Brainforge Knowledge

2025-01-09_russell_retail

10 min read

Meeting Agenda: Russell Broere (Retail) Discovery Call

Date: Thursday, January 9, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM PT (1 hour)
Attendees: Russell Broere (LMNT Retail - Key Accounts), Uttam Kumaran, Awaish Kumar

Note: Questions below include context from prior stakeholder meetings (Jason IT, Carlos E-commerce, Laura Wholesale, Blake Partnerships) and the January planning sessions. Pre-populated answers are marked with “(confirmed)” to validate with Russell.

POST-MEETING SUMMARY

Fill this section out after the meeting concludes - see MEETING_WORKFLOW_GUIDE.md for instructions

Key Learnings

Current State:

  • Add major insights about how retail operations and key accounts work
  • Pain points discovered
  • Unexpected findings

Data Sources & Systems:

  • List of systems Russell uses
  • How data flows from retailers
  • Data quality/trust issues

Quick Wins Identified:

  • High-impact opportunity (e.g., automate POS data ingestion)
  • Automation opportunity
  • Reporting improvement

Answers to Key Questions

Reference question numbers from below and provide concise answers

Q1-5: Retail Business Overview

  • Q1: Key retail accounts → A: Fill in after meeting
  • Q2: Revenue breakdown by retailer → A: Fill in after meeting

Q6-12: Data Sources & Reporting

  • Q6: Emerson data → A: Target & Walmart POS (confirmed from tech team call)
  • Q7: SPINS usage → A: Validate: benchmarking vs. POS data
  • Q8: Other retailer data sources → A: Vitamin Shoppe, Costco, Sam’s Club - TBD

Q13-18: OKRs & Metrics

  • Q13: Primary KPIs → A: Fill in after meeting
  • Q14: Velocity tracking → A: Fill in after meeting

Q19-24: SPINS Deep Dive

  • Q19: SPINS granularity → A: Weekly, monthly, or quarterly?
  • Q20: Benchmarking vs. operational use → A: Fill in after meeting

(Continue for other question groups as needed)

Decisions Made

  • Decision about data sources to prioritize
  • Alignment on metric definitions

Follow-Up Needed

  • Russell: Action item (Due: Date)
  • Brainforge: Follow-up task (Due: Date)

Meeting Objectives

  1. Understand retail business model and key account structure
  2. Map all retail data sources (Emerson, SPINS, retailer-specific reports)
  3. Review retail OKRs and performance metrics
  4. Clarify SPINS usage (benchmarking vs. operational data)
  5. Discuss pricing strategy and velocity for sparkling beverages
  6. Explore cross-channel dynamics (retail vs. e-commerce vs. wholesale)
  7. Identify data ingestion priorities for retail channel

Background Context

What We Know from Prior Meetings

From Discovery Wiki & Org Chart:

  • Retail represents ~35% of total LMNT revenue
  • Key retail partners: Target, Walmart, Costco Canada, Vitamin Shoppe, Sam’s Club
  • Russell manages Key Accounts under Will (Head of Commercial/Revenue)
  • POS data historically managed by Dan (Finance)
  • Weekly calendar structure from retail data spans months (requires manual adjustment)

From January 7 Tech Team Check-In:

  • Emerson provides POS data for Walmart and Target via Snowflake share
  • SPINS API access just signed - need to determine what data to pull
  • Will mentioned wanting store-by-store pricing data (not just SPINS averages)
  • Self-distribution launching (Bozeman, Austin) - additional data source via Encompass
  • Question: What other retailers send data beyond Emerson? (Vitamin Shoppe sends reports to Jessica)

From December 30 January Planning:

  • Russell is the person to ask about retail data velocity and performance
  • Need to understand how SPINS data is being used today
  • Pricing exploration for sparkling beverages is ongoing

From Wholesale Team Meeting:

  • Concern about retail cannibalization of wholesale business
  • Example: Wholesalers asking why customers would buy from them when they can get it at Target
  • 12 oz sparkling launched to wholesale before D2C - created pricing challenges
  • Question: Is retail growth impacting wholesale partner applications?

Demos/Walkthroughs Requested

  • Retail OKR Dashboard Walkthrough

    • How you track drink mix and sparkling point of sales
    • Revenue targets by retailer (Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Vitamin Shoppe)
    • Trade spend tracking by retailer
    • How often this is updated and by whom

  • SPINS Reporting Interface

    • What dashboards/reports are currently used from SPINS
    • How velocity and competitive benchmarking is reviewed
    • Frequency of review (weekly, monthly, quarterly)
    • Any exports or manual data pulls

  • Emerson Data Access

    • What POS data is available for Walmart and Target
    • How this data is currently consumed (Snowflake, exports, dashboards)
    • Data latency and refresh frequency
    • Store-level vs. aggregate data availability

  • Retailer-Specific Reporting

    • Vitamin Shoppe: How reports are received (Jessica mentioned)
    • Costco Canada: Data access and format
    • Sam’s Club: Reporting structure
    • Any other retail partners with unique data streams

Questions to Ask

Retail Business Overview

  1. Can you walk me through LMNT’s retail footprint?

    • Which retailers are currently carrying LMNT products?
    • How do you segment or prioritize these accounts?
    • What’s the revenue breakdown by retailer (approximate)?

  2. What’s your role as Key Accounts manager?

    • Which accounts do you directly manage vs. Will?
    • How do you interface with retail buyers?
    • What does a typical week look like?

  3. What’s the product mix in retail vs. other channels?

    • Drink mix vs. sparkling distribution
    • SKU assortment by retailer (30ct, 12ct, 4-pack sparkling, etc.)
    • Any retailer-exclusive SKUs or bundles?

  4. How have retail launches evolved over the past year?

    • Timeline of major retailer launches (Target, Walmart, Costco, etc.)
    • Any planned expansions for 2026?
    • How do you measure launch success?

  5. What are the biggest challenges in managing retail accounts?

    • Buyer relationships
    • Shelf placement and in-store visibility
    • Pricing negotiations
    • Out-of-stock issues

Current Data Sources & Reporting

  1. Walk me through the data sources you use for retail:

    • Emerson (confirmed: Walmart & Target POS data via Snowflake share)
      • What specific data do you access from Emerson?
      • How current is this data? (real-time, weekly, monthly?)
      • Do you access this directly or does someone else pull it?
    • SPINS (confirmed: just signed API access)
      • What do you use SPINS for today?
      • Is it primarily benchmarking or also operational?
    • What other retailer data sources exist?

  2. Critical Question from Tech Team: What retailers send data outside of Emerson?

    • Vitamin Shoppe: Jason mentioned Jessica receives reports - what format?
    • Costco Canada: How is data received?
    • Sam’s Club: Reporting structure?
    • Any other retailers with unique data feeds?

  3. How do you track retail performance day-to-day?

    • What reports do you look at regularly?
    • What’s manual vs. automated?
    • Time spent on data pulls per week/month?

  4. How does retail data flow into company-wide reporting?

    • Do you contribute to the monthly OKR tracker (like Carlos)?
    • How do your numbers reconcile with finance (Dan)?
    • Any discrepancies between your tracking and finance’s POS data?

  5. What data do you wish you had but don’t have today?

    • Store-level performance?
    • Real-time inventory?
    • Competitor shelf placement?
    • Customer demographics by retailer?

  6. How do you handle the “weekly calendar” structure from retail data?

    • Dan mentioned retail data spans months due to weekly calendar
    • How do you adjust for this in reporting?
    • Is this a pain point?

  7. What’s your data confidence level for each retailer?

    • Which retailer data is most reliable?
    • Which is most challenging to work with?
    • Any known data quality issues?

OKRs & Performance Metrics

  1. What are your primary retail KPIs?

    • I see in the OKRs: drink mix point of sales, drink mix sales, drink mix trade spend, sparkling point of sale by retailer
    • How are these calculated?
    • Who owns each metric?

  2. How do you track velocity by retailer and by SKU?

    • Units per store per week?
    • Comparison to category benchmarks?
    • Velocity trends over time?

  3. How is trade spend tracked and allocated?

    • By retailer?
    • By SKU?
    • How do you measure trade spend ROI?

  4. What does “point of sale” mean in your retail OKRs?

    • Is this gross sales at register?
    • Net of returns?
    • How does this differ from “revenue” or “sales” used elsewhere?

  5. How do you measure in-store execution?

    • Shelf placement audits
    • Display compliance
    • Promotional execution

  6. What benchmarks or targets guide your retail strategy?

    • Internal targets (YoY growth)?
    • Category performance benchmarks?
    • Competitor comparisons?

SPINS Deep Dive (Critical from Tech Team Meeting)

  1. Critical Question: How often are you looking at SPINS data?

    • Weekly, monthly, quarterly?
    • What drives the review cadence?

  2. Critical Question: Is SPINS primarily for benchmarking or operational data?

    • Benchmarking: How we compare to competitors
    • Operational: Our own sales/velocity data
    • Or both?

  3. What specific SPINS reports or dashboards do you use?

    • Geographic data for self-distribution planning?
    • Velocity data by retailer?
    • Competitive category analysis?

  4. Will mentioned wanting store-by-store pricing data, not just SPINS averages:

    • Is SPINS pricing data adequate for your needs?
    • Do you need more granular pricing data?
    • How are you currently tracking competitor pricing?

  5. What questions do you wish SPINS could answer but can’t?

    • Data gaps?
    • Granularity limitations?
    • Timing/latency issues?

  6. If we’re ingesting SPINS data into our data warehouse, what would be most valuable?

    • All available data or specific endpoints?
    • Historical data depth needed?
    • Refresh frequency preference (weekly, monthly)?

Pricing Strategy & Sparkling Performance

  1. How is pricing being evaluated for sparkling beverages?

    • Current pricing structure by retailer
    • Pricing relative to competitors (Red Bull, Celsius, etc.)
    • Any pricing tests or adjustments planned?

  2. How is sparkling velocity compared to expectations?

    • January 7 meeting mentioned velocity exploration
    • Performance relative to drink mix?
    • Seasonal patterns observed?

  3. Are there concerns about sparkling pricing being too high?

    • Shivani mentioned: “We haven’t landed on high confidence pricing yet”
    • How does velocity compare to category benchmarks?
    • Customer feedback from retail partners?

  4. How do you track sparkling vs. drink mix performance by retailer?

    • Are certain retailers better for one product line?
    • Any retailers exclusive to one product type?

Cross-Channel Dynamics & Cannibalization

  1. Critical Question: Is retail growth impacting wholesale business?

    • Laura mentioned: Wholesalers asking “Why would anyone buy from me when they can get it at Target?”
    • Are you seeing evidence of cannibalization?
    • How do you think about this strategically?

  2. Is retail impacting e-commerce (Shopify, Amazon)?

    • Are customers shifting to retail for convenience?
    • Any data on customer acquisition source by channel?

  3. How do you think about the role of retail vs. other channels?

    • Customer acquisition?
    • Brand awareness?
    • Convenience and accessibility?

  4. Are there geographic patterns to retail vs. other channel performance?

    • Certain markets where retail dominates?
    • Markets where e-commerce or wholesale is stronger?

  5. How does self-distribution (Bozeman, Austin) fit into the retail picture?

    • Is this considered part of retail or separate?
    • How is Encompass data tracked for self-distribution?
    • Jeff Warren mentioned exploring Encompass integration - any context?

Future Roadmap & Data Needs

  1. What’s on your retail roadmap for 2026?

    • New retailer launches?
    • SKU expansion?
    • Geographic expansion?

  2. What data capabilities would help you most?

    • Real-time velocity tracking?
    • Automated competitive benchmarking?
    • Store-level performance dashboards?
    • Forecasting tools?

  3. If you could see all retail data in one dashboard, what would it include?

    • Performance by retailer
    • Velocity trends
    • Competitive positioning
    • Inventory and out-of-stock tracking
    • Trade spend ROI

  4. How will retail data needs evolve as you expand?

    • More retailers = more data complexity?
    • Self-distribution growth?
    • International expansion (Costco Canada)?

Data Infrastructure & Technical Questions

  1. Access & permissions:

    • Do you have direct access to Emerson Snowflake or is it pulled for you?
    • Do you access SPINS directly or through a team member?

  2. Data warehouse & reporting:

    • Would you want retail dashboards in a BI tool (vs. spreadsheets)?
    • What BI tools have you used before (Looker, Tableau, etc.)?

  3. NetSuite migration (Q4 2026):

    • How will this impact retail data tracking?
    • Any concerns about data continuity?

  4. Integration priorities:

    • If we can only ingest some retail data first, what would be most valuable?
    • Emerson (Walmart/Target) vs. SPINS vs. other retailer reports?

Resources Mentioned/Requested

To be filled out during/after meeting

  • Access to retail OKR dashboard/spreadsheet
  • SPINS login credentials or sample reports
  • Emerson data sample (what’s currently available)
  • Vitamin Shoppe report samples (via Jessica)
  • Costco Canada data format/samples
  • List of all retail data sources and owners
  • Trade spend tracking documentation
  • Retailer pricing structure by SKU

Action Items

To be filled out during/after meeting

Russell

  • [ ]

Brainforge (Uttam/Awaish)

  • [ ]

Shivani

  • [ ]

Notes

Space for additional notes during the meeting

Key Insights

Data Source Inventory

RetailerData SourceFormatOwnerFrequencyQuality
TargetEmersonSnowflake???
WalmartEmersonSnowflake???
Vitamin ShoppeReport?Jessica??
Costco Canada?????
Sam’s Club?????
SPINS (all)API/Dashboard????

SPINS API Recommendations

Quick Win Ideas

Cross-Channel Cannibalization Observations

Graph View