As you’re working to build your food business or farm, brand strategy and brand development may seem like something that can wait for later. The thing is, brand strategy work goes far beyond your logo or fonts or colors. When you’ve done the work to create your brand’s North Star, it serves as the guide and the glue for everything you do on the front AND back end of your business. It helps you make decisions that will deliver a consistent, cohesive, and relevant experience to your consumers. More importantly, it can help them know how to talk about your brand to others and drive better word-of-mouth marketing.
Today on Episode 108 of the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, Host and Food Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva builds on the last episode and offers three additional tips based on a presentation she recently shared with the cohort of the Food Finance Institute’s food business accelerator program. This is a two-part series because Katie wants you to be able to really consider the tips she’s sharing and think about how they apply to your natural food business or farm.
4. Aligning with Values
This is a big topic that we’ll probably do an entire episode on later. The question is: do you NEED to have a cause related to your brand these days? While the brands that Katie works with do have a connection and motivation to celebrate real food and/or social causes in some way, Katie says it’s really based on what motivates you. Business can be used as a force for good, however, if it’s not in your heart don’t fake it or push it. “People can see right through it when it’s not an authentic connection, and it either confuses them or makes them angry when it seems like fluff,” Katie says.
Katie shares several examples where the connection with their values makes sense, including this Instagram post she did about a brand she worked with called Scraps based in Maine, which educates about food waste, gives DIY ideas you can save food from the landfills, and also sells three (delicious!) products made from upcycled carrot tops from farms in Maine.
5. Personalizing the Experience
People like to be seen as individuals (i.e. real people) and they like choices that make it feel like a product really fits their needs and lifestyle. However, “you cannot and should not try to be everything to everyone,” Katie cautions. Instead, think about how you can add impact to make the experience feel personal without adding a lot of cost to your business that will decrease your profitability. Katie shares some great examples from her client Sugarbird Sweets and Teas (see her impromptu unboxing IG reel here) and Nike by You when her daughter got custom Chuck Taylors a few years ago and was able to choose colors, patterns, grommet finishes, laces, etc to really make them her own and at an affordable price.
You can just imagine these Chucks…pastel teal and lavender zebra-striped high tops with lavender soles, lavender laces, and MM embroidered on one heal (her initials) and ‘11 embroidered on the other (her birth year). Wow. You can imagine how many times those shoes have been talked about! Talk about word-of-mouth marketing!
6. Integrating Online and Offline
There are a lot of messages out there and consumers are bombarded with them every day. The more that you can own and be consistent with the brand story you invite people to join you in, and how your North Star runs through every decision you make, the better. That goes for online and offline initiatives. They should all work together to ladder up to the same brand strategy.
When you stay on brand and are consistent everywhere It might feel like you’re repeating yourself, but it helps people know what to expect from your brand and what you should be their go-to for. Plus, as we mentioned in the beginning when they understand your brand they can serve as unofficial brand ambassadors as they explain it to their friends and family to get them just as excited!
If you’re thinking through how to apply these tips to your small but mighty food business or farm, please don’t hesitate to reach out and get in touch with Katie here.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
Quotes:
“I work with smaller natural food businesses and farms because together we can shake up shopping carts and help more get access to real food. While I value my time in the corporate world, let’s not let big businesses have all the fun!” – Katie Mleziva
“You cannot and should not try to be everything to everyone.” – Katie Mleziva
“As we think about moving people along the purchase journey from awareness to trial to purchase to use to repurchase and then to referral, it’s good to think about what touchpoints and experiences you can shape along the way, both online and offline.” – Katie Mleziva
In This Episode:
- Why brand strategy should come before your next big project, not after.
- Why it’s so important to be genuine when you’re talking about values.
- Examples of brands that have strong alignment with their values.
- Ways to think about personalizing your consumer’s experience.
- How to stand out when consumers are bombarded with messaging.
- Why it’s OK to be repetitive as long as you are relevant and consistent.
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