Brian Hack is an experienced leader and entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of owning several companies in the digital advertising and food & beverages industry. Brian has owned and operated several NYC-based digital ad agencies. For the last several years, Brian has been trying to solve the problem of how to offer unique digital solutions for CPG brands including the Where to Buy store locator and shoppable/drive to retail ad units. Where to Buy launched the food and beverage industry’s most advanced data-rich CPG store locator solution with actual in-store and online grocery data. This premium, second-to-none CPG store locator software, unlike its competition, is designed specifically for food and beverage brands looking for a complete and comprehensive store and product listing solution.
FMM: You have spent several years trying to solve the problems on how to offer unique digital solutions for CPG Brands. Tell us about your background.
I’ve spent over 20 years building different agencies with a heavy focus on digital and emerging trends – figuring out how we can help brands, especially CPG brands, reach their consumers in meaningful ways. Whether it was ensuring people could find the right information about their brands, increasing awareness, driving in-store, adapting to ever-changing social trends and platforms, I’ve always enjoyed helping brands solve these problems and building innovative, new ways to do so. Most recently my agency Tenthwave, was acquired by Accenture Interactive and ever since then I’ve made a conscious effort to focus on emerging CPG brands – helping them find innovative ways to reach their consumers and grow awareness while remaining cost-effective. As someone with a start-up mentality, I know how crucial it is to reach an audience but also understand that budgets are often tight – so how do you strike that balance? That is where the store locator came into play. When you’re a small, emerging CPG brand it is imperative that people can find where to buy your products but so many of the solutions on the market either lack the necessary location data and are really a time suck on busy brand managers, or they are really expensive with a huge data lag can be prohibitive to smaller brands. I knew there had to be a better way and after we got connected with Datasembly I knew this was how we could make it happen – for brands of all sizes.
FMM: Tell us about Where to Buy.
Where to Buy actually came out of a chance meeting at a meditation retreat. After days of not being able to talk, when we were finally able to mingle and talk to one another, I was talking to a fellow retreat attendee and someone we started talking about our backgrounds and long story short he introduced me to the folks at Datasembly. What Datasembly is doing from a pricing and location data collection standpoint is what had been in the back of my mind for years. After understanding how expansive their data was, I knew I had to jump on building the next generation of store locators. I reached out to my business partner Brit, my developer and a past, trusted senior CPG executive of ours and we brainstormed how to use this data in a new type of product. How would we differentiate ourselves on the market and make the store locator we wish we had all these years?
FMM: Why is it the most advanced CPG Store Locator Software?
Where to Buy is different from other solutions on the market for a number of reasons but primarily it’s the data piece that really sets us apart. We power our store locator with data from Datasembly which is pulling from actual on-shelf availability vs. scan data or self-reported distribution data. Essentially, Datasembly “walks” the digital aisles of tens of thousands of grocery stores, pulls together the product availability and hands off the data to us. Unlike other locators that rely on licensed scan data and can run upwards of $30k, our data is based on actual in-store availability and doesn’t have a 6+ week lag or a $30k price tag. We also made sure that all the features you’d want in your store locator were included in our subscriptions vs. add-ons. We figured, what’s the point of having a locator solution if you have to pay more for basic things like online integration, unlimited UPCs, etc.
FMM: What are the features?
Regardless of what tier you’re at, Where to Buy includes all of the following features:
- US & Canadian data from over 200 grocer banners covering tens of thousands of grocery stores
- Data covers national, regional, club and natural grocers – you don’t have to license different pieces of data for different segments
- Online grocer integration
- Unlimited UPC’s
- Unlimited store locations
- Map customization so it fits your brand
- Real-time analytics
- Custom dashboard included store overview and count
We are also in the process of rolling out a few add-on features like add to cart on grocer’s website, a widget that lives on product pages and identifies locations without extra clicks, and trackable links that can be used across platforms (i.e., banners, other websites, media, social, etc.).
FMM: Is “Where to Buy” about changing the way CPG Companies can “Rethink” about tracking data and competitor information?
We are changing CPG companies can track and visualize their data, on both retail availability and consumer search preferences. Many of the ways our clients get their data would be considered antiquated. It’s based either on distribution reports – which are helpful but often not super accurate – or expensive, licensed scan data that can have several weeks lag time. Our data is based on what retailers are outwardly and publicly telling consumers is available on their shelves on any given day. In their custom dashboard, our clients can get access to their availability overview and see how, where consumers are searching for their products, including product searches. As for competitor and category information and tracking, we aren’t currently providing that information but that doesn’t mean it’s not in the pipeline 😉
FMM: What are the benefits?
Our product has so many benefits for our clients. First and foremost, we have the most accurate data out there and can provide it at a cost that is digestible. We also can track all interactions with the locator providing valuable information to our clients that many have been able to use to help increase distribution. We also provide quick snapshots of what stores are carrying their products which, surprisingly, many brands don’t have full visibility into. And of course, we give clients the ability to accurately tell their consumers where to buy their products, both in-store and online. If consumers can’t find where to buy brands products, then everything else is moot.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/wheretobuy
