time leading and expanding brands in CPG and PE-backed companies, we talked plenty about positioning and differentiation—but we also brought it down to earth.🌍 We nurtured our Brands as the 𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 💰 they are: ✅ Higher conversion rates ✅ Greater pricing power ✅ Stronger consumer stickiness ✅ Permission to stretch into new segments And to add some light industry validation: 📊 McKinsey: Strong brands retain customers 𝟯𝟬–𝟱𝟬% 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 📊 Bain: Buyers pay 𝟭𝟬–𝟮𝟬% 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 when brand signals trust and reduced risk 📊 WARC/IPA: Brand-led strategies drive 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝟵𝟬% 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗢𝗜 over time For PE-backed or fast-growing businesses under pressure to deliver revenue now AND create long-term value, 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺. These principles apply whether you're selling cereal, makeup brushes, or sealing equipment. What matters most is 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙨. I’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks...in the meantime, if you’ve had success connecting Brand to commercial performance—I’d love to hear about it! --- 💡 I’m Elizabeth, and I help CPG and PE-backed brands harness insight, positioning, and brand strategy to drive relevance and growth. Let’s connect if you’re thinking about brand stretch, the shifting consumer landscape, or how to turn strategy into impact.

$1.8B for Alani Nu. What can growth-stage beverage brands learn from this? A lot of founders see a deal like this and think: “𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭. 𝘞𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘺𝘱𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰.” But Alani Nu isn’t just an influencer-driven brand. That’s only part of the story. Influencers are a TACTIC. Here’s what they actually did right—and why it led to a billion+ exit: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿. Alani Nu owned the female energy drink consumer, a market most big players ignored. The clearest path to scale? 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲—and do it better than anyone else. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆. Yes, social built hype. That's social's job. But they got product into hands, fast. Their early success in GNC, Walmart, and Target proved they could drive repeat purchase with the big boys. 👉 Social gets people interested. Velocity proves they’ll come back. 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗢𝗩. Alani Nu made wellness + energy fun, accessible, and aesthetic—without looking like another gym bro brand. Distinct POV = distinct positioning = pricing power. 𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀. This wasn’t a DTC-fueled brand running on vibes. They had: → A product that sells in retail (not just online) → Strong gross margins to fuel marketing → Category-defining branding If you want to build a brand that gets acquired, you need: ✅ Deep consumer insight (own a whitespace) ✅ Clear differentiation (stand for something) ✅ Velocity + repeat purchase (not just awareness) ✅ Real distribution (not just Instagram love) Celsius didn’t just buy Alani Nu’s influencer reach. They bought a real business 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲. What’s your biggest takeaway from this deal?