Start a Packaged Food Brand
Companion to "Demos, Velocity, and Staying on the Shelf."
Velocity per store per week per SKU is the industry's universal metric. Build the weekly number from invoices and store calls. Answer chain questions with your real number from comparable stores; they will see the point-of-sale data anyway.
| Store | SKU | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Avg/wk | Baseline without promo? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
If there is no baseline without subsidy, there is no business yet, only activity.
Honest math: a session costs $100 and up in labor and product before coordination time; well-run programs report roughly 60 to 160 units sold in a four-hour session. Demos buy information and a first push, never a permanent lift. Use at account launch, in strongest stores, and when a store's numbers sag.
| Date | Store | Cost | Units sold in session | Following-week baseline | Undemoed-store baseline same week | Created a customer or fed a crowd? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rule from the course: if the baseline in demoed stores does not settle above the baseline in undemoed stores within a month, the fix lives in the package, the price, or the product.
Write objections down that night. Every recurring objection is either a packaging fix, a product fix, or a price signal.
| Objection heard | Times heard | Fix type (packaging / product / price) | Action and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promo / TPR (e.g. $9.99 → $7.99) | Window | Lift during window (working pattern: ~3x) | Base after (expect a modest permanent gain) |
|---|---|---|---|
Run the promo, measure, then stop and let the baseline breathe. A brand that is always on promotion has trained its customers to wait. All of it is funded from your margin: plan trade spend as budget, 15 to 20% of gross wholesale revenue converting to discounts and fees.
| Row | SKU A | SKU B |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf life from study (months, date stamped only from results) | ||
| Safety buffer you hold back (your policy) | ||
| Sellable window = shelf life − buffer | ||
| Velocity (units/week, store or total) | ||
| Order quantity ÷ velocity = weeks to sell | ||
| Reorder trigger date (run out before the window closes, never after) |
| Restock before the shelf embarrasses you | ☐ |
| Rotate stock: oldest dates face forward | ☐ |
| Pull near-date units yourself | ☐ |
| Buyer's emails answered inside a day | ☐ |
| Packaging freeze honored: no case pack, label, or carton changes after distribution without costing the change first (one wording change was a five-figure exercise) | ☐ |