A Shelf Winning Formula?
Hi, and welcome back to CPGD: your weekly guide to emerging brands and industry trends! I’m Olivia, the CPGD Content Intern, taking over this week’s newsletter while Zoya is out!
Since joining the CPGD, I’ve been introduced to many innovative brands. But this week, I started thinking less about what brands are making and more about what makes us notice them.
Walking down the snack aisle at a local grocer, I noticed how hard each package was working to make me stop. Masa chips, takes a minimalist approach, using diagonal stripes and simple typography to support a premium feel. Siete, on the other hand, leans maximalist, using playful graphics, and an oversized type. The contrast highlights a tension on the shelf: minimalism makes products feel more premium, while maximalism makes them stand out.
That same dynamic appears across the grocery store. Alec’s Ice Cream uses its signature characters against colorful background to grab attention, while Chara Frozen Yogurt, takes a cleaner approach with diagonal lines and simple lettering, similar to Masa.
Neither strategy is necessarily better. The winning formula isn’t choosing minimalism over maximalism (or vice versa), but knowing who you want to attract: a quieter package for something refined, or a louder one for something bold and unexpected.
Also, a great opportunity below from the Daydream team on their PR Accelerator!
Dreamday has officially opened applications for its fourth annual Holiday PR Accelerator, a pro bono program that selects one mission-driven small business each year to receive full-scale gift guide PR support during the holiday season.
The program runs September through December and we leverage our extensive media relationships to drive meaningful holiday coverage for a brand that deserves a bigger spotlight.
Last year’s recipient, The New Savant, saw a 190% increase in revenue, a 208% increase in orders, and a 1,000% increase in clicks during the holiday season, with nearly 50 pieces of coverage across Architectural Digest, Good Morning America, The Strategist, Domino, Veranda, and more.
Eligible brands must be US-based, generate under $2M in annual revenue, operate in food & beverage, beauty, home, lifestyle, wellness, or fashion, and be able to send product samples to media.
Applications closed July 31st but Dreamday is extending this deadline to August 14th for CPGD subscribers only. More details and the application can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeieHEEhptrpJnm49ScZPIc46_h_9v5rYRS_oD76NffM0UL3g/viewform
Here’s the highlight reel from this week’s newsletter:
🎯 Drizzy announces the completion of its pre-seed funding round funded by Nucleus Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, and Alexis Ohanian
🤝 Whole Foods Market teams up with Fishwife on its first co-branded, limited-edition tote
💬 A Founder Q&A with Felicity Chen of DOU
5 Brands Added This Week:
Every week, we add five new brands to the directory. Here are the brands we’ve been loving...
Nomie: Nomie makes organic, just-add-water meals for kids with balanced nutrition in a convenient format.
NUT: Nut Just a Cookie makes crunchy almond chunk cookies with simple ingredients, low sugar, and plant-based recipes.
UNDO: UNDO Gummies are pre-alcohol support gummies with DHM, electrolytes, vitamins, and botanicals for hydration and next-day recovery.
Blue Bear: Functional ready-to-drink teas with adaptogens for everyday wellness.
Solzi: A sparkling espresso tonic naturally sweetened with organic dates.
Tips and tools
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All you need to get started is your website link. Verai imports your products in seconds.
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News Last Week 🗞️
💰 Funding & Acquisitions – raises, venture news, and M&A
Drizzy announces the completion of its pre-seed funding round funded by Nucleus Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, and Alexis Ohanian
Neutonic closes its seed round with a 7-figure investment from Redrice Ventures
Vaca Chips secures $1.5 million in funding led by Bam Ventures
🚀 Launches & New Products – new brands, product drops, and line extensions
Cadence is bringing a dose of nostalgia to everyday organization with the launch of its limited-edition Jelly Capsule Collection
Whole Foods Market teams up with Fishwife on its first co-branded, limited-edition tote
🛒 Retail & Distribution – brands entering retailers, door count expansions, and partnerships
Crafty Ramen, a Canadian ramen brand, is officially on-shelf at US retailers Sprouts and Schnucks
The Lucky Ox expands its beverage lineup into 175 Whole Foods Market stores beginning in October
JusRol is expanding distribution across Walmart and Wegmans as it adds more than 2,900 U.S. retail placements for its pizza dough, puff pastry, and turnover kits.
Founder Q&A with Felicity Chen of DOU
This week, we’re featuring DOU, a pantry brand built on three generations of manufacturing expertise. Founded by Felicity Chen, DOU brings over 60 years of experience producing foundational ingredients for Chinese cooking directly to home kitchens, creating thoughtfully made pantry staples designed to elevate everyday cooking without changing what people cook just what they reach for.
What inspired you to start DOU?
I’m the third generation of my family’s manufacturing business. I grew up running around the warehouse, learned the business from the ground up, and eventually realized we had spent decades making products everyone trusted, but nobody knew who we were. DOU is my way of bringing our family’s work out from behind the scenes.
What’s a small but intentional detail about your brand that most customers might not notice?
Our name. DOU isn’t immediately obvious to pronounce, and we actually like that. Once someone learns it, they become part of a small club that understands something new. That’s exactly how we think about Chinese pantry ingredients, too. Unfamiliar at first, indispensable once you know them.
What’s one thing most people misunderstand about Chinese food?
That it’s unhealthy. It’s a funny misconception because Chinese cooking has always been incredibly vegetable-forward. Steaming, quick stir-frying, broths, tofu, fermented foods, and balancing ingredients are all central to the cuisine. We developed thousands of years of traditional Chinese medicine around wellness long before it became trendy. Somewhere along the way, takeout became the stereotype instead of the tradition.
What’s something you’re currently obsessed with as a founder right now?
Getting Chinese pantry staples out of the international aisle, at least mentally. I spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about how people shop for ingredients. Nobody reaches for olive oil because it’s Italian or black pepper because it’s Indian. They reach for them because they know what they do. I’m obsessed with making sesame oil, chili oil, and eventually doubanjiang feel just as intuitive.
What’s next for the brand? Any upcoming launches, milestones, or things you’re excited about.
We’re just getting started. We’ve launched with sesame oil, hot sauce, and chili oil, but that’s only the beginning. This holiday season we’re excited to introduce a few new surprises and some fun collaborations featuring one of chinese cooking’s most important, and most overlooked, ingredients.Our goal with every launch is the same: preserve generations of craft while helping more people discover ingredients they’ll reach for every day.
Follow DOU along: Website | Instagram: @eatdou
Rebrand Corner: Inside the KinderFarms Rebrand with One Kind
KinderFarms worked with Kailey Strachan and Simone Nieves, Co-Founders at Of One Kind, on a new identity rooted in nostalgia, simplicity, and clarity. Kristin Recchiuti, CEO of KinderFarms, shares the strategy behind the refresh.
What happens when the product outgrows the brand?
[Simone & Kailey, Of One Kind]: When Kristin and the team at KinderFarms came to us, the opportunity was clear: the product had outgrown its brand and needed the right visuals and messaging to help it relaunch and reach its audience the most ownable way. Our job was to close the gap between what the product actually delivers and what the brand communicates at first glance. KinderFarms’ products are designed for kids and we wanted to speak to parents about that in a modern but emotional way.
One of our big inspirations for the design direction of the rebrand and packaging was nostalgia. We know that a lot of today’s young parents grew up in the 90s. A time when things felt simpler and easier.
Less by design is both a principle and a practice from formulation to final packaging as an extension of this expression of simple times and simpler ingredients.
Which design choice mattered most?
[Simone & Kailey, Of One Kind]: Color is one of the most underestimated tools in a brand’s arsenal and one of the most intentional in our approach for this refresh for KinderFarms.
We think about color not just as aesthetics but as a form of storytelling and flavor signaling.
If founders have to prioritize early, which brand foundation should come first?
[Kristin, KinderFarms]: Positioning, always. Packaging and identity are how a brand manifests; but strategic positioning is whether it has a reason to exist.
If you’re clear on the one thing you’re for and the one person you’re for, a design partner can build packaging and identity that actually carry it. Get it backwards - beautiful packaging wrapped around a fuzzy idea - and you’ve spent money making confusion look polished.
The design only worked because the positioning was settled going in; the look brought a strategy that already existed to life, rather than trying to invent one.
What branding mistake do founders make most often?
[Kristin, KinderFarms]: Designing for the ego instead of for the shelf.
The questions that matter aren’t “is this what I love,” it’s “will someone see this and know what this is, who it’s for, and why it’s different, from three feet away, in three seconds.” Branding doesn’t create clarity. It expresses it.
Which brand is getting it right?
[Kristin, KinderFarms]: Liquid Death, because they continue to show over and over again that they understand that in a boring category the bravest thing you can do is have an actual point of view and the strategy is everything. Some think they sell water like a punk band, but it works because the conviction to murdering plastic is real and it’s total.
About KinderFarms
Founded in 2018, KinderFarms is on a mission to bring clarity back to kids’ health. Created by parents, the brand makes cleaner, scientifically-backed products designed to do more with less. In a category crowded with unnecessary additives, KinderFarms stands for transparency and trust. From its OTC infants’ and children’s medications to its science-backed hydration line, every product delivers real efficacy without artificial sweeteners, artificial dyes, or unwanted additives. KinderFarms is available at major retailers and drugstores nationwide and on Amazon.
About Of One Kind
Of One Kind is a multidisciplinary creative agency shaping distinct visual identities and strategies for the next generation of forward-thinking consumer brands.
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Love the part about designing for the ego. It’s such a good reminder to stay grounded in the customer you’re serving, not just designing for your creative expression as the founder! Thanks for sharing!!!