What Makes Your Food Brand Different?

Are you thinking that your ingredients and packaging are the only things that make your food brand different?

Well, you are wrong.

Your unique selling position goes much deeper than the tangible, and it’s critical you identify what makes you different and communicate that in everything you do — even in the pieces you can’t smell and taste. It’s your difference that will help consumers hang on to your brand over time.

Now that you know, here’s how to get started on revealing your food brand’s uniqueness.

You have beliefs and you LIVE them.

Take Evol Foods for example. Their philosophy is “Love what you eat.” You can find this language all over their marketing and you can bet it drives all their business decisions.

What do you believe in?

You are not a cliché…

…so stop talking like you are one.

That means eliminate all the jargon and overused superlatives from your marketing. If you describe your hot sauce just like all the others — The Hottest Peppers on the Planet! — you’ll be passed over. Instead, write like you and your customer are sitting down over coffee. Tell us what your product is and what your product isn’t without all the hype.

You communicate your brand promise.

Actually…a brand is a promise. You need to recognize yours and then tell us about it.

• Will cooking dinner be easier?
• Will Sunday brunch be classier?
• Will ordinary pasta become restaurant quality in two minutes?

In establishing your brand promise, don’t describe what you do. Describe what your customers get every time.

YOU show up in your marketing.

The cynic will tell you that we’re all selling the same thing. You’ve got a jam? Well, so do hundreds of others. And if that’s the truth, can any of us ever be different?

Yup.

YOU, the person behind your business, will always be one of your biggest brand differentiators. Put your picture on your label or include a company history complete with the time your intern met Madonna. Talk about the people of your business and the people in your target market just might remember you next time.

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Now, tell us. What makes your food brand different?

About Sara Lancaster

Sara is The Condiment Marketing Co.’s founder and creative director. She oversees client relationships, strategic marketing plans, as well as a bit of copywriting and social media management.