Media Archives - The Digestible Brand

Nutrition Marketing That Puts Some Skin in the Game

If you really, truly, passionately believe your food or beverage product offers a big benefit to people, go all in, take the consumer’s side in a big way. And watch interest grow into fervor.

I try to do double duty with these articles — be super respectful toward someone’s life’s blood while offering suggestions that might help their brand and yours. But this time, especially given Vital Proteins’ Collagen Peptides is a cow-based product, I might just step in it. Here goes. We’ve come a long way since “glucosamine.” You know, the stuff that was supposed to help our joints get some young back in ‘em. RIP old school, long live Collagen Peptides. New, better, sexy name and the promise of additional good stuff for hair, skin and nails — all kinds of [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-10-08T16:40:10+00:00 October 8th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Influencers, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Marketing Your Nutrition Brand like a Family

If you created your food brand out of a personal need to help people, why market to them like strangers with wallets? Give everything the family touch, then keep that family together.

I know, really I do — you started your brand because you wanted to fill a need for people. Maybe you started out by filling your own. You shared your new passion with friends and, yes, family. Everything was loving and glowing and personal and altruistic — and then, you decided to ruin it all by becoming a marketer. Bill Keith, oldest brother of many and CEO of Perfect Bar (I put the first thing first for a reason) has not ruined it all — at all. Instead, he, along with his siblings, teammates, investors and maybe even you [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-09-17T16:51:49+00:00 September 17th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Experiential, General, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing That Turns Lemons into Lemonade

When you’ve found the passion that drives a great brand story, don’t dilute it. Instead, let it be a part of everything you do, internally and externally.

Go to super-simple lemonade brand 4P's homepage, read the long version of founder Will Boyle’s origin story and you’ll get a passionate taste for what this brand is all about — saving forests and saving people from overly processed, garbage drinks (and food). It’s a good tale, told from the perspective of a boy who became a man who wanted to do better for humans and nature. In fact, when I asked Will to tell me the essence of his brand in one sentence, he responded, “4Pure was born from a simple commitment to do good for all by [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-09-05T16:21:29+00:00 September 3rd, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Experiential, General, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

A Nutrition Marketing Story That’s a Damn Good Catch

Even if you don’t have a disruptive food product, Good Catch is a great example of how to get on message, educate confused eaters and cast the widest possible consumer net.

“Fish story,” in case you’re one of the four people who don’t know, is a euphemism for stretching the truth. I guess because fisher people are famous for enthusiastically overestimating the size of their catches. And while I’ve never caught a fish of any length, I can spot the branding equivalent of a fish story a nautical mile away. This brings me to Good Catch, a company striving to create and market a line of plant-based foods that look and taste like seafood. Should you follow their example, or swim the other direction? Follow. Really, seriously follow. These guys [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-09-06T13:57:35+00:00 July 30th, 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

Nutrition Marketing That Wins by Zagging

Your brand has so many competitors — but you can beat them all by finding a point of difference that leads to a story that leads to repetition and differentiation.

Plant-based foods are all the rage — especially burgers. Why? Because everyone loves a burger, and vegetarians and vegans feel super left out when all their buddies are mowing away while the plant eaters are relegated to, what, a salad? Double burger without the burger? And the plant-based burger was born. And what’s the holy grail of the plant-based burger? You got it, the plant-based burger that’s just like a beef burger! Enter Good Seed Burgers. They’re apparently pretty good — but a look at their store locator says, they’re pretty darn small. Why? Maybe they don’t really truly [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-08-15T15:12:40+00:00 July 23rd, 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

Better Nutrition Marketing Through Puffed-Up Passion

Your amazingly innovative food brand needs more than great taste — find either a point of passion that connects to the founder, a foil to roil against — or both. And open more doors, minds and mouths.

Oh man, do I love a puff. That light, airy, barely-there texture is something I’ve always been willing to dive head first into. Preferred the puffy Cheetos to the crunchier version. Never minded the cheese fingers. And now, really hate the fact, the vast majority of these magic pillows of flavor are made with corn. And that hate offers up one of two possible story lines for a new brand I’m really excited to jam into my gob. It’s Spudsy, a yet-to-be-launched, better-than-ever puff made primarily of sweet potatoes. If you visit the site, you’ll find a nice, albeit [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-08-03T21:36:49+00:00 July 16th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Trends, Video|0 Comments

Using Netflix to Help Market Your Nutrition Brand

How the Many Food Shows of Netflix Can Inform How Your Brand Should Talk to Consumers

Ah, Netflix. Home of day-long TV binges, forgotten blockbusters, countless hours of my life and now, a sneaky amount of delicious food porn. From baking competitions to travel programs to gourmet docu-series, your favorite streaming service has quietly become a titan of food-related entertainment. The people at Netflix have obviously seen the interest confused consumers have in learning about what they eat and are capitalizing on that interest, one show at a time. So, why can’t we, as marketers, use this information to our advantage as well? Now that we know what people are watching, let’s take a look [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-08-03T19:49:21+00:00 July 9th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Marketing, Media, Trends|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing That Maximizes A Great Story Hook

When you find some amazing insight that connects to your brand, own it, expand it, make it the keystone of your marketing and be known for something amazing.

Simple Mills makes crackers, cookies, bake mixes and frosting. It’s a super-tidy looking brand with a story that’s, sorry, a little bland — but with an absolutely golden gem of an un-maximized opportunity. See if you can spot it in this first paragraph: “Simple Mills enriches lives and bodies through simple, delicious, real foods. We strive to make healthful choices easy by offering food that tastes great in the moment and nourishes your body for the long-term.” Three words, I think, could thrust a fist-in-the-air on behalf of the consumer that makes, not only a great story, but also [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-07-24T14:26:21+00:00 June 25th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Marketing Nutrition With A Story That Says, “Dang”

Imbue your story with likeability AND truth — back it up with a great tasting product people can feel good about eating and you’ve got a recipe for consumer clarity and loyalty.

When Pepsico announced its intent to buy Bare Snacks, it was huge news. And deserving — Bare has great products, great innovation, great name. It might surprise you to find out, Bare’s biggest competitor actually created the coconut chip category. And Dang is no slouch either. In fact, they’ve really been coming on in the past couple years. New design, new products and a dialed-in story that, for me, covers all the bases. Let’s take a look at the front of pack — after all, that’s where your story must start. You only have a few seconds to get [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-07-12T14:46:16+00:00 June 18th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments

Nutrition Marketing That Wins Through A Kick-Ass Story

Get the story right, make it a fist-in-the-air pitch on behalf of your beliefs — and your consumers, and you’ll be able to make every tactic work harder, easier.

I talk about the story a lot. You might even wish I’d stop talking about it. But I’m just not gonna. Because in my experience and in my belief, the story is the most important thing you can create to get your marketing off on the right foot — and it keeps paying dividends, for the lifetime of your brand.Why? What are the reasons you should put so much effort into the creation and crafting of your brand story?A strong, ownable, defendable story gives you an identity right off the bat — sure, your logo and packaging do that too, [...]

By Eric Kiker| 2018-07-10T22:58:40+00:00 June 11th, 2018|Brand Positioning, Branding, Broadcast, Digital, Marketing, Media, Packaging, Public Relations, Retail Support, Sampling, Social Media, Tradeshow, Video|0 Comments