Episode Details

If you're stuck or confused by UPCs and FNKSUs, you are NOT alone. I've noticed a ton of people getting hung up on these. So this episode is my attempt to clear up some of the confusion. We're going to dive deep into some basics here to get an understanding of what the barcodes are and what you need to do with them.

The transcript is below, but if you'd like to leave a comment, head over to http://brandingblitz.com/5/

Hey everybody, welcome back! This is JR and you're listening to the Branding Blitz podcast where I'll take you behind the scenes as I go through the process of trying to strategically use speed and brute force to launch and scale a new brand.

This is episode 5 and today I'm going to discuss a topic that seems to be a hang up for a lot of people.

I quit using Facebook back in January – when my health started falling apart, I simply didn't have the energy to invest in it. I got back on again this week for two reasons. First, I wanted to look into setting up a page to help promote my new brand. But I also wanted to join up with some of the Facebook groups where people are discussing Amazon FBA and private labeling – primarily I was interested in the one Scott Voelker set up to build a community around The Amazing Seller podcast, but there are a handful of others I joined too.

So after months of avoiding Facebook, Scott Voelker got me back on it – I'm still not sure if I should thank him for that or not, but there is an active community there with a lot of valuable information being discussed. But there was something I noticed very quickly. There are certain questions that seem to get asked quite frequently.

One of those issues in particular I've noticed being asked at least 2-3 times a day over the past few days. It seems every several hours someone asks some form of the following questions: Do I need a UPC code? Where do I get it? Does the manufacturer provide the UPC code? Does the manufacturer put the UPC code on there or do I? Do I need to put the UPC code and the FNSKU? What's and FNSKU and where do I get it? What's the difference between a UPC and an FNSKU? Do I need to register my UPC code?

There's probably a dozen or so different questions you could ask along those lines, but ultimately, this is what is really being ask: Can someone PLEASE help me understand this confusing mess of acronyms and barcodes?

I think I've got it sorted out, so I wanted to put together an episode explaining the details as a resource to anyone trying to figure out what they need to do.

So that's the topic of this episode titled: “Alphabet Soup: UPC, FNSKU, SMH, IDK, TGIF”

I think most of the difficulty stems from not understanding the basics of what barcodes are, what a UPC is and how they're used and how that differs from an FNSKU. So we're going to start with some basic explanations which should help make everything clearer when we get to discussing the practical application.

So first off – what is a barcode? Probably the first thing that pops into most people's head is the black and white set of lines and numbers you see on the back of every product on every shelf of any major retail store. But that is a specific type of barcode – it's a UPC barcode.

But a barcode can be used for other things too. If you look at your computer case, it likely has a barcode with a serial number on it and maybe a product key as well. Your car may have a barcode on the dash or door for the VIN number. When UPS delivers your package, it has a barcode. And as I've recently discovered, when you check in to a hospital or ER, the little bracelet