The Digestible Brand -

Nutrition Marketing with Heart and Soul

With all the competiton in the natural channel; with all the authentic brands getting gobbled up (and in many cases, ruined) by Big Food, it’s never been more important to make your consumers FEEL something. BeeFree gets that part, and other parts, right.

The folks at BeeFree reached out, asking if I’d like to try their products — what followed was a BIG box of their Warrior Mix and the offer of more. Could my miniscule blog help them? I don’t think they really cared — maybe they were simply being, as their name suggests, sweet. The story is authentic and human. Jennifer Wiese’s oldest son had just been diagnosed with Autism. And while these kids are said to be “on the spectrum,” I’d imagine Jennifer and her husband were too — on an emotional spectrum between disbelief and desperation. Jennifer decided [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2019-01-14T21:35:06+00:00 January 14th, 2019|Brand Positioning, Branding, Digital, General, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Trends, Video|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing for Creating a Household Name

This authentic Mexican-American brand is finding success on Whole Food’s top shelf. How did they get here, what does the future hold for grain-free Siete, and how can you apply it all to your brand?

When Veronica Garza found out she had a grain-intolerance, it meant more than missing out on certain foods, it meant losing part of her culture. As a Mexican-American, tortillas were front and center in her family’s kitchen. Suddenly, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas and burritos were off that table. Par for the course in CPG world, the family of seven (“Siete,” get it?) decided to create a grain-free tortilla — and well, you can guess the rest. The result was something that demanded to be shared, big time. Here are a few ways Siete grew their newly-invented family of products into [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2019-01-10T17:44:10+00:00 January 7th, 2019|Brand Positioning, Branding, Marketing, Packaging, Research, Retail Support, Sampling, Trends|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing Without All the Suffering

If you want people to truly understand (and yes, love) your brand, find a unique story that creates an advocacy position for your consumer, connect that story to everything you do and suffer a whole lot less to succeed.

Let’s get a little boozy with Sufferfest, a line of beers that’s different because they’re “Celebrating Athletes.” Great line. First, it says exactly who the brand wants to be for. Secondly, it says it’s for athletes who are celebrating super hard workouts. So what’s Sufferfest doing really well? They know why they started this brand, and who they started it for. When you put your consumer at the center of the story, you make people feel special — people like that. They have specific reasons to believe. Their beer is “Crafted to remove gluten.” They likely know a lot [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-12-20T18:06:12+00:00 December 31st, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Experiential, General, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Research, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Trends, Video|0 Comments

Marketing Nutrition Needs a Strong Story at the Core

You have a passionate mission, super-clean ingredients and a diverse product portfolio. You need to wrangle all that into a cohesive, well-explained story or what’s the use?

I noticed something new — and in a way, old — yesterday at my Whole Foods. Core Bar from Core Foods. I’ve known this brand for years, but only for their Core Meal, which was for the longest time, the only brand sitting next to Perfect Bar. I wanted to know more about the story, so I grabbed a bar and started digging in. What I found was a combination of cool, curious and confusing. All adding up to a “C” for Core. First, what is the brand doing well, from a story perspective? They have a great name [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-11-28T16:29:19+00:00 December 24th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing That Uses Its Noodle

We eat way too many carbs and not enough of those carbs are made up up vegetables. Cece’s Noodle Company is helping to solve both those problems — how can your brand help further solve this issue?

Some put it at two-thirds, others say 70%. I’ll estimate the whole thing down and say, more than half of us are overweight or obese. End of story.Could brands like Cece’s Noodle Co., be the beginning of a new story. One in which we get our carbohydrate consumption under control? One that features people eating more vegetables, which offer a host of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, life-saving, waist shrinking properties?I sure hope so. Because I’ve been fat and it sucks. Now that I’m the fittest I’ve ever been, the two-part success I can point to is, getting my carbs balanced with my [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-11-16T22:34:39+00:00 December 17th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Social Media, Video|0 Comments

How Smart Nutrition Marketing Built the “Millennial Snack Brand”

Hippeas makes their massive growth look easy peasy. Here’s how they hacked the system, and how your brand can do the same.

Peas are having a moment. Not those green things you used to push around your plate. These Snackaprenuers have discovered how to puff up peas into a delicious crunchy snack (and they’re better than Cheetos). A few months ago, I wrote about Harvest Snaps, a pea-based snack product with a big focus on health. Today, I’ll be taking a look at another popular pea-based brand that takes a different approach. Chickpea-based Hippeas, preaches peace and love — as in peas and love. You probably first spotted these bold bags at Starbucks. That’s because they were launched as part of a [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-11-16T22:52:08+00:00 December 10th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Experiential, General, Influencers, Marketing, Packaging, Public Relations, Research, Social Media, Tradeshow, Trends|0 Comments

Taking the Junk out of Nutrition Marketing

Part of gaining loyalty for your food brand involves having a clear mission on behalf of your consumers — if part of that mission is helping people eat better, take a look at what SnackNation has done, and apply those lessons.

The mission of some food brands is laser-focused. Enter SnackNation, who states it very clearly: “We got started with this crazy idea of making healthy food more convenient than junk food, and we’ve been on an epic ride ever since.” Perfect, especially when so many offices feature the old, boring source of super-junky-junk food — vending machines. If you don’t already know, SnackNation curates healthier snack foods for a ton of brands they personally vet, boxes it all up and sends it to your office (or home). Simple. My office has been a subscriber for around a year and it’s great [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-11-01T16:36:09+00:00 December 3rd, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing That Tells a Story with One Look

Just Spices captures their brand purpose with vibrancy, simplicity and passion for good food. What can you learn from what they’re doing to spice up your brand?

If you’re like me, you probably have a kitchen cabinet that’s overflowing with spices. And if you’re really like me, other than salt, pepper, and a few of the other usual suspects, most of those items were purchased for one very specific recipe and have remained untouched since the day you bought them. That’s the tension behind Just Spices, a very groovy brand that’s recognized the need for all-natural seasonings that make experimenting in the kitchen easy and fun for millennials on a budget (or chefs of any age that want cooking to be easy and fun). I love [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-10-30T14:12:58+00:00 November 26th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Marketing, Packaging, Social Media|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing Fodder: Six Foods That Could Be the Next Avocado.

What will be the next big “It” food? Here are my predictions. What could these unsolicited opinions do for your brand?

Hey, remember when avocado was just that weird, mushy green stuff you’d find on your sandwich when you ate at your healthy friend’s house? Now, we’re spending $10 to have the neighborhood coffee shop spread it on toast. When did that happen? From the Avocadossance to the Kale Boom to Cauliflowermania, overlooked fruits and vegetables are always taking turns as the new “It” foods we nutrition-obsessed Americans can’t seem to get enough of. Exactly why these foods blow up when they do is anyone’s guess, but betting on what’s next is fun. So, without further ado, here are six [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-10-30T14:03:39+00:00 November 19th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Marketing, Trends|0 Comments

How Influencers Can Keep Your Nutrition Brand Fresh

What you can learn from HelloFresh on making your social media game about more than just some pretty food photos.

As much as I try to live by the no phones at the dinner table rule— It’s hard to resist pulling out that appendage to snap a pic of an artfully plated meal. And I’m not alone — especially since that photo of an eye-popping smoothie bowl can get as many likes as a famous celeb these days. One brand that’s capitalized on food-fame is meal subscription service, HelloFresh. Their clever use of influencer marketing has created a unique brand story that’s all about the benefits of convenient, nutritious home cooking. Here’s what you can learn from this brand’s fresh [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-10-30T13:57:12+00:00 November 12th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Marketing, Packaging, Research, Retail Support, Sampling, Tradeshow, Trends|0 Comments