Episodes

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Alex McCord, EVP & Managing Director at Flywheel Digital, An Amazon-focused agency supporting brands selling through 1P. In Alex's conversation with Peter, he answers the following questions: Your career was born into eCommerce and digital retailing when it was still new for CPG brands. How hard has it been and what is the state of maturity of digital and the COG industry today? What is the so called Flywheel of success in digital? Can you decom...

To celebrate 20,000 downloads of The CPG Guys podcast, Sri & PVSB decide to share with our audience the "inside baseball" of our podcast. We answer the following questions: Why did we found the podcast? What was the original format of the podcast? Why did we choose to change the format? What is the mission of the podcast? How does diveristy & inclusion play into our format? How did we convince guests to join us? How did we decide to develop themes? What's the background behind the OMNIE...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Justin Kamine, founder & CEO of Upgraid, an outcome-based health natural supplements brand. Please follow the CPG Guys on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/company/cpgpodcast Questions that Justin addresses: Take us through the journey of Upgraid - how did this happen, how did you find a team? What’s the motivation behind Upgraid? Selfcare - that’s today’s norm? Why has selfcare been such a nascent outcome in the US? Why are we so focused...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this 2 part episode by digital experience maven Stephen G. Koven VP of Omnichannel & eCommerce at Crossmark. Most recently, Stephen was VP of Digital Experience at Hormel Foods and had previously worked at Henkel and The Clorox Company. Stephen speaks to how brands can leverage user-generated content like product ratings & reviews up and don the marketing funnel to drive commercial success. Questions Stephen addresses: It’s been my experience reading r...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this 2 part episode by digital experience maven Stephen G. Koven VP of Omnichannel & eCommerce at Crossmark. Most recently, Stephen was VP of Digital Experience at Hormel Foods and had previously worked at Henkel and The Clorox Company. Stephen speaks to how brands can leverage user-generated content like product ratings & reviews up and don the marketing funnel to drive commercial success. Questions Stephen addresses: My first question is: would you p...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Andrea Leigh, VP of Strategy & Insights at Ideoclick, an eCommerce Accelerator Consultancy for brands at Amazon & beyond. This is a fun and lively conversation about the transforming landscape of eCommerce. Please follow the CPG Guys on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/company/cpgpodcast Questions that Andrea addresses: Your story starts as a Golden Gopher, and is cemented in success at Amazon and now running your own agency focused o...

The CPG Guys Sri and PVSB are joined in this episode by That's it Fruit's founder and CEO Lior Lewensztain to speak about how his on-the-go fruit snacks are thriving in the digital omnichannel environment. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Questions that Lior addresses: Your story starts at USC, then you became an MD (doctor) and then you got your MBA. Now you’re a founder of a fast growing snacks and nutrition oriented food product. Decompose this ...

The CPG Guys Sri and PVSB are joined in this episode by CommerceIQ founder and CEO Guru Hariharan to speak about using machine learning and automation to optimize the full eCommerce channel to win at the moment of purchase and drive profitable growth. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Questions that Guru addresses: How did your professional experiences at Shutterfly, eBay and Amazon affect your founding of CommerceIQ? What is the mission of Commerc...

The CPG Guys, Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Tara West the founder & proprietor of Tara West Fashion. Tara is an independent personal stylist and one of Boston's pre-eminent fashion and lifestyle bloggers. Voted multiple times Boston's Best A-List Fashion Blog, and listed among the top 100 fashion blogs in the country, Tara West's blog received hundreds of visitors daily and reaches over 30,000 Instagram followers who rely on her to identify appropriate fashion trends for professional ...

The CPG Guys Sri and PVSB welcome Rob Gonzalez, CMO & co-founder of Salsify, co-founder of The Digital Self Institute & co-host of Unpacking The Digital Shelf podcast. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Rob covers the following topics: What is the mission of the Digital Shelf Institute and why did you and Peter decide to found it? What are core activities you support? Are PDPs & search bars the future of branding, What is a PIM and how can it enable...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB continue founders month in 2021 with Katie Hotze, the founder & CEO of Grocery Shopii a white label retailer shoppable recipes app that helps shoppers save time while assisting retailers in expanding basket sizes. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Katie answers these questions: What was the shopping experience friction that frustrated you as a shopper, leading you to develop the Grocery Shopii solution and how did you go abou...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB welcome Chieh Huang, co-founder & CEO of Boxed.com for this episode. Chieh co-founded Boxed.com 8 years ago. He holds a bachelors degree from Johns Hopkins and a law degree from Fordham. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Questions Chieh answers include: Your career was born into the legal field early and then passed Astro Ape & Zynga? How was Boxed born? What is the mission of boxed.com and what consumer needs does it fulfi...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in a two-part series by Bryan Gildenberg, SVP of Commerce at Omnicom Group. In the second episode of the series, Bryan shares his predictions in CPG retail for 2021. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Specifically, Bryan addresses these questions: As we move to 2021 emerging trends. 2020 was a year for the books - can anyone really create an accurately successful plan for 2021? What advice do you have for brands...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in a two-part series by Bryan Gildenberg, SVP of Commerce at Omnicom Group. In the first episode of the series, Bryan shares his thoughts on the transformations in CPG retail that occurred in 2020. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast Specifically, Bryan addresses these questions: Walmart has made major moves towards omnichannel in 2020. Epic? Thoughts? Huge winner? Instacart is another one we recognized in our...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB celebrate the first annual "Omnies" which recognize the best in omnichannel digital for retailers, marketplaces and brands. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast In the fourth episode of this series, Retailer awards are named for the following categories: Most Innovative Retailer Best Retail Mobile App Best Customer Generated Content Best Retail UX Best Partnership Best Supply Chain resources & capabilities Best Retailer Us...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB celebrate the first annual "Omnies" which recognize the best in omnichannel digital for retailers, marketplaces and brands. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast In the third episode of this series, Retailer awards are named for the following categories: Best eCommerce Retailer Best Omnichannel Retailer Best Regional Retailer Most Improved Retailer Best BOPIS Retailer Rising Star Retailer The rest of the retailer awards are...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB celebrate the first annual "Omnies" which recognize the best in omnichannel digital for retailers, marketplaces and brands. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast In the second episode of this series, Marketplace awards are named for the following categories: Best eCommerce Marketplace Most Improved Marketplace Rising Star Marketplace Most Innovative Marketplace Best Marketplace Enabler Fina all our content and the full list ...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB celebrate the first annual "Omnies" which recognize the best in omnichannel digital for retailers, marketplaces and brands. Follow The CPG Guys on LinkedIn at http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/cpgpodcast In the first episode, CPG Brands awards are named for the following categories: Best Digital CPG Best DTC CPG Most Improved Digital CPG Rising Star Digital CPG Best CPG Use of Social Media Most Innovative Digital CPG Find all our content and the full list of winner...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB welcome Bridget Lasda, Chief Customer Officer for King Juice/Calypso Lemonade for this episode. Bridget started her career at The Coca-Cola Company and then Heineken USA before joining King Juice. Questions Bridget answers include: You joined Coca-Cola straight out of college. What were some of the experiences or skills you honed at Coca-Cola that have served you particularly well in your career there and beyond? What were some of the requirements of selling alco...

The CPG Guys welcome Ken Coogan from Coogan Partners. Ken recently fielded a survey with CPG shopper marketing professionals and joins the podcast to share the results with our audience. Questions covered in the interview with Peter: What are some of the CPG-related transformations getting your attention in the pandemic? Why did you field this survey and can you give us details behind the makeup of the respondents? What do you see as the key conclusions from the study? What do you consider ...

The CPG Guys Sri Rajagopalan & Peter V.S. Bond are joined in this episode by Wayne Duan VP of eCommerce & Digital Commerce and Sara Master Director of eCommerce Marketing & Catalog Management, both from Constellation Brands, makers of iconic brands like Corona, Modelo, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, Casa Noble & Mi Campo. Sara & Wayne talk about the unique requirements in marketing controlled substances, particularly in leveraging retail media. They also discuss insights in consumption behavior during t...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Michael Ellgass, EVP of Technology & Retail Media Platforms at IRi. Michael speaks about the growth in retail media capabilities that brands can leverage to win search and efficiently target messaging to the ideal shoppers. This podcast episode may also be heard on IRi Growth Insights podcast. Michael answers these questions: What exactly is your role at IRi and what are the objectives of the technology & retail media platforms team? ...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB welcome Brian Sappington to the podcast. Brian is a 2 decade veteran of The Coca-Cola Company, working in various sales roles across most retail verticals. Last year, he assumed the newly-created role of North America Chief Digital Integration Officer. In this episode, Brian discusses elements of leadership that have enabled his team to build internal stakeholder support for the digital transformation occurring in the marketplace. Questions Brian addresses: We understan...

The CPG Guys Sri & PVSB are joined in this episode by Mike Black, the SVP of Marketing at Profitero, a SaaS platform that helps brands manage their product "4 Ps" on digital shelves at over 8,000 retail sites in 50 countries. Mike explains the term DIVA Discoverable - being highly visible in retailer search results Informative - online, there is limitless real estate available to promote your brand Valued - investing in brand building to ensure brand preference can help stave off competitive...