Hi Jennifer! Thanks for all your helpful content here. Thought of you recently when reading a few think pieces about packaging that "panders" to millennials with disposable income (e.g. Fishwife, Tom's recent rebrand, lots of RTE oatmeal...and all the creator brands you included here). Most of what I've read has been more from a culture writing perspective, and I'd really welcome your thoughts here as someone actually in the CPG industry! Let me know what you think:
I love this question! I have answers: you can look at it two ways 1. advanced civilizations reach peaks were needs are fulfilled yet cause other problems like obesity, due to our efficiencies in ag and politicized meddling good/bad influences in affordable access to all (free lunch etc), then the needs for the privileged move to phsycographical beyond access (look how much food I have) to niche fetishes and status (look at this exclusive brand I found at the shoppy shop). It’s what I’ll call peak food. 2. CPG is no longer a Big Food insiders club. Anyone, as pointed out in your article links, can start a food co. And a whole industry has cropped up around that to make money. What people don’t realize is most brands do not make money. Very few have exits, and even those that do are not cash flowing because they are not efficient and CAC is still through the roof. Most distributors and grocers lose money on failed brands. So they charge like crazy to everyone, to eek out a profit overall. But society wants status, new new variety and that’s where influencers and the creator economy come in, which you are an expert.
thanks for this thoughtful response -- I definitely agree on 2. On 1, "peak food" is actually a new concept to me. Like yes it feels like we keep summiting something but are we really at the peak? Or is the peak when we're all in gray sweatpants and we're consuming tablets of nutrition (hopefully not...). Or do we keep cycling (at least stylistically) back to what things looked like a century ago.
Anyway, good food for thought and I appreciate your response!
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for all your helpful content here. Thought of you recently when reading a few think pieces about packaging that "panders" to millennials with disposable income (e.g. Fishwife, Tom's recent rebrand, lots of RTE oatmeal...and all the creator brands you included here). Most of what I've read has been more from a culture writing perspective, and I'd really welcome your thoughts here as someone actually in the CPG industry! Let me know what you think:
https://maryahamin.substack.com/p/why-does-everything-look-infantilized
https://www.grubstreet.com/2023/01/why-every-shoppy-shop-looks-exactly-the-same.html
https://www.blackbirdspyplane.com/p/affluent-millennial-awesomesauce-packaging-whos-still-buying-this?r=9oeex
I love this question! I have answers: you can look at it two ways 1. advanced civilizations reach peaks were needs are fulfilled yet cause other problems like obesity, due to our efficiencies in ag and politicized meddling good/bad influences in affordable access to all (free lunch etc), then the needs for the privileged move to phsycographical beyond access (look how much food I have) to niche fetishes and status (look at this exclusive brand I found at the shoppy shop). It’s what I’ll call peak food. 2. CPG is no longer a Big Food insiders club. Anyone, as pointed out in your article links, can start a food co. And a whole industry has cropped up around that to make money. What people don’t realize is most brands do not make money. Very few have exits, and even those that do are not cash flowing because they are not efficient and CAC is still through the roof. Most distributors and grocers lose money on failed brands. So they charge like crazy to everyone, to eek out a profit overall. But society wants status, new new variety and that’s where influencers and the creator economy come in, which you are an expert.
thanks for this thoughtful response -- I definitely agree on 2. On 1, "peak food" is actually a new concept to me. Like yes it feels like we keep summiting something but are we really at the peak? Or is the peak when we're all in gray sweatpants and we're consuming tablets of nutrition (hopefully not...). Or do we keep cycling (at least stylistically) back to what things looked like a century ago.
Anyway, good food for thought and I appreciate your response!