CPG Reads: A Time-Saver Presentation Toolkit for CPG Teams + Lessons from Rao’s $1B Positioning
👉 The Retailer Storytelling Corner
Presentation Toolkit to Save Time and Strengthen Every Retailer-facing Story
If you’re in Sales, Category, or Insights at a CPG company, you already know how much time goes into building retailer-facing presentations (e.g., line reviews, T2Ts, innovation stories, category playbooks). Each one requires figuring out the narrative, the data visuals, and the design, usually starting from scratch or from a deck someone saved months ago. Across a large team, the hours (and the inconsistency) add up fast.
We wrote the full playbook on how to build this. The linked article walks through the nuts and bolts of it, along with examples built around a sample company. If you’re motivated, you can build one yourself.
TL;DR version of what’s in the Presentation Time-saver Toolkit:
1/ Storytelling guide. A quick-reference framework for structuring retailer-facing narratives, with real examples. Something your team can pull up any time they’re starting a new deck.
2/ Smarter master template. Your branded PowerPoint, simplified. Fewer layouts, cleaner design, easier to use every day.
3/ 15-20 ready-to-use real world example slides. Real-world layouts covering the slides your team builds most often. (This is the part we’re most proud of.)
4/ Searchable asset library. Every chart type in your brand colors, icons you can search easily (Ctrl+F), product images, lifestyle photos, key logos. All organized, all in one place.
The payoff goes beyond saving time. Teams end up building a stronger and more consistent story across customer meetings and spend more energy preparing for the conversation, not assembling slides.
➤ Read the full article where we give away the full playbook.
Premium Pricing Is About Positioning, Not Price
Rao’s has been the jar in our pantry for a while now. Pasta night is a weekly thing with my daughter, and it’s always the same brand. So when Sidnee Schaefer’s post on Rao’s showed up in my feed, I expected a story about premium pricing. What I found was a lesson about positioning instead.
Here’s what Sidnee says. Every pasta sauce on the shelf has been competing on the same three things: cheaper, thicker, more authentically Italian. Rao’s ignored all three. No coupons. No value size. No “now 30% more sauce.” Just a $7 jar sitting next to a $2.50 option. It grew 37% to $775M in 2023 while much of the category stayed flat, and has since crossed $1B in annual sales, according to Campbell’s (they bought Rao’s in ‘23).
Rather than joining the discount battle, Rao’s made its premium price part of its positioning. It’s a useful reminder that premium brands are built by choosing what not to compete on, not just by charging more.
➤ Read Sidnee Schaefer’s full breakdown on Rao’s positioning strategy.
Why Lower Prices Alone Won’t Win the Grocery Pricing Battle
I liked how Neil Saunders, Managing Director at GlobalData Retail, summed up today’s grocery shopper: they want reassurance that “their whole cart isn’t going to cost them an arm and a leg.” That’s why simply announcing price cuts isn’t enough.
Kroger, Stop & Shop, and Food Lion are all investing in lower prices this year. Yet only 13% of shoppers who regularly visit traditional supermarkets believe those retailers offer low prices, according to AlixPartners. Three things stood out to me.
1/ Promotions are no longer enough. Saunders says shoppers still look for deals, but consistently low prices are more important for building loyalty. That’s because shoppers want confidence they’ll get good value across their entire basket.
2/ Price perception is hard to change. Even as traditional grocers invest heavily in lower prices, many shoppers still associate everyday value with retailers like Walmart and Aldi.
3/ Shoppers are spreading their grocery trips across more stores. Saunders says consumers are increasingly shopping at multiple retailers to find the best prices, a pattern he doesn’t expect to change anytime soon.
➤ Read more: Grocery Dive on how changing shopper expectations are reshaping grocery pricing strategies.
While you’re here
1/ We know this is happening already but here’s some new data. A recent survey found 70% of U.S. shoppers already use AI as part of their shopping journey. Many still verify citations and check where the information comes from. [Here’s how the shopping behavior is changing]
2/ Graza is moving into chips and this isn’t just about entering a bigger category. It is about building on what consumers already associate with the brand, and creating a new reason to buy. A useful read if you’re thinking about brand extensions. [More here]
Learn More About OUTKREATE’s Sales, CatMan & Insights Solutions
OUTKREATE develops retailer-facing presentations for top CPG Cat Man & Insights teams, equipping them for success, be it Top to Tops, Innovation Selling Stories, Line Reviews & JBPs, and more.
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