How To Use Strategy as a Benchmark for Evaluating Creative
I’m just not feeling it. I’d like to see a different shade of blue. I love it! In food and beverage marketing (in any field, really), the output of the creative process is highly subjective. We look at design assets — logo, packaging, social advertising — from the perspective of our own likes and dislikes. […]
Do Third-Party Certifications Matter for Food & Beverage Brands?
I was recently talking shop with a friend who works for a retailer about how they choose new brands to carry. Off the cuff, she mentioned that the organization was questioning the value of certifications in their selection process. Our conversation mirrored some thinking I’ve been doing about how certification applies to my own business. […]
The Road to Sustainable Packaging is Long. Start With These 5 Steps.
Single-use containers. Individually wrapped items. Multi-material packaging. In our push to make our products so. very. useful. to consumers, food and beverage brands have sacrificed sustainability. In doing so, we’ve relegated waste management to the consumer. Since I attended the AmericaPack Summit in New Orleans in February, I’ve been thinking deeply about our role as […]
How to Make Retailers Love Your Food or Beverage Brand
I talk with food and beverage marketing leaders a lot about what it takes for consumers to fall in love with their brands. I write about the topic a lot, too. But there’s another audience you need to woo … and they’re essentially the gatekeepers who grant access to your ultimate fan base. I’m talking […]
Consumers Don’t Care About Your Cause. They’ll Flock to Your WHY.
A meaningful, powerful WHY is your brand’s most valuable business asset. If you aspire to make your better-for-you food or beverage brand brand future-proof, you have to stand for something. A capital-M Mission that connects to the deepest hopes and desires of the people who love you (and the people who don’t yet know they […]
Not Everyone Is Your Brand’s Audience, And That’s OK
You can spot fans of the Grateful Dead from across the street: by the way they dress, the stuff they ingest, the wheels they drive. They’re devoted followers who travel with the band and share bootleg recordings via online discussion groups. Deadheads can spot fellow Deadheads (even discreet Deadheads) in an instant. But the Grateful […]
How do I address the market shifts I suspect are happening?
The better-for-you food and beverage categories — indeed, the wider consumer packaged goods marketplace — have shown repeatedly that consumer preferences change unpredictably. And those changes happen more quickly today than even five years ago. For marketing and growth executives, that means simply buying and reading the latest trends report is no longer enough to […]
Food and Beverage Brands: Enlist Your Retail Reps as Powerful Allies
Recently, a client of ours had a category review meeting with a certain retailer to pitch a group of new products. The retail buyers picked the client’s concept apart and demanded a whole bunch of changes. Our client’s team was dejected but persistent. They set a follow-up meeting, and we helped them refine their presentations […]
7 Tips to Expand Your Better-for-You Audience Without Losing Your Fans
It’s the No. 1 concern for every better-for-you company we talk to: How do we rebrand without alienating our current fans? This is an existential question — because growth always means adding new consumers to the fold, and in appealing to those new people you risk leaving your early adopters behind. Marketers mistakenly worry that […]
For Wellness & Better-for-you Brands, Gen X Spends the Most
Generation X: What a boring title for a group that ushered in the use of cell phones, home video games, microwaves, and cable TV. Gen X is that “old generation” now, creeping up into their 50’s, and uncool (clearly) to the younger generations. And in many marketers’ eyes, Gen X is even less relevant. In fact, […]
