287. Why Retailers Reward Brands That Lead the Category

0:00Welcome to Day 15. How to become a trusted and respected retail partner partner today. A true category leader. Retailers are under more pressure than ever. Competition from online, razor-thin margins, shopper changing how and where they buy. Most brands look at that and think, how do I get more from my retailer? I want you to flip that. Retailers want and need your help. You hold the key to giving them a huge competitive edge. When you step up as a strategic partner and not just another item on the shelf, savvy retailers reward you with incremental opportunities you cannot buy. Extra displays, premium discounts, early access to resets.

0:40A real voice in how the category is built. That's what becoming a category leader is all about. Let me explain. Category captain versus category leader and why you want the second one. There's a lot of confusion in the industry about roles. A category captain is usually a big brand that pays heavily for tools and data, provides dedicated resources to one retailer, builder, builds planograms and strategies for the entire category. That role is extremely expensive. Let the giants fight over it. A category leader, the way I define it, is very different. A category leader is any brand of any size, willing and able to guide their retail partner to grow sustainable sales by leveraging the strength of the unique customer that your brand attracts.

1:26No giant budget required. No massive team required. What you need is insights, clarity, and willingness to lead. And yes, you can absolutely do this as an emerging brand. What being a category leader looks like in real life. Let me take you behind the curtain for a moment. I've had retailers call me out of the blue and say, Dan, I've got an end cap opening up next week. Can you take it? Free, prime location, minimal notice. Why? Because I had consistently shown up as a trusted, respected resource. Someone who understand their shopper. Someone who understood their category. Someone who understood how to drive incremental sales and profit.

2:07They knew that if they gave me the space, I'd help them hit their numbers. Imagine what that kind of phone call does to your sales targets. The trust I earned also gave me an equal seat at the retailer's table. That meant that I could help guide them on strategy, product assortments, merchandising recommendations, and much more. I essentially earned the same right to manage the category as the big brands, but without the heavy price tag. Most retailers call this position a category advisor. That's what we're aiming for in this entire series. Step one, become an expert in the shopper. Being a category leader starts with one core commitment.

2:45Know your shopper better than anyone else in the room. Not just your shopper, but the retailer's shopper. You need to understand their need states, the problem they're trying to solve. how they shop the category, what else they buy with your product, as well as the competitive products, how your brand influences their behavior across the store. Let's define that quickly. A need state is a purpose behind the trip. Cold and flu? They're looking for remedies, tissues, teas, comfort foods. New baby? They're looking for baby food, snacks, and time-saving products. Your goal is to help the retailer organize the category in a way that solves for that need state.

3:24Consider this. When McDonald's asks, would you like fries with that? They're not just being cute. They know the burger alone doesn't deliver the margin. The fries plus the drink are where the profit lives. The combo solves the need state, quick complete meal. They built an entire business model around complimentary purchases. You can do the same inside your category and across the store. Step two, use complimentary brands to tell your bigger story. Here's where you can really shine as a leader. Think beyond the obvious combinations like ketchup plus mustard. Get creative, get specific, get shopper focused.

4:01For example, parents with infants are willing to invest in premium baby food, a perfect shopper for a brand like Once Upon a Farm. Those same households often have an older kid feeling left out as the attention shifts to the new baby. A brand like Foodstirs, healthy baking mixes, can help create special big kid moments baking together, learning about real food, and making memories. Now imagine an end cap or promotion featuring Once Upon a Farm plus foodsters anchored in the store supporting the whole family during a big life transition. You're not just selling pouches and baking mix. You're helping the retailer connect emotionally with young families, increase the household total spend, build loyalty across multiple categories.

4:44That's what category leadership looks like. Step three, bring actionable insights, not canned reports. Retailers are drowning in reports and starved for insights. Big brands buy expensive shopper insight packages, but those often overgeneralize, commoditize shoppers and miss the nuances of your unique shopper. They're better for your customer. Your advantage is that your customer is different. They read labels. They see transparency. They're value driven. They have higher basket sizes. They're less price sensitive when they trust you. Your job is to turn that into insights the retailer can't get anywhere else.

5:20When our shopper buys our product, her basket is 27 % higher than the category average. She also buys organic dairy, premium snacks, and natural household items. If you help her find all that she needs in your store, she has no reason to shop your competition. That is a radically different conversation than we'd like another TPR and an NCAP. One bleeds into the noise, the other one stands out as leadership. Step number four, learn from the floor, lead from the front. You've heard me talk about my price club days, now Costco. Let me connect that to this conversation. As a grocery manager, I was responsible for frozen, refrigerated, perishable, produce, meat, bakery, sea store, and liquor.

6:02Every day, my boss would walk the floor with me. I had to know how each item was selling, what our on-hand inventory was, why I placed certain items on end caps, how shoppers were moving through the store. We didn't have sophisticated tools. I used a legal pad to sketch out schematics. On one experiment, I merchandised the freezer section around logical need states instead of inner blocks. The result? Sales jumped 252%. On another experiment, I moved the first can of tuna on the pallet from the front corner to the back corner, so it looked like sharpers were already digging into the second layer.

6:37Sales exploded. When I kept the pallet perfectly cubed, sales dropped. Here's why this matters. By paying close attention to how shoppers moved, what they grabbed, how presentation influenced their behavior, I was able to almost quadruple my department sales to over$500 ,000 a week. That was in the early 90s, a staggering number at the time. I didn't do that with gimmicks. I did that by understanding the shopper and making it easier for them to win. That's the mindset I want you to adopt with your brand. Step five, Think like a retailer and help them win first. Remember, most brands use a rinse and repeat model.

7:15Same promotions, same reports, same messaging, same results. And we both know the definition of insanity. Instead, I want you to ask, how does my shopper move through the store? What do they need on a single trip to feel successful? How can my brand make that easier? How can I use my shopper's behavior to help the retailer grow category sales and profit? it. When you think like that and back it up with real observations and data, you become invaluable. This is exactly how I went from being just another chip guy when I was a DSD sales rep for a small regional chip company to be given a 4 ,900 bag display in the front lobby of a new superstore, plus several unpaid end caps.

7:56While the number one brand couldn't even get a single display, not because I had the lowest price, not because I had the biggest brand, but because I had earned the retailer's trust as someone who understood their goals, understood their shopper, brought them ideas, not just requests. That's what I want from you. Day 15 action item. Start your category leader playbook. Today, take a few moments and write down your idea shopper's top five needs states that your brand supports. Three to five complimentary products or brands that fit naturally with your product. One promotion or merchandising idea that would make life easier for your shopper and increase total market basket size.

8:35Help your retailer differentiate themselves in the market. This becomes the beginning of your category leader playbook, a tool you can bring to retailers as you build partnerships. In closing, your commitment to leadership changes everything. Here's the big idea I want you to take away. You can control far more of your destiny at retail than you've been told, if you're willing to lead. Retailers are hungry for real partners, real insights, and real solutions. When you focus first on helping them achieve their three big goals, more shopper traffic, a competitive advantage in the market, and the unique shopper that you bring in.

9:11Make it easier for their customer to win. They will reward you with opportunities, usually reserved for the biggest brands. This is how you level the playing field, extend your runway, get on more shelves, and into more shoppers' baskets. This is how you build a simple, strategic retail expansion plan so you can grow on your terms in the right places at the right pace. Tomorrow in episode 288, we're going to build on this and talk about how to design a simple retail influence plan. Step-by-step actions you can take over the next 90 days to deepen retail relationships and unlock more doors. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it.

9:50Share this episode with a founder who needs to stop thinking like another brand and start thinking like a category leader. Download the free series guide to help you go deeper into these strategies. And remember, when you become an indispensable trusted resource to your retail partners, you don't just win more space, you earn an equal seat at the table. For additional inspiration, listen to the following podcast episodes. Episode 41, Understand What Drives the Beating Heart of Natural with Robbie Vetrano with Good Spread and Nachcom. Robbie's background is working with agencies so he understands branding and the importance of lining your brand with your core customer.

10:28Robby is a wealth of information. Robby is one of the nicest people I've ever met and he's also one of the most committed influencers in our industry. His passion and his commitment to raising the bar in our industry is what makes the story so impactful. Uncover the essence of natural products. Learn what drives the heart and beat of natural and its importance in today's market. Next, let's listen to episode 43, Retail Done Right with Brand Partnerships with Ben with Lucky's Market. At the time I recorded this podcast episode, Lucky's was a thriving retailer. They were doing everything right in my opinion.

11:03They were partnering with brands to help it make it easier for customers to come in and find all their products they wanted. You can learn a lot from this podcast episode. Since recording that episode, Lucky's unfortunately went bankrupt, but in my opinion, had little to do with that strategy. It had more to do with the fact that they were trying to aggressively open stores and markets thousands of miles away from where they were having success. The stores were clean, well-merchandised, extremely well-organized, and the staff are some of the friendliest people you'd ever want to meet. They went out of the way to offer incredible customer service.

11:36The original store still holds true to these values. And then listen to episode 77. Perfect Recipe for Growth, Innovate and Lead, with Lee and Bill with Perfect Bar. Unlock the perfect recipe for growth by innovating and adapting to customer needs. Discover your unique niche today. Lee and Bill are brother and sister, and together, her family built a brand empire focused on delivering incredible products that customers love. They call their loyal, enthusiastic customers their hive. Their authentic love for their hive, their community, translates into a huge opportunity to innovate and dominate the category.

12:11They also talked about the importance of knowing your numbers and how to leverage your numbers at retail in your selling story. Exactly what we've been talking about through this entire series. Tip of the day. Retailers want and need your help. You hold the key to giving them a huge competitive edge. Become an indispensable trusted retail partner and savvy retails to reward with incremental opportunities. Thank you for listening. This episode is a company video with illustrations and additional information I can't share in an audio podcast, you can watch it at retailsolved.com slash 30-day challenge.

12:46You can get the show notes for this episode by going to retailsolved.com slash session 287. Tomorrow's episode is how to use data analytics for a competitive edge, the roadmap to future sales and profits. This episode will build on today's conversation. Want more sales? How to profitably scale a food business today, tomorrow, and beyond. Here's this week's free downloadable guide. The 30-Day to Prosperity Workbook is a companion to the 30-Day Challenge. This retail-solve blueprint will teach you what you need to know to confidently grow and scale your brand, build a connected community of loyal evangelists, and multiply your brand's impact, sales, and profits.

13:24Every slight improvement means more runway for sales growth, higher brand evaluations, better terms when negotiating with investors, fuel for more innovation, greater support for mission-based causes, and much more. Thanks for joining us today. Please reach out and share your most pressing questions, and I'll do my best to get you the answers that you need on future episodes, including expert advice from CEOs and industry thought leaders. Comment, leave your questions, and get this week's free downloadable guide and the show notes at retailsolved.com slash session 287.