How social media upended the 75-year-old playbook of big CPG

For the better part of the last century, America’s largest consumer packaged goods companies ran an undefeated business playbook. All of the iconic consumer brands of our lifetimes—Coca-Cola, Lay’s, Cheerios, Oreos, and more–-were built on a simple, three-part formula. First, generate massive demand by placing huge national ad buys. Next, create ubiquity by stocking the brand across every conceivable grocery store shelf. Third, harvest as much profit as possible through the economies of scale created by g ...