THE GAP

Category Management & Shopper Insights is still rooted in large corps. They are two of the MOST influential levers in retail success, yet no scalable support model exists for them.

  • Marketing has ad agencies.

  • Creative has studios.

  • Media has buying and planning firms.

  • PR has communications agencies.

  • Sales has brokers and retail teams.

  • Finance has outsourced ops & advisors.

  • Shopper Marketing has retail activation agencies.

THE SHIFT

The way brands win in retail has changed. The way they’re supported though hasn’t.

CONTEXT SHIFT →

Retail is rewarding storytelling, not scale

COMPLEXITY →

Data is accessible, but not usable

CHALLENGE →

Talent is fragmenting and hard to plug in

FOR BRANDS, BUYERS AND THE CPG INDUSTRY

  • As the next wave of brands continue to scale, the industry deserves more than hype and headlines.nIt needs clarity, accuracy, and accountability.

     Insights grounded in real data, not the recycled “hot takes”.

    We’re building a model that benefits everyone:

    • BRANDS get access to the strategy and fluency that levels the playing field.

    • BUYERS get cleaner data, sharper stories, and smarter partners.

    • RETAILERS get confidence in the brands they choose to grow with.

  • WHEN YOU’RE GROWING FAST, YOU NEED TRACTION, NOT TITLES.

    SPEED: We plug in fast so you can skip the hiring lag.

    EXPERTISE: You get senior-level brains, not junior bandwidth.

    PERSPECTIVE: We’ve seen what works across categories and retailers.

    EFFICIENCY: All the outputs of a team, without the overhead.

    FLEXIBILITY: Scale up, pause, or pivot without the HR headache.

    FOUNDATION: We set the play-bookso your future team starts ahead

  • Modern brands are built differently, but retail still expects them to play by the old rules.

    The fastest-growing CPG brands aren’t following the old playbook.

    They are driven by creators, communities, and culture, not corporate playbooks.

    But once they do, they’re suddenly playing by rules written for legacy giants, rules about data, velocity, and category logic they were never taught.

    The result? A talent and knowledge gap.

    THE BIG BRANDS HAVE:

    • Dedicated category and insights teams who know every buyer metric.

    • Proven playbooks that turn data into strategy.

    • Decades of retail fluency built into their DNA.

    THE NEXT WAVE OF BRANDS HAS:

    • Viral credibility, not retail fluency

    • Communities, not category management

    • Speed, not systems

Most emerging brands are data-rich and insight-poor.

You’ve got reports, dashboards, and performance trends, but no one’s connecting the dots. Next Wave CPG turns data into direction by building the category and shopper layer that earns you staying power.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Hype gets you in the door. Data gets you on the shelf. But insights is what keeps you there.

Buyers are looking for proof.

Proof of incrementality. Proof of category value. Proof you can scale without falling apart

We help you speak their language, fluently.