This week, we’re revisiting episode 49 from last year that is still just as relevant today. We’ve been talking through brand strategy our last few episodes, and this refresher on common brand strategy mistakes and how to fix them is worth a second look. Enjoy!
Brand strategy is an essential part of building a business that will grow, but we see a lot of food and farm businesses make the same mistakes when it comes time to actually “do” brand strategy and put it into action. That’s why Katie is here! On this episode of the Real Food Brands Podcast, host and Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva goes over the four most common brand strategy mistakes, and what to do if you think you might be making them.
1. Not Having a Clear Brand Positioning
While you don’t want to play the comparison game between yourself and your competitors, you do need to define your positioning and make sure that you’re differentiating yourself in a crowded marketplace.
How are you going to meet the needs of your consumers in a way that your competitors either can’t or won’t, to set your brand apart? If you don’t mean something to someone, you’ll mean nothing to anyone. Katie shares some actionable tips to help you get started, and feel free to ask questions in the Real Food Brands Round Table Community on Facebook.
2. Not Being Consistent and Cohesive
Whether you’re big or small, your food brand simply cannot come across as disjointed. You’re working to build those three magic elements of know, like, and trust. In order to do that, you need to have the same look and feel, tone, personality, brand promise, etc. in every place your ideal consumer will find you. If you think you might have this problem, try doing a “one-room test” by putting all of your online and offline marketing materials together to see if they make sense next to each other. Do they look and sound like they are from the same company? Do they align with your vision and current marketing goals?
3. Not Keeping Your Ideal Core Consumer at the Center
Whether it’s a personal brand or a business, a lot of brands inadvertently talk too much about the features or benefits they want to talk about, versus what their ideal consumer cares most about. We need to put the consumer at the center of the conversation and use their words whenever we can. It’s OK to make assumptions about what their pain points and needs are if you don’t have hard data, but make sure you’re defining the three key pain points your audience has and how your brand can help them overcome those hurdles – how what the positive outcome looks like.
Katie recommends you go back and look at the messaging you’ve released to see if you’re focusing more on the story you want to tell or the story you want to invite your consumer to be a part of? A good way to start is to be on the lookout for how many “I” and “we” statements you have, as opposed to being more consumer benefit-focused.
4. Not Sharing with Your Team
Even if you’ve defined your brand strategy and got a good handle on consistency and consumer-focused messaging, you need to make sure that everyone on your team is on the same page. It’s easy to assume that because you’re fired up about your vision everyone else feels the same way, but if you don’t define that strategy and communicate it to your team, you can lose good people along the way because they don’t know where you’re going and how they fit in to help get there. Your brand strategy is meant to align everything your brand does on the front and backend so engaging your team ongoing will help you reach your vision – you can’t just set it and forget it.
If you want more on this topic, Katie is working with the Food Finance Institute’s Edible Alpha team to lead a 3 day intensive course called Building a Brand That Stands Out . You can find more details here and sign up for her mailing list at realfoodbrands.com so you don’t miss out.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
In This Episode:
- The resources Real Food Brands is offering to help you build your brand.
- How to differentiate your brand in the market.
- The question you need to ask yourself about how to make your brand stand out.
- Why consistency is so important in all of your brand’s materials.
- How to use the “one-room test” to see if your brand is showing up consistently in the marketplace.
- Why “I” and “we” are dangerous words to overuse in your marketing copy.
- Why many founders forget to communicate their brand strategy to their team, and what to do about it.
Quotes:
“You need to really define how you are going to meet the needs of your consumers in a way that your competitors either can’t or won’t.” – @RealFoodBrands
“Put everything that represents your brand into one room and look around to see if that visual look, the fonts, the colors, the messages, are consistent and really telling your brand story.” – @RealFoodBrands
“We always want and need to put the consumer at the center. We want to talk with them and not to them, and use their words whenever we can.” – @RealFoodBrands
“It’s easy to be so driven and focused that you can forget that there are other people that need to come along with you in order to execute your strategy.” – @RealFoodBrands
Resources:
- Ep #2: How to Start Building and Documenting Your Brand Strategy
- Ep # 18: 3 Ways to Rally Your Team Around Your Brand
- Ep #23: How to Find Your Unfair Advantage
- Ep #91: The 3-Step Brand Strategy Streamlined Process
- Ep #92: Does Your Food Brand’s Personality Shine Through?
- Download Your Free Brand Strategy Checkup
- Book a 60-minute 1-on-1 Brand Strategy session with Katie
- Connect with Katie on Instagram
- 3 Day Building a Brand That Stands Out course details