How To Build A Winning Food Brand

From Hannah Howard (Serious Eats):

I work for a fantastic grocery store full of specialty products. So I know firsthand that everyone has a food brand these days.

Customers have so many choices. Herbal tea connoisseurs can pick from aisles and aisles of fine teas, beautifully packaged. Mountains of fancy jam choices crowd the shelves, as well. You name it, there are plenty of specialty brands on the shelves already, and dozens of budding brands clamor to join them.

How can you make your product stand out from the rest?

Maybe you're dying to open that restaurant you've always dreamed of. A trendy comfort-food restaurant? Brick-oven pizza? Small plates and wine? You and everyone else have had that idea.

But there is always room for something unique and really good. There’s no reason the next big success story shouldn’t be yours. Here’s how to compete with what’s already out there.

Make it your passion

It’s hard to bring your best game to a venture when your heart’s not in it. Restaurants and food companies are especially difficult ventures: The margins are small, the stakes are high, the competition is tough and the hours are brutal. The failure rates are staggering.

Loving what you do is a good start toward beating those odds. Like great artists, entrepreneurs are most effective when what they do is rooted deep in their blood and bones. It’s who they are. Do something else instead? Unimaginable!

Be unique

These days, we live in a food-obsessed world. Some cool companies have made it big with creative concepts. From designer tonic water to iced teas that claim to cure illness and enhance well-being to restaurants that sell wine from an interactive tabletop screen, offbeat ideas can work.

If you’re going to do something that’s not revolutionary, that’s OK, too. Little in food is truly new. But before opening up a burger joint or a cocktail lounge, find your spin, the point of view that sets your company apart. Maybe your focus is a casual sandwich spot with truly stellar service and a fun vibe that fits the local hip scene. Or, maybe your scrumptious apple pies are made from the fruit of your family’s old orchard.

Find what makes you you, what you have to offer that competitors don’t have. That edge will help you stand out from the crowd. It will set you apart in a boundless sea of choices.

Know your audience

First you need a conviction that your endeavor is truly wonderful and original. Next, and more importantly, you need customers who will see the light, who will love your product too.

When I helped launch a Philadelphia restaurant, we misfired by offering our neighbors something they wanted. We envisioned a very small, impeccably curated menu that focused on beautiful dishes. We thought an abstract menu with poetic descriptions would inspire discussion and spark interest. Instead, we left our diners confused.

Our guests let us know loud and clear that they wanted more food, and that they wanted to know what they were eating.

We reworked our concept. We kept what we cared about—the quality, the finesse, the detail, the attention to seasons and aesthetics. We changed our whimsical menu descriptions into something more approachable.Flavors, smells and feels of the garden became Spring salad.

It worked.

Your brilliant vision is only as brilliant as your customers understand it to be. Look and listen so you know what customers respond to. Talk to them, even the kooky ones. When you find that intersection between making something true to your vision and their desires, you have reached a branding sweet spot.

Be consistent

You can’t serve an intricately layered foie gras terrine one day and a heap of fries the next. It messes with your customers’ heads. They come craving that foie. If they wanted french fries, they would have gone elsewhere. Now they’re grumpy and unsatisfied and won't return anytime soon.

Everything you do should reflect your brand. There’s room for change and growth, but it should stem from who you are at your core. So the fancy tonic company might start to sell classy seltzer or high-end vodka. And that’s great, as long as the new products stem from their credo.

Everything you do speaks volumes. Your customers pay attention. So that sandwich shop with a cool atmosphere has to make sure the bread is fresh and satisfying and that the lighting is flattering. All the details matter.

Back up your reputation

Once you’ve built a winning identity, you have to make good on the promise. If your gig is selling impeccably aged cheese, you can’t sneak in a wheel that’s past its prime and hope it will go unnoticed. It won’t, or not for long.

Customers will run away fast when they feel let down. If they’ve come to expect the world’s fluffiest pancakes from your diner, you had better deliver. If they love your grocery store’s unbeatable prices, the prices must remain competitive.

When you’ve established your brand, go for it. Do your thing, and do it the very best that you possibly can.

Source: http://www.openforum.com/articles/how-to-build-a-winning-food-brand

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