My top takeaways from Getting To Grow Live: Inside the Mind of a Retail Buyer, hosted by the fabulous Zoe Fox.
For any growing food or drink brand, getting in front of a supermarket buyer can feel like the biggest hurdle in the business. You’ve developed a product you truly believe in, poured everything into the brand and finally secured a meeting. Now you just need them to love it as much as you do.
But enthusiasm from the buyer doesn’t necessarily mean a listing. And a listing doesn’t necessarily mean success.
Give the buyer a reason to back you
Lucy Silver, Partnerships Lead at Ocado Retail, challenged the misconception that buyers are scary, reminding us that they can feel nervous meeting brands too.
James Bailey, former Managing Director of Waitrose, also cautioned against imagining retailers as perfectly well-oiled machines. Behind the scenes, they face their fair share of chaos.
Retailers have competing priorities, internal pressures and category strategies to deliver. A brilliant product can still be wrong for a particular retailer at a particular moment. Being liked isn’t the same as fitting the plan.
That should change how brands tell their story.
“We’re growing fast” and “our product tastes amazing” might earn interest. The stronger argument explains what the brand will do for that retailer’s shoppers and category.
Our advice to brands would be to build that customer story early. Bring your brand’s personality to the pitch, but make sure the creativity helps the buyer understand the commercial opportunity. Make the proposition clear enough for them to explain to colleagues when you’re no longer in the room.
Start building proof before the big meeting
There was an interesting discussion about how brands demonstrate potential when they don’t yet have substantial sales data; a familiar challenge for start-ups and challenger brands.
This is where smaller trials, sampling and creative ways of gathering shopper feedback can be worth their weight in gold.
James shared the example of a brand’s early festival test. The founders of said brand asked people to vote with their empty bottles, using bins marked “yes” and “no” to decide whether they should leave their jobs to make smoothies. A simple, creative way to put the product in people’s hands and get a response, which resulted in them winning the listing.
The lesson for brands is that evidence can start small, provided you’re clear about what it tells you.
A well-executed store trial can help answer useful questions: who bought, what prompted them to try it, how the product performed and, with the right tracking, whether people came back.
Communications should be built into that trial from the outset. Give participating retailers a clear product story, help shoppers understand why they should try it and capture feedback you can use afterwards.
It’s also where being part of the wider ZEAL ecosystem that Joe Public is privileged to sit within as we can add so much additional value for our clients. Alongside ZEAL’s shopper marketing expertise and the ZEAL X team’s work in sampling and brand experiences, Joe Public can help connect the activity with the story it generates by putting products into shoppers’ hands, capturing useful evidence and turning those learnings into compelling customer communications and trade PR.
The opportunity is to arrive at the next buyer conversation with more than a promising proposition, giving you the ability to tell them something they didn’t already know but will spark a shiny bright light for them. You have real shopper feedback, evidence of performance and retailer experiences to draw on.
Remain honest about the scale, though. A successful trial in ten stores doesn’t prove national demand. It can, however, give a buyer a stronger reason to take the next step.
Make Customer and Shopper PR useful to the buying conversation
PR can help a brand become familiar before its sales team makes contact. But familiarity needs substance behind it.
Coverage that explains the shopper opportunity, demonstrates retailer success or offers a useful category perspective gives the commercial team something meaningful to work with.
That means thinking beyond the launch announcement. What are retailers learning from stocking the product? Which occasions are driving demand? What support is helping stores sell more?
At Joe Public, we bring that customer perspective into our communications because the story needs to work for the people deciding what goes on shelf, as well as those choosing what goes in the basket.
Plan for the second purchase
I particularly liked the discussion about getting into an Ocado shopper’s favourites. It brings the challenge into sharp focus: how do you turn discovery into a habit?
A listing creates availability, but brands still need to give people a reason to buy.
Our work with Suntory’s −196 on the National Big Freeze brought that thinking to life, albeit in a different channel. We combined customer PR with retailer incentives, sampling, and shopper activations. The activity gave retailers a reason to get behind the brand and shoppers an opportunity to try it.
While this was a convenience campaign, the logic still applies. Understand what motivates the customer, make the shopper proposition compelling and connect your communications with activity that helps move the product.
Crucially, plan beyond that first burst of excitement. How will shoppers find you again? What will prompt another purchase? And how will you keep retailers engaged once the launch activity ends?
Agree the success metrics upfront: trial and rate of sale, alongside repeat purchase where the data allows. Promotions can encourage a first purchase, but the product itself and the lived experience need to earn the next one.
Keep communicating when things get difficult
Another strong theme was readiness. A major listing can put enormous pressure on a young business, particularly its supply chain.
Being proactive and honest gives a buyer something to work with and earns respect in the relationship. Set clear expectations upfront, flag problems early and be prepared to discuss what needs to change.
The same care applies when a buyer moves on. Thank them, ask for an introduction and give their successor a concise account of the relationship. Make it easy for the next person to understand why the brand deserves their attention.
Build confidence at every stage
What I took away from the evening was that brands need to keep earning confidence, before the meeting, through the trial, at launch and beyond.
At Joe Public, we help food and drink brands connect their trade story with the shopper opportunity, helping them win on shelf, online and in the basket.
If you’re preparing for a buyer meeting, planning a retail trial or working out how to make a new listing deliver, let’s talk about the story and the support you need to grow.
