CPG Brand Strategies For Better Store Performance.

The game has changed—and so have the rules. Today’s CPG marketers are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by shifting consumer behavior, emerging shopping channels, and the seamless blend of online and offline experiences. To thrive, brands must move beyond outdated playbooks and adopt data-driven strategies that drive measurable growth.

Curious about which CPG brand strategies are delivering results right now? This article will discuss the most effective CPG marketing approaches used by disruptive challenger brands and established category leaders. You’ll discover how omnichannel, shopper, and consumer engagement tactics are optimized to increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty, and boost brand recognition across every touchpoint.

Omnichannel opportunities.

The most overlooked driver of CPG growth today? The surge of new sales channels transforms how consumer packaged goods reach their audiences. Digital-first platforms and traditional retailers are finally stepping up their ecommerce game—unlocking long-overdue opportunities.

This shift isn’t just a wake-up call for DTC brands—it’s a complete rewrite of the rules. Relying solely on low-cost digital acquisition is no longer a sustainable path. To remain competitive, these brands must rethink their effective marketing strategy and reframe how they approach product development, customer engagement, and brand visibility across the full omnichannel spectrum.

This evolution isn’t a threat—it’s an invitation. It’s a chance for CPG marketers to build more innovative brand management systems, execute high-performing CPG marketing campaigns, and differentiate their products in ways that resonate in every channel consumers shop.

Here’s how the most forward-thinking brands seize the moment to stand out and scale.

Universal Search Marketplaces

From eBay to Amazon, Wayfair to Walmart (and now platforms like Shopify), the rise of universal search marketplaces is reshaping the CPG sector. For today’s CPG brands, being present on every digital shelf isn’t optional; it’s foundational to a future-proof CPG business model.

While the proliferation of these platforms may feel overwhelming, it’s also a powerful opportunity. Embracing this industry trend with a proactive mindset opens doors for more strategic brand positioning and broader audience reach.

Effective CPG marketing in this environment means tailoring your approach to each marketplace. A one-size-fits-all strategy won’t cut it. Allocate dedicated budget and resources for marketplace-specific CPG advertising, and invest in experiential marketing tactics that bring your product to life within these digital ecosystems.

Smart CPG branding begins by meeting consumers where they shop and making sure your presence is memorable.

Social Commerce

TikTok may be the first, but it will not be the last. Social platforms are quickly becoming storefronts, which should have CPG marketers paying attention. When customers can discover and buy products without leaving the app, conversion rates don’t just improve—they multiply.

Sure, Facebook and Instagram are obvious players. But don’t sleep on Pinterest. Its audience is already primed for food, fashion, and design categories. All it takes is a frictionless path to purchase to turn browsers into buyers.

If you’re a CPG company, this is the moment to pressure-test your digital agency. If they’re not actively building strategies around this shift, it’s time to move on. The best CPG marketing doesn’t wait for trends to mature—it moves with them.

This is where consumer packaged goods strategy meets execution, and the next wave of the best CPG marketing campaigns will be won.

Click n Mortar

COVID forced brands into click-and-mortar, whether they were ready or not. Now that the chaos has cleared, one thing’s obvious: it’s not a trend. It’s the future of how CPG gets sold.

You’re behind if you’re not thinking about in-app exposure or how to appear inside your retail partner’s platform. Digital shelves are the new battleground for brand visibility, and they demand real strategy—not just repurposed content.

Support the retailer—not just with dollars but with smart moves that help them win, too. It pays off. That’s how you strengthen the partnership and carve out more space for your brand.

Click-and-mortar isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s where smart CPG brand strategy, bold CPG marketing strategy, and intentional CPG brand management meet. Whether you’re repositioning a product or launching a CPG brand extension, this channel makes it matter.

Retailer Diversification

Shifts in the economy are impacting the CPG industry. One of the most staggering statistics is how consumers are looking to switch stores at a higher rate than digging for coupons or shopping for private label brands. Diversifying across several retailers helps maintain brand loyalty as consumers seek new stores.

While we advise seeking retailer diversification, we do not suggest you pursue retailer saturation. Maintaining shelf space requires shelf performance. If you spread thin across the store’s potential customer shops, it may incline retailers to replace your product, supporting brands that create more per slit revenues.

While we advise seeking retailer diversification, we do not suggest you pursue retailer saturation. Maintaining shelf space requires shelf performance. If your brand exists across every store your potential customer shops, you may not see strong enough per-store sales. Lackluster sales encourage retailers to replace your product to support brands that create more per-slot revenues.

Consider Line Extension or Abridgment

There is much talk about line and brand extension for a good reason. The “you are either growing or dying” thought process holds for most CPG categories. But sometimes, revenue growth first requires pruning. Make product portfolio assessment one of your CPG brand strategies for this year, drawing a hard line between what categories need to grow and what products need to go.

Increase Investment in Consumer Insights

Ignorance of consumer behavior is unacceptable in this data-driven world. Sure, trusting your gut is essential, and being a quick draw helps you outpace the competition, but we now have consumer insights available with a single click, so there’s no excuse for being unaware of who your consumers are and what they want. Here’s a look at how your brand can include consumer insights into your brand strategy.

Consumer Communication

Too often, CPG brands tip the scale in existing customer marketing by “pushing” too many products. Your existing customer base isn’t just good for pushing offers; it’s also great for pulling insights. Is your brand using tools like Facebook groups, email marketing, and tradeshows to understand better how to serve consumers’ needs?

If not, good luck trying to scale your company past the point of mom-and-pop stores.

Artificial Intelligence

Thanks to AI, data delivery is becoming easier. Whether you register data mining or organize information across the Internet, work with companies specializing in collecting and cross-pollinating consumer insights to deliver even more accurate data sets.

Product Testing

Most brands understand the need to collect information about the industry and product category, but few brands find out how their product performs on shelves before launching. Product packaging testing gives you an understanding of how shoppers react to your packaging, design, and messaging.

Search Engine Data

Content marketing will be more significant for CPG brands in the coming years. Brand experience is becoming a more critical aspect of customer retention, and content marketing is one of the best ways to accomplish this objective. The good news is that brands engaging in content marketing will learn more about how consumers respond to the topics that interest them.

The more a brand invests in content marketing, the more search engine data it can access. It can use this information with on-site analytics to better understand customers’ wants.

Improve Your Supply Chain

Are your manufacturers and suppliers continuing to innovate their processes to improve the speed of production and lower the number of errors? Shoppers and retailers are looking for dependable CPG companies, and your supply chain affects how they feel about your brand. Your supply chain needs to improve continuously as your product sells faster across the ever-growing number of marketplaces.

Influencer Marketing

Since influencer marketing is now an established industry, brands can look for ways to leverage influencers in more ways than straightforward product promotions. CPG influencer marketing is now at a point where SKU equity, company shares, and on-package promotion are real possibilities. Ninety-nine percent of CPG brands need to review their influencer marketing strategy to find more ways to leverage these social celebrities.

Revisit Purchase Drivers

Just because a message worked in the past doesn’t mean it is still the needle mover that drives purchase intent. Brands whose message is becoming stale will lose ground faster than ever to brands keeping their purchase drivers relevant to the needs of their consumer audience.

Brand Collaborations

The lines between product categories continue to blur as CPG brands collaborate in non-competing ways. For example, the Kraft Real Mayo and Juicy Couture collaboration, or the Starbucks and Samsung brand collaboration, is a CPG marketing strategy worth considering.

Brand collaboration is essential for challenger brands that can level up by attaching themselves to more prominent names. The financial investment can have a considerable payoff; such is the case with brands like Ryze Nutrition, which has strengthened retailer relationships by creating brand collaborations with their store’s existing products.

Brand Story

You need a strong dose of the truth if you think a home page and an about us page are enough efforts to display your brand story. Except for consumers interested in “the lowest prices,” your brand story affects purchasing decisions made by your target audience.

The trick is: How does your brand story impact them? Environmental impact, supporting causes, committed transparency, and other aspects of your brand communicate to consumers how you make a difference in their lives.

Get with a CPG marketing team (internal or agency) and thread your brand story into every aspect of your marketing.

Profitable Promotions

Are you profiting from a marketing campaign where you give up some profit to create immediate revenues? When you think of Black Friday specials, in-store promotions, and email newsletters, do you accurately account for the impact these “deals” have on your company?

Promotion FOMO is real, and brands often succumb to it. Intentional product promotions must be a mainstay of your company.

While profitability is sometimes more than up-front profits, you must attach some metrics to your promotions. Otherwise, you’re giving back to those you fear losing to other businesses, which is never a good strategy.

In-Store Marketing

We have intentionally placed in-store marketing after discussing the importance of profiting from your promotions. In-store marketing is powerful but often passes the brand’s marketing department by and is placed into the hands of the account rep.

Such a mistake. Give in-store marketing as much effort as other marketing mediums. When you create a strategic digital and traditional marketing strategy exclusively for a single retailer, you can penetrate their customer base right when they are ready to make purchasing decisions.

Create a Scarcity Department

Attention spans are short and scattered. The fact that you’ve read this far in the article means you have a longer attention span than most. While most brands complain about this reality, we want you to capitalize on it.

Taking a lesson from direct response marketing, we can increase consumer demand by creating scarcity in our offerings. Limited-edition flavors, brand collaborations (mentioned above), and seasonal product packages will spark your conversion rate and help build long-term brand equity.

The problem is that most marketing teams don’t have time for scarcity marketing, where they need to reinvent the wheel continuously. It’s better to have a department that loves creativity and spontaneity to handle this assignment.

A Persistent but Likeable Sales Department

Many small—to mid-size CPG brands have mediocre sales departments. A weak sales team is one of the biggest misses in the CPG market. Conversely, that statement creates opportunities for those willing to find and nurture the right salespeople.

Finding persistent people with likable personalities is a critical strategy you must continually improve. It isn’t one or the other. With heavy competition and frequent communication, retailers must like your people and respect their diligence and aspirations for growing per-store sales.

CPG Performance Agency

SmashBrand is a CPG branding, strategy, and packaging design agency that helps consumer goods brands identify their target consumers and capture more market share. Through our proprietary consumer testing process, we guarantee shelf performance. We also work with emerging brands and category leaders to increase purchase intent.

Book a time to discuss your project with our team.