Branded Content, a framework for success
The foundations of great content marketing start here.
Information, Context, Medium, Format - the classic content creation > publishing framework updated for CPG challengers looking to build brand power.
Post Category: WHAT
Keep reading 550 WORDS >
The B for Good Big Three
Laura’s been to the B for Good Leaders summit and she has insight to share.
Laura Tran, our Craft Partner for sustainability, attended the B for Good Leaders Summit in Amsterdam for the second time, and just like last year, she’s sharing her sustainability take-aways for any peer or company looking to refresh their sustainability strategy.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 783 WORDS >
The Craftory Secret to a Successful Exit
How to achieve over five times growth in three and a half years
This week we exited Edgard and Cooper to General Mills, and it’s a major deal for all parties involved. To give you some measure of scale: Last year (2023) Edgard and Cooper’s estimated retail sales were in excess of €100M. This represents over five times growth during the three and a half years they were part of the Craftory portfolio.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 632 WORDS >
Recipes for challenger success in challenging times
How to keep partying like it’s 2019
Ah, the halcyon days of the twilight twenty-tens, when consumers cared about cause, iOS allowed tracking without opt-in, money was cheap, and CPG incumbents were clueless.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 1488 WORDS >
The trap of “status quo risk” vs. “change risk”
When staying put is the most dangerous thing you can do
Human nature is to fear risk. We abhor it. Almost as much as we loathe change. In an evolutionary ideal world, homo sapiens finds contentment in going about our merry business the same way, day after day, safe in the knowledge that all is well with the way things are.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 612 WORDS >
Of rates of change, and letting go
How founders can lead best during their ventures’ tricky teenage years
Parenting, it is often said, is a thankless task. Children are born as the fruit of effervescent optimism, but the daily grind of changing diapers, sleepless nights, strained marital relations, and adolescent moodiness is often enough to make the very best of us forget why we produced the little terrors to begin with.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 941 WORDS >
Love is in the actions you take for someone other than you, not in the big speeches …
Laura’s field notes from this year’s B For Good Leaders Summit
The B Good Summit from another perspective, that of Laura Tran Investor and Craft Partner for ESG. How did our in-house expert feel about the 2023 summit?
Post Category: WHAT
FIELD NOTES FROM THE B FOR GOOD LEADERS SUMMIT 2023
JP’s reflections on this year’s B For Good Leaders Summit, Beurs van Berlage, May 10/11/12 Amsterdam 2023.
Finding the actionable middle ground (without giggling at dream state doomers, or throwing sharp objects at dead end bankers).
Post Category: WHAT
Why wasting a ton of money is the only way to build a challenger brand for the ages
Ernesto explores the economics and strategies of brand building.
Is it time to embrace the slow build of real brand power and ease up on the crack cocaine of performance marketing?
Post Category: HOW
Brand, Scale, Retail: The Craftory Mindset
Craftory wisdom - big strategic decisions facing challenger brands.
Craftory co-founder Ernie speaks about what makes a great challenger brand, how to succeed at scale and against shifting markets, what to do about amazon, and why to stay away from physical retail for as long as you can.
Post Category: WHAT
Listen 45 mins >
Why looking out the window with their feet up is the best thing challenger CEOs can do
The consequential difference between busy work and formative work
Inherent in many founders' preference for action over reflection lies a widespread misunderstanding of how businesses grow, and the crucial role played by the CEO in the enablement thereof.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 720 WORDS >
The Rise of Cause Capital
Challenger brand strategies for a new era.
In the third episode of PHD and eatbigfish’s podcast series Overthrow II, Craftory co-founder Ernesto Schmitt discusses the role of cause for challenger brands and progressive sources of investment. How can challenger brands effect change at scale and what lies ahead for investment in this evolving landscape?
Post Category: WHAT
Listen 25 mins >
The Road to B-Corp
Why we became a certified B Corporation
Since 2018 the Craftory has been amplifying the world’s best challenger brands. So it’s hardly a surprise that for us, it was a natural next step to join the B Corp movement…
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 650 Words >
Distribution into 6,000 Wal-Marts? Just say no.
Why succumbing to retail cornucopia is often the ultimate own-goal
In the halcyon days of my confident youth, I got to enjoy - first-hand - the intoxicating power of the shelf. As a director at Tesco (then the world’s third-largest retailer), I witnessed the streams of clammy-palmed growers, producers and account executives coming to tender deference and offerings before their category buyer chieftains.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 490 WORDS >
The Deceptive Attractiveness of “Non-Consumer-Noticeables”
Shining a light on the slippery slope challenger brands know not to go down.
Beware the attractiveness of corners cut, even if everyone else seems to be cutting away with carefree abandon.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 900 WORDS >
Gender Lens Investing - Our Take
Investing through the lens of female empowerment.
We’re making investment decisions that aim to earn a financial return and address the challenges that women and girls face across the world.
Post Category: WHAT
Keep reading 950 Words >
The secret to slave-free chocolate is societal change in West Africa
We all want slave-free chocolate but the awkward truth is there simply isn't enough to go around.
Any brand trying to transform this category must tackle the problem of slavery and child labour at its cultural roots ...
Post Category: WHAT
Keep reading 1150 Words >
Beware... the Ring of Fire
How not to build your challenger business
The tell-tale signs of a digital challenger brand in trouble are usually unmistakable: sales growth is triple-digit-stellar, margins are high, ROIs are dizzyingly positive – and more often than not the business can boast of delivering all this while remaining just about profitable, too. Conventionally this might be judged a spectacular report card, prompting investors to queue around the block. However peer one level deeper, and chances are the Lookalike Devil may have been doing his ugly worst.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 625 words >
The Packaging Pickle
Why physical and digital retail shelves demand fundamentally different brand executions
Just how to stand out amongst the 40,000 products stocked by the average supermarket is a problem that is well understood - if not consistently well addressed - by the design conjurers of Big Brands the world over… The woe for insurgent challenger brands is that most of the design rules that make packaged brands win on the physical shelves of Wal-Mart achieve the opposite on the digital shelves of D2C ecommerce.
Post Category: HOW
Keep reading 1325 words >
When Will Socially Conscious Investing Go Mainstream?
At The Craftory we know that business is more than just about making a profit.
It’s important to us all for your business to make money, but we want to make a profit, sustainably. What’s the state of play and why isn’t socially conscious/cause-driven investment the dominant model?
Post Category: WHAT
Keep reading 1000 Words >