Brand | The Barefoot Spirit

5 Missteps and Remedies for Building a Consumer Packaged Goods Brand from Ground Zero

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 15:44:04 +0000

Misstep #1: private label

You need capital so you provide your product to a retailer as their house, control, or own brand. Now you are a commodity supplier. Now you are no longer building your brand. Now they have you over the barrel since you can (and will!) be replaced for a few pennies less. But yes, it helps your cash flow …for a while.

Instead, build a brand. The reason retailers don’t like brands is because they have power outside their stores. If the brand is hot enough, the retailers have to keep them in stock because their customers are demanding them. And that’s what your acquirer wants.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Kirkus Reviews – The Barefoot Spirit

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 17:10:59 +0000

“An irreverent, eye-opening business memoir. Novice winemakers upend the industry’s pretensions while taking on the jungle of the retail beverage sector in this rollicking business saga.”

“Novice winemakers upend the industry’s pretensions while taking on the jungle of the retail beverage sector in this rollicking business saga.”

“An irreverent, eye-opening business memoir.”

To read the full book review, please visit Kirkus Reviews

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Why Brand integrity Matters and How to Get It

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 00:09:39 +0000

There’s so much noise out there, you don’t have the luxury to try to be all things to all people. You must focus on the core value you offer to your customer.

We are successful consumer brand developers, but we made a ton of mistakes before we finally achieved our success.

In our impatience to achieve a positive cash flow as soon as possible, we diluted our brand message several times. We were desperately trying to find the perfect product-market fit that would please our buyers.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Is Your CPG Company on the Right Side of History?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 22:09:21 +0000

Because we successfully built a popular consumer packaged goods brand, now known the world over, we are often asked about packaging. Our audiences want to know, “What’s the latest in packaging?” and, “What are the new trends?” After all, the “P” in CPG is “package.”

In the 1967 movie, “The Graduate,” a young man, recently graduated from college, is given advice from his dad’s best friend, “I’ve got one word for you, Benjamin: Plastics.” If we were giving advice to college grads today, we would add one more word, “alternatives,” making the best advice we have to give, “plastic alternatives.”

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Work with Your Community to Create Advocates

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 17:00:26 +0000

Every time we speak, it never fails that at least one member of the audience comes up and asks, “I’m just a start up, I’m on a very limited budget. How can I afford to advertise and get the word out about my goods and services?”

Almost everyone in the audience is looking for ways to save money in their new or developing business. They’re all looking for the most bang for their buck in every area of spending. Marketing your products and services are probably the biggest challenges new business face. It doesn’t matter how good your products and services are if your customer doesn’t know about them.

No Advertising Budget, No Entry

When we started Barefoot Wine, we were completely undercapitalized. Our first big chain buyer asked us if we were going to spend $200,000 in an advertising campaign to build our brand before he would take it in to his stores. We were so strapped, we didn’t even have one of those $200,000. He then basically turned us down and for good reason, our brand was unheard of, and he would be taking a big risk giving expensive shelf space to an unknown and unproven brand.

He told us that without a well-funded advertising campaign he wouldn’t touch it …and no other chain or box store would either, for that matter. The big chain buyer said, without advertising, we would have to focus on selling the independently owned stores one at a time. We told him, “That will take years!” He said, “You’re right! You better get started!” He did say that once we became a household word, he would put us in to his 200+ store chain. Well, it took 2 years, and yes, he did put us in. His was the first large chain store in the country to take us.

Becoming a Household Name Without Advertising

But we didn’t become a “household word” through commercial advertising. And we didn’t become a “household word” throughout the country at first. We became a household word only in California and we did it through support for the community from which our customers came. You see, the independents were no different than the chains. They didn’t want to take a chance on an unknown brand that wasn’t being commercially advertised. In fact, they threaten to discontinue Barefoot if it didn’t sell within 90 days. And we only had a handful of accounts that would even take that chance, to begin with.

It was during that first in 90 days that we got a call from a nonprofit community organization asking us to support their kids-after-school park. Once again, we had no money. But we did have wine! We donated wine to their fundraiser. The next month we noticed a big uptick in sales in the stores in that particular community. Without knowing it at the time, we had given the members of that organization a social reason to buy our product. They also felt obligated to tell their friends colleagues and families to go out and buy it as well.

We thought, “Wow! Maybe we’ve discovered something here! Maybe this is an alternative to expensive commercial advertising. Maybe it’s more effective simply because it’s more locally targeted. Members of the organization lived in the neighborhoods surrounding the stores where our products were for sale. Then we thought, let’s try this in another market, only this time we asked for a few concessions that the nonprofit could readily provide. They mentioned us in their newsletter, they thanked is from the podium, they let us put up banners, they let us put out lists of where to buy our products at their fundraiser, they let us write posts in their newsletter, they used our logo and let us use theirs.

These were not big national organizations looking for paid sponsorship. These were just little community organizations, but they were made up of potential customers. Why shouldn’t we support our potential customers?

Worthy Cause Marketing

As Ivan Meisner says, “When it comes to networking, take off the bib and put on the apron!” This approach to getting the word out, which we called Worthy Cause Marketing, was so effective that as we expanded Barefoot into other states, regions, and even countries, we got the word out by supporting local communities and their worthy causes.

Already we can hear the objection, “Well it was easy for you. You are selling wine, but how does that work for me with my product and services?” At a local Chamber of Commerce meeting, we met a gentleman who was practicing Worthy Cause Marketing to get the word out about his services. What was he selling? Gun safety! He found that he could support parent-teacher associations, as well as police and sheriffs associations by offering free classes as a silent auction item during their fundraising dinners. Association members saw his support for their cause. Some members bought and used the silent auction classes. They came back and recommended his classes to all the other members.

Targeting the Networked Market

One of the great advantages of working with community organizations is that they are already networked! They are already communicating. And they are local to where your goods and services are for sale. Offering them free goods and services to support their causes as well as helping them get the word out about their goals and fundraisers will endear you and your products to their members. You become part of their organization and a supporter of the causes they hold dear. Of course, they want to support you in the marketplace.

You will not only show the world that you stand for more than the mercantile value of your goods and services, but that you support the causes that are important to your customers. It’s not only a great contribution for your company to make to your community, but in the long run, it’s the cheapest form of advertising!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Whatever Business You Think You’re in, Your Employees Should Be Oriented on Your Customers

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:02:23 +0000

We recently had the pleasure of spending the day with 65 MBA students from Nanyang University in Singapore.

Twenty-five percent of the class were part-time students who were already running their own businesses. They asked most of the questions because they obviously had the most immediate concerns.

One question that was particularly telling was, “How do you to get the most out of your employees?”

We’ve given many talks and worked with many companies on this issue, plus we have our own experience building the Barefoot Wine Brand. We had virtually no turnover during the last several years before we were acquired. These were also the same years that the brand made leaps and bounds in the marketplace and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Most of those solutions came from our own people.

To read the complete article, please visit The Business Journals

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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7 Steps to Engage Your People (And Get the Results You are Looking For)

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 17:00:53 +0000

When we sold Barefoot Wine, we received the Wine Industry’s coveted Top Brand award for multiple years, sold 600,000 cases per year in 25,000 stores, were growing in all 50 states and 28 foreign countries, had no turnover for 10 years, and did it all with just 40 employees. We got tons of awards for quality, growth, and innovation.

But it wasn’t because we were so clever, in fact we made most of the big mistakes! It was because our people were engaged and empowered to make a big difference. They came up with most of the clever solutions that got us through the tough times and over the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. They did more with less, improved our policies and procedures, and used innovation to disrupt a rather stuffy industry.

At the closing talk for the C-Suite conference in San Francisco this month, Michael shared 7 of the tools we used to build an outstanding team that was engaged, empowered, and committed to the success of our business. Here is a brief summery from the top:

1. Hire Good People, Build Great People.

Hire for hustle, integrity, and enthusiasm. Look for extrapolation learners. Test their comprehension. Be prepared to redesign the job to fit the talents of each employee. On the last interview, you do all the talking. Explain the business process and why their job is essential. Then ask for a summary by 5 pm the next day.

2. Overkill on Orientation.

When the cement is wet, you can move it with a trowel. But when it gets hard, you’ll need a jackhammer! Don’t let them develop and harbor early misconceptions about how the business works, where the money comes from, and how the customer must be serviced to get the funds that go in their paychecks.

3. The Money Map

Show them a “Money Map”. Start with the community from which the initial customers emulate. Show the transactions that starts the money moving as those customers purchase goods and services that effect your business. Show all the twists and turns that the money goes through on the way to their paychecks.

4. The Two-Division Company

Give them a second graphic that shows how your company is organized with the customer on top! Then, right under that, the only people they talk to daily, your sales and customer service people (The Sales Division). Then right under that, everybody else in the company, regardless of specialty (The Sales Support Division).

5. Know the Need

Contrary to the popular Need-to-Know basis that most companies use to keep their people in the dark, practice Know-the-Need to demonstrate respect for their intelligence and commitment to your company’s success. Share your sales and marketing challenges and ask them for help. You’ll be surprised at the results!

6. Public Acknowledgement

Communicate their accomplishment in writing. Copy the entire staff. Get more of what you are praising for. Get them the respect of other staff. Send a “message” that everyone can get the same kind of top-level acknowledgment when they perform as well as the one being singled out for admiration.

7. Staff Wide Quarterly Bonus

Reward on a quarterly basis. A year is too long (They’ll forget, sand bag, or give up). A month is too impractical (Months are more subject to anomaly and it’s difficult to get the numbers together that fast). Reward everyone to build team spirit. Make it based on sales, growth, and profitability. We used a variable 401K quarterly match.

Want more details or additional suggestions? Check out our short book on the subject, aptly named, The Entrepreneurial Culture, 23 ways to Engage and Empower Your People. It worked for us. it can work for you. You may just hear them say, “I love working here!”

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Force Brands – Brand Building Secrets Interview

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 21 May 2018 16:57:30 +0000

Founders Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey didn’t set out with the intention of creating the world’s largest wine brand. At the time of Barefoot Wine’s founding in 1985, they both lacked the money and the industry knowledge necessary to launch a brand of any kind. Instead, they relied on innovative, entrepreneurial tactics that would later prove to be more than successful.

Their unconventional approach to brand building led them to disrupt the wine category with a unique perspective on retail; leverage an alternative to commercial advertising; and forge partnerships with 25,000 retail stores across 50 states and 28 countries.

Read on to discover the story of Barefoot from its founders — the things they wish they knew then; how they approached hiring; and why they believe that a brand’s reputation is the key to its success.

To read the interview, please visit Force Brands

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10 Questions Our Clients Ask

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 17 May 2018 17:49:57 +0000

Our clients come to us because of our credentials as the founders of the largest wine brand in the world. They want to know how we began (in our laundry room), how we were financed (we assumed a debt which we traded for wine and bottling services), and how we overcame the challenges of personnel management (we paid for performance).

All that and more is covered in our New York Times’ Best Seller, The Barefoot Spirit, How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. It contains the lessons we learned told in a humorous business adventure story. It answers the top 10 questions start-ups and business owners need to know on their way to success.

And we are really excited to announce that we are currently recording it in an audio book! Like the paperback, it will be fun. Instead of having someone read it to you, we have engaged a live troupe of actors who will dramatically act it out for you. You will enjoy the unique format and learn from their interactions. We will be releasing it in the fall!

So, here’s the short list of a few of our favorite answers to the question – “How do I…”:

1. Start a business without financing?

Trade for goods and services
Use your buyers as banker by offering quantity discounts for cash
Use your supplies as bankers by earning extended credit and terms
Pay for performance rather than for attendance
Use the assets you already have, such as a spare room, family members, or contracted services

2. Start a business with no experience in the industry?

Ask a lot of questions
Work for someone who is already doing what you want to do
Talk to everyone who will be working with your product or service
Use your suppliers and vendors as teachers

3. Find, hire, train, and keep good people?

Look for hustle and integrity
Overkill on orientation
Give them appreciation and time off
Pay for performance

4. Get my product to the market?

Start in a small area to learn your lessons
Offer samples, tastings, etc.
Ask the buyers what they need
Get the reputation, even in a small area, of being a “Hot Mover!”

5. Give my brand a soul?

Identify what your brand offers its users that they love
Identify what your brand and your company stand for beside the mercantile product you are selling
Work with your community on your shared goals
Be inclusive and earth-friendly
Treat your people right

6. Build a brand without advertising?

Donate your products or services to community fundraisers
Build brand advocates who will sing your praises to all they know
Attend farmers’ markets or other social events where your customers can be found
Do many in-store demos

7. Think outside the box?

Put yourself in the other guy’s shoes in every position of responsibility
Meet regularly with everyone on your staff, with your suppliers and your buyers and ask them what their challenges and goals are
Be open to new ideas, especially those that seem to be contrary to your own
Practice “Know-the-Need” instead of “Need-to-Know”

8. Get the most out of my people?

Use performance-based compensation and share the wealth
Share information freely; share your goals, challenges, and opportunities
Give employees your respect by asking for their feedback and advice
Acknowledge their successes in writing and copy the entire staff

9. Use outsourced services?

Communicate your needs clearly and in writing
Pay only if your project has been completed to your specs
Oversee their work on your project to assure quality control
Look for long term relationships

10. Sell my business?

Talk with a business broker who recently was involved in a sale or purchase of a business like yours
Put your peanut in front of the elephant
Work towards the metrics required to become an acquisition target and ultimately monetize the brand equity you are building
Organize your filing system according to your future acquirer’s due diligence

As advisors, we help our clients identify and move toward their goals. We learn about their business, their challenges, and their opportunities. Then we meet with them regularly to help them stay on track. They get the many benefits of our 20 years growing the Barefoot Wine brand. We learned a lot of lessons – most of them the hard way!

You too can benefit from the knowledge we gained without having to go through the time, mental anguish, and money that it took us. Think of it as saving $300,000 or more on mistakes and 3 years or more in wasted efforts. Here is to your success!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Are We Sacrificing Choices Just to Save a Little Time?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 17:00:20 +0000

It seems so wonderful at first. You don’t have leave the house to go shopping anymore! Everything just shows up at your door. But after a while you start to sense that something is missing…

You’re starting to get bored with the same old stuff that you get in your food box every week. There’s nothing new in there and since you’ve stopped shopping at your grocery store you’re no longer exposed to new branded products. It’s too much trouble to even change your order now because you wouldn’t know how to change it anyway. And so, you resign yourself to getting more of the same. You’ve sacrificed variety for convenience.

Sound a little far-fetched? It’s not as far away as you think. As more and more grocery stores promise speedy home delivery to save you the trip to the store, your choices are being reduced by the very technology that enables the ordering process. One of the ways this technology is dumbing down your shopping experience is with the assumption that you’ve already chosen the brands you like, and, unspoken but implied, that you will never change! This is especially true once you start reordering your “same as last time” purchases.

Sure, online grocery shopping will certainly attempt to account for this in a very profitable way. They will charge producers for pop-up ads that target the types of previous purchases you’ve made. They will also tell you what other products were purchased by people who have bought similar branded products. But in order to see these pop-ups you must be on their site every week. Not very likely.

What will happen in fact is that many people will not even go back to the site once they’ve set up their initial order. They will simply give the store permission to deliver the same order with the same brands as last time. But viewing the store visit as strictly an act of replenishment, collection, or delivery to replace your larder is forgetting something very important. Discovery! Not to mention, Entertainment!

When you go into a physical store you enjoy what some psychologists call “retail therapy.” The act of setting time aside, making yourself presentable, changing your scenery by physically going to a store, interacting with other people in real time, asking for and receiving suggestions, being exposed to a variety of choices in every category, and stumbling upon that new, impulse, notion buy, all add to revitalization and discovery.

Stumbling upon that new, impulse, notion buy doesn’t really happen online. So the last brand choices you made before you started getting your “regular reorders” are generally the ones you’re stuck with.

And what about new CPG brand producers? Their challenge of building a new CPG brand just got a whole lot tougher! With Walmart adding to the ever-growing list of retail grocery stores offering online delivery, impulse buys are going to become a thing of the past. The growth of online ordering with home delivery will inadvertently create repeat customers who want “more of the same!”

The brands that are already established will benefit greatly from this change because it’s too disconcerting to shop for new brands in the first place. There’s always the anxiety that the new brand you choose will not perform as expected. There’s always the worry that you will have to choose yet another new brand, and another and another until you find a satisfactory replacement. This is hard enough to do with the store visit. Imagine how hard it’s going to be without tactile comparison and displays of new brands that you stumble upon when in a physical store. May as well stick with the old brand even if it’s not performing…

Once again, we see technology that’s being sold to us as improving our efficiency really just dumbing us down to the point where we are willing to accept less choices. To save a little time, will we give up discovery? Will we let the improvement in our food brand choices end with the last trip we made to the grocery store right before we started re-ordering the “same as last time?” Sounds pretty boring, doesn’t it?

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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