[Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 2: Identifying Your Ideal Consumer

Figuring out your core consumers, aka the biggest fans of your brand, can be one of the hardest parts about building a food or beverage business, but it’s critical to your success. Luckily, there’s a tool to help you get specific about what you want to do: an ideal consumer profile.

Today on the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food & Beverage Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva picks up with part two of our three-part series on the ins and outs of developing your Brand Strategy. In this episode, Katie walks you through the three steps you can to take to create an ideal consumer profile for your brand.

Why You Can’t Be All Things to All People

In the food business, we typically refer to the “consumer” as the end-user, the person who eats or uses your product, and the “customer” as the retail partner who is purchasing from you. Today, we’re focusing on that end-user. You might think, “Well, everyone is my ideal consumer,” and while at the surface that’s understandable, it doesn’t actually serve you. You can’t build your brand to be everything to everyone because you’ll end up meaning nothing to anyone. It makes your message vague and unfocused as you hop around trying to appeal to all sorts of different types of people.

Instead, think about the one person you’d want to reach if you only had one dollar and one hour to spend. That’s the person you want all of your messaging to reach, your packaging to stand out to, your certifications to impress…the list goes on. They help you figure out the right decisions for your brand, and what doesn’t make sense.

One thing you can do to align your team is to get this all down on paper by creating an ideal consumer profile. Katie likes to work through this in three steps.

1. Outline What You Already Know

Think about that first person who would line up to buy your product like people who line up to buy the latest products at the Apple store. Who would that be? One thing that can help is looking at what data sources you have that can show you who you’re actually selling to, assuming you believe that group is representative of your future opportunity. Are there studies out there that can tell you more about them? In the episode, we talk about different ways to think about what data you already have. Write down everything you can, especially feedback you’ve heard repeatedly from your most loyal fans.

2. Make a Hypothesis

This is where you lay out the demographics and psychographics of who your ideal consumer actually is in your ideal consumer profile. What are their pain points and frustrations? What lights them up and brings them joy? What other brands and stores do they love? What do they think of your category? Are they aware of your brand, or not yet? How do they feel after discovering your brand and products?

3. Validate Your Assumptions and Adjust As Needed Over Time

There a few ways to learn if you’re on the right track…most take a little time and effort, but it’s so valuable. Ask your consumer for feedback (Katie shares a few watchouts re: how you ask questions) and pay attention to what words they choose. Look for research reports online, and check to see if your library or a university connection can get access to anything gated behind a paywall. Finally, look at your marketing metrics to see what you can glean from clicks, conversions, and open rates.

Put it all together, and you’re well on your way to making a brand that speaks to the people you need to help you grow. These are real people, and we want to create real relationships with your brand’s biggest fans. While we want, and need, other people to buy and we’ll show them love too, those core consumers are the ones we need to keep as the birdie on your shoulder to help guide your decisions.

If you’re looking to dig into these topics further, Katie will be launching the Real Food Brands Workshop Series soon, 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 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!

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out at katie@realfoodbrands.com. If you want to pursue these topics and more in more depth, grab your Brand Checkup and you’ll be added to the email list to hear when the Brand Strategy Workshop is live.

Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!

In This Episode:

• The difference between consumers and customers in the food and bev industry.
• The most common misconception about consumers that Katie hears.
• Why you can’t be all things to all people.
• How an ideal consumer profile helps focus your decisions.
• The three steps to work through to write a profile of your own.
• Sources of information to help create and validate your ideal consumer profile.

Quotes:

“There are so many terms for consumers: target audience, tribe, ideal customer, perfect person, core consumer, but what we’re talking about is defining the biggest fans of your brand. In the food business, we refer to the consumer as the end-user and the customer as the retail partner who is purchasing from you.” – Katie Mleziva

“While everyone may love your product, and you may WANT everyone to buy your product, that thinking does not actually help you sell more. You can’t build your brand for everyone.” – Katie Mleziva

“Let’s focus on one core person. If you had an hour and a dollar to spend, this is the person you’d want to spend your effort on. ” – Katie Mleziva

Resources:

• Ep 54: [Brand Strategy Series] Setting Your Food Business Apart Step 1: The Competitive Snapshot
• Ep #14: Why Marketing Research Is the First Step to Success
• Ep #58: Getting to Know Your Consumers as Real People with Britta Schell
• Real Food Brands Brand Checkup Scorecard
• Real Food Brands Marketing Roundtable Facebook Group
• Real Food Brands website