The Guardian reports that the large UK bookstore chain Waterstones has opened three small branches without the chain’s branding. The three stores are individually named—Southwold Books, Harpenden Books, and The Rye Bookshop—located in small towns that previously lacked a bookstore, and have a smaller footprint than the typical branded store. Waterstones managing director told The… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Transparency is the biggest trend reshaping the food, pet, and nutrition industries today. We have dedicated significant analysis to the trend on this site, but we also want to make sure our readers are aware of relevant news on the topic, whether we analyze it or not. This post represents our first transparency report, covering the latter… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
The FDA recently announced changes to the Nutrition Facts label, with more details about sugar. Starting in 2018 [1], the FDA will require Nutrition Facts labels to distinguish between sugars found naturally in ingredients and sugars added, both in grams and a percentage of daily recommended value. The FDA is recommending no more than ten… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
With a nationwide GMO labeling bill now signed into law, brands are attempting to sort out what the new requirements will mean for their products. Although the FDA has until summer 2019 to establish the full rules for the law—and even longer to enforce them—the length of supply chains means that brands are already pondering… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Google vs Market Research As a college student circa 2005, I was brash enough with my newfound power of knowledge that I told my mother that Googling “didn’t count as research.” A few years later my mom asked me, somewhat pointedly, if that were still true, and though I had to admit that Google had… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Pet Marketing Insights The above list isn’t a sampler of pet industry trends. Rather, it’s a list of realities that we, as a brand growth firm and full-service marketing agency, treat as basic facts informing our pet marketing insight, strategy, and tactics. What really gets us excited are the deep cross-connections among trends and consumer behavior… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
Since our beginning as food industry consultants 15 years ago, we’ve remained focused on the food industry. We’ve done so partly because the food industry is where we started and what we love. But we’ve also done so because we place great importance on the value of focus. Effective food industry branding and marketing require… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
From GMOs to FD&Cs, whole grain over multigrain, no brominates and definitely no aspartame, it’s getting harder for the average consumer to know what to think. This isn’t to say that cleaner labels aren’t good for our collective wellbeing—just that it’s a lot to keep straight. It’s why marketing beyond benefits is essential to attracting… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
I’m a nerd. I grew up with a Nintendo controller in my hands; I’ll stay up until the small hours to catch Vincent Price or Hammer Films horror marathons; and my personal geography is dotted with mountains of unread books—on topics ranging from 17th century Dutch painting to the history of punctuation. I’m especially a… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
As a brand development agency, we handle a lot of visual identity projects for our partners—both consumer-facing and B2B. Those projects are often the first tangible deliverable of a well-rounded branding campaign. As a designer, I love taking on that responsibility, especially the work that goes into crafting a logo—that small graphic mark that our… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
(This is part of an ongoing series of posts we’re calling Brandcrumbs, which are bits and pieces of branding advice left over from our regular conversations about real-world brand positioning challenges.) Brands in food and beverage processing have the challenge—and the privilege—of talking with consumers about three issues that tend to conflict us: food, technology,… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
We regularly say that a company’s website, designed and developed correctly, is more than a marketing tool; rather, it’s a brand asset that benefits all marcomm efforts and increases profitability for years to come. Typically, we develop websites as a result of or in tandem with a brand identity project (logo, tagline, positioning, etc.), though, as… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
My love of garden-grown, heirloom tomatoes is well documented. However, since it’s late summer (prime tomato-harvest season) I’m not the only one with tomatoes on the mind. Heirloom tomato recipes are everywhere, and the Washington Post even ran a fascinating history of the “tumatle from Themistitan.” I contend that the obsession is well warranted. Good… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
I can remember my first encounter with marketing materials from our local independent hardware shop. While still a student at the nearby university, I glanced at a campus bulletin board on the third floor of an anonymous campus office and saw, tacked among the posters for campus theatre productions, a black-and-white business card with a… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>
In spare moments, I’ve been reading Tom Nealon’s 15-blog-post-long history of condiments, a frantic and learned tour through more than two thousand years of vinegars, sauces, dressings, and spices. It’s tremendously informative and entertaining—Nealon studies rare cookbooks, and consequently possesses a massive repertoire of weird food facts and history. Perhaps the most striking food story… Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>