Roy and the Special Garlic Sauce

On a recent trip back to my hometown, which over the past 8 years probably only happens once or twice each year, I made my usual visit to the barbershop of my youth. As I was updating Roy, my barber since forever, on my life and innovation and entrepreneurship, he stopped me and asked my thoughts on a venture he wanted to undertake. I thought I could provide some perspective and context for him, so this post covers some of my thought process and preliminary information that I was able to compile for him.

Sooooooo, what’s the business?

Apparently, Roy was a sauce manufacturer on nights and weekends (kidding), or more accurately, he makes a garlic sauce that many people enjoy and encouraged him to consider commercializing.

Given my experiences in the CPG industry, as well as mass retail, I decided it would be helpful to frame the basics of the food CPG space for him. My assessment was aided by some work that I’d done in an experiential learning internship. Starting with the basics:

An overview of the players in the industry’s distribution channel

Thoughts on how he (as entrepreneur) should think about his product and business:

This distinction highlights the need to be consumer-focused, not merely forcing a product upon consumers

For the manufacturing component, I did some quick research on how manufacturing typically occurs, along with a gauge on associated costs. Additionally, I thought about what resources would be helpful in further investigating manufacturing options, and included that for him.

My research indicated that many stores use distributors to bring on new products that will initially be low volume and/or regional. I’d also had prior discussions with distributors and representatives of stores that confirmed this understanding. Here are a few excerpts of the discussion of distributors:

With regards to sales and marketing, I created a high-level 5 phase approach to garnering product sales. In discussions with entrepreneurs in other food and beverage categories, as well as distributors, there was an emphasis on the necessity of a historical track record for a product. With that in mind, the apporach I offered starts with establishing a local/regional presence, as an opportunity to garner sales while also being close to the consumer to observe and continually get feedback.

Through this project, I was given a unique opportunity to leverage several of my past experiences, from operational knowledge to research in the industry, to offer some valuable insights to Roy. Although this was extremely high-level, he relayed that it was helpful to help him frame how the process works, along with understanding how to evaluate manufacturing, something that important to him. As a next step, I’d consider getting out in the stores and observing how consumers interact with similar products, to understand what things are important (price, packaging, labeling, shelf location, etc.) when making the purchasing decision.