Your product is delicious. You’ve spent countless hours perfecting it – likely in your sleep as well as in the actual kitchen! People are loving what you created, so why not do a little brainstorming to think about more ways they could enjoy it?! Thinking about alternative usage ideas can increase the customer buy rate of your product, which can lead to incremental sales.
I’m not suggesting we use any marketing tricks to get people to overindulge in one sitting. No, with this “thinking outside the box” exercise, we want to think creatively about how people could use your food or beverage product as a replacement or enhancement for something they may already be buying. This way they get more of the health benefits of your product and increase your sales.
Your main usage occasion will likely always represent the bulk of your sales, and be the reason you get in the shopping cart. However, these alternative product usage ideas can be a way to get in the cart more often!
These exact ideas may not work for every brand, but the exercise itself can. The key here is to think about your product’s flavor profile, followed by all different types of ways people cook with things in that flavor profile…then get creative!
Even if you can’t go play mad scientist in the kitchen today, the best time to think out of the box is right now, when your interest in piqued and you aren’t distracted. So, take a minute and circle 3 from my list you think could possibly work (or serve as a springboard for your own ideas) and add your own. Don’t judge your ideas for now, just think about what other types of food or beverages could be enhanced by combining them with your product.
Once you’ve identified some usage alternatives and tested them out, here are a few ways to make some noise with your new ideas:
- Add the ideas to your website via a blog post or special page with usage ideas.
- Let your social media followers know you’re getting creative and see if they like what you’re cooking up…or if they have their own ideas to add.
- Reach out to other food brands you used in the usage idea/recipe and see if they want to cross promote to share social media followers or promote in an upcoming email.
- Run a contest for alternative usage ideas, either with bloggers or your followers. You could give “bonus points” if they tag other products that pair well with yours. Just make sure you can handle the volume of entries you may receive if you plan to actually test the recipes yourself. During my days at Kraft Foods I worked on the Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand and we had a cheesecake contest. Our chefs would make 25 cheesecakes at a time and the marketing team was charged with judging by recipe ingredients, looks and taste. (Food job hazard: when judging, many of us would have to spit out cheesecake like at a wine tasting…yes, there is such a thing as too much cheesecake!)
- Live videos of you or someone on your team doing a quick video with ideas of alternative usage ideas for your product.
- Print a few of your best ideas on a handout to give away during a sampling event or tradeshow.
What did you circle from the list? What new ideas do you have? I’d love to hear from you about your “outside the box” ideas that will drive more usage occasions for your product. We can all use someone to celebrate little wins with – I really do want to hear from you!
Want to join other food entrepreneurs in a community to talk about marketing your natural food business? Let’s get this started. Request to join the Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable group on Facebook!
Katie has 15+ years of experience in brand management and marketing across a range of popular brands from Fortune 500 consumer package goods companies to local startups. She has degrees in Marketing & Management from the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Business and now, as an independent consultant, she is dedicated to helping local and natural food brands become category leaders in both philosophy and growth.