Why CPG Disruptors Don't Get Branding Right the First Time

Industry disruptors constantly get branding wrong in their quest to get it right. As you pour more energy into strengthening your brand’s persona, you probably won’t get it right the first time. You’ll use the wrong logo, put your product on the wrong shelf, or run the wrong social media campaign.

Whatever difficulties you have along the way, they're signs of one all-important thing: you're evolving. The worst thing a brand can do is not change - not test new ways of doing things. Trial-and-error, agile iteration, whatever you call it, true disruption depends on failure. 

Here are four areas disruptors are experimenting with in 2018. Read on, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty! 

Packaging 

Brand disruptors naturally stand out among competitors, but compelling packaging is what draws new customers in. Even though it might seem like common sense, triple check that you’re actually reaching your target audience (and that your target audience actually is the right group of people). In this case, a few failed attempts is worth the major success of finding the niche group that falls in love with your products.

On its quest to achieve the ever-revered “lifestyle brand” status, Ugly Drinks changed its packaging and design scheme. The flavored sparkling water company, born and raised in the U.K, is preparing to make its debut on U.S soil.  To make its drinks stand out in the eyes of American millennials, a famously disinterested consumer base, Ugly Drinks pushes to incorporate attitude and spunk into their otherwise minimalist cans. The introduction of a tongue-shaped “U” as the logo serves this purpose, and the merchandise sporting the new design doesn’t hurt either.

Health-Aid Kombucha, a more seasoned member of the package redesign club, knows the ins and outs of this process all too well.

Although its first redesign iteration brought with it brighter colors and bigger wording, the latest full-scale repackaging (in 2016) completely changed the shape of the bottle. The feel of an apothecary bottle has remained a constant throughout all the changes, even when the brown glass lost its rounded edges in exchange for a stark and sharp-shouldered bottleneck.

 

Location in the Store 

If certain products aren’t selling well, it might take a few tries to find the right place for your product in the store. You may find that you have plenty of interested customers, but that they spend all their time in a different grocery store aisle and never even see your product.

After an ambitious launch in 2012 (which CEO Kevin Rutherford detailed at our most recent Power Hour), UNREAL Candy had to take a step back and evaluate the scope of its go-to-market. UNREAL, a better-for-you candy company on a mission to “unjunk the world,” was too busy competing with Reese's and Snickers at the checkout counter to realize the demand for fun and delicious candy in the natural foods aisle.

Even though UNREAL’s original launch put its product in about 20,000 stores, the original product placement misevaluated the correct market. When UNREAL made its triumphant return to store shelves in 2014, the company steered clear of mainstream stores like CVS and positioned its products in about 5,000 natural retailers, like Whole Foods, in the North Atlantic Region.

Market to natural food audiences instead of competing with mainstream giants if that’s where your product belongs. Monitor sales and collect data to determine the best place for your product in the store. Once you know your place, own it.

Content  

Brand-specific content builds an organic following that sticks around long term, but it can be tricky to pull off on your first try. According to Fernando Lopez, founder of L.A.-based I Love Micheladas, “Content is everything, and it’ll get better the more you do.” And for a brand that started out with little content behind it’s name, I Love Micheladas has grown to be a content-generating machine by grabbing branded content straight from the people that love the brand most: their consumers.

I Love Micheladas inspires fans to create content featuring the brand via a Volkswagen Bus turned party van, AKA the “Michemobile.”  The green bus features four beer taps, a DJ table, and a jumbo flat screen T.V, perched on top, giving I Love Micheladas everything they need to bring the party to the people.

Streaming everything from music videos to the Super Bowl, the crew at I Love Micheladas maximizes the hype from their instant party by accumulating second-hand content in the form of mentions and tags from Instagram photos, tweets, blog posts, and foodie articles. This type of excitement translates to usable and shareable media.

Experiential Marketing 

The way you market to consumers contributes to your status as a disruptor. Consumer engagement and content can bring your marketing strategy to life as your brand evolves and grows, but it isn’t easy to know what people will connect with right off the bat. The promise of advertising in a way that makes consumers want to engage with your brand is worth a few missteps if it means generating the perfect disruptive marketing campaign.

Ever since Chris Moran, the bartender behind Ghost Tequila, dreamed up a spicy shooter that people actually wanted to drink, his team has taken their tequila on the road. These tours allow Ghost Tequila to engage in true guerilla marketing; many of the individuals exposed to the product don’t know they’re being marketed to.

Ghost Tequila Tour Guides all share a great attitude, a company-paid credit card, and the express mission of getting liquid to lips. Because they don’t come across as a promo person to individuals at the bar, Tour Guides successfully draw in new customers. Building a one-one-one relationship in the field in this way isn’t easy, but it guarantees that the consumer will remember the experience (for much longer than they would remember that spicy tequila taste).

(Hear more about Ghost Tequila's flagship Tour Guide program in the Repsly Powercast! In our latest episode on disruption, we chat with Ghost's co-founder David Gordon on the secrets to the brand's early success. Listen here!) 

Customers may remember your experiential marketing campaign for a while, but even a functional and original campaign won’t last forever. Commit to engaging in the constant change required to remain a disruptive brand, and don’t let them your fans get bored. Customers need new and exciting experiential marketing designs, so falling into the right campaign might take a few shots.

Going through rebranding is a major chance for growth, and it doesn’t have to be a chore. Our latest Repsly Powercast episode gets into the nitty gritty on the rebranding necessary for disruptive lifestyle brands. Stream the full episode here!