🧠 Speedrunning Product Development 101

Hey there, 

Welcome back to the 31st edition of Brandish, 

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand. 

This week I wanted to tell you about an experience I had recently that’s FILLED with valuable lessons. 

(And it involves everyone’s favorite retailer - Walmart)

So kick back, 

Grab your Brez, 

And let’s dive in. 

The Annual Line Review (Yay)

So at the end of the year we headed down to Bentonville, Arkansas for our annual line review. 

This is where we go over everything from the last year, decide on new SKUs, promotions… 

Things of that nature. 

It’s a lot more exciting than it might sound. 

Anyway, they usually let you know your modular setup for the next year - and if you’re doing well, 

How and what they want to expand. 

For 2024 we’re finally getting our modular set up - it’s going to be sick. 

Expanding That Retail Line Baby

We had gone in with the goal of pitching a new SKU that can directly compete with one of our premium competitors, 

And they loved it. Mission accomplished. 

They were very much on board with the idea and wanted to get that in motion right away. 

The kicker? They only gave us TWO days to send them the label specs (supplement panel, ingredient breakdown, blah blah)

Yeah… We didn’t have that yet - and we had 48 hours to send it over to them. 

Time to slam energy drinks and lock myself in my room for the next couple days. 

Speedrunning Product Development 

The good news was that we already had like, 95% of everything we needed ready to go,

So immediately after the meeting I called our manufacturer and we worked together to create something that could hit the price point that we wanted to go with (while still being a premium formula over competitors). 

I was able to get that taken care of and have a supplement panel ready in around 6 hours

(Shoutout caffeine) 

And the next step was to design a killer label. 

Feedback Feedback Feedback

Once the label was finished I dropped it over to everyone in-house for review. 

Even with the time crunch I couldn’t push something out without a review from our key investors, 

But other than a few opinions they loved the design and formula - huge win. 

We got everything organized - formula, label design, ingredients, specs - and set it over to Walmart in record time. 

More Demanding Than an Ex

For almost 2 days this was all I worked on. I had to push other prioritized tasks out of the way, 

Lock myself in a room, 

And essentially tune out the world to get this in on time. 

I’ll never fully understand why retailers in general give you only a couple days to get something as labor intensive as this polished and ready to go. 

I mean we’re not the biggest brand by any means, but our infrastructure is solid enough to adapt and get this done. 

What about smaller brands who simply don’t have the manpower to get all of that done in just 2 days? 

It feels a little unrealistic.

What you should be taking away from this is - no matter what the scenario,

Is you absolutely need to be organized and have the systems in place to divert a large amount of your energy to a project similar to this one, 

Especially if you ever move into retail. 

Be ready to pivot on a dime, and if you want to keep that amazing contract and shelf space…

Put your head down and all drop your weight on the gas pedal.   

Wrapping Up

And that’s a wrap!

A little shorter this week, but I was in a storytelling mood. 

I hope that you learned something new from my experience this week, and I hope that you take the lessons learned and apply them to your brand ASAP. 

Like everyone’s  mom always says - it’s better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

Anyway, enough rambling, 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll catch you at the next one!

Ankit