CPG marketing companies are the agencies, consultants and specialist shops that plan and run marketing for consumer packaged goods brands, from strategy and social to retail media, packaging and launches. Before you trust any ranked list of them, check who published it. On Google's first page today, four of five rankings put their author first.
A food marketing consultant is one senior person you hire to make the marketing decisions for a food or beverage brand and, usually, to run some of the work. You pay for judgment by the hour, by the project or on a monthly retainer, and you should know within 90 days whether it's working.
A food and beverage branding agency builds the strategy, identity, packaging and voice a food or drink product sells under. Before you hire one, make it prove it knows the difference between the two. A snack gets chosen in the aisle and eaten at home. A drink gets grabbed from a cooler and photographed in somebody's hand.
A CPG branding agency builds the identity a packaged food or beverage product sells under: the positioning, the voice, the visual system and the packaging. Before you hire one, ask how the brand holds up at post number 15 in a month. A brand that only works on the carton runs out of things to say by week three.
A CPG brand agency builds the identity a packaged food or beverage product sells under: the positioning, the voice, the look, the packaging and the rules for using all of it. Hire the one that asks where your customer actually buys the product before it designs anything, because attention that can't find a checkout is wasted money.
A food branding agency builds the identity your product sells under: the positioning, the name if you need one, the logo, the packaging system and the rules for using all of it. Hire the one that tests that identity on a phone screen and a crowded shelf before you approve a single logo file.
