How Retailers Can Make Shopper Marketing Work Harder for Small Brands

In the retail food business, small brands are really the growth agents. Don’t believe me? Over the last five years, while revenues have fallen by a combined 15% for the 10 biggest publicly traded packaged food and beverage companies, an estimated $15 billion has shifted to companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue (source: IRI).

We’ve seen how the big guys have responded to the heel-biters. Stories such as Kellogg snapping up Rx Bar and Unilever gorging on Sir Kensington’s, Pukka Herbs, Mae Terra, Tazo and Sun Basket in just one year have been commonplace.

In-house consulting and mini-funding programs like Kraft Heinz Springboard and Chobani Incubator have emerged, where the old guard trades access, experience and resources for a peek under the small food tent. It’s an opportunity to meet the next acquisition. But also, an admission: our experts need help to learn the ways of new food makers.

Shopper marketing needs to think and change like this, too. The practice was built by and for big manufacturers and retailers and suffers from similar cumbersome inefficiencies. It needs to change to not only benefit shoppers seeking small brand innovations, but to simultaneously act as a megaphone for smaller brands that are driving growth.

Here are three ideas for retailers to consider in supporting today’s small brands: