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What Role Can Brands Play in Getting Kids to Think Healthy?

We have been talking a lot about the health-conscious Millennials and Generation Zers. But did you ever stop to think about when and how they got healthy? How early is too early to get kids thinking about healthy food, and what role can brands play?

According to the American Heart Association’s Voices for Healthy Kids program, it’s never too early. There are already 108 million children in the world that are obese. This is especially alarming because nutritional habits in childhood have a major influence on diets into adulthood. Once these kids grow up they will be higher risk for developing illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain cancers, stroke and diabetes. How can we as brands make helping to solve this crisis part of our bigger purpose?

Children learn a lot, especially eating habits, from their parents. If the adults around them are linking healthy eating to deprivation, or constantly modeling dissatisfaction with their bodies, kids will pick up on it and eventually do the same. On the flip side, if we teach kids how to eat healthy regular meals and snacks, and link it to feeling well, kids will too.

So what does all of this mean for marketers? Kids are destined to like a lot of the same things as their parents, so therefore making products that appeal to both could serve you well. Some brands are already targeting the whole family. NurturMe, originally known for quinoa baby food, now offers “cookies for the whole family”. Their Ancient Grain Cookies are made with quinoa, millet, sorghum, contain probiotics and have less than 8 grams of sugar per serving. They still attract kids with fun colorful packaging that has “Cookies” printed a little larger than “Organic Ancient Grain” or “Probiotics”.  Another example is Sabra. Their colorful and fun Hummus Singles are “hummus in convenient on-the-go portions”, just the right amount of hummus for one person and can easily be thrown into a lunch box for kids or a lunch bag for parents.

Marketing to both demographics at the same time may seem tricky, but it does not mean brands have to double their ad buys. As of June 2018, Instagram had 500 million daily active users, including 72% of U.S. teens and 35% of U.S. adults. The number of adults grew by 7% from 2016  and is only going up, while other social media platforms saw no growth. Most importantly, Instagram images have an average of 23% more engagement than other social media platforms, so it could be the perfect place  to reach all of your consumers at once.

Right at this moment, food brands have the opportunity to help kids and their families develop habits turning them health-conscious consumers and helping them be healthier for life. If you want to figure out how to connect with consumers as part of this incredibly important movement, Let’s talk. We can help.

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Are You Excluding Half of American Consumers?

Would you be surprised to know that most brands have been excluding about half of the population of women for decades?

Today, the average woman in America wears a size 16, so why are we just starting to see them in ads? And why has this conversation about body equality taken even longer than the conversations about other important types of equality?  And of course, the questions we all want to know the answer to, what does this mean for brands?

We’ve always tried to be “aspirational” in advertising, showing the ideal. I truly believe that is one the oldest and most widely accepted forms of body shaming (a topic for another blog).  But brands are just starting to admit that the ideal does not represent the reality. And that maybe showing what’s real will make a stronger connection with consumers. That is quite a shift for marketers and for consumers.

One of the worst culprits of all has been the fitness brands. In 2105, Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon were not addressing the plus size market — their biggest size was a 16! Leaving half of the women in America excluded from buying fitness attire from three of the top brands.

Many of these brands claim to be body positive, but when you realize the sizes they’ve offered and the models they’ve used to represent their consumers, you have to wonder. I have a very vivid memory of the first time I saw Target Ad with a real (plus size) model. It was surprising. And as someone who’s always struggled with body image issues, the fact that it was surprising made me sad.

Now that the barrier has been broken, new brands have emerged to address the needs of the actual population. Superfit Hero caters to women from size XS to 5XL. These women who previously a hard time finding exercise clothes that fit and felt good, are now included and empowered by brands like Superfit. And it’s paying off. Superfit Hero is growing organically and has doubled sales each year because they’ve made a connection with a population that has mostly been ignored.

Now some fitness studios are making moves towards inclusivity. More To Love Yoga is demystifying yoga for everyone and claims to provide an empowering, not condescending, yoga experience.

My own beloved Peloton, is also bringing studio classes, previously reserved for rich skinny people in big cities to those who either can’t get there or prefer to work out in the privacy of their own homes. They’ve reinvented at home fitness so it is like you are actually in the classroom minus the intimidation factor.

Even if you’re not a “fitness” brand or product, there are absolutely ways to make deep connections. This could mean including real-sized people in your marketing or talking about wellness and healthy eating in a way that is more inclusive. It could influence innovation if you think about creating products to support all kinds of people on their fitness journey.  Ready to connect with all of America? Let’s talk.

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Plant-based is trending. What’s a brand to do?

If everyone ate a vegetarian diet one-third of early DEATHS might not happen.

Huge reductions in meat-eating are essential to AVOID climate change.

These two statements should are part of the buzz that is causing consumers to run toward plant-based protein brands. And part of the reason that marketers should consider doing the same.

Studies show that those on a plant-based diet will have a lower risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

To add to the consumer health benefits, a new study published earlier this year said that eating less meat and dairy is a critical way to help the health of the environment. Raising animals for food is a major contributor to climate change and is actually responsible for an estimated 14.5% of all global emissions.

And the great news is, we don’t need to go all the way to Vegan. A shift to a flexitarian diet can help keep climate change under control, but to make this happen the average world citizen needs to eat 75% less beef, 90% less pork, and half the number of eggs. Avoiding meat and dairy products, and encouraging others to do the same, is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact.

That means we also need to eat three times as many beans and pulses and four times as many nuts and seeds. That sounds like a big opportunity for brands.

Brands like Danone saw the plant-based revolution coming early on and started buying up popular plant-based milk to hold on to their market share. In 2017, they purchased WhiteWave the parent organization of Silk, So Delicious, Alpro and Vega Brands, bringing together a huge portfolio of dairy and plant-based products. Their stated mission; to “better serve consumers with diverse preferences in high growth and evolving categories.”

More good news and a big reason consumers are willing to move to plant-based, the taste is improving dramatically. Until a couple of years ago, plant-based products were only for people that were Vegan or had Allergies, but now more and more people are eating them because they are protein rich and actually taste good. Explore Cuisine is a personal favorite and they are making delicious Edamame Spaghetti (among many other noodles) that has 24g of protein, as opposed to just 8g in serving of regular pasta.

And here’s real innovation, brands like Ahimi and Sophie’s Kitchen are even making plant-based fish that tastes and feels like real fish. Ahimi is just a Roma tomato in place of raw tuna with five ingredients including soy sauce, and sesame oil that has the same meaty texture as a real piece of sushi tuna. Sophie’s Kitchen makes Konjac, an Asian root vegetable, and adds pea protein to make smoked salmon and canned tuna that tastes like fish without the fish.

The plant-based market is taking over just about every aisle in the grocery store, from fish to milk to pasta and everywhere in between. If you want to figure out how your brand can make the most of this rapidly growing trend, I can help.

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2019 is Coming Up Fast, is Your Brand Ready?

In January, consumers are making resolutions to get healthier. And it’s more than just making a resolution to lose a few pounds. In 2019, brands have a great opportunity to promote realistic, long-lasting change in the health-conscious consumer.

So how do you get these consumers, who will be bombarded with messages, to connect with your brand beyond February 1st (when 80% of people have already failed on their New Year resolution)? A thought is to find ways to be supportive and provide encouragement on what really is a life-long journey.

Here are some thoughts on what can your brand can do to succeed going into this super competitive season:

Wellness is a way of life for ALL

In the past, the cool thing to do Saturday morning was to go to brunch, while only real yogis spent weekends in the yoga studio. Now a normal weekend morning is taking out time to go to a work out class or juice bar. Wellness is a life-long journey of improvement that focuses on achievable goal-setting, progress (not perfection), and gradual behavior changes. Brands that think broadly about wellness and how their brand uniquely fits in, and can authentically positively support consumers on this journey will have a better chance of connecting.

Help consumers take control of their health

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about food as fuel, medicine, prevention and sometimes even a cure. There are diets individualized by things as specific as blood type, and some to help people treat diseases like cancer, and now many consumers want this kind of understanding in their everyday lives. Retailers, like Tesco, help consumers make healthier decisions while shopping by using club card data to rate the healthiness of their carts and suggest healthier options. The new Apple Watch is getting closer to a medical device. It not only tracks steps but also is giving consumers access to info only doctors used to have, like an electrocardiogram. Brands that understand this growing need for knowledge and control will succeed by finding new ways to connect.

Wellness is going way beyond the body

Consumers are starting to use all kinds of new products and apps to help with mental wellness like stress management, relaxation, and anxiety. Brands are starting to think about helping consumers achieve a better state of mind in creative ways that everyone can relate to. Pacifica is an app that provides guided deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercises, and daily anti-anxiety exercises to help you understand your thinking patterns and recognize anxiety triggers in the future. Aligning with this attitude, even for brands like bars and waters (could you be the post-meditation snack bar?) is a big opportunity for brands.

Build a sense of community around your brand

This could be an Instagram community that lets consumers engage with their favorite instructors after class or a food or beverage brand that creates ways to connect wellness-minded consumers. One of my personal favorites is community Peloton. They created a highly engaged online community that is deeply connected, even though they work out at home. According to a Forbes article, wellness is the new status symbol and has become incredibly shareworthy. Think about partnering with a brand that is already a community to raise your own status. Milkbar (yes Milkbar, check out this protein cookie created for SoulCycle) and Fiji are selling their cookies and water bottles at SoulCycle, the status of these brands has instantly been raised in my mind.

Consumer’s focus on wellness goes global

Today’s young consumers want to demonstrate that in addition to caring about their own wellness, they care about the wellness of the world. That means connecting to brands that have a mission that goes beyond profit. They support cleaning products like ECOS, Seventh Generation and Method that are natural and good for the environment. They also buy products like Stem furniture and Honest baby products that are chemical free. Important to think about when you are thinking about innovation. Being a part of the global wellness movement and considering your brand’s impact goes a long way especially with the very valuable younger consumers.

Wellness trends will be with us for a long time to come.  

If you want to help to figure out how to connect your brand, click here to download our Webinar “Insights to Get Your Brand in Shape” and if you want to learn more about how we can help your brand stand out in this crowded landscape, let’s talk.

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Why is there such Big Demand for Small Brands?

Did you know Annie’s, and Larabar are owned by General Mills? Or that Smart Water, Odwalla, and Zico are owned by Coke? Even Sabra and Naked Juice are owned by PepsiCo. If we don’t actually know about it, what is the purchase objective? Is it to help the image of big brands with the ever important millennials and Gen Z, or is it just for sales?

Clearly, the health-conscious consumer holds a lot of the cards in food today. So much so that big brands, like Smucker, General Mills, and Nestle, are in a frenzy to buy up the smaller healthier brands that health-conscious consumers love, and also in a hurry to unload the brands that add to the legacy brand image of highly processed and preserved foods.

In July, Smucker decided to sell it’s U.S. baking unit including Pillsbury to focus on innovations in areas like coffee, peanut butter, and other snacks that have the potential to be marketed as “healthy”. General Mills also said it wants to divest 5 percent of its portfolio to pursue growth elsewhere, including in cereals and yogurts with less sugar. Even Hershey’s, known almost exclusively for their chocolate, is selling off a potato chip product and trading it in for a brand called Smart Puff, a gluten-free and preservative-free baked snack, which will operate out of out the the company’s “better for you hub” in Austin with other brands you might not associate with Hershey, Skinny Pop, and Oatmega.

Nestle has made the most obvious shifts and has been at it for the longest of the legacies.

They are committed to reducing sugar, sodium, and saturated fat content in the brands they already have and are also acquiring new brands like Sweet Earth, a maker of frozen meals, burritos, and burgers using meat substitutes. By 2020, Nestle will add 750 million portions of vegetables and 300 million portions of grains, pulses, and bran to its products. The Nestle website overtly shares a “nutrition, health and wellness strategy” that highlights three beliefs they will incorporate into all of their products: pleasure and health, eating with moderation and balance, and transparent communication.

The global healthy snack market size was valued at $21.1 billion in 2016 with a 5.1% compound annual growth rate, which means $32.8 billion by 2025. That growth is outpacing overall food and beverage sales growth in the same period, while brands like Kraft and Kellogg are seeing their sales decrease by between 1 and 2% each quarter. Those are some pretty scary statistics for brands that seemed like they were untouchable just a few years ago.

The growth numbers also mean there are many opportunities for this acquisition strategy to deliver…when it is done well.

That being said, big brands need to proceed with caution when it comes to the growth of the smaller guys. They simply can’t treat them like the legacy brands already in their portfolio.  Kellogs purchase of Kashi is an example of a cautionary tale. After the acquisition, many of Kashi’s original customers felt betrayed because Kellogg’s started making the Kashi cereal with inferior ingredients that were not organic and contained GMOs. They also closed the company’s headquarters in San Diego, losing many of the employees and the brand’s spirit. They went too mainstream way too fast and lost 35% of their market share. They are now backtracking to try to recapture what already existed in the past.

If you’re a big brand looking for growth through small brands or a small brand also trying to grow to get the attention of the big guys, we can help. Let’s talk.

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The Secret Ingredient of Italy: Passion

Great storytelling is about passion. The Italians get it. They aren’t shy or timid or reserved about things they love and care about. And when you hear a story full of genuine passion, you instantly want to be part of it. It’s what makes you clap and sing in a restaurant with strangers. It’s what makes you keep going back to a far-away country over and over and over again.

And I can’t think of a better word to describe Italy, Italians, and most importantly, their cuisine. I can’t help but become instantly drawn to people (and brands) when they are passionate about what they do, and every time I am in Italy I’m quite simply amazed at the passion that radiates from the people. This uniquely Italian characteristic is contagious, and one of the many reasons that I believe their tourism industry continues to thrive. On this most recent trip to Sicily, I had two incredible experiences where the passionate people behind brands compelled me to love their products…even before I tasted them. That’s a valuable lesson for brands here.

The first was a tour of the Asaro Olive Oil Factory. The team was so excited about showing us around that they opened the farm on a Sunday just for us. When Nico walked us around the farm his passion for the olives and products they produce was incredible, even through his limited English (and our even more limited Italian). The story he told was focused on the care and the detail around the production of the olive oil, and the passion was palpable. Of course, there’s a lot of technology that could make the process more efficient, but here, the olives for Asaro’s olive oil are still picked and processed by hand. Our host was appalled at the very thought of the damage a machine would do to the olives. Still, I couldn’t help but think, how will they communicate this love to consumers who can’t have the experience we did?

At the end of the tour, we were tempted by the full range of delicious products inside a quaint little store that included olives, olive spread, artichokes, artichoke spread, and even honey. I think we bought one of everything. There’s no doubt the entire experience positively influenced our feelings about the taste of the olive oil and everything else. This immersive experience is what brands need to recreate. And ideally, consumers would be inspired to recreate if for each other. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve convinced to buy products from this company already.

The very same thing happened a few days later when we joined a wine tasting on a beautiful little island off of Sicily called Salina. The sommelier took us on a tour through the Capofaro Vineyard enthusiastically talking about the different kinds of grapes and the unique way they harvest the grapes and produce the wine.

We couldn’t help but get caught up in the passion of the sommelier’s vivid descriptions of the wine. We nodded our heads in agreement as we tried five different kinds of wine: a sparkling Almerita Extra Brut, two whites Grillo and Nozze D’Oro, a red Lamuri, and a dessert wine actually called Capofaro. They all were fabulous, and even if they weren’t, they were (and still are), to those of us who had the experience. The passion she was projecting rubbed off on us, and we’ll try to recreate the experience over and over again.

Once back home, my daughter announced she wasn’t eating pasta for a month. She managed to hold out four full days before she made a pasta dish with some of the artichokes we bought in Italy. They were the best artichokes I’ve ever tasted. No exaggeration. I can’t help but wonder if it all tastes even better now as the memories of our experience in Sicily are recreated here at home.

Passion will make you love and share a brand, and American brands can learn a lot from the Italians. But with technology, some of that passion can be lost. We need to better utilize social channels we are already using to share the passion even further. That’s real brand power. If you want help figuring out how to share your passion for your brand and connect to your consumers, we can help, let’s talk.

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Will America ever catch up with the Slow Food Movement?

Being in Italy always makes me question the way we eat in the US. And this trip is no exception. I am traveling with my daughter and she saw “slow food” on a menu, and asked an interesting question: “does that mean it takes a long time to prepare, like a souffle?” That made me wonder why with all of our talk of Health and Wellness, the Slow Food movement isn’t more important in the U.S.?

The Slow Food Movement started in 1989, to protest a McDonald’s that was about to be built at the Spanish Steps in Rome. While it didn’t stop the spread of McDonald’s into Italy, Slow Food has continued to evolve into the antithesis of fast food in every way.

But today, the movement doesn’t just talk about what we are putting in our body, it also considers the fast food effect on the planet as a whole. Just this week, Slow Food Europe came out in support of the new European Citizens’ Initiative that called on the European Commission to propose legislation banning the use of all cages in animal farming.

Additionally, while Americans are just starting to scratch the surface with our discussion of  plastic straws, the European Commission is proposing bans and limits on a much bigger range of plastic products. Cutlery, plates, straws, drink stirrers and sticks for balloons will all have to be made from sustainable materials. Member states will have to collect 90% of single-use plastic drink bottles by 2025 and reduce the use of plastic food containers and drink cups by setting national reduction targets. Two possible tactics include making alternative products available at the point of sale, or ensuring that single-use plastic products cannot be provided free of charge. The European Union already recycles 30% of its plastic, while the United States only recycles 10% of ours. It makes you wonder why we’re so slow to adopt things that are so important to our planet and our bodies.

Is it because we value convenience over our own wellness?

The 50 million Americans that still eat at one of our country’s 200,000 fast food restaurants every day would indicate, ‘Yes.’ What will it take for Americans to be motivated to take bigger action like the Europeans? And how do we as brands get more people to eat sustainably in the United States? We know the demand for purpose-driven brands is at an all-time high with Millennials and Gen Z. To me, this movement seems like a compelling case for any brand that has anything to do with food. Or even just brands that care about the planet and humanity in general.

This year Slow Food Nations hosted a “festival of flavor, culture and exploration” in Denver and although there were many small food brands sponsoring, the only two major ones were Danone and Whole Foods.

This feels like a purpose worth pursuing. If you feel like your brand should be connected to this movement and need some help, I’d love to hear from you! Let’s talk.

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Expo East Brands know, the way to a consumer’s heart

Last week, I went to Expo East in Baltimore to revisit some of the brands I met last March at Expo West. There continues to be a ton of hemp, grain-free, and cauliflower everything.

There was also some new brands, but what stood out most to me were the protein-filled, guilt-lowering line extensions from some of the brands we already love. Happily, in my favorite form — salty, crunchy snacks. These guys know that we don’t want to give up our salty snacks, but we want to avoid all the carb guilt out there right now. Read on for a couple of my favorites.

I love Skinny Pop so much so that when I open the bag I know it’s over. Their popcorn has always been natural and free of all of the stuff that consumers do not like these days like GMOs and gluten. Now they are launching into “protein popcorn”, following in the footsteps of other brands like Square Organics and Protes. I was excited to think I was going to get a full serving of protein from one of my favorite carbs. But unlike those other brands, Skinny Pops’s new entry only has 5 grams of protein. I could have been disappointed, but instead, I did some consumer rationalization. One egg has 6-7 grams of protein, so two servings of Skinny Pop is sort of like an egg! See how that works?

Another brand that stood out was Simply Protein. They have a bunch of different protein bars, but they’ve also extended into salty, crunchy, and high-protein snacks with their Crunchy Bites. My favorite was the barbecue flavor. Full disclosure: I entered a contest at their booth encouraging visitors to share a simple pleasure. And I actually won an IPAD. I think that made me like them a little more 🙂

I am not a usually a snack bar person but Rx Bars, the ones you know for the simple ingredient list on the front of their packaging, always grab my attention. This year they expanded their repertoire to include individual-sized Rx Nut Butters with egg white for added protein. I literally couldn’t get enough of these treats. There were multiple reasons to love them. One is portion control. They come in an individual-sized pack, making it that much harder to go back for just one more spoonful of peanut butter. But what really got me hooked was their delicious taste and texture. They all contain an egg white, either peanuts or almonds and half a date to add just a little bit of sweetness. And in addition to standard almond or peanut butter, they’ve come up with other interesting flavors like maple almond butter, vanilla almond butter, and honey cinnamon peanut butter. The peanut butter was so good, I’ve been dreaming about it ever since.

There was definitely lots and lots of innovation from brands looking to make deeper connections with consumers. But is innovation enough? Not if you don’t have the right insights.

Does your brand need help connecting with health-conscious consumers in irresistable ways? let’s talk.

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Old Lonely Hearts are the new Solo Diners and they are a huge opportunity!

There was a time not too long ago when there was a segment of consumers unfortunately labeled “lonely hearts”, portraying the single diner as a sort of sad, unfulfilled member of society. Happily, the taboo is lifting and we now refer to them as solo diners (of whom I am often one) and they are not sad at all. In fact, many people’s eating habits have totally transitioned from 3 square meals a day to a much more fragmented way of eating that often includes eating alone. These diners represent a huge opportunity for brands who truly understand them.

People are eating alone in restaurants, and at home, even if they don’t live by themselves. That is compelling and got me thinking, why would you eat alone if you lived in a house full of people? And when I do eat alone what kind of things am I buying versus when I am eating with a group of people?

Sometimes people eat alone for “me time”. I often do this at work. I sit at my desk eating while catching up on emails. Others are eating alone as a necessity, 44 percent of people that eat alone say it is because of household challenges, like family members with very different schedules.

And all of this change has led us to expect to eat what we want, when we’re alone, and sometimes when we’re not.

Fast casual restaurants have been the quickest to take advantage of these consumer desires. Brands like sweetgreen, Chopt, and Cava allow a customer to totally customize their individual meal. At each of these restaurants, you have the option to start from scratch and build exactly what you want and get it all in an individualized portion. Consumers can have a fun healthy meal, made for one, exactly how they want it.

And as they tend to, the restaurant trends are moving into homes, providing consumers the opportunity to please individuals instead of groups. One brand that is already doing this well is Trader Joe’s. Their salad kits are made for one person and allow each diner to build their own salad with just the right amount of food for one person. That means not only do I get exactly what I want when I’m alone but when I’m with my daughter, I can get a spinach salad and she can get a Thai Salad and we can sit next to each other and eat them.

This super individual behavior that is gaining demand faster than brands can create supply is an incredible opportunity for innovation, new formats of existing products, and new ways of communicating and engaging. The former “lonely hearts” are waiting. If you need some help reaching them, let’s talk.

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My spin instructor almost “influenced” me to spend thousands of dollars (and I still might!)

For the last few weeks (actually months, really years), I have been in the market for a new mattress. But now that it’s sort of urgent, I spent a part of my Sunday at an old-fashioned mattress store where I rolled around on a bunch of gross mattresses trying to figure out how to approach what feels like a big, confusing decision.

Even after that romp on dirty mattresses and lots of research on consumer reports and lots of other websites, I nearly bought a Sleep Number bed, which I had neither tried out nor looked into, because Robin Arzon, my very favorite Peloton instructor, sort of told me to. Turns out she is an influencer for Sleep Number. She said she was getting one, and that it was good for muscle aches, monitors your health, and records your sleep and heart rate. As a health-conscious (maybe obsessed) consumer who works out a lot, she got me thinking that maybe this was better than all of those mattresses I had already researched. I spent the next 2 hours online looking up different kinds of Sleep Number beds (which by the way don’t have the highest consumer ratings), and truth be told I am going to visit a Sleep Number store this weekend.

Of course in my job, I work with brands and influencers every single day. But I have rarely been influenced to this degree. I think as marketers we like to think we are immune to marketing, but we know we’re not! So what was different about this time and how could my experience translate into advice for brands with all of the backlash around influencers in the press?

I did some digging. In 2017, the influencer marketing space was already worth $1 billion. Influencers have spent time building their own brands, cultivating their audience, and some have protected their reputation. The good ones (who haven’t completely sold out) appear to be the next generation of spokespeople, but way more targeted.

Judging if an influencer is good for your brand depends on a few factors:

  • Reach – Does this person actually have metrics that make it worth having them engage with my brand?
  • Connection – How deeply connected to their audience are they? There are lots of influencers who promote their favorite products, but there are some who have such deep connections to their following, you almost can’t help but do what they say. That’s how I feel about Robin Arzon.
  • Brand Loyalty – How loyal is this person to your brand? How many other brands are they working with? Is every other post a sponsored ad?
  • Impact – Has the influencer found their voice or is it all over the place? How big is their overall buzz, enthusiasm, and level of activity with this account?

And the question we’re still all asking ourselves? How do we measure? We used to use marketing mix to understand the dollar impact each media platform was getting us. But with social and influencers, it’s no longer that simple.

When our brands want to work with influencers, we recommend starting small and watching the output before expanding your Influencer budgets. Influencers can be an incredibly effective part of a marketing mix, but like everything else, it needs to be strategic and compelling. It’s always going to be about getting the right message in front of the right audience at the moment they are ready for it.

So just like Robin did with me, I’m now considering a Sleep Number mattress, but I’m still not switching my sneakers!

If you need help figuring out where influencers fit into your marketing plan, I’d love to talk.

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Have You Got Male?

Is meat manly? Is salad feminine? Is there anything about beer that actually makes it more manly than wine? Your answer may be no, but today, unhealthy eating habits and foods (think fries and nachos) are still associated with masculinity while healthy eating habits and foods (think salad and organic food) are associated with femininity. Earlier this week when I was ordering food for a meeting and learned a few more women were joining I actually said we needed more salads. What’s behind this thinking?

We’re constantly bombarded with advertising and social messaging telling us that eating like a bird is feminine while eating large portions of things like red meat is manly. These representations of female and male eating habits may seem outdated, but research shows they persist for many. Studies have found that if you subscribe to the traditional mindset of masculinity, you”ll think of eating large meat portions as a marker of it because it reflects traditional portions of power.

Consumers actually prefer healthy food in feminine packaging and unhealthy food in masculine packaging. If you violate the stereotype and put an unhealthy food in a feminine branding, consumers literally will not choose that product. They are also more likely to eat food when they associate it with qualities they’d like to see in themselves. Even in these so-called modern times, anxieties about gender roles continue to play themselves out in our food choices.

This psychology has always been important for brands but is even more important now that men are increasingly doing more of the household shopping. A study found that 55% of primary household shoppers are women, while 45% are men. The Hartman Group found the male percentage of primary food shoppers jumped 2% in just the 3 years between their survey. Men are even making as many monthly store visits as women. But there are a few things that separate the genders. 61% of women take inventory and plan for their shopping trips while only 51% of men do, but women are also more likely to browse aisles, while men tend to go in and out only picking up what they need.

Some brands, like Dannon, have been trying to make their products that have previously only appealed to women attractive to male grocery shoppers as well. Their Oikos Greek yogurt now comes in a short blue package and promotes the yogurt’s high protein content to give it a gender-neutral appeal. And their ads point out that the protein in yogurt can be a smart alternative to a burger or grilled chicken breast.

While men are doing more shopping in general, it doesn’t just apply to food, and when they shop they are looking for things that have a specific function. This  Men’s Journal article does a great job explaining the benefits of healthy foods in terms of protein content and how they can help readers get the muscles they always wanted. Another great example outside of food is a Dyson Vacuum. In an effort to appeal to male consumers, Dyson focused on creating powerful suction and a design that turned their vacuum into a power tool. Performance helps men feel that their choices have specific benefits like being efficient, powerful, or technologically advanced.

As more men do the physical act of shopping and choosing brands, an incredible opportunity is being created for brands to go after the male consumer in a new way. But we also have to remember that although men are in the stores, traditional gender stereotypes still play a big role in what men choose to buy once they get there.

If you want help figuring out how to position your brand to the growing population of male shoppers, Let’s talk.

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What’s the Buzz? The Health Benefits of Coffee

Conjure up a beverage that contains several powerful antioxidants effective at neutralizing free radicals and preventing stress, and actually has an inverse relationship between consumption and cardiovascular disease and consumption and type 2 diabetes. Two large studies also show drinking it was associated with a 20 percent lower risk of death in men and a 26 percent lower risk of death in women over a period of 18-24 years. What is this drink? It’s not kombucha or matcha, its coffee.

Today’s consumers are exploring foods that have a potentially positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition and help reduce the risk of disease. There are some functional foods you might have to acquire a taste for, like Kombucha or kale for example, but coffee, that’s something we’re definitely used to.

You might be thinking about coffee’s bad rap. I used to stress over my addiction to it.  It is the first thing I think about when I wake up and the only thing that gets me through the 3 p.m. slump during a workday. Christopher Gardner, Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, found that coffee’s bad connotation stems from when it was grouped with cigarettes, but new studies suggest that “Smoking was the cause of the association with bad health…Coffee wasn’t just null, it was shown to be beneficial”.

Most people consume only 1-2 grams of antioxidants per day and beverages are actually a much larger source in the Western diet than food. Researchers looked at the antioxidant content of different foods by serving size. Coffee ranked 11th after several different types of berries, but very few people eat large amounts of berries.  This all means that a lot of people get most of their antioxidants from coffee.

And there are new coffee trends on the rise to complement this already healthy beverage.

  1. Consumers are making coffee healthier: By combining their juice or smoothie with coffee by adding protein powder, spices, or even collagen powder to their morning joe
  2. Origin and story: Consumers want to know where the beans came from, the growth process, and who is growing them and who is behind the brand.
  3. Experience: Cafe’s are stepping up their game, introducing new brewing methods and coffee varieties like nitro
  4. Quality Batch Brewing: Pour over methods highlight the incredible nuances of the coffee
  5. Alternative Milks: Coffee drinker are starting to drink their coffee with almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, and oat milk all for their respective different health benefits

One of my favorite brands is already intimate with the health benefits of coffee and exists solely to bring that to the growing population of health-conscious coffee lovers like me! Purity is devoted to maximizing the health benefits of coffee. With up to 10x the antioxidants of other leading brands, it’s always organic, tested to ensure that it is free of mold and mycotoxins, and shipped within 48 hours of roasting for optimal freshness.

And if you’re tapped into the diet world, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Bulletproof. It’s clean coffee, certified to be free of 27 energy-sapping toxins, contains grass-fed butter and Bulletproof Brain Octane oil—extracted from the most potent part of the coconut—to power your brain and body and give you steady, all-day energy.

There is a giant opportunity here for brands to talk to the health-conscious consumer, especially those brands that may not have considered themselves players in the “health” space.  If you need some help digging into these opportunities with your brand, Let’s talk.

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The Prime Issue With Amazon

Amazon’s e-commerce sales in the U.S. are expected to reach a staggering $258.2 billion this year, up nearly 30 percent from a year ago. If Amazon can reach these numbers, they will own nearly half of the U.S. e-commerce market by the end of 2018. As the numbers show, Amazon is as we would say–very Irresistible. But we saw this week that when they stumble they have a long way to fall.

For the last few weeks, Amazon aggressively marketed “Prime Day”. It was projected to break records again, surpassing the tens of millions of Prime members who shopped the discounts last year. Wall Street expected higher sales and a higher share price for Amazon as a result. Projections for their sales was up to $3.4 billion within a 36-hour window, but the glitches that occurred on Monday put those numbers in jeopardy.

Right around 3 p.m. ET, when the Prime sales were supposed to start, people received error pages with the “dogs of Amazon” and were unable to reach the site. Some users successfully added items to their cart, only to receive an error message when trying to check out and complete the purchase. Others say the Deals page and Shop all Deals button both disappear. Shares of Amazon fell off immediately, falling about 1 percent in after-hours trading.

It took Amazon about an hour to respond and when they finally did, they acknowledged that people that were having problems, but said, “Many are shopping successfully”. Not much of an apology for some customers.

Around 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday night, we checked our live I-Factor® tool and it showed us that people were still angry. We collected 1356 tweets on Amazon in just  60 seconds. Their positive I-Factor was 46, while Papa John’s (who is having its own major PR crisis right now without the Irresistibility of Amazon) was above Amazon with a 48.

Unfortunately for Amazon, the Prime Day glitch brought a ton of attention to another bad story.  On Monday, nearly 1800 Amazon workers in Spain went on strike and thousands of more in Germany walked off the job on Tuesday. This after hundreds of Amazon workers in Italy and Germany went on strike in November saying they were under high pressure to create more and more in less time. They are striking for better working conditions, pay, and health benefits.

Ironically, on the same day, Jeff Bezos officially became the richest person in modern history, topping a net worth of $150 billion. Senator Bernie Sanders used Prime day, and the news of Jeff Bezos’ salary, as an opportunity to host a “CEOs vs Workers” panel where he spoke with employees from Amazon, Disney, McDonald’s, American Airlines, and Walmart to address the wealth of corporate executives and the wages and treatment of companies’ workers. He tweeted about it relentlessly. There were wide calls on social media to boycott Amazon, and because of the Prime Day glitch, exponentially more people saw the posts (including me) than would have before.

We have seen this before.  One slip up can set off a massive chain of events and cause a brand’s Irresistibility Scores to tank. Will Amazon suffer the same struggles as another brand that took a dive with consumers, Chipotle. We’ll be paying attention to see what happens next.

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Recapturing the Love of the Health-Conscious Millennial

If you follow QSR news, Chipotle and Subway have both seen better days. In 2014, Chipotle’s store margins rose to 27.2 percent and net income increased by 36 percent. Chipotle opened 192 new stores in 2014 and Subway was opening 50 new shops a week in 2013. But in 2015, our idea of what’s healthy evolved and Subway’s food didn’t, and their fall began. And Chipotle lost consumers’ trust when 55 people were infected with E. coli eating their food.

These brands have more in common than just the timing of their decline. Both Chipotle and Subway looked to provide consumers with a healthier option way before most brands were talking about the health-conscious consumer. Today, they both claim to source high-quality clean, raw ingredients and both describe their consumers as “millennials who would skip fast food in favor of restaurants like Chipotle”, “millennials who prefer quality over price”, or “millennials who are health conscious”.  

Chipotle and Subway are in the process of giving themselves a makeover and are both going after the same consumer, but they are taking wildly different tactics to reinvigorate their image. We’ll be keeping an eye out to see which strategy, if either, can bring the health-conscious millennial back to their stores.

In March 2018, Chipotle’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mark Crumpacker, stepped down after struggling for years to bring back the chain’s image after the E. coli outbreak, and now the new CEO, Brian Niccol, and new CMO, Chris Brandt, are trying a new strategy. They are increasing marketing and promotional spending for the rest of the year to remind consumers why they feel good about eating Chipotle. Brandt explains there is, “a unique emotional component to this brand stemming from its authenticity and transparency about food that we need to reinforce and reignite.”

They haven’t released their new campaign idea yet, but Brandt actually says, “become a brand people want to know about, want to be a part of and want to wear as a badge”. (I think he may have borrowed some of our I-Factor language). My question is, can they really get consumers to trust them again?

Subway, on the other hand, is trying to make an epic media come back. Their campaign slogan is “Make it What You Want” and the ads are meant to make an impact, not inform about ingredients. Subway’s Chief Advertising Officer, Chris Carroll, believes they need a more memorable message, “they have not had enough of a cohesive story, and haven’t done a good job creating a connection with our consumers- you know a Coke ad, you know a Nike ad, and you know a Geico ad”, but you don’t know any recent Subway ads. Those are some big goals! Subway is not walking away from values completely, but they do not think it is enough. My question is this: is Subway more authentically embracing their “fast food image” and ignoring the purpose-driven side of millennials?

We know that the answer to success lies in forming a more emotional connection with consumers. At the time this blog was posted, Chipotle’s live I-Factor Score was 62 (pretty positive) and Subway’s was 31 (not too positive). Their respective words clouds are below and they both have a long way to go to when it comes to their stated goals.

Our I-Factor®sup> tool lets you measure brand Irresistibility and consumer relationship in real time, so you can see if your campaigns are actually driving the kind of results and chatter that you are hoping to get. Check their real-time scores every morning @kristibridges22 and reach out if you’d like help making your brand more Irresistible.

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