Small Bite | Building Brand Love

Have you ever noticed how some food brands get fierce, loyal fans everywhere they show up, while others get tried once and forgotten? It's rarely about the actual product.

Brand love isn't magic, and it isn't just good marketing. It's a series of little things done well, over and over, at every point where a customer meets your brand.

Here are the five most important details for laying a solid foundation to build brand love:

1 - Solve a real problem
A great product is table stakes. To earn a loyal following, it has to be better than how people are already solving their problem. This isn’t about you, it’s about them. It’s about how they solve the issue that brings them to your product. This can be a better tasting sauce, or salsa with fancier peppers, or a cereal that fills them up with less sugar. Your product needs to offer a better solution than what they did before they found you. One of my favorite examples is Uncrustables. These are pre-made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off. There wasn't a competing packaged PB&J on the shelf when these launched. The competition was the parent making lunch in the morning. Uncrustables took a daily chore, trimmed the crusts, and turned it into something you drop in a lunchbox. Simple.

Ask yourself: what are my customers doing today instead of buying from me, and what is better about my way? Keep in mind, you may be displacing a similar product or you may be displacing something completely different.

2 - Be consistent at every touchpoint
Same taste. Same performance. Ships on time, every time. You have to let your consumers feel comfortable depending on you, make it easy for them.

Think about every single point where someone interacts with your brand: the package, the website, the order confirmation, the shipping box, the reorder. One bad experience can undo dozens of great ones. Marketing gets the attention because it's the fun part, but logistics and operations are where trust is built or lost. It needs to look the same, taste the same, crunch the same. It needs to be dependable, allow customers to purchase your product without thought.

3 - Be easy to find again and again
Stay in stock. Show up where your customers already shop. Offer subscribe and save so reordering takes no effort at all. Whether your product is sold through your website, Amazon, or brick & mortar retailers, it needs to be there when the shopper wants them.

Loyalty dies when shopping presents a challenge. Keep it friction free. Make it so easy for shoppers to buy your product that they never have to think about it (just like the point above, there is theme here). Even people who love your product get distracted. Consumers are fickle, and something shiny is always one aisle or one scroll away. Your job is to be there every time they look for you.

4 - Create real engagement
This is where your brand starts to feel human. Content-rich emails that teach or entertain, not just announce a sale. Behind-the-scenes access. Meet-the-founder moments. All the ups and downs of an early-stage brand. Show your loyal followers the work, the importance of what you’re doing, the attention to details, all the reasons for them to buy in to what you’re about.

If you're a founder coming from another career or another brand or another life, this is a place where your story is an asset. People want to know who is behind the product, and you don't need a big budget to show them.

5 - Listen
This cannot be said enough, respond to customers. Listen to your consumers, your customers, your supporters. Read the feedback, and act on it. Things will go wrong, they always do, and that's okay. How you fix it is what customers remember. Just because a bad thing happened, doesn’t mean you have to lose that customer. Ask yourself, what can I do to turn this around? Ask them, what can we do to make this right with you? It’s amazing how you can actually turn a bad experience into a long-time loyal customer.

I had a customer who was very unhappy with the quality of one of the products he received. I got on the phone with him, apologized for this experience. In this case, I also explained that what we thought he saw was not correct and that the product was to spec. Regardless, I wanted him to be happy, to trust us again, so I asked what we can do to make this right with him. In this case, a replacement of the product he bought, plus a sample of one of our new products before he could even buy it. This made him feel special, and then I followed up with him to get his feedback on the new product. He remained a loyal customer for the next six years while I was still at that brand.

Try this

Brand love is built one touchpoint at a time, so start by seeing yours clearly. Make a simple list of every place a customer meets your brand. Find the time they hear about you and move through to their second order. Next to each touchpoint, ask: is this consistent, is it easy, and does it feel human? Fix the weakest link first.

Download our Brand Love Touchpoint Check Sheet

Take a moment to look at your social media, your website, your popup booth. Do they all look similar, are they branded as one entity? Do they offer the same messaging? Are they reflecting your culture, your care for the customer and the product? Be sure you’ve done your branding homework to ensure you can build that consistency of messaging.

None of this happens by accident. It's built deliberately, and the founders who do it well are the ones who turn first-time buyers into fans.

Until next time, happy selling.
~Stephanie

When you're ready to transition your idea into a real packaged goods brand, we'd love to help.

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