Storytelling and Competitive Framing in the Food and Supplement Industry
In the dynamic realm of the food and supplement industry, where choices are abundant and consumer preferences are diverse - competition is fierce. To be successful, brands need to be very clear on their product’s unique selling points and effectively use rhetoric to persuade the consumer of their value proposition. In this article, we'll dive into the important role that marketing rhetoric plays in the food and supplement industry. We'll explore its different techniques and how it significantly influences what consumers think and choose.
Emotional Storytelling
When it comes to food and supplement products, emotions are incredibly powerful influencers in people's decision-making processes. Consumers don't just buy a product; they invest in a solution that addresses their specific health concerns. Effectively addressing challenges triggers positive emotions, and when done right, it fosters stronger customer loyalty.
When selling a food or supplement, it's easy to focus only on what's inside the package and assume that's enough to convince people to buy it. But even for products that seem very straightforward, customers want more than just facts and figures. They want to feel a connection.
It's about telling a story – the origins of the product, what's special about its ingredients or format, and how it can improve your health. It's like sharing a story with a friend, making it relatable and meaningful. This approach recognizes that customers aren't just buying a product; they're looking for something that fits into their lives, addresses a specific health concern, and becomes a part of their wellness journey.
So what are some key things you can do to tell a captivating story about your brand?
Be authentic - consumers know when brands are trying to provoke, rather than evoke feelings. Make the story relatable to your core audience and speak to their specific challenges.
Be Reliable and Consistent - brands that understand their consumer’s pain points and values will be able to better craft a story that they relate to. You need to know what their expectations are and consistently deliver on their desires. As you build marketing campaigns, it's important to be consistent in your tone, or ‘brand voice.’ You are not only building trust with the quality of the products, but how you also interact with your buyer.
Encourage your consumer to be part of the story - if you can recruit your audience to share their experiences with the product through social channels, not only does this provide social proof for the product, but it also helps to make the product more relatable to prospective new buyers.
Example: OliPop
Most of us have fond memories as a child about having an ice cold Cola on a hot day at the family BBQ or those trips to Pizza Hut when your parents would get a pitcher of orange soda to share. Whether enjoyed on occasion or frequently as a child, soda or pop (depending on your location) is generally a pretty nostalgic beverage. We know that this is at least Coca Cola’s strategy. Olipop, a fast growing better-for-you soda brand has latched on to this pattern of marketing nostalgia by matching the flavors of your favorite soda flavors, but differentiate themselves by offering you soda with gut health benefits and a whole lot less sugar. They are directly addressing a problem that is top of mind for American consumers - sugar. They know people are looking for a lower sugar beverage option, so in this case they can simply state the low sugar content without mentioning a direct comparison.
One of their recent launches has a strong appeal to their consumer’s emotions. Their Ginger Ale’s new tagline “Sippin’ First Class” acknowledges that consumers associate the beverage with air travel, but better yet they want to give you the first class experience with their better-for-you ginger ale. In a time where many people are cutting budgets and staying home, suggesting that their beverage gives you a taste of what you are missing is a compelling appeal to your FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). This is a very nuanced way of addressing a problem consumers are facing - consumers are looking for experiences within their food and beverage choices and this signals this product will fill that need.
Competitive Framing
The storytelling needs to address the competition, but be wary of leaning too heavily on comparison in this market. People naturally compare things, but the best way to authentically draw them in is by showing what makes your supplement unique and worthy of their money. It's like when you start dating someone new, you should talk about all the great and unique qualities that make you like them vs. just comparing everything against the qualities of your last partner.
This approach, called indirect competitive framing, means focusing on your product’s special ingredients and how it helps people feel or live better. By sharing real stories of how it made life better, you create a story that people can relate to. Instead of saying what other similar products lack, you highlight the positive impact yours has. People are interested in your product not just because it's better than others, but because it genuinely makes a difference in their lives. It's all about building a connection that goes beyond just comparing products.
That said, there is a need for comparison at some level. You do have competition who are vying for the same or similar audience. Direct competitive framing highlights specific points where your food or supplement excels in comparison to the competition. To keep with the example of your new beau, this is when you are demonstrating that you learned from your past relationship and this new person doesn’t have all the same red flags.
By transparently addressing what makes your product stand out, such as superior ingredients, proven results, or exceptional customer support, you provide consumers with clear reasons to choose your product over others. We must emphasize here that having the data to back up these points is crucial, i.e. if you are claiming your product is more effective, you better have the clinical or testing data to prove this.
Leading with indirect competitive framing is the way to go, supplementing your pitch to consumers with what makes you different from their other product options.
Indirect Competitive Framing
Indirect competitive framing is described as focusing on your own product’s unique selling points, while more subtly using these points to address what sets the product apart from competitors. Having a distinct brand identity, defined selling point, and an understanding of why these points address what the competition doesn’t. Build a narrative around your product's qualities, benefits, and the overall experience it offers.
This is very common practice and you see it every day, particularly when it comes to food products that are made in response to a popular product on the market.
Some examples:
Harmless Harvest Coconut Water tells the story of their sustainable production, which acknowledges that not all brands of coconut water are made under good practices (this also commands them a higher price point)
Caulipower Pizza offers lower calories, higher protein, and a gluten free product. Typically frozen pizzas are high in calories, low in protein, and have a wheat crust that is not gluten free. They are addressing a gap in the market not met by the competition’s products and they highlight these unique points that their prospective consumer wants.
Caulipower uses indirect competitive framing in a direct way - highlighting their key nutritional content right on the front of the package. Harmless Harvest insinuates this with their brand name but tells the full story on their website. How you deliver the story will depend on how complex the message is.
Direct Competitive Framing
Direct competitive framing is sizing up your product against a particular competitor. It's all about showing off what makes your product great compared to another brand offering something similar. By facing the competition directly, you're telling the story of why your product is here in the first place - why you are worthy of competing. We see this all the time across industries to highlight what sets them apart and why you should choose them over the competition.
Outside of food and supplement, the most common examples in advertising are for paper towel and feminine napkin ads. Every ad you see for one of those brands is comparing how much more absorbent their brand’s product is compared to the leading competitor. These products repeat this value proposition over and over again because there isn’t much else to compete on outside of price.
Luckily in the food and supplement space, there are many more characteristics you can compete in. You can talk about convenience, nutritional value, allergens, organic, non-gmo, efficacy, flavor, sustainability, and more. Some food claims are built around this construct - i.e. “less sugar than the leading competitor” - this is legally regulated by the FDA, however you must be careful that you have the data to support it.
Some examples:
Else Nutrition is competing in the children’s nutrition space with their toddler and kids powdered beverages. They directly compare their products to their competitors in a chart on their website. They are directly telling you why they came to exist by highlighting what they have (or don’t have) in their products.
Laird’s Daily Greens is directly compared to Athletic Greens (AG1) by pointing out what is great about their product and the downsides to AG1. While they don’t match the callouts 1:1 here, they have highlighted the biggest upsides to their product and highlighted problems with AG1 that would make consumers think twice about (i.e. cost, poor flavor, and unhealthy ingredients).
Looking at the natural and health foods category, often products are directly addressing a more conventional, mainstream product - like organic, sugar-reduced cereals modeled after existing popular cereals from big name brands. For example, Cascadian Farm cereals offer more natural, and certified organic versions of many popular cereals. To capitalize on these comparisons make sure you understand what your customer base values most. Highlighting an objectively healthy nutritional characteristic that your consumer simply isn’t seeking out won’t help build a competitive value proposition.
Social Proof
It is human nature to seek validation when making a significant purchase, whether than be significant in cost or impact on health. We look to our peers to find this validation or proof that the purchasing decision we are making is the right one, particularly when you have so many choices. You can tout your product benefits all day, every day but without some sort of social proof, consumers may remain wary to hit the buy button. Testimonials from real customers, endorsements from a health professional or popular influencer, or reviews online are a key part of any marketing campaign. These real-life experiences create relatability, fostering trust among potential buyers who are looking for genuine results and positive experiences.
Customer Testimonials
Testimonials from your real customers, in both video and written form, are key to building strong social proof. Consumers want to see and hear from people they relate to and want to hear how the product helped them in their real life. Ensure that the testimonials you are compiling are authentic - together all the testimonials should tell a story that supports the values and story your brand has been touting. Testimonials are not just reviews left on your product page or your Amazon product page - they can be collected from social channels and customer service emails.
Influencers
Every brand seems to be taking advantage of the influencer marketing trend these days. When it works really well, it can help brands blow up overnight. Oftentimes it took a celebrity endorsement or a viral tik tok trend to drive that kind of virality for a product. While it’s possible to have that happen, it's certainly not the norm.
Choosing the right influencer to promote your product is the key to a successful campaign. What makes someone the right choice? They have a loyal following and the credentials to evaluate the product. A loyal following doesn’t mean a big following, it means they have an engaged audience. Credentials may be defined in many ways. For example, if the product is a kid’s snack, they should have children who enjoy the snacks and can be part of the campaign. If the product is a supplement that supports gut health, it would most likely be best to find a nutritionist or registered dietitian whose content is frequently about gut health. There are definitely influencers who may successfully promote your product without such high educational credentials, you will just need to evaluate how your choice in who to partner with reflects on your brand.
Scientific Rhetoric
Particularly in the supplement channel, many consumers have become skeptical of new products with hefty claims. So how do you stand out when the consumer is already so distrustful? Credibility can be built with not only social proof (before and after testimonials are excellent in this industry), but with scientific proof.
Many supplements have been clinically tested and boast carefully substantiated claims. Using scientific rhetoric that presents research findings, expert endorsements, and clinical data instills confidence in consumers. Combining this scientific proof along with social proof from peers creates a strong credibility for the prospective buyer.
An Example:
Cognizin Citicoline is clinically studied and shown to support attention and focus by increasing phosphatidylcholine in the brain. When you visit the supplier's website, they outline many different clinical outcomes to support claims on the ingredient. But how does this translate to the final product? There are two brands using this ingredient outlined below:
Karma Water, Energy Water: this line of functional waters promotes “natural energy and enhanced focus without using any synthetic sweeteners or artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.” They also call out the specific ingredient, noting it as a powerful nootropic that is clinically studied and touts that it “provides the essential nutrition your brain craves for optimal focus and cognitive health.” They have touched on the main benefits of this ingredient and made the language approachable for the consumer.
Bullet Proof, Smart Mode: this supplement touts that it is a holistic cognitive supplement to help with brain fog. They back this up by sharing that its “It’s powered by 10 scientifically studied ingredients that support cognition and promote clear-headed concentration.” Again an example of backing up a claim with scientific proof and approachable science language.
Transparency as Social Proof
Not only are consumers looking for credibility, but they also expect transparency. Looking at transparency within the food vertical, ‘clean label’ rhetoric is a great example of industry transparency. Telling the story of how your product’s ingredients were sourced and their quality helps to build credibility by showing you practice the values your brand preaches. Emphasizing organic and ethical sourcing or highlighting the limited number of ingredients is a popular and effective USP if you are targeting a health-conscious consumer.
A great example of a brand that has always prioritized transparency with their customers is Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. They value sourcing high quality ingredients and from diverse suppliers, they work closely within their supply chain to make sure the farmers are being taken care of fairly, and they have invested in regenerative farming - among other sustainability and social practices that support their brand values. Not all brands have to go to these lengths, but it's important to consider what matters to your buyer and balance that with what your company can do to make the world a better place.
Urgency and Scarcity
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is very real. Creating a sense of urgency or scarcity with limited time offers or exclusive deals is very effective for encouraging consumers to act promptly. However there are a few things to keep in mind before using this tactic.
First, this tactic may not work on a prospective buyer who is still considering your value proposition. They have to see the value in the product to see the value in the offer. You can however use this approach with some nuance - using rhetoric that suggests if they start using XYZ supplement now, they could see results in X amount of weeks (given that you have the clinical data to back that up).
For existing buyers you want to be careful of how often you run a promotion. You don’t want your consumer base to wait around to only buy when the product is heavily discounted. If a prospective consumer has been considering your product and sees it discounted frequently, they may wonder if the product is not high quality.
Ready to revolutionize your brand's presence in the competitive food and supplement industry? Take charge of your marketing strategy with a comprehensive audit. Elevate your brand narrative, connect with your audience, and establish a unique position in the market. Book a call with the SmarterSlice Marketing team today to see how we can help your brand stand out among the competition!
