This insights post is a summary of the blog post published by Prohibition. View the full insight at: Why Food and Drink Marketing Isn’t about Food and Drink.
One of the toughest markets to break through is food and beverage. The sector is chaotic and competitive with the tightest of margins. However, if you win, you win big.
So, if there is a lot of noise, how do you get heard? You would think the simple answer is to produce a great product and shout about its virtues. You might talk about the flavor, sustainability or provenance to help propel sales.
In today’s market, having a great product is not enough. Your food product might be the best in the market, but to a consumer they look exactly the same as product on the shelf. With all of this competition, successful food and drink brands don’t rely on product characteristics. They build a wider narrative around their brand, usually through PR and social media content.
Butter as a Product Example
There are few better examples of this than All Things Butter. After its launch, the premium dairy brand has expanded fast and furiously by building a brand perfect for the modern market.
It started with a straightforward message: 100% British butter, twice churned, “no nasties,” in a few different flavors (salted, garlic, chocolate, cinnamon). Along with the basics, the strength of the brand was the engine of success.
Its first secret was using bold fonts and bright colors that made its packaging instantly recognizable. Those designs signaled to stockists that this was no run-of-the-mill butter brand. Most significantly, the team didn’t market butter as a kitchen staple, they presented it as an aspirational lifestyle product.
How do I do this for my brand?
The All Things Butter formula is a useful one for all food and beverage brands. Here are the top three rules to follow if you want to get cut through:
- Start with a great product: Whether that’s cost, quality, sustainability or all three doesn’t really matter, but you must have at least one or two distinctive selling points to work with.
- Think about the story behind your brand: Showcasing the personalities behind a brand are a great way of enabling people to connect with you.
- Think emotionally: Don’t tell consumers why your product is good, show them how it will make them feel.
To get more details about building this formula for your brand, read the full article at: Why Food and Drink Marketing Isn’t about Food and Drink.
