What is a CPG company? It’s more than just a brand.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are everywhere. However, most consumers know them by the brands they produce. Sprite, Tide, and Moleskine notebooks are all packaged goods purchased and used by millions every day. Coca-Cola, P&G, and Moleskine are the CPG companies that produce them. At a high level, a CPG company manufactures products, sells them to retailers, who then sell them to consumers.

CPG Brands have been around for hundreds of years. Today they’re positioned around a variety of traits. Some like Nike and Gatorade are performance-based. Others, like Dove soap, are centered around equality and self-love. Originally, CPG brands were built around one thing: safety.

In the early 1900s, most goods were effectively brandless, sold out of general stores from bulk supplies. Unbranded sales led to manufacturers and retailers taking advantage of an unwitting public.

In his book on the rise of the Atlantic and Pacific tea company, Marc Levinson, explains:

Lemon extract often contained no lemon. Bottled soft drinks used coal tar, a carcinogen, as a colorant. Some ketchups used saccharine, even then suspected as a hazardous adulterant, as a preservative. The “tin” in tin cans contained as much as 12 percent lead, which leached into the fruits and vegetables. Zinc chloride, used…