Thursday, November 05, 2026

Revenue's climbing and the bank balance still isn't. The real fix usually isn't your price — it's that your marketing never said who you're actually for.

Your sales team didn't lose that account. Your customer didn't switch to a cheaper brand down the aisle. They just started eating less — and there's a good chance nobody in your business has put that into a single planning meeting this year.

New data from McKinsey's State of Grocery North America 2026 report — based on a March 2026 survey of nearly 5,000 grocery shoppers and an April 2026 survey of more than 40 grocery executives across the US and Canada — puts a number on something FMCG and SME owners have been feeling without being able to name it: 16% of grocery shopping households now report someone in the home is currently using a GLP-1 medication (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and similar), with another 7% reporting past use. Among households currently using these medications, 48% say they're buying smaller portions and 46% say they're buying fewer snacks and indulgent items.

That's not a marketing problem, a pricing problem, or a private label problem. It's a straight reduction in how much of your category actually gets eaten — and most ranges were built and priced for a market that's already shifted underneath them.

Why Your Range Planning Is Still Fighting the Wrong War

When sales go soft, most owners run the same three checks: pricing, competitors, marketing spend. All reasonable. All can miss the real story entirely.

Grocery's own decision-makers are already responding to what the data shows. According to McKinsey's State of Grocery North America 2026 report, close to 90% of grocery executives expect to expand high-protein shelf space over the next two to three years — not because protein is a passing trend, but because it's where a genuinely changed shopper is spending. Units per trip fell across nearly every retail channel in the 12 months to June 2026, and over half of shoppers report cutting back specifically on impulse purchases — the exact category most exposed to reduced appetite.

If your last range review didn't ask "has consumption itself changed," it wasn't a full review. It was a pricing exercise wearing a strategy hat.

The Appetite Audit: A Three-Step Range Check

Kevin runs this framework with every FMCG and SME client before a range or NPD decision goes to market:

1. Exposure Check. List every SKU and mark which sit in the categories most exposed to reduced consumption — snacks, large-format packs, indulgent or "treat" positioning. These are the lines most likely to be quietly losing volume for reasons that have nothing to do with your marketing.

2. Format Response. Test smaller pack sizes and portion formats against your current best-sellers. A shopper eating less isn't choosing to abandon your brand — they're choosing the format that matches how much they actually want now.

3. Category Reallocation. Shift a defined share of your NPD pipeline and shelf-space negotiation toward where consumption is genuinely growing: fresh, protein-forward, and wellness-adjacent lines. Don't wait for the retailer to tell you; bring the data to them first.

"Kevin has some amazing ideas around marketing, things we would have never thought of ourselves. He also helped us through the process of getting into supermarkets. He has gone above and beyond what he needed to!"

— Amy Nixon, Icehouse Coaching Programme

The Execution Gap

Most owners who see this data will nod, agree it's real, and change nothing for another two quarters. Not because they don't believe it — because there's no system forcing the question onto the agenda. Range reviews happen annually, GLP-1 usage keeps climbing month on month, and by the time it shows up as a clear sales trend, a competitor with a smaller-format or higher-protein alternative has already taken the shelf space.

The real obstacle usually isn't insight. It's sequencing: no owner has built "consumption shift" into their regular planning cadence, so it only gets attention once it's already cost them a quarter of flat or falling volume. That's exactly the kind of system gap coaching exists to close — not by telling you what to think, but by building the cadence that makes sure you ask the right question before the market answers it for you.

Quick Wins

Three things you can do this week, before a full range review:

  • Pull your last 12 months of unit sales by SKU and flag anything in a snack, indulgent, or large-format line that's down on units even where dollar sales held or grew.
  • Ask your top three retail buyers whether they're seeing category-level softness beyond your own brand — it tells you whether this is a you problem or a category problem.
  • Check your smallest current pack size against what a GLP-1-adjacent shopper would actually want. If your smallest format is still built for a bigger appetite, you're already behind.

Key Takeaways

  • 16% of grocery households now include a current GLP-1 medication user, with another 7% having used one previously, per McKinsey's State of Grocery North America 2026 report.
  • Among current users, 48% buy smaller portions and 46% buy fewer snack or indulgent items — a genuine consumption shift, not a pricing or loyalty issue.
  • Nearly 90% of grocery executives expect to expand high-protein shelf space over the next two to three years in direct response.
  • Run the Appetite Audit — exposure check, format response, category reallocation — before your next range or NPD decision.
  • Build consumption-shift review into your regular planning cadence, not just your annual range review.

If your range hasn't been stress-tested against this shift, that's the conversation worth having before your next planning cycle.

...and you become the owner who spots the shift in your range before the shelf does.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

46% of NZ small business owners aren't paying themselves. Here's why that has to change, and the three moves that build it into a real habit, not a hope.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

US owners lose 22 hours a month to financial admin and 56% get blindsided by a tax surprise. Here's the E-Myth fix that gets the books off your desk for good.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

41% of US owners say the cash-flow gap between money in and bills out is their top stressor. Here's why better follow-up won't fix it, and the three moves that stop the chase before it starts.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

63% of US small businesses say word of mouth is key to new customers. Here's how to build that into a system that still works when you're not personally chasing it.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

68% of US owners have delayed a major decision purely from fear of getting it wrong. Here's the 15-minute premortem test that gets you unstuck before you spend another dollar on it.

Friday, October 30, 2026

UK SME owners now spend almost twice as long on admin as on growth, per a fresh 2026 survey. Here's the three-step Weekly Execution Audit Kevin uses to help owners flip that ratio.

Friday, October 30, 2026

Only 30% of US owners finished 2025 with profits above expectations, down from 57% the year before. Here's the real reason growing revenue stopped meaning growing margin.

Friday, October 30, 2026

43% of US owners have hidden business stress from their own family. Here's why carrying it alone is the actual problem, and why Kevin hired his own coach.

Friday, October 30, 2026

If your business stops the moment you do, the problem isn't your team. It's how many of their problems you're still quietly carrying. Here's the fix, from a 1974 HBR classic.

Friday, October 30, 2026

One client had 123 customers. Eight of them delivered 42% of total revenue. Here's the A-B-C-D grading system that tells you which customers actually matter.

Friday, October 30, 2026

Nearly three in ten US owners name unpredictable demand as a top stressor. Here's the always-on marketing system (RACE) that replaces the feast-and-famine cycle.

Friday, October 30, 2026

If a prospect asked what makes you different, could you answer in one sentence? Here's the three-question positioning map that gets you there before your next pitch.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

Most sales die at silence, not at no. Here is how to build a first AI agent for sales follow-up in five steps, with a human in charge and NZ privacy and spam rules covered.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

AI speeds up whatever you point it at. Here is how to match it to the one link in your business that is actually limiting growth, before you spend on tools.

Thursday, October 29, 2026

36% of NZ SMEs use AI, but the smallest firms trail by 34 points. Here is a four-question test for choosing your first AI job, and a 30-day plan.