When the pandemic hit the United States back in March, consumers immediately shifted how they regularly shopped for food and beverage items. With such a dramatic shift in behaviors, food brands should pay particularly close attention to these actions and act accordingly. Check out 4 ways COVID-19 has impacted the food industry. 1. Consumers are…
Player-Coach or Full-Service Food Marketing Firm Running a hard-working, results-oriented full-service food marketing firm and growing food brands wasn’t always my plan. I found myself here by paying attention to what drives me to succeed professionally, which, in turn, is based on something personal. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my grandfather’s A&P…
Congratulations! You did it. You got your foot in the door and now you have a coveted one-on-one meeting with a retail buyer. Often a retail buyer works within a specific product category, such as “protein” or “dry goods” or “frozen.” This person’s main job is saying yes or no to what’s being sold on…
Emerging Brands Focus of Food Conference: Get on the Shelf & Stay on the Shelf! I am proud to announce that registration is open for the 2nd Annual Emerging Food Brands Conference! When: October 2nd, 7:30 am to 5 pm Where: Purdue University Memorial Union and the Stewart Center Who should attend: Emerging food CPG (consumer…
Turns out financing and innovation are key ingredients for emerging food brands The past several months have introduced me and my firm NewPoint to people and emerging food brands groups that are as exciting as the food industry has been disruptive. Jim Slama and his team at FamilyFarmed are a big part of that. They are…
Snacking Millennials Vote with Their Wallets Ethics On the Go, a new report from Culinary Visions Panel’s Mindful Dining Initiative project has some good data for companies looking to position their brands to align with snacking Millennials. SuperMarket News’ Tara Fitzpatrick (@Tara_Fitzie) produced an easy-to-digest (no pun intended) slide show touching on the top data in…
Clean Label Food Trend: Here to Stay The clean label is a food trend that is only going to get bigger. Consumers are spending more time reading labels and voting–with their wallets–to support food brands that are simplifying ingredients and engaging clear labeling practices for their food brand packaging. The quote that stands out the…
National vs. Local Food Brands: We ask Retail Food Buyer questions so you don’t have to. This series has one goal: help your food brand get on – and stay on – the shelf. We asked these questions in interviews and surveys for my book or they were submitted by food companies that attended our Emerging Food…
How can local food brands capitalize on Grocery Shopping Male? This isn’t exactly “new” news but Dad has found his grocery cart and he is not afraid to use it! The grocery shopping male has turned a corner in the marketplace. We’ve seen that an average 49% of men are taking up shopping duties in a…
When most manufacturers imagine it’s time to call in some innovative food marketing ideas as a starter fuel for sales, they’re probably on the cusp of launching a new product. But what about when it comes to existing products? Longstanding or even, perhaps, steadfast category leaders? Can an innovative marketing twist alone, without some crazy…
To identify and isolate areas for improvement in shopper marketing program strategies and tactics to further your CPG brand growth against set KPIs:
This shopper marketing audit will detail and contrast your CPG brand shopper marketing and messaging versus that of industry standard competitive practices and will include, but not limited to:
Marketing Communication Audit Report
The deliverable will be a white paper with NewPoint Marketing findings and recommendations related to marketing activities in one retail partnership or DMA/market as defined by the client.
Brant brings 20+ years of experience to NewPoint as chief brand communicator and marketing-plan contributor.
Brant’s specialty is bringing an outside, investigative perspective that can feel alternately “rigorous” or “exasperating” depending on your point of view. Yet, he never fails to uncover a business’s unique selling proposition—one which can serve as a brand foundation for marketing that is compelling, creative and “sticky.”
Throughout his career, Brant’s applied his skill set to a broad range of business applications along the food supply-and-service chain. His services have provided vital clarity for all types of operations, from the more conventional food and food equipment manufacturers to the adjacent enterprises that partner with them, such as the Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Food industry marketing expertise—from retail to food-service and food-service equipment— is a natural outcome of having deep knowledge in every facet of a business’ operation. With 10 years in branding and business development, preceded by 15 years in mass media and promotions, Stephanie is an FMI Emerge mentor, holds an executive-level expertise in sales, marketing, media, and production management.
This exceptionally diverse skill set adds value for NewPoint clients by providing a full complement of perspectives on food-industry brand management endeavors.
Wired for a hawkish attention to detail while also maintaining a high-resolution view of the big picture, Stephanie is uniquely able to provide astute branding direction and simultaneously apply the business principles necessary to squeeze more bang out of every marketing buck.
A member of the Forbes Agency Council and quoted in the New York Times, USA Today and Adweek, Patrick Nycz is the author of Moving Your Brand Up the Food Chain: Marketing Strategies to Grow Local and Regional Food Brands. He is an FMI Emerge mentor, an American Advertising Federation’s Silver Medal Award winner, and the Founding President of NewPoint Marketing, a full-service food industry marketing firm focused on food industry brands On a mission to grow.
Patrick’s vision for NewPoint emerged from his team’s success using this proven model for food industry clients and is fueled by NewPoint-funded food buyers and food manufacturers research around tracking consumer, industry, and ongoing food trends.
Since starting her 20-year career in commercial graphic design at one of the foremost catalog retailers in the world, Kristy’s visual branding skills have organically narrowed into the food-industry niche.
In that time, she’s directed graphic identities for snack food and restaurant startups, print materials for multiple agricultural seed companies, display graphics and merchandiser signage for major food-equipment manufacturers and everything in between.
Today, as one of the key brand architects for NewPoint clients, she continues to lead our visual research & development team, always working to find the innovative median between the best practices worth honoring and the accepted rules worth breaking.