Published December 31, 2020 on weareumi.co.uk
If you have developed a delicious new soft drink which you believe has the potential to be successful in 2021, what do you need to do? Richard Horwell is the owner of Brand Relations and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing FMCG brands around the world. He shares his tips to help you get your brand booming.
The key selling period for soft drinks is the warmer months from Easter to September. Soft drinks buyers review their ranges in January, February and March, which allows new brands to take their place on the shelves after Easter so that they are ready for the spring/summer boom. This means you should be preparing now if your brand is to have a successful 2021.
2020 has been an incredible year for the development of new healthy products and for Brand Relations, it’s been our busiest year so far. We have talked to many budding entrepreneurs who’ve been stuck at home hoping to find a way out of their job and into their own small business, encouraged by the fact that food and drink retailers have seen an upturn in business since the pandemic.
January is the time when you should be presenting your product to the major buyers to ensure your brand is on the shelves for the summer. Traditionally, alcoholic drinks fare well in the winter months and over Christmas and non-alcoholic do well during the summer. So, you need to establish yourself and your soft drink offering ready for these two key seasons.
To get your brand booming in the summer of 2021 you need to do the following:
1. Fully understand your brand and its competition
It is important you understand your brand, your target audience and the style and type of retailer that would work best for your product.
To really understand this, you need to look at the competition and what products the buyer will remove to replace with yours. You must think about where your product will sit in store and how you will generate sales.
If it’s possible, start by visiting the stores you want to be listed in so that when the time comes to speak to the buyer you are an expert on their stores. Think about the types of products they stock and how they sell them. While doing your research, you want to determine if your target audience shop there, and will they pay the RRP you are suggesting?
These are the essential first steps that, in my experience, many brands overlook.
2. Know who your key buyers are
Find out a little about them. And be sure you know what they are looking for. Just because you want to be listed by them, doesn’t mean you are right for them. So do your research. A little preparation now will save you time and money later.
The biggest issue in getting a listing with your target retailer is understanding their shoppers’ needs. I have been told many a time by buyers that ‘our fridges or walls don’t stretch, we need to remove a brand to put yours in, so how can we be sure your brand will replace the volume of the one we remove?’ How will consumers know your brand? Why will they cross the road to buy it? All of these questions need to be answered before you have any chance of getting a listing.
3. Have your digital business assets in order
Before January you will need to make sure your website has all the answers to the questions a buyer is likely to ask.
Just as importantly, you need activity on your social media. More recently the bigger stores have employed social media experts to look around for the brands that have the most interest and followers, then they contact them for more details. Why do they do this? Because your activity and followers give them a good indication of how well your brand will sell.
If your social media is looking a bit lacklustre start building it right now! Ask friends and family to follow your accounts and interact with your posts. Also start following relevant influencers, sales outlets where you want to be stocked, and, if possible, the buyers themselves. Start to create a buzz around your product and connect with people you’d like to work with.
4. Have beautiful sample boxes ready
I have known many brands that have just sent a case of their product to a buyer hoping that somehow a lot of product will magically make the buyer interested. However, this is not a good approach. Buyers tell me they really dislike this. Most of them have small offices and the last thing they want is to fill them with hundreds of free products.
A lot of brands also forget that buyers are consumers too. And just like any consumer, the first impression is the most important impression. We suggest to our clients that they create sample boxes that make their brand look like a beautifully presented gift. The box should look great and have your branding and information on it.
A few years ago, we put together some Christmas hampers made up of all the brands we were working with. The response was incredible! One buyer rang and thanked us, but said he was sorry, he wasn’t allowed gifts. He was very surprised when he realised they were samples, as they were presented much more like a gift than a ‘freebie’.
The best response was from the buyer at Whole Foods, who said: “Thank you for sharing with us your innovation, highly appreciated, some other people I would expect this from are not doing half what you did! Thanks.” Needless to say, we got the listings we wanted with that buyer.
So, the takeaway is: put some time, effort and resource into creating sample boxes that will grab the buyers’ attention.
5. Start by focusing on quality
Many small businesses with a new brand want to go straight to the multiples, looking for instant volume. But that is a mistake. You need to cut your teeth on the smaller ‘premium’ retailers and build the brand.
Consumers in the likes of Whole Foods and Planet Organic are prepared to take the time to look for, and understand, new brands. Whereas the typical Tesco shopper is in there to grab the weekly shopping and get out.
Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of brands going into one of the big retailers on a trial and then after a few months they have been delisted. Once delisted by a larger retailer, none of the premium retailers are interested and so it’s the end of the road.
If you look at the industry as being a pyramid, then you start at the top and work your way down; going in at the bottom or ‘mainstream’ and trying to go upwards simply doesn’t work.
6. Use gentle pester-power
So many brand owners have said to me, ‘I emailed that buyer, but he/she never responded so I left him/her alone’.
I have a lot of friends that are buyers, and they are some of the most overworked people in this industry. Every time there are any cuts within the business the buyer is given more work to do. Buying can be a thankless and very busy job, so you need to catch their attention and apply some gentle pester-power.
I am not suggesting you harass them as that won’t get you anywhere, but don’t just give up when they don’t respond. Be patient and give them time.
Most importantly, don’t send unrequested samples as that will have the opposite effect to the one you want! Wait for them to respond and ask for samples. And hang in there. It will happen.
7. Communicate marketing plans
Just because your product is on a shelf doesn’t mean it will automatically sell.
You need to create a marketing plan. If a product fails to sell it will be delisted. No buyer wants to stick their neck out for a new brand only to find that the product ends up gathering dust on the shelf. So, create a marketing plan, put it into action, and communicate it to the buyers. It will help give them confidence that if they stock your brand, it will actually sell.
8. Be flexible
Many business owners come to me and say, ‘I want to be stocked in Waitrose’ (for example) and my response is, ‘You need to take what you can get’.
I am not suggesting you take anything that is thrown your way – in particular, this applies to the big ‘discounters’. But I am saying that if a buyer believes in your brand and they are in the top of the pyramid, then try to explore and support that buyer in their stores and build a reputation for yourself and your brand.
I have a saying, ‘no buyer wants to be first, but no buyer wants to be last’. If others see your brand selling, then you have a good chance of getting more listings elsewhere.
Finally
Always remember that only one in ten new businesses will survive beyond two years. Make sure your business is one of the successful ones.
To be successful with your drinks brand be knowledgeable about your market, your target audience, your competitors and most crucially, understand what the buyers want as they are key to your success.
Also remember that the first three months of 2021 are where your efforts need to be focused. Good luck with your preparations, have a fruitful first quarter and a great year overall.
