BioBio
Kevin Smith is the founder of SmashBrand, a brand development agency specializing in the CPG and FMCG sectors. Under Kevin's guidance, SmashBrand seamlessly integrates brand strategy, design, and detailed consumer testing, ensuring impactful market outcomes and enhanced sales velocities for its clients.
Key milestones in his career:
- Spearheading brand development for industry leaders like Kraft Heinz, Duracell, and Walmart.
- Elevating emerging CPG brands such as Gfuel, Ollie Pet, and Sun Warrior to retail market leaders.
- Founding several e-commerce sites and DTC brands that achieved multi-million dollar revenue benchmarks.
- Launching a chain of retail stores, a regional distribution company, and sports nutrition brands under Nutrition Distribution, generating over $50mm in revenue.
Before establishing SmashBrand, Kevin ventured into entrepreneurship with Nutri-Sport at 21. Recognizing the untapped potential in sports nutrition, he rapidly expanded to seven retail locations within a year. This success led to the formation of a distribution company serving all nutrition stores throughout Arizona. Subsequent ventures included pioneering e-commerce stores and launching Athletic Xtreme, a globally distributed sports nutrition brand. Notably, Athletic Xtreme won BodyBuilding.com's Brand of the Year in 2006 and found its place on the shelves of major retailers, from GNC and Vitamin Shoppe to Walmart successfully exiting in 2014.
Apart from brand milestones, Kevin's journey includes commendable service as a Marine Corps veteran, where he was honored as a DOD Marine of the Year in 2001.
While leading SmashBrand and investing in budding brands, Kevin is committed to mentoring aspiring CPG entrepreneurs. His profound industry knowledge, from grasping retail trends to understanding shelf dynamics, serves as invaluable guidance for brands striving to carve out their niche.
Central to Kevin's approach is a consistent philosophy: Marry actionable, data-centric findings with proven strategies to ensure brands stand out and succeed in retail.
Articles by Kevin Smith
8 Ways To Differentiate Your Skincare Packaging Design.
Skincare is a luxury item where shoppers redefine the word “need” to fit their wants. As such, strong branding, shapely packaging, & attractive labeling sways consumers purchasing decisions for this CPG category making skincare packaging design critical to your cosmetic line’s success. This article looks at eight packaging design components for skin care products that […]
The Ultimate Guide To Retail Packaging Design.
DTC may seem like the best channel for commerce, but at some point, every brand must enter into omnichannel commerce by pursuing retail to scale their business profitably. Retail presents more prevalent packaging challenges than you experience selling directly to the consumer. This article educates new and DTC brands on the necessary steps to create […]
How To Create A Dynamic FMCG Marketing Strategy.
To remain competitive and attract customers, staying up-to-date with the latest marketing strategies is crucial for FMCG brands. This article covers innovative marketing strategies in the FMCG industry, including digital marketing tactics, traditional marketing methods, and aspects of company departments that directly impact marketing. By understanding and implefmenting these FMCG marketing strategies, your brand can […]
The Complete Guide To Product Packaging Design.
Did you know that what our industry considers some of the “best packaging designs” perform terribly on retail shelves? Winning awards for attractive packaging means nothing if your product does not concretely lead to higher sales. To be blunt, your product packaging design generates reorders or retailer returns. Do you want to know how to […]
ChatGPT for CPG Brands: Unlocking Its Full Potential.
“Hey ChatGPT, Create an article about how CPG brands can leverage ChatGPT throughout their business.” Yes, ChatGPT was part of this article’s ideation process, but it’s not where our thought leadership, including experience and overall expertise, comes from. In this article, we help you understand how CPG brands should use ChatGPT. You will learn how […]
Winning at Retail: An In-Depth Look at Retail Execution.
You’ve created a great product, landed a national retailer, and established a strategic marketing campaign to support the retail channel. At this point, many brands sit back, hoping to watch the revenues roll in. Unfortunately, these same brands are being yanked from store shelves because of poor retail execution. Consumer goods retail execution is one […]