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What do retailers actually want from challenger brands — and what gets you ignored instantly?

In this episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh speaks with Chris Otto, who spent nearly 20 years at Co-op in buying roles and leading buying teams across frozen, impulse and grocery.

We get into:

• what “challenger” really means from a retailer perspective
• why challenger brands matter to retailers (innovation, energy, relevance, younger shoppers)
• what gets a buyer’s attention vs the red flags that get you filed away
• how busy buyers really are (new supplier volume + existing supplier workload)
• what successful challengers do operationally and commercially once listed
• how to think beyond the first 6–12 weeks and build incrementally over time

If you’re pitching retail — or trying to stay listed — this is essential listening.

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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AI is everywhere in sales right now — and most of what people are doing either turns into spam, or it’s so complicated nobody uses it.

In this episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh speaks with Craig — founder of Cheesies and a commercial operator/consultant turned AI practitioner — about how challenger brands can use AI to sell more without losing their human edge.

We cover:

• why sales is one of the safer career paths in an AI world (and what will actually change)
• the biggest misuse Craig sees: generic inputs leading to generic output
• a practical “start here” setup (Claude Pro, global instructions, connectors, and better prompting)
• how to keep AI outreach human, on-brand, and believable
• what Craig learned building Cheesies: focus on a single audience and spot early traction signals
• what he’d do differently if starting a brand today with AI agents from day one
• Craig’s new venture, The Expedition, helping FMCG leaders integrate AI properly

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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Getting listed is exciting. Staying listed is the hard bit.

In this episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh speaks with Ja and Jag, founders of Superfoodio, about what really drives rate of sale once you’re on shelf.

They share practical, founder-level tactics on:

• why availability is the first battle (and how brands get caught out)
• early retail mistakes you only learn the hard way (including a barcode issue that nearly got them pulled)
• what they do first in a new retailer to drive volume
• activations that actually shift units (not just look good online)
• building store colleagues into brand champions when you can’t be everywhere
• how packaging becomes your salesperson when you’re not in store
• why improving 1% at a time through data and feedback loops keeps momentum going

If you’re a challenger brand trying to win once you’re in retail, this is gold.

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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How do you make a 200-year-old heritage brand behave like a modern challenger — without losing what made it famous?

In this episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh speaks with Josh Daly, who helped take Grey Poupon from being “in the wilderness” to behaving like a brand with a clear point of view.

We get into:

• why Grey Poupon got delisted (and why that was actually useful context)
• how to spot duplication and pull away from the incumbent
• what was sacred (product quality, the jar) vs what had to change (tone, audience, comms)
• fast, scrappy insight gathering (farmers’ markets, real conversations)
• the tactics that moved the needle: a challenger campaign, relevant creators, merch, and smart use of data
• what Josh would do more of, less of, and avoid completely

If you’re trying to modernise a legacy brand or sharpen differentiation in a crowded category, this one will land.

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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Early-stage founders often try to rush to “perfect” — perfect branding, perfect plans, perfect decks — before they’ve sold a single unit.

In this co-hosted episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh and Scott Cramner unpack what “good enough” really means for challenger brands, and why perfection is often just procrastination dressed up as strategy.

We cover:

• why selling early beats endless planning
• where you can compromise (and where you absolutely can’t)
• why big brands still launch products that flop, even after loads of testing
• the difference between being “rough and ready” vs being careless
• a useful mental model: “precisely wrong vs roughly right”

If you’re building a challenger brand and feeling pressure to look bigger than you are, this episode is a reset.

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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Loads of challenger brands describe themselves as “premium”. But premium isn’t a word you write in a strategy doc — it’s something you deliver, end to end.

In this co-hosted episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh and Scott Cramner break down the difference between looking premium and being premium — and why getting this wrong is one of the fastest ways to lose trust (and repeat purchase).

We cover:

• why premium needs to show up in the whole customer journey, not just the packaging
• how small details (emails, delivery, unboxing, service) create the premium feeling
• the Zappos story: customer service as the real differentiator
• how premium pricing without premium value (or margin) falls apart quickly
• why over-engineering can be as bad as under-delivering

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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Founders love their origin story. Buyers don’t buy it.

In this co-hosted episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh and Scott Cramner unpack why brand storytelling so often falls flat in retail and commercial conversations.

We talk about:

• why relevance beats romance when you’re trying to sell
• why your brand is the sidekick, not the hero
• when storytelling does work (and what it needs to do)
• examples where story builds credibility and trust (and where it’s just noise)

If you’re building a challenger brand and leading with your founder story, this is a useful reset.

Link:
www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com

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A lot of founders blame the algorithm when their content doesn’t land. It’s a convenient scapegoat.

In this co-hosted episode of Makin Mighty: The Challenger Sessions, Simon Greenwood-Haigh and Scott Cramner unpack what’s really going on: most challenger brands don’t have an algorithm problem — they’ve got a messaging problem.

We get into:

• why “going viral” is not a strategy
• how consistency beats random spikes
• why knowing exactly who you’re talking to changes everything
• what great brands do differently (Surreal, Red Bull, and a couple of weird ones you’ll want to look up)

If you’re building a challenger brand and posting loads without seeing results, this episode will help you tighten the message and make content easier to create.

Links:
Makin Mighty: www.makinmighty.com

If you found this useful, please share it with someone building a food or drink brand who’d get value from it.

You can follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok or Instagram for clips and extra insights: just search for @MakinMighty

And if you’ve got a question you’re wrestling with right now (brand, growth, retail, positioning) email it in. We’re collecting real questions from founders and we’ll use those to shape future episodes.

Thanks for listening. See you next time

makinmighty@gmail.com