Guide to Consumer Packaged Goods Marketing & Growth

If you sell a product that a consumer will need to replenish – think anything from dish soap to hot sauce – your business falls into the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. Owning a CPG business can be an exciting endeavor because the scalability can often lead to big growth. But it’s important to understand the CPG world has fierce competition from companies big and small. Plus the market is becoming increasingly saturated with e-commerce sellers due to the low barrier to entry. 

To take advantage of the opportunity and overcome the challenges that come along with CPG businesses, we need to explore CPG marketing so you can better understand what you need to do to succeed in this crowded marketplace. 

Why CPG Marketing is Essential

You cannot start a CPG business without devoting a lot (and I mean a lot) of time, energy and resources to marketing. It’s not a “create it and they will come” scenario. As inbeat.co shares in their article “CPG Marketing: Trends, Challenges & Top Brand Strategies” there are 5 major reasons you need solid marketing to grow a successful CPG company.

1. Fierce competition from CPG Giants
2. High Costs of Production
3. Scattered Attention and Ad Fatigue
4. Weak Brand Loyalty
5. Higher Cost of Customer Acquisition

To get the detailed explanation of the challenges listed above and how marketing can help solve them, head over to the CPG Marketing article to learn more.

CPG Marketing Strategy

As with marketing for any business, it’s crucial you “convey the right message to the right people at the right time and place.” To do this you need to gather data on customer behavior and preferences, product feedback, the shopping experience and more. Armed with this information you will better understand who to market to, when and where. Allowing you to select the best platforms to invest in.

It’s not as simple as creating a product and throwing up some organic social media posts to promote it. If the goal is to grow your business, you need to be strategic about marketing your CPG business.

Top CPG Platforms

When it comes to where to market your CPG business, the optionals are endless. Some platforms and tactics will yield great return on investment, while others will simply give you brand awareness. 

Here’s the 4 platforms to consider for marketing your CPG business according to inbeat.co:

1. Paid Search Advertising
2. Influencer Marketing
3. Content Marketing
4. In-store Marketing

For detailed information about each CPG Marketing platform and their pros/cons, head over to the inbeat article. 

Keys to CPG Success

There’s definitely money to be made in the CPG industry, but that doesn’t come without a lot of investment in research, data analysis and strategic marketing. 

Here’s the “5 Growth Strategies Consumer Packaged Goods Companies Can Use Today” according to Forbes.com:

1. Be In Many Channels  
2. Follow The Data
3. Get Closer to Customers
4. Find Your Few Key Partners
5. Always Innovate

If you have drive, creativity and are willing to use the data and trends to make decisions, launching and/or growing a CPG business is for you!

Upcoming Workshop

Want to learn more about launching or scaling your CPG business? Don’t miss our CPG Product Workshop on Tuesday May 16th, 2023 from 5:30-7:00 pm. We’ve partnered with Proof Incubator to bring you a 2-hour workshop led by experienced restaurant coaches who will share strategies to take your CPG business to the next level. 

Sign up for our CPG Product Workshop today!