Negative externalities are an economics concept that is not often talked about, but incredibly intuitive. A negative externality is when an interaction between two parties harms a third party. If I buy new speakers from Sonos, Sonos gets money, and I get speakers. If I play them at all hours of the night, my neighbor… Continue reading
Unilever, the world’s largest tea producer, is looking to get out of the tea business. From Reuters: The company said the review was triggered by the sales slowdown of traditional black tea in developed markets as consumers shift towards herbal tea. Black tea is the dominant part of Unilever’s tea business, Pitkethly said, selling in… Continue reading
Coke announced it achieved or exceeded revenue and profits expectations for 2019. This came in stark contrast to 2017 when it looked like the Atlanta based fast-moving consumer product company faced an existential crisis over sugar. Consumers didn’t want to drink it anymore—bad news for a company whose portfolio revolved around sugary drinks. In two years,… Continue reading
In November 2019, during an economic expansion, Dean Foods declared bankruptcy. The nation’s largest dairy company, with the number one white and chocolate milk brand, could not make money. In January 2020, Borden Dairy followed suit. Most post-mortems dealt with the fact that both companies produced dairy — a product that fewer and fewer people… Continue reading
Like most people online, I’m always looking for book recommendations. So each year I’ve made it a habit of recapping every book I’ve read. If book recommendations are you thing, here are my book recommendations from 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. On to 2019’s list. 35. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics – Stephen Greenblatt A Harvard… Continue reading
In early January, P&G announced plans to buy Billie, a subscription-based, direct-to-consumer brand focused on women razors. Female razors have long been a consistent revenue generator for CPG companies—not due to product quality—but because of a strange mix of sexism, product development and market concentration. The US female razor market is a $1 billion industry… Continue reading
Combatting counterfeit products on Amazon is one of the most significant issues facing brands today. According to a Gartner-L2 study, 1/3 of all reviews for products listed by third-party sellers contain the words “fake” or “counterfeit.” Marker recently ran an interesting article on S’well, the fashionable water bottle company. The company, which reached sales of… Continue reading
If you want to understand why small retailers struggle in modern America, you need to understand one thing: fair trade laws. Today, fair trade is typically presented in the context of international trade. Essentially, a regulation that allows producers in the developing world to compete with large multinational conglomerates who have massive scale and purchasing… Continue reading
In 2020, one of the most significant issues facing consumer packaged goods manufacturers is what they should do about Amazon. Amazon controls about 50 percent of the American online market. That means that a brand’s Amazon strategy often becomes their overall e-commerce strategy. At first glance, consumer packaged goods and Amazon seem like they should… Continue reading
Innovation is a somewhat nebulous concept in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Every company will claim innovation is a priority, but very few are good at it. In fact, I would say that most CPG companies are terrible at it. From the WSJ Gum makers are mixing everything from vitamins to candy into their… Continue reading