J. Schall Consulting

08/29/2026

Want to know the ultimate strategic retail "cheat code" used by hyper-growth CPG founders? As mentioned by Greg LaVecchia | Bloom Nutrition, sharing upcoming product innovations (or new brand marketing initiatives) with key retailers before launch to gather feedback on upcoming merchandising resets is a vastly undervalued growth strategy...

Additionally, we talked about why moving away from transactional selling and building deep, transparent relationships with retail buyers is the fastest way to scale your CPG brand. From securing prime shelf space during merchandising resets to getting insider retailer data (shopper insights) and possible early shelf placements because of missed opportunities by competitors, treating major retailers as true partners changes everything.

If you are an emerging CPG brand looking to pitch Target, Walmart, Whole Foods Market, or your local grocer, this video will completely shift how you approach your sales communication strategy going forward...

08/28/2026

What started as a niche market largely pioneered by Red Bull has exploded into a high-stakes, multi-billion-dollar global battleground. But the beverage industry is facing its biggest hurdle yet: an unprecedented, synchronized global wave of bans, restrictions, and regulatory crackdowns.

From absolute age-restriction sales bans in Europe and Canada to state-level consumer protection investigations led by the Texas Attorney General, governments are changing the rules of the game. Now, the FDA has officially stepped in, placing mandatory caffeine labeling at the very top of its 2026 regulatory priority list.

In this video, I dive inside the underlying drivers behind the possible FDA shift, explore the hidden rise of caffeine in "functional foods," and talk about why targeting "bright packaging aesthetics" ignores the real issue: a core lack of consumer health literacy.

Also, I look at the massive double standard between popular transparent energy brands like Alani Nu and CELSIUS vs. the "regulatory immunity" enjoyed by major coffee retailers (and their unmetered caffeine drinks).

Is the energy drink market really a "wild west" of high caffeine and low oversight, or are regulators just looking for an easy win? Let's get into the data-driven solutions we actually need.

Are Energy Drinks Under Attack? Inside the FDA’s New Caffeine Crack...

08/28/2026

Private label is coming for your CPG category (even the ones with added functionality). Those retail behemoths like Walmart, Target, and Kroger are no longer just copying cheap basics. In this current (next) phase of CPG private label, they're replicating high-quality ingredients, clean labels, and functional benefits at a fraction of the cost.

But here's the reality CPG founders need to come to grips with...a great product is simply the "entry fee" to compete in today's CPG market.

If your only moat is what is inside the package, you will lose to retail scale. To survive, you must "innovate innovation."

It's time to shift your strategy from strictly product R&D to ecosystem design. Build defensibility through customer intimacy, which is something massive retailers cannot scale or easily replicate.

Your structural advantages are the giant’s permanent blind spots!

Stop panicking about private label copycats on the shelf.

Innovate the connection, not just the product, and build a moat they can't touch.

08/27/2026

Back in August 2024, despite Gr***de commercial results providing basically a “rounding error” impact to Mondelēz International financials...it still appeared quite obvious that more resources would be allocated to the brand's geographic expansion.

Why? Presumably, Dirk Van de Put keenly recognized the under-the-radar long-term global potential in Gr***de...particularly as Mondelez moved further into high-growth wellbeing segments and attempted to get repositioned on the "tailwind side" of GLP-1 second-order effects.

So then, why did it take this long for Gr***de Oreo Protein Bars, which would almost certainly be enjoyed by American palates, to officially launch in the U.S. market?

The successful licensing partnership between GHOST and Mondelez needed to completely wind down...

But now that UK's top-selling protein bar is (again) entering the U.S. market, will Gr***de revenue double in the next 12-18 months?

08/26/2026

Is Simply Good Foods’ Turnaround Strategy Working? 📉 (Atkins, QUEST, & OWYN Deep Dive)

The Simply Good Foods Company just dropped its Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings report, and the results reveal a massive divide between its portfolio brands. While one legacy brand is severely dragging down performance, others are battling product quality issues or holding onto explosive growth in unexpected categories.

In this video, I break down the Q3 2026 SMPL financial data, look behind the scenes at the earnings call, and decode what the "Age of Ozempic" and GLP-1 drugs mean for the future of traditional dieting brands like Atkins. I'll also look at how Quest Nutrition is pivoting away from being just a "protein bar company" and what OWYN must do to painstakingly win back consumer trust.

Whether you're a retail investor, CPG industry stakeholder, or just curious about convenient nutrition market trends, this breakdown is for you!

Is Simply Good Foods’ Turnaround Strategy Working? 📉 (Atkins, QUEST...

08/26/2026

Only ~6% of sports science studies focus exclusively on women. Let that sink in for a few seconds. I remember about a decade ago, Dr. Susan Kleiner cited a similar statistic during a presentation...and I admittedly overlooked its broader strategic impact!

Nearly all performance nutrition protocols are built entirely on male physiological data...meaning we have almost zero clinical data tailored to women's needs across critical life stages like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and perimenopause.

This leaves a massive blind spot, but Gatorade is investing millions into a multi-year global research commitment dedicated to the science of women’s hydration and sports nutrition.

Since I'm hardly the expert on gender-specific clinical research, I won't comment on the research nuance, but will say that Gatorade likely just made what might be the smartest legacy CPG brand move of the year...

So, why is this such a brilliant strategic decision?

▪️ Clinical Authority: It restores Gatorade's status as an undisputed scientific leader, moving past basic marketing.

▪️ Brand Loyalty: Female consumers form fierce brand affinity with companies that actively invest in their long-neglected biological needs.

▪️ Corporate Citizenship: A win for PepsiCo ESG and community impact goals.

08/25/2026

From FitTok advice to viral hydration trends, TikTok owns wellness culture. But while its an unmatched vehicle for scale...the double-edged sword is sharpening. With TikTok Shop affiliate commissions driving the creator economy, product claims are increasingly blurring into regulatory grey areas and unauthorized disease-treatment claims. For dietary supplements brands, this inevitably creates a major strategic crossroads...

Do you distance your brand from the chaos, or lean into the "TikTok Made Me Buy It" flywheel?

Make no mistake about it...regulators (and competitors) are cracking down on health misinformation loops and social commerce channels, but completely walking away is a bad decision, especially as social commerce is no longer an U.S. marketplace experiment.

Legal risk is shifting away from the creator and towards the dietary supplement brand funding the creator, thus social commerce growth must be balanced with regulatory credibility.

Here's how dietary supplement brands can best insulate themselves...

1️⃣ mandate "pre-approved" claim libraries

2️⃣ implement automated social listening and AI compliance audits

3️⃣ overhaul creator contracts

4️⃣ create an internal "affiliate tier" system

5️⃣ take ownership of the evidence base

The dietary supplement brands that win will be those that navigate the misinformation by bringing authentic, science-backed authority to the conversation, meeting consumers exactly where they are already shopping.

08/24/2026

Does the market need an adaptogen filled or high protein Twinkies? The short answer is no, we do not need a functional version of every food, and probably many of you agree...

This "wellness creep" phenomenon, described in this clip from an old December 2022 conversation with Scott Dicker, happens when the CPG industry takes a product meant for pure pleasure and forces a health benefit onto it.

Maybe we've leaned so far into "food as medicine" that we have forgotten "food as pleasure." In fact, society's hyper-focus on human optimization has likely made us forget that food feeds more than just our cells...

What if Twinkies should just be Twinkies?

True wellness is not about optimizing every calorie. Instead, focus on having a healthy, guilt-free relationship with occasional, unadulterated junk food.

08/24/2026

Peter Rahal is aggressively tearing up the traditional CPG playbook. While most modern food brands follow a predictable loop...launch a trendy product, scale online via performance marketing, and hope for an acquisition by a legacy CPG conglomerate, Peter Rahal is engineering a quiet structural revolution to dominate the future of nutrition.

In this video, I'll pull back the curtain on Medici, Peter Rahal’s newly established holding company. By unifying hyper-optimized consumer brands under the same corporate umbrella as proprietary, cutting-edge food technology, Medici is building an undeniable dual-engine competitive moat.

I break down how its flagship brand, David Protein, exploded to a reported $300 million in revenue in less than two years. But protein bars are just the beginning. From a high-protein frozen dessert line that sold out in under 30 minutes to shelf-stable canned wild-caught cod, Rahal is reshaping consumer platforms.

Discover the master plan behind Medici’s decentralized "house of brands" architecture...including the upcoming candy brand HallPass and savory line Svelte Snacks. Most importantly, we reveal Medici’s "secret weapon," which is the vertical integration of Epogee and its revolutionary EPG alternative fat technology, which slashes fat calories by 92% without sacrificing mouthfeel.

Finally, we look ahead at Medici's next logical strategic moves to conquer the low-calorie sweetener space and monopolize the very molecules we ingest daily.

The Secret Weapon Powering Peter Rahal’s New Food Empire 🤫🧪Peter ...

08/24/2026

We live in the “Age of the Endless Aisle,” where there are more options in every CPG category than during any other point in history. And it’s that proliferation of caffeine-containing products and them being well-entrenched into the lives of most Americans that's causing “energy everything” to become a certified consumer movement.

Although there are hidden underlying growth drivers that I believe most industry stakeholders aren't paying close enough attention to...ones that are accelerating the popularity of energy drinks and nootropics focused on improving physical and cognitive performance.

This "Keeping Up With The..." is one of those such underlying growth drivers...