Nutrition Marketing That Wins Through Trial
If your product is delicious and fits consumers’ lives, you’ve got to get it into their mouths. See how this Trial Pack from Enjoy Life Foods does it. Then, borrow a page from their book!
96% of people say they want to eat “healthy.” But, they’re actually baffled about what that really means.
My belief: food brands could fix the problem. This all comes from the personal: In 2011, I started a journey that’s maximized my diet and wellbeing. And now, I’m combining that learning with my marketing chops to help brands win at shelf and create consumer loyalty. Enjoy.
Nutrition Marketing That Gives a Cluck
You want to do more than talk about transparency? You want to really be honest with you consumers and convince them to be a part of your brand? You want to help them make better decisions about food in general, not just eat more of your products? Then take a page from the Vital Farms brand book. Actually, take the whole flockin’ thing.
Man, I’ve written so many articles about food brands — and every single time, I’m able to add some thoughts about what each one could do better to reduce food confusion. But the folks at Vital Farms may have just stumped me. They seem to be doing every single thing, right! I had a conversation with Dan Brooks, Director of Brand Communications and Design at Vital Farms. He told me, in the beginning, research proved people were confused about, “Cage-free,” “Free range” and “Pasture-raised.” According to Dan, “People thought these terms meant pretty much the same thing. When, in [...]
How Do I Create More Effective Nutrition Marketing?
Marketing Nutrition to Confused Consumers
Consumers are confused enough about nutrition. Don’t let your packaging make the problem worse. What’s my proof this is a huge problem? All I have to do is visit a food brand trade show. For instance, during my most recent trip to the 800-pound gorilla in the food trade show world, Natural Products Expo West, I saw the same product over and over, in every aisle, in every category. I call this product, “Huh?” Of course, it wasn’t one product — but it seemed that way, thanks to the fact that, while the vast majority of exhibitors have gotten [...]
Nutrition Marketing that Does the Impossible
The Impossible Burger isn’t just plant-based meat, it’s new technology. Here’s how the brand is sacrificing mass-appeal for a bigger slice of the meatless-pie.
Last week, Impossible Foods debuted the second version of their plant-based “Impossible Burger” at CES 2019. That’s right. A food company at a tech conference. The context makes sense if you already know about Impossible Foods, a company dedicated to finding innovative ways to create meatless meat, that actually tastes like the real thing. Forget about robots and rollable TVs — the Impossible Burger 2.0 was the clear favorite at this year’s conference, stepping up their original recipe in both flavor and texture. So I’ve been wondering, is Impossible Burger actually making “food as technology” palatable for consumers? Right now, [...]
Nutrition Marketing That Creates a Good Culture
You’ve made (or remade) a food to be better, you’ve set a mission with which few if any could argue. You’re on the shelf — how to you stave off the inevitable competition and keep from being one of a number of “good” options in your set? Do what the other guys won’t — go beyond helping people through your one line. And reap loyalty.
I’d forgotten about cottage cheese, but when I re-realized this stuff could fill some holes in my protein game, I went looking and found, in my shiny-happy Whole Foods, good culture (lower case intentional), a new, better, bright light. And I gobbled it up. good culture, while its lower case font wreaks havoc with my computer’s auto-correct, is really as the name says, “good.” Love the taste, the story, the peel off paper wrap that contains more info — pretty much everything. But since my thing is all about how food brands can increase loyalty by reducing food confusion, [...]
Nutrition Marketing That’s Less Evil in Every Way
There’s never been more competition in the “healthy snacking” space. That means, you need to be truly, honestly different — from your story to everything that backs it up. Lesser Evil has some lessons for you.
I LOVE Lesser Evil Paleo Puffs — especially the “No Cheese” Cheesiness variety. Apparently, lots of people feel good about every variety of the brand’s miraculous grain-free extrusions, since, whenever I arrive at what’s become my favorite Whole Foods facings, it looks as though some enormous, puff-loving creature has taken a swipe through the entire set. And the good goes so far beyond the stuff in the package. So pull open a bag and let’s dig in to everything that makes Lesser Evil so much less evil: Their story goes beyond what’s become trite (albeit true) and commoditized storytelling [...]
Nutrition Marketing That Gets by Giving
You should definitely use your brand to help people during natural disasters, and as Kraft demonstrates, during a prolonged government shutdown. These things are kind — and they result in consumer loyalty. But why wait? Make every day a way to give something MEANINGFUL to your consumers and see how much you get in return.
Skeptics will look at what Kraft is doing (and what I’m doing by writing about it) and say, “Oh, they’re just trying to get people to buy more of their products.” I say, “So what?” We’re all in the business of persuading consumers to buy our stuff, which means we’re all looking for opportunities to stand out. And thankfully, opportunities like this don’t come around every day. So while Kraft is putting itself out there to help an estimated 800,000 people/families affected by this government shutdown — and now, asking other brands to pitch in, what could this awful [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]