Now that we’ve reviewed how to create a brand strategy in the past 3 episodes, hopefully you are excited to put those ideas into action! As you work to bring your brand strategy to life and move into the brand strategy activation phase, however, there are a few common mistakes you can avoid by learning from other emerging food brands.
This week for the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food & Beverage Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva explains the five most common brand strategy pitfalls she sees in her work with her clients, and how you can avoid them for yourself. There’s also some exciting news—the NEW Real Food Brands WorkshopTM is now live! Visit the Workshop to find the first on-demand workshop called Brand Strategy Fundamentals. Through the workshop you’ll get the step-by-step process to build a brand that stands out.
Note: Katie shares these examples with the utmost respect and love for the brands she works with. She adores her clients and as business owners we all do our best as we move quickly every day. The point of sharing pitfalls is to help highlight the benefit of a plan that aligns to your brand strategy and accelerate your progress based on how other brands had to learn the hard way…we’re in this together!
1. Not Defining Your Ideal Consumer
One founder Katie worked with had trouble defining his core consumer, aka the ideal person who you know will be the first in line to buy your brand the moment they find out about it and can’t wait to tell their friends. He didn’t know where to get started and felt like he was just making things up.
The solution here was two-pronged. First, Katie worked with the founder to get specific about his own ideals, his purpose, vision, and values, as well as where the company had it’s unfair competitive advantage in its category. Next, she put that together with secondary research to create a consumer profile hypothesis. This profile could then be validated over time as he tested messages, iterated on packaging and ingredients, and really got to know what worked and what didn’t. Defining the ideal consumer unlocked the path for product development, package design, sales strategy…truly everything in his business that had been “stuck” before the brand strategy development work.
2. Not Thinking From a Retail Buyer’s Point of View
Katie’s seen all sorts of approaches from brands when it comes to how they try to set themselves apart with buyers. Some food businesses stay too functional when it comes to highlighting benefits and sound like a commodity, giving the buyer no real reason to make room for them on the shelf. Other brands go the opposite direction, and overshare about brand vision and values and pillars without making a case for why their product will help grow category revenue for the retail partner. So keep in mind that buyers are always asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” (Hint: this is the same question you want to ask when you’re talking to investors too – you always want to tailor your brand story for your audience!)
3. Not Aligning Operations Around Your Brand Strategy
It’s important that everyone who touches your business in your business is aligned around your brand strategy. Why is this important? Katie once was working with a brand whose core identity was centered around clean ingredients. Their co-manufacturer, however, didn’t understand how important this was and swapped some flour that introduced fillers that could have not only impacted product performance but also went against their core philosophy and messaging related to clean ingredients.
That’s why it’s so important to communicate the defining features that make up your brand identity to everyone at every level of your business, INCLUDING vendors like co-manufactures and co-packers. If they know the “why” behind what you need, they can make decisions that will align with your core values and ultimately make the right choices for your brand.
4. Not Having a Marketing Plan
Similar to the above pitfall, many brands simply neglect to create any sort of marketing plan, or if they do, they don’t use that North Star they defined in their brand strategy to guide tactical marketing decisions.
Again, everyone involved with your brand should know about your core values, your unfair advantage, what you’re trying to communicate to customers about how you’re different. If they know the why behind the decisions you make, they’re better equipped to help you execute better than you thought possible.
Katie will be doing a whole episode on this topic in the coming weeks, and there will be a Workshop coming on this in the Real Food Brands Workshop as well.
5. Not Following Through with Brand Strategy Activation
One brand Katie worked with on Brand Strategy development for a rebrand recently showed her their revised work-in-progress packaging designs. Although the art looked nice, none of the work they had just done on brand identity was reflected in the designs they were working on. They had a good story to tell and the packaging could work harder to tell it to help them stand out in a crowded category.
The takeaway here is that your Brand Strategy isn’t just a document you develop and then put on a shelf. You need to use it with everything that you do in order to get the value from the time you’ve invested to define it. That’s how you build a consistent, clear brand that gets the cumulative 1+1=3 effect you’re after because everything you do aligns with your North Star, versus a collection of activities.
If you’re looking to dig into these topics further, Katie has just launched the Real Food Brands WorkshopTM Series, with the first on-demand workshop being Brand Strategy Fundamentals. You’ll get a video with her step-by-step process, along with a workbook and private Facebook group hosted by Katie to help you actually get the work done. This is a workshop after all, and we’re looking forward to getting started with you to set your brand apart!
Visit realfoodbrands.com/workshop to get started.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out at katie@realfoodbrands.com.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
In This Episode:
- Why you should go back and review the Brand Strategy mini-series if you haven’t already.
- What to do with your brand strategy work once you complete it (hint: it’s not just going to sit on a shelf!)
- Why many brands struggle to define their ideal consumer, and how to get started
- How to put yourself in the shoes of your audience (buyer, investor, etc)
- Why it’s so important to share your brand strategy with your suppliers, team members, marketers—everyone who works on your food brand.
- Where many brands go wrong with their marketing plans.
- How to activate your brand strategy work.
Quotes:
“Aligning your team around your brand so they understand where there is flexibility and where there’s not is critical.” – Katie Mleziva
“Pull out the key points from your brand strategy that can help you explain your brand story in a way that lets them know ‘what’s in it for me?’” – Katie Mleziva
“It’s so important to keep your Brand Strategy Canvas, which is a 1-page recap of your full strategy, front and center until you and your team automatically incorporate it into everything you do.” – Katie Mleziva
Resources:
- Ep #64: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 1: The Competitive Snapshot
- Ep #65: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 2: Identifying Your Ideal Consumer
- Ep #66: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 3: Company Strategy
- Ep #49: 4 Common Brand Strategy Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
- Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable Facebook Group
- Real Food Brands website
- The Real Food Brands WorkshopTM – NEW!