I’m writing this piece from a position of faint unease. As retailers have become more accessible to challenger brands – through incubators, accelerators, and dedicated teams – I believe brand founders have become a little too comfortable and, at times, complacent.
It’s not good for them, nor the challenger movement as a whole. Lower standards, lack of attention and mistakes in buyer engagements have a real impact on the perception of the brand to actually deliver on their promises, and many brand founders don’t realise this until too late.
At YF, we have worked with more fmcg challenger brands than probably anyone else in the UK, from those pre-launch to those turning over £50m. We also work closely with the UK’s biggest supermarkets and retailers, so we see things from their point of view.
As Waitrose’s innovation partner and a trusted advisor to multiple other retailers, we see thousands of brand applications, RangeMe forms, and pitches. And we know how much the brands want to win these supermarket accounts.
But I think I speak for a lot of the buying community when I say: if you want to win the account that much, why are so many pitches so half-baked?
Why have so many of them got incomplete forms, missing pricing and no attachments? Sales decks are often vague, while emails lack structure or clarity. So when buyers are faced with a stack of applications, what do they do? They roll their eyes and move on.
And yet, so many of these same brands insist they “have it all sorted” and “don’t need help” – and then get frustrated upon rejection or non-response, thinking “I haven’t even had a chance to pitch my product or showcase”.
Only one first impression
You only get one first impression. That is your first pitch. Buyers want to list exciting new brands, but they don’t have time to decode an unclear proposition. Plenty of brands get this right, which makes it very easy to reject the ones that don’t – no matter how great the product is.
And buyers need confidence. They need to know the product is safe, that the supply chain is secure, that the commercial model stacks up. Yet time and again, we see brands overstating their readiness in ways that go beyond ‘entrepreneurial ambition’ into fiction and jeopardy. Some claim they have a factory lined up when they don’t. Others assert their product has claims that aren’t substantiated. The list goes on.
The buyers weren’t born yesterday. If they sense gaps – or worse, dishonesty – you won’t just lose the opportunity, you’ll lose trust. We see it from the other side and this cannot be overstated.
The ‘whole movement’ effect
I am not writing this because individual brands are missing out – that is the founder’s choice. I’m writing it because every time a challenger brand overpromises and underdelivers, or submits a time-wasting application – and every time a buyer rolls their eyes – it makes them that bit more cautious about newness. And rightly so. It affects the whole movement.
The bar gets higher. The scrutiny gets tougher. And the brands that do invest properly in strong propositions face more barriers because others wasted the buyer’s time. The progress slows.
As a brand you do not have to work with YF – that is your choice. But you do need to do something to show you are serious, whether that means working with consultants, hiring the right people, joining training programmes, or simply putting in the work to understand what’s required.
Retail is tough, but it’s a lot easier if you get these basics right.
Thea Alexander is the CEO at YF
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