Starting Simple: The Strategic Key to Explosive Growth
By David Kroll, CEO, Egglife Foods
In the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG), simplicity can catapult growth. That’s especially true for startups. With no market presence and sparse resources, new CPG brands stand a far greater chance of survival when they narrow their focus and try to excel at one thing.
Four years ago, I joined a promising startup called Egglife Foods. We’ve had one goal from the beginning: to harness the power of egg whites to transform traditionally flour-based foods into healthier alternatives.
To accomplish that goal, we focused all our energy on perfecting one core product: egg white wraps. Having this singular focus has helped us grow from $4 million to $40 million in four years - a testament to starting simple. Here’s why it works and why the CPG graveyard is littered with companies that went too big, too fast.
Producing perfection
With simplicity comes focus, and with focus comes a high degree of quality execution. Time and time again, the market has shown us the brands that are dedicated to one product are the ones that succeed. RxBar is one of my favorite examples. They focused intensely on perfecting and dominating protein bars with simple ingredients. That focus and simplicity enabled them to create an outstanding product that consumers quickly grew to love.
When you’re a new brand trying to establish itself, creating something exceptional is paramount. You might only get one shot with consumers. If they don’t like the product the first time they try it, they won’t buy it again. If they love your product, however, you create loyal brand fans and win the trust of retailers who will want to keep you on shelves.
When you’re laser focused on one product, you get to pour all of your research and development efforts into making the best product you can. You get to put out the fires as they come to ensure the best first impression with consumers. We have the perfect example of that with egglife wraps. When we expanded nationally, we found out that our wraps were sticking together. That wasn’t an issue early in our development, but the chemistry changed as we scaled up our production for national distribution.
Our wraps are packed with protein, and protein is attracted to moisture. As we started producing our wraps in larger quantities, we found there was a higher amount of residual moisture in the packs, which caused the wraps to stick. Our R&D team needed to isolate all of the variables that could be causing that issue - from temperature to recipe to the mixing process.
Because our R&D team was solely focused on this one product, they were quickly able to locate and solve the problem. Once they fixed that issue, they could concentrate on making incremental improvements to the wraps and creating new flavors without being overstretched.
Consumer communication
When you’re brand new to the marketplace, consumers need to understand who you are, what you are and what you do. The more direct and simple you can make that messaging, the easier it is for consumers to digest. Focusing on one product makes it easier to build your brand identity, so consumers easily recognize who you are.
Chobani took this approach when they disrupted yogurt. Their message was simple and they had one product - a healthier alternative to other yogurt brands. By perfecting that one product, Chobani built brand equity with consumers. The trust they garnered by perfecting and popularizing Greek yogurt has since enabled them to expand into other product categories. They’re no longer Greek yogurt, they’re “Greek Yogurt & More.”
We took the same approach when we marketed our egglife wraps. We weren’t burdened with the task of marketing both our new product and our new brand. They were one and the same. That enabled us to use our marketing dollars to clearly explain our new product to consumers and create an analog for them that was easy to grasp.
What did we do? We made wraps with egg whites, not flour. Why is that better? It’s a healthier alternative that is packed with protein, low in carbs and calories, plus it’s gluten free. With these marketing dollars, we were able to tell a deeper and richer story about our product. That direct messaging is crucial for brands establishing their identity in a crowded food market.
Simplifying sales
In order for a new CPG brand to succeed, earning retail partners is paramount. Consumers want to reliably find your product in their store, which means your sales team has to establish relationships with the right retail buyers and prove their value over time. The fewer buyers your team has to sell, the easier your route to market.
Simplifying egglife egg white wraps was a natural challenge because they were a foreign concept to retail buyers. Most retailers didn’t have a refrigerated wrap set, because their existing tortilla set was in the non-refrigerated aisle. That forced our sales team to get creative with their selling story to showcase the incrementality and potential in this new product category.
By focusing on selling one product, our team had more capacity to focus their sales pitch and establish relationships with the right retailers. If we fractured our efforts by selling multiple products, our distribution would have undoubtedly suffered. Because our lone goal, however, was to build trust in egglife wraps, we were able to quickly scale our distribution to over 14,000 doors in the U.S. As a new product, that consistent distribution is key to consumers who want to find your product everywhere they shop.
Startups famously have leaner teams and less capital. The goal from the outset should be to put everybody in the best position to maximize their capabilities and create a strong base to build your brand. If your new brand is producing multiple products, all of a sudden your small team has a much bigger job. They have to figure out all the nuances and solve all the problems for multiple products. It doesn’t take long before you’re splintering your team and trying to tackle too many things at once.
Egglife's journey underscores the strategic advantage of starting simple. It fosters clarity, enhances operational efficiency, and builds a strong brand foundation. When every step you take is measured, focused and aligned with a singular mission, you get the most out of your team and position your brand for exceptional growth.
David Kroll is CEO of Egglife Foods. He’s a 30-year CPG industry veteran and was chief marketing officer at MillerCoors. Egglife was one of our 2024 R&D Teams of the Year.
