Why Great Products Struggle in Retail

Why Great Products Struggle in Retail

(And What Brands Often Overlook)

1. What are the biggest challenges brands encounter once they’ve secured shelf space, and why do some struggle to maintain

momentum?

Deep: The biggest challenge is a change in mindset. Getting into retail feels like the finish line, but it’s really a trial period. Your buyer didn’t make a long-term commitment. They placed a bet, and every reset is a chance to re-vote on it.

Momentum usually stalls for predictable reasons. The launch energy fades: the intro promotion ends, the founder stops doing weekend demos, and the social buzz quiets down. Meanwhile, the brand is now competing against products with decades of shopper loyalty and much bigger budgets. Many emerging brands also find that the cost of staying on the shelf (trade spend, promotions, slotting, chargebacks) was higher than they planned for. That squeezes the money they meant to spend on building demand.

At King’s Hawaiian, we launched Pretzel Bites with 60% ACV before the first delivery even shipped. That was a big distribution win, but distribution alone doesn’t sell a single unit. What made the launch work was the integrated campaign behind it, which gave shoppers a reason to look for the product once it landed. Emerging brands usually get the first part and underinvest in the second.

2. When a product isn’t selling as quickly as expected, what are the most common underlying causes? How can brands distinguish between a product problem, a marketing problem, and a consumer awareness problem?

Deep: Before blaming the product or the marketing, check the basics. Is it actually on the shelf? I’ve seen plenty of “slow sellers” that were sitting in a backroom, set in the wrong spot, or out of stock for weeks. Walk your stores, and ask your broker or retail partners for store-level data. Many velocity problems turn out to be execution problems.

Once you know the product is findable, a simple way to diagnose the issue is to look at trial versus repeat:

• Low trial, strong repeat: People who try it love it, but not enough people are trying it. That’s an awareness problem.
• Decent trial, weak repeat: People are buying it once and not coming back. That points to the product itself, its price-to-value, or a gap between what the package promised and what the product delivered.
• Shoppers see it but don’t pick it up: That’s a communication problem. Your packaging and messaging aren’t giving them a reason to choose you in the few seconds they’re standing in the aisle.

I started my career at IRI (now Circana), and the biggest lesson from those years was that the data almost always tells you where the problem is. Brands just have to know which numbers to look at and look at them early.



3. In crowded categories where many products make similar claims, what are the biggest mistakes brands make when trying to communicate what sets them apart?

Deep:

• The most common mistake is leading with table stakes. “Clean ingredients,” “non-GMO,” “no artificial anything,” and “high protein” were differentiators a few years ago. In many categories now, they’re the minimum to get on shelf. If the products on either side of yours make the same claim, it isn’t a reason to buy you.

• The second mistake is saying too much. Founders know everything that makes their product special, so they try to put all of it on the front of the pack. The shopper ends up remembering none of it. Pick the one thing that matters most and make it impossible to miss.



• The third mistake is talking about features instead of what they mean for the shopper. “Made with real fruit” is a fact. Why that matters to the person reading it is the actual story. At Boskovich Farms, we launched Fair Earth Farms in the industry’s first BPI-certified compostable packaged salad bag. When you have a true first like that, the job is to make it unmistakable, not to bury it alongside five other claims. A real point of difference only works if a shopper can see it from the aisle.

4. For CPG brands already in retail with limited marketing budgets, what are the most common mistakes you see when deciding where to invest their marketing dollars?

Deep:

Spending on awareness that isn’t connected to where the product is sold. I often see brands in a few hundred stores in one region running broad social ads nationally. They generate impressions and likes, but most of the people seeing those ads can’t buy the product. Every marketing dollar should help move product off the specific shelves you’re already on.

Spreading too thin: a little paid social, a little PR, a trade show, a few influencers, a new website. Nothing gets enough investment to work. A small budget goes much further when it’s concentrated.

Relying on promotions as the main growth lever. Discounts can create a temporary spike, but if those shoppers don’t come back at full price, you’ve paid to rent volume rather than build a brand.

Not taking full advantage of what’s available. Their retail partners, their own story as founders, and their existing customers are often underused assets that cost far less than paid media.