Your Brand is an Experience, Not a Product

Your brand is so much more than just your range of products. Your brand goes far beyond your logo, your website, and your packaging. It includes your values, your voice, and the experience you create for shoppers. When building brand preference, keep this in mind – you must understand that your product alone cannot build preference or loyalty. You must communicate your brand story – and make it compelling – to keep people coming back. Here are a few ways you can do so:

Find out what makes your product unique – and leverage that aspect

Being part of a historically commodity-centric industry, it’s more important than ever to understand that your brand is more than what you grow. That edge of difference in flavor, variety, or growing practice is how you create preference – by identifying the aspects of your products that no other company can match. Once you’ve reflected on and identified these unique aspects, leverage them to help your audience understand why choosing another brand is not in their best interest. Lead with those aspects in your next social media post, press release, or headline on your packaging, and you’ll find people identifying with your brand.

Create incentive for your shoppers

They say it takes longer than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic. In the fresh produce industry, the same principles apply – before a shopper can become loyal to your brand, they have to have repeat interactions with you.  You can create these repeat interactions and drive brand trial with coupons and promotions that encourage shoppers to visit the store and experience your brand. With each interaction, you’ll foster loyalty that will keep shoppers coming back for more.

Keep things fresh

The best way to keep shoppers coming back for more? Well, create more for them to come back to! If your website remains the same every single time someone visits, they’ll be less inclined to visit again. But if you update your website regularly, whether it be a new recipe, a new photo, or a new promotion, you’ll find shoppers returning to your site to consume the content you’re creating regularly.

Another powerful set of tools for keeping your brand fresh are the various social media platforms on which your brand has a presence. If your most recent post is from November 2016, you can almost guarantee your next visitor won’t click “Like” to stay tuned to your updates. But if you post on a regular basis – we recommend at least several times per week – your target audiences will not only subscribe to follow your activity, but also engage in your content, fostering brand advocacy. Wondering how you can generate enough content to support such activity? Consider creating a blog on your website that allows you to update your website frequently and easily, and gives you the opportunity to link your social media communities back to your website.

Regularly communicate with shoppers

If you’re creating content regularly, you’re on your way to building brand loyalty. But no one will know you’ve released new content unless you tell them. If you have a blog, consider emailing a list of subscribers when you’ve created new content. If you have a new product you’d like people to try, announce it to consumers with a press release. By voicing your brand’s activity, you’ll create reminders that encourage people to return to you to consume even more.

At DMA, we share a passion for helping fresh produce companies develop their brands beyond their product lineup. If you’re struggling with telling your story, reach out to us. We’ll work together to understand your brand and position it in a way that keeps your shoppers coming back for more.

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