There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to food marketing for commodity boards. In fact, in today’s highly competitive, noisy marketplace, determining the right mix of strategies to influence purchase is more nuanced than ever. Add to that the ever-changing nature of the media landscape and the array of marketing tools to choose from and it’s even more confusing to know how to reach consumers.
Despite these current challenges, one goal remains constant: Get your product on a consumer’s grocery shopping list.
That list is the holy grail. The map. The pathway to purchase. Why? Because once that shopper steps inside the store (or opens the store’s app), it’s the wild, wild west. Retailer-driven pricing and promotions are out of your control. Said shopper is targeted by marketing messaging with every step they take.
That’s why our job as food marketers starts long before that shopper even begins shopping. Here’s a look at some of the ways we’re approaching food marketing given today’s relentless marketplace.
Let’s get and keep your commodity on your consumer’s shopping list.
Build Your Product’s Emotional Value to Overcome Economic Realities
It’s no secret that the economy is on the fritz. High inflation rates mean high prices at-shelf for consumers everywhere. You can’t even think all that much about this at-shelf sticker shock, though. You’re rightly caught up wondering how this year’s crop will impact your budget — and the outlook for the food you worked so hard to bring to market in the first place.
True, you can’t control prices or the crop. What you can control is why people consider your product in the first place — regardless of the current economy. And we can help you do that.
Using price alone to drive sales has limitations. It’s fickle, sometimes creating a price-based race to the bottom, because it doesn’t reinforce the values that form long term emotional connections and loyalty with your consumer. Just as you would build a relationship with a person, brands must connect with the emotional needs and values of their audiences in order to build relationships that can help navigate the ebbs and flows.
When a consumer trusts a product (trust being an emotional value), they’ll pay a premium for it. We work to ingrain your product into consumers’ lives so, again, it stays on that list — economic realities aside.
Reach and Educate Your Audience About Your Product at Every Touchpoint
Brand education and awareness, even reputation management, are uniquely important in the commodity food space. Of course you want sales. But first and foremost, you need consumers to understand correct information about your product so they consider it at-shelf.
The questions then become: How do we raise this awareness? Provide this education? Manage our product’s reputation? The answer is by understanding your audience and their intent at different touchpoints.
Through tailored research, we pinpoint your audience and why your product does or should matter to and benefit them. Then, we customize a content and engagement strategy to reach that audience with messaging that makes sense along their path to purchase — on social media, on a retailer’s app, at-shelf, etc.
We also measure awareness and engagement well beyond impressions to optimize our efforts. We keep tabs on consumer awareness of your product, its reputation and if the education you’re providing about your product is sticking.
Break Through the Noise with an Integrated Strategy that Harnesses All Kinds of Influencers
A scroll through any social media feed reveals countless points of view on what is good, beneficial, healthy, cool and so on. And consumers have more sayso than ever, controlling what they see by blocking or unsubscribing at will.
Although this means you could lose direct visibility to certain consumers on certain platforms, the sheer number of voices out there also presents an opportunity. Harness as many influencers as you can to spread product awareness and combat product misinformation.
We don’t just mean working with social media influencers to promote your product. We also mean having other kinds of relevant influencers engage with your product — such as farmers, retail partners and dietitians and other nutrition professionals — to provide consumers with accurate, compelling product information they won’t want to “mute.”
On another note, this complicated landscape of stakeholders (all the people influencing the narrative around your product) demands an integrated approach to marketing. You cannot work on your social media strategy in one box and your billboards and circulars in another. When these platforms talk to each other through a coherent strategy, you have the broadest, most consistent reach.
Wild Hive can help you break down any marketing siloes by serving as an extension of your team, designing and developing smart marketing strategies and executing them for you. Let us take the weight off your shoulders and ensure your marketing strategy is modern and integrated. That way, your message spreads across channels of influence instead of being drowned on them.
Current Conditions Call for a Current Food Marketing Approach. Does Yours Stack Up?
There’s a common thread between the points we’ve made here: Each can make or break marketing for your product.
Rise above current economic conditions…or win or lose depending on them.
Follow audience intent to raise meaningful product awareness…or randomly throw messages out to see what sticks.
Take advantage of various voices to elevate your product…or piecemeal your strategy until all messages drown amid the noise.
This is a great moment to evaluate whether your food marketing is driving commercial impact for your product. Wild Hive can help you take stock and build a new, holistic marketing engine.