Category: Trends

Sparkling Water is having a moment. It is a replacement for the sugar-filled soda and the chemical-filled diet soda. Consumers want a beverage that is tasty, healthy, bubbly, and sugar-free, and sparkling water checks all the boxes. And it’s way more interesting than plain water. I really get it, I loved sparkling water when it was called seltzer. Now the market is bigger than ever, retail sales of seltzer in the United States more than doubled from 2013 to 2018, and sparkling water sales spiked 19 percent just last year.

The number one sparkling water brand for the last five years has been La Croix, but for the first time in 5 years, the parent company’s share price took a dive. It dropped a whopping 14.7%.

This comes as two lawsuits have been filed against the company saying that La Croix’s flavors are not actually natural, but synthetic compounds like ethyl butanoate, or linalool (which is used as an insecticide). The company is fighting back, saying its flavors come from natural essence oils derived from fruit, which means they are natural, and because there is no FDA definition of “natural” the answers are murky at best. Even if the lawsuits are both dismissed, the question will be can La Croix be able to regain its ground? And how should they go about rebuilding their connections with consumers?

Or is it the perfect time for other sparkling water brands like Pepsi’s Bubly and SodaStream, or Coke’s new Smartwater flavored sparkling water, or my personal favorite, Topo Chico to take the lead in this booming category?

When news like this pops up, we look right to I-Factor® to tells us how Irresistible these brands really are to their consumers. La Croix currently has a social score of 30, while in January, their score was consistently hovering at 39. Bubly’s is in the opposite (better) situation. It has a 38, vs a 31 in January. And the extra bubbly Topo Chico score is also heading in the right direction with a 34. In my humble opinion their awesome brand story, if well told, has the best chance of building strong relationships with consumers and pulling into the lead.

I-Factor provides not only quantitative data on how consumers really feel about your brand but also uncovers the why’s behind the data to help you build your most compelling brand story for your optimal consumer. The real-time social listening component can help brands either manage a difficult situation (La Croix could definitely benefit from it), or capitalize on a competitor’s difficult time and get really clear and focused on a brand story that is so compelling, the right consumers won’t be able to help but remember, crave and share your brand. Want to learn more? Let’s talk.

I spent a couple of days last week in California at ExpoWest. The mecca of natural, organic, and functional food and beverage products. Every year, I am super excited to see what the next big thing is going to be for the health-conscious consumer. With an industry growth rate of 6.6% to $152 billion in sales, I had high expectations.

As far as innovation goes, honestly it was all pretty disappointing. There were tons of new brands, but not much in the way of truly innovative products. I have been seeing and talking about CBD, Keto, Paleo, Kombucha, and plant-based for the past two years. And that’s what I saw the most last week. So my big question is, how will any these brands stand out in categories that are already too crowded? Not just by making the most noise or trying to appeal to the most amount of people, but by building real connections based on serving their consumers.

As expected, CBD was huge again this year.  With the recent legalization of hemp, CBD oil is on the rise in just about every form. It’s in everything from popcorn to sparkling water to you guessed it, brownies! But the real question is how are these brands going to go beyond just being another product and build the kinds of connections necessary to break away and grow a brand with staying power? Of all of the CBD brands that I saw and sampled, the one I personally connected with the most was Muscle MX, a topical pain relief balm. And of course that’s not for everyone, but that’s not really the point when building a strong brand. This product is perfectly positioned for athletes (and athlete wannabes) who aren’t interested in prescription pain meds and who need something that actually keeps them feeling good and able to work out. This is a very specific and very simple unique delivery system. Muscle MX is clear about who they are and who they are serving. And who it’s for. In my experience in today’s overly crowded market, this is a necessary ingredient for success.

Another interesting brand that I also connected with was HFactor Water (and it’s not because it sounds like I-Factor®, the world’s greatest consumer insights platform)! The “H” stands for Hydrogen. HFACTOR water claims to be engineered through a reverse osmosis process, which its makers say will reduce inflammation, and speed up recovery time. Are you seeing a theme for me here?

The takeaway of all of this? I wandered around this massive expo for 3 days, saw 20+ Kombucha’s, even more plant-based milk and protein products, too many snack and protein bars to name, and the two things I remembered without going back to my notebook, were the two things that spoke to my very current and personal need, muscle recovery. Maybe, just maybe, Seth Godin is right. We don’t need to be all things to all people, especially at the early stages of a brand. Maybe we just need to be really really good at what we are doing for the people who truly need the thing that what we’re making. And if we are, maybe they’ll share with  2 friends and so on and so on….

So how do you get really really clear and focused on a story so compelling, the right consumers can’t help but remember, want and share you? One of the easiest ways to use a tool like I-Factor® is to provide not only quantitative data on how consumers really feel about your brand but also to uncover the why’s behind the data to help you build your most compelling brand story for your optimal consumer. Want to learn more? Let’s talk.

The United States is the 35th healthiest country in the world. 35th! That means that 34 other countries have citizens living healthier, happier, and longer lives than the people in the richest country in the world. According to Bloomberg’s Healthiest Country Index, which looks at variables including life expectancy, risks such as tobacco use and obesity, and environmental factors including access to clean water and sanitation. At the top of their list is Spain and my beloved Italy (which has been number 1 for the past few years) is a very close second. Why is America so far behind? Could it be because of food marketing?

Americans are completely obsessed with food. We take pictures of it, talk about it, blog about it. And it’s advertised everywhere you look. We eat things that are outrageously decadent. And then go on crazy starvation diets to try to make up for it. In the American diet, red meat and other fatty foods take the forefront, while fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are still relegated to the side. Much of the food we eat is also full of cholesterol, salt, and sugar, while short on dietary fiber and nutrients that protect us from coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. And it’s all made worse because we’re conditioned to have our meals and snacks super-sized.  Restaurants and snack producers continue to find that to stay competitive they have to keep making larger portions. So much so that today if we get pasta the way they serve it in places like Italy, it would seem skimpy.

Italy, the second healthiest country by a hair,  is also completely obsessed with food. In fact, most things that happen there revolve completely around getting families together for the next meal. People travel from far away, just to experience the food. But, in Italy their food is simply prepared and almost never processed,  allowing the natural, healthy flavor to come through. The emphasis is on the quality, not the quantity of the food.

Just think about how badly we have distorted the Mediterranean diet, with places like Olive Garden that actually give you bottomless breadsticks and massive pasta bowls.

Does it really have to be this way? We know from the success of and deep connection consumers feel for brands like Fitbit, RxBar, and Peloton that Americans really want to be healthier. And we’re all watching brands that haven’t been listening to what consumers want like Kraft-Heinz and Campbell’s, scrambling for relevance and survival.

But what if big food started being about helping Americans get healthier? What if they were concerned less with making us crave bigger portions and helped us understand how to protect ourselves from disease and eat to be healthier and live longer? Wouldn’t we eventually love them more? Be more loyal? Advocate on their behalf? Could helping your consumers to lead healthier, happier, longer lives create a stronger connection to your brand? We know it is possible. And we know we can help with our proprietary relevance finding tool, I-Factor^®.

Reach out. We can help.

Today, only 3 percent of Americans identify as vegans, and only 5 percent identify as vegetarian. That means in order for marketers to expand their plant-based brand to a mass audience, they need to figure out a way to appeal to the other 300 million Americans. That’s A LOT of opportunities-if you can get it right.

So why not think about plant-based for meat eaters? Sounds like an oxymoron, but plant-based foods can (and probably should) be for everyone in some way. Even if you’re not a vegetarian, it’s very possible to enjoy plant-based products and probably help save the environment along the way.

Plant-based food marketers have already been winning over some meat eaters by touting their health and environmental benefits. According to researchers at Harvard, following a plant-based diet is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, lower bad cholesterol, and reduced risk of diabetes. And we also know about 25 percent of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions come from food production and associated land-use change. So here is a really compelling statistic: If the average person on Earth swapped out just 30 percent of the meat they eat in favor of plant-based options, we could achieve half the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions necessary to stop the damage that is occurring from climate change.

Translation: There is an awful lot of talk about purpose-driven brands appealing to Millennials and Gen Z. And I’m quite certain there are plenty of them who think the environment is a worthy cause.

But for those who aren’t quite as tapped in, a recent study from the World Resources Institute’s Better Buying Lab shows that just changing the way you talk about your products might be enough. Guess what they are saying? It’s all in the marketing. That means there’s a lot of opportunity beyond the 5% of the population for your plant-based brand-if you market it right. In some cases, instead of calling your plant-based snack a low carb vegetable-based snack (translation: not as tasty), you could just call it a salty, tasty chip. Both are still true, and to most consumers, the second one just sounds better. If you really think about it, even the term “plant-based” is a marketing play. When consumers were asked which offers more for me, 100% plant-based or vegan? 76% said 100 percent plant-based, while only 24 percent said vegan. And when asked which tastes better, 73 percent said 100% plant-based, while only 27% said vegan. We know 100% plant-based and vegan are actually the same things. But figuring out what consumers will respond to at any given moment is actually the magic of what we do.

One brand who is already doing it is Impossible Foods. Their burgers even have the “flavor, aroma, and beefiness of meat from cows”, but they’re all plants. They believe that meat eaters like meat, not necessarily all of the stuff that goes into making the meat like cattle ranching and deforestation. That means these consumers might be open to consuming the food they love in a different way. They make meat for meat eaters using plants so that we can “eat all the meat we want for as long as we want”. The burgers are now available in 5,000 restaurants and coming to grocery stores this year. You can check it out in one of my favorite restaurant brands, David Chang’s Momofuku.

We know even niche brands can have mass appeal if they are talking to the right people in the right way.  Think about how the “skater” brand, Vans wound up being a complete lifestyle brand.

So if you’re a plant-based brand feeling like there’s only so much that you can grow, think again. We can help you find the right message to broaden your audience. The key is staying true and authentic to your brand while you do it. Let’s talk.

$5 million for 30 seconds. I’ll write that again — $5 million for a 30-second commercial. The Super Bowl is not only football’s biggest day of the year but also advertising’s. Every year the question marketers ask themselves is, was it worth it? Will these brands get the return on investment they need after spending $5 million on one ad? This year we decided to test it out with I-Factor^®.

With a few exceptions, I thought this year’s Super Bowl ads were trying a little too hard. There wasn’t any interesting controversy in the game or the ads — definitely no Gillettes here. But, we know that advertising is completely subjective. The ads that I liked from the Super Bowl are different than the ads other people in my office liked, but in order to justify the $5 million price tag, you really need an objective test.

We designed I-Factor^® to do just that; it measures your brand’s Irresistibility by revealing the true relationship consumers have with the brand as well as the approach to take to get the greatest impact. The scores range from 0 to 100 quantifying if your target consumers Comprehend and Crave your products, and if they participate in the Craze, or share it with others. Most brands live in the middle from 30-50. When the scores start to inch up to the 70s your consumers start doing the heavy lifting with advocating on your behalf.

We used I-Factor’s real-time social listening component to test out our theories. We even looked at the teams, the coaches and some of the players. The Patriots and Rams and their quarterbacks’ Irresistibility fluctuated as the game went on, and a lot of that had to do with what the score of the game was. The Patriots started the night at 32, and the Rams at 34. By the end of the night when the Patriots were winning, their score was up 6 points to 38, while the Rams only increased one point over the course of the night. Tom Brady started the night at 35 but went up to 45 over the course of the night as it became clearer and the Patriots were going to win the game, while Jared Goff went it the opposite direction.

But the most interesting part of the Super Bowl for me has always been the ads. One question we were particularly interested in was if an irresistible celebrity could help lift a brand up in the moment and stay long after the game is over? In some cases, it seems they do.

Doritos started the night with an I-Factor^® score of 35, but after their ad featuring Chance the Rapper and the Backstreet Boys, they were up to 45. We’re currently tracking to see if the increase will last and what dimensions of the relationship were boosted. The big question is, was it strong enough to persuade people to buy more products, more often, for longer periods of time.

On the other hand, celebrities weren’t strong enough for other brands like Stella Artois. Even after their ad with Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges, Stella’s I-Factor^® score was only a 30. This raises the question for me, who were they targeting? I happen to love Carrie Bradshaw and Jeff Bridges, but I am definitely not in their target audience. I-Factor^® could have helped them hone in on the right message, enabling them to deepen the connection (and likely increase sales).

As always, the question remains if these brands will realize a good return on their investment.

Do you want to know if your ad campaign is working for your ROI? I-Factor can help in just four weeks. Want to learn more? Let’s talk.

Black Friday used to mean waking up in the middle of the night, getting in your car and waiting outside… in the cold for stores like Best Buy to open. It was the only way to get 50% off that new television. If you weren’t one of the first 100 people, you would miss out on the video game your kids begged for, but the times they are a changing.

Now Black Friday exists guess where? Online. The shopping that was previously reserved for Cyber Monday now happens at the same time some of us are still sitting in our cars waiting. This year on Black Friday online sales jumped 23.6% from a year ago, adding up to $6.22 billion in sales just online. Consumers bought everything from clothes to flat-screen TVs at great prices right from their screens.

Basically, even on the biggest shopping day of the year, more and more people were doing their holiday shopping from their couches rather than actually in stores. This year’s Black Friday will come incredibly close to eclipsing last year’s Cyber Monday sales. Is there any end to how much purchasing will be done online and how much retail will continue to take the hit.

With Millennials doing most of the spending and Gen Z coming into their power, the answer should terrify retailers and inspire brands to make sure that they really know what they are doing when it comes to ecomm. It is not enough to just be there.

Brands need a serious, well-crafted digital/ecomm strategy.  And that needs to include mobile.

Brand with a better mobile experience for customers turned nearly 10% more smartphone visitors into buyers this Black Friday than last year.

You need a brilliant digital strategy that leads people to purchase on the web instead of in a store. The first step is having a solid social media presence, which means paying to boost almost every post. Instagram targeting works so well that I often find myself clicking on ads wondering how Instagram knew I needed a pair of shoes like that even though I consciously did not know I needed them. By promoting your products there, consumers can find and buy them without even looking.

While Instagram can get consumers to see your product, you also have to have a website that looks good and works well on a mobile browser. If a consumer clicks on the product, but then can’t easily buy it on their phone, there is basically a zero percent chance they will go look for later on a computer or in a store. The same thing goes for selling on Amazon. It is its own ecosystem with its own rules, that having an expert to help you navigate can really help. You can read more here about how we can help you can take advantage of all of the features Amazon has to offer. It will also be important this holiday season as Amazon sold one million toys and 700,000 fashion items in just the first nine hours of business on Black Friday. Especially for a late shopper like me, Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping cannot be beat.

E-commerce is still on the rise and it’s already exploded this holiday season. Don’t let your brand’s digital strategy hold you back, we can help.