Developing an Authentic Brand Narrative That Connects Consumers to Your Food

Food brands: We know them, we pick favorites and we can often recognize them across the grocery store aisle based on their iconic packaging. But with an oversaturated market of brands to choose from and an overwhelming food label trend that ‘supposedly’ differentiates the good from the ugly, competition is hot.

Today, brands need to be far more than a recognizable logo or clever tagline. More than ever, they’re defined by their unique brand narrative, story, and what consumers say about them. In fact, 90% of consumers state they like and support genuine brands over those that seem inauthentic. With the rise of social media, online reviews and growing importance of an engaging website user experience, opportunities are limitless to share honest and relatable stories in a memorable way that builds trust with consumers.

What is a Brand Narrative?

A brand narrative is the key component of a company’s branding strategy. It’s more than the story behind your brand – it’s the people behind it, the obstacles your brand helps consumers overcome and the process of building powerful relationships with customers. Your content strategy is what delivers your narrative and story to target consumers. Based on market research and insights related to the industry and evolving marketplace, it’s up to your team to determine which direction to take your brand narrative.

Follow these steps to build out a powerful, authentic brand narrative:

How to Develop Your Brand Narrative Framework

1. Research Purchasing Trends from Your Target Audience

Not all consumers think alike. Before you can truly define your brand and craft its narrative, you need to understand everything there is to know about your target buyers. Depending on the size of your organization, you may lean on publicly accessible market research. Or you may turn to a specialized market research company. If your brand is to be targeted to multiple audiences, map out their biggest similarities and differences:

• What are their biggest pain points?
• What problems are they trying to solve?
• What are their short-term and long-term goals?
• What are their priorities when making purchases? (i.e., price, ingredients, environmental impact, etc.)

Use this data to understand key components that should consistently be emphasized in your brand narrative.

2. Identify Your Value Proposition

Your market might be noisy, and competitors might have a similar voice and tone. To ensure you still stand out and create a memorable experience for consumers, emphasize your specific value proposition – in other words, the benefits and features your brand has to offer that competitors do not. Your value proposition should directly address your target audience’s pain points and priorities. Here are some examples of winning value propositions by various brands:

• Grammarly – Great writing, simplified: In just three words, Grammarly tells users what their software does. There’s no need to dive into the technical nitty-gritty details in a value proposition. Product videos, demos and other resources are tools that should be used to further demonstrate how it works.
• WordPress – Welcome to the world’s most popular website builder: Instead of trying to hone in on the functionality that makes WordPress a desirable tool, they simply turn to social proof in their value proposition. There must be a reason they’re the most popular website builder, and now users are intrigued to find out why.
• Evernote – Remember Everything: Between our personal and professional lives, there’s a lot to keep track of. This value proposition is relatable to their target audience (busy professionals) and solves the problem of having too much to remember and forgetting important tasks.

Are you struggling to identify your brand’s unique value proposition? Our team of marketing and communications experts have decades’ worth of experience helping food brands identify what makes their product stand out from the rest and tell their one-of-a-kind stories. Let us know how we can help you.

3. Define Your Brand Personality

Based on your research on consumer preferences and expectations in your niche market, uncover your brand’s personality; ensure it accurately reflects your brand’s attitude and remains consistent across all marketing channels: paid ads, your website, social media, emails and beyond. The voice of your brand should be optimistic towards a main goal of your target audience. Some words commonly used to describe tone:

• Playful
• Authentic
• Informative
• Friendly
• Transparent
• Promising

You’ll also need to be strategic with word choice. Find words that inspire your audience and are unlikely to come off as controversial. Getting feedback from several company stakeholders can reduce this risk.

To avoid brand voice inconsistencies from occurring over time, create a brand voice handbook for your employees. Doing this, you’re enabling current and future employees to understand how to talk about your brand.

4. Use Empathy to Build Trust

Almost 94% of customers are likely to be loyal to brands that offer transparency. Earning consumer trust is the most critical, yet challenging part of brand strategy. While brands can rely on user-generated content (UGC), influencer partnerships and strong copywriting to win over their target audience, plenty of barriers can interrupt those efforts. One bad experience can lead to a slew of negative reviews across the internet or bad press, internet trolls can spread false rumors and so on. (Here’s more on how to prevent PR risks that can damage brand reputation.)

Building meaningful trust with consumers takes empathy, honesty and out-of-the-box thinking. To tap into consumer trust, ensure your brand narrative connects to the lives of your target audience on a deep and personal level.

Here are a few ideas on how customers can help showcase your brand narrative for you:

• Allow loyal customers to submit testimonial videos that discuss how your product solved their issue or helped them reach a personal goal.
• Have them share their personal stories with your product (maybe it triggers nostalgia or brings back positive memories from an event).
• Share brand videos that demonstrate your company mission and how you’re working towards causes your target audience cares about.
• Create online communities where customers and employees can engage in public, professional dialogue about your products.

5. Show – Not Tell – What Causes Your Brand Supports

Now that you’ve done all the talking, it’s time to show what your brand is all about – going beyond the obligatory corporate responsibility section of a website. As corporations and their involvement in today’s most pressing social, environmental and ethical issues becomes more prominent (with 71% of consumers preferring to buy from brands who share their values), demonstrating what your brand is doing defines its human side beyond your packaging. It also serves as an additional means of earning consumer trust and attracting your audience based on causes they believe in. How does your story fit into making the world a better place?

Here are a few ways to demonstrate your brand’s social and environmental impact:

• Packaging callouts (i.e., noting sustainable sourcing practices, recyclable packaging, etc.).
• Monetary contributions (i.e., donating a percentage of profits to a cause).
• In-person fundraising/awareness events (i.e., marathons, booths, dinners, etc.).
• Social media assets that showcase your efforts (i.e., videos and reels, images, etc.).

6. Incorporate Cliffhangers

To keep your brand relevant and exciting, cliffhangers are a must. Consumers love surprises. If you’re on your way to launching a new product, rolling out a contest or giveaway, or teaming up with another beloved brand or celebrity for a big event, explore creative ways to build excitement and demand from your target audience. To encourage fans of your brand to speak about it in a positive light through various channels contributes to who your brand is and its story.

7. Build a Targeted Advertising Strategy

Once you’ve hashed out the meaning behind your brand, who it is, and the messaging – last but not least, is to build a highly-targeted advertising strategy that aligns with who you are and your story. Using the 4 P’s of marketing – price, product, place and promotion – will help you determine where to sell, where to market and how to market to your audience. Are you targeting a niche audience that still favors traditional mediums like print and radio, or would an integrated advertising strategy work hardest for you? Would your target audience be receptive to a loyalty program that sends frequent coupons and rewards? Or is your target audience not heavily concerned about coupons and savings?

With market research, authenticity and creativity at the forefront of your brand narrative, you will be able to gauge interest and loyalty from your target audience. At MorganMyers, we help food CPG and ag brands alike map out their narrative and tell their honest stories in a way that resonates with consumers and connects them on a deeper level with their food. Check out how we helped Iowa Premium tell their story, “A better way to beef,” in this case study.