Miho Sugimoto

Let’s be honest… Even with all of its incredible promise, certain aspects of ‘regenerative’ are a hot mess right now. In the CPG world, maybe the biggest challenge we face is: 👉 The inability to uniformly define, validate, and label ‘regenerative’ as a product-specific claim. There is a lot of conversation and many opinions on how we can make that happen. But sometimes, I feel like we’re just talking in circles, and maybe it doesn’t even matter? So I was excited when someone like Justine R., who is not working on these sorts of topics every day, validated that she sees the same issue as a conscious consumer. I’m grateful she had me on to discuss this important topic and a few more below! ▶️ ReGen Brands: From Podcast to Ecosystem  ▶️ The Three Pillars of ReGen Brands and Non-Profit Decision ▶️ Defining Regenerative ▶️ Making Regenerative Accessible: Consumer Clarity and Shelf Tags  ▶️ Regenerative Diets and Personal Health  ▶️ Tips for Aspiring Regenerative Brands 🎧 You can check out the conversation here: https://bit.ly/3U4Qo8K #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #regenerativefoodsystems #cpg #regenbrands #food #beverage #podcast #sustainability #innovation #entrepreneurship #startups #business

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5件のコメント

An observation in CMO departures across Big Food: What looks like “sudden exits” is usually months in the making. Here’s what I keep seeing across global food and beverage clients and conversations with boards and operators. It isn’t one thing. It’s four things stacking at once. → Investor clock vs operating clock. Boards want exit-level stories on a quarterly cadence while brand effects, retailer resets, and innovation gates compound over 6 to 24 months. That gap turns CMOs into shock absorbers. → Accountability without control. Many CMOs are on the hook for revenue and mix, yet price, pack, promo depth, assortment, and trade terms sit with other functions. When the P&L wobbles, marketing pays the bill. → Retail media whiplash. Massive RMN budgets with thin measurement create noisy “wins” that don’t hold up to incrementality. When the readouts change, confidence wobbles and trust erodes. → Mandates that start at month 12. New leaders inherit org design debt, agency sprawl, and patchy data. They need a quarter to baseline and a quarter to fix plumbing, but the narrative expects a turnaround by Q2. Common precursors before the headline → A “marketing strategy” that is really a media plan. No value creation thesis across price, pack, channel, and demand. → No clear owner for lifecycle, retail media, or measurement. Everyone is a generalist. → Promotions buying volume while killing mix. → Shadow advisory quietly auditing CAC, incrementality, and test velocity to inform a keep, augment, or upgrade decision. The category context making it harder → Private label pressure and retailer power shifting margin math. → Fragmented attention and rising creative costs to cut through. → Consumption shifts that don’t care about board calendars, from wellness trends to new usage occasions. → Innovation reality. Concept to shelf in Big Food is often 12 to 24 months, even when you do everything right. If the CMO owns the growth number, give them joint authority on price, pack, promo depth, and retail media. Fund capability, not theater. Lifecycle CRM, creative testing, MMM or equivalent evidence, retail media discipline. Under-resourced turnarounds create six-month CMOs. If you are the sitting CMO → Own the baseline before someone else presents it. CAC, payback, promo depth, and what you will stop doing this week. → Bring a two-quarter ladder. One hygiene fix, one capability hire, two sharp tests with clear success criteria. → Separate brand and performance goals and tie both to penetration, repeat, and contribution, not vanity reach. → Curiosity reads as coachable. Defensiveness reads as replaceable. This is about aligning clocks, giving leaders real levers, and resourcing the system you actually expect to work. When that happens, departures slow down and momentum compounds. What are you seeing in your market. Are CMOs given a mandate or a countdown. #BigFood #FMCG #CPG

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35件のコメント

After Kellogg and KDP splitting up... KraftHeinz is the latest to unbundle. In 2015, Kraft and Heinz merged to create the 3rd largest food company in North America But the move was a FLOP! By 2019 Kraft Heinz had to write down $15.4B in brand value, then sold off Planters ($3.35B) and its natural cheese business (~$3B). Now the company is splitting into two: 🍅 Global Taste Elevation Co. (Heinz, Philadelphia, Kraft Mac & Cheese) — $15.4B in 2024 sales 🥪 North American Grocery Co. (Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles, Lunchables) — $10.4B in sales This end of huge CPG conglomerates is upon us. Smaller, specialized companies are better positioned to move fast, innovate, and connect with consumers who are gravitating toward emerging better-for-you brands and private label. But I'm excited to hopefully see much better marketing tactics come out of this. Less reliance on mass “one-size-fits-all” tactics like Super Bowl ads. More room for testing, iteration, and UGC + influencer-powered media that can connect all the way from top-funnel buzz to bottom-funnel conversion.

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6件のコメント

I’m a subscriber to a fabulous newsletter, The Business of Food, authored by Jennifer Barney. It’s really good. Her most recent edition includes a piece on atypical exit paths that are now becoming more of the norm in the CPG industry. In the piece, she cites examples such as Aura Bora, Tia Lupita and Omsom. Below is the link to subscribe and also an excerpt from the article… ----- So, what’s the play? If you're a boutique brand, your most likely exit path isn't a unicorn buyout. It's becoming a lifestyle business inside a strategic portfolio. That means: - Being radically transparent with potential acquirers - Structuring your cap table with investors aligned to your business type - Building relationships early, long before you need a sale If you’re in-between boutique and big, choose one of two paths: - High-Growth Path - P&L shows investment in marketing, team, and velocity. - Cap table includes VC-style investors who expect long-term exits and are okay with volatility. Sustainable Profitability Path - P&L reflects cost efficiency, gross margin optimization, and limited burn. - Investors understand slower, steadier returns—or dividend-based exits. Most food & beverage don’t get headliner exits but those that survive get continuity and best case, a role for the founder. I’ve been here before as a founder, and lived through it with brands I advise. If you’re not sure where you’re at, contact me to sort it out. https://lnkd.in/gyqX4DY2

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4件のコメント