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06.09.2010

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Inspire Brand Love

What characteristics make up a great brand? Along with a fervent group of customers devoted to your products or store (who may even use the word "love" now and then when referring to you), almost every great brand has an authentic founder's origin narrative: Such tales often involve door-to-door sales, humble beginnings in a tiny shop, or as in the case of Annie's Homegrown Mac & Cheese, stories about founder Annie Withey's original grassroots efforts to sell her now iconic purple-boxed product. Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal in 2005, Withey commented on the natural and organic brand's early beginnings over 20 years ago:

"We had no marketing budget, but we did have product," Withey said, "so we were going to wherever there were crowds, handing it out, and saying, 'If you like this product, tell your stores,' " she added. They hit ski lodges, outdoor folk concerts and store parking lots. "That was very effective." 


The Wall Street Journal, 3/29/2005

Fast forward to the Annie's of today, and “effective” is still the operative word: The company's early homespun sales efforts have built a vibrant following of customers. Withey's original product, seemingly blessed by her previous success as the inventor of the cheddar cheese popcorn brand Smartfood (sold in 1989 to PepsiCo) has grown into a $100 million natural and organic brand, with kid and family-oriented products in diverse categories ranging from boxed pasta meals, snacks and cereals, to canned pasta and skillet meals. Annie's CEO John Foraker attributes the brand's ongoing success with the company's unswerving focus on kids and their families, especially moms. Asked recently to describe the company's success, he told HartBeat:

"Annie’s started in 1989 on the premise of one product, the purple mac & cheese box. The early positioning of the company was kind of ‘the anti-Kraft’, their box is blue, ours is purple, their cheese is orange, ours is white…ours were simple ingredients that you could recognize. That was the premise of the brand--it was a healthier alternative of something mainstream that families were eating a lot of. It had to taste good and be in the form that consumers wanted, but it had to be free of all that ‘stuff.’ That kernel of the brand has remained consistent from the beginning through today. We've taken that premise and carried it through to other products."

As we've often described in various Hartman Group communications regarding the ephemeral, and often difficult to fabricate "brand experience" accompanying what consumers believe are the best products and stores, it's true that Annie's attributes as a brand have translated into successes that are difficult to fabricate and formidable now established. Foraker, commenting on his company's huge competitor in the mac & cheese category (Kraft Foods), says that the day Kraft rolled out its own version of organic, white cheddar mac & cheese was a sober day at Annie’s. Yet, even facing what he calls "very smart competition," Annie's has found that Kraft's introduction only served to legitimize Annie's presence on the shelf; and currently, Annie's still holds its own against such competition. As to the totality of parts that makes up Annie's as a successful brand, they are diverse and correspond evenly with many of The Hartman Group's own observations, made over many years, about what inspires consumer love and adoration when it comes to new brand experiences in commoditized categories:

Authenticity and Brand Narrative

Even in the face of significant growth, the company stays consistent to its roots, featuring handwritten messages from Annie who still lives on an organic farm in Connecticut.

Transparency

Translates from the mission statement of "Eat Responsibly, Act Responsibly." Evident in the company's various social and environmental initiatives, which carry through to packaging, narratives, support of organic farmers, ingredients.

Playfulness

Each product has the rabbit (Bernie) "stamp of approval" and Annie’s seeks to reduce their "bunny footprint" (AKA carbon footprint). All company key employees are pictured on the Annie's website as they were at somewhere around 8 or 10 years old, and the company's products and website are oriented to kids and their families.

Customer Experience and Connection

The company has a long history of and an active engagement with customers--both listening and then asking for feedback or support where needed (especially in the company's earliest days).

Health and Wellness

One part of Annie's success is its arrival during our overall transition to a new culture of food and the company's linkage to families. Moms are integral decision makers when it comes to deciding which products are appropriate for their children. For over 20 years Hartman Group research has seen that consumer decisions surrounding purchases of natural, organic or related products with a health halo are made in part because of the presence of children in the household.

Innovation and Reimagination

Annie's original focus on the mac & cheese "category" (a category dominated very significantly by Kraft) was perhaps unwittingly a stroke of genius and prescient of what today is a primary trend driving the entire food and beverage industry where commodity-like brands and entire categories are being reimagined with products that provide new tastes and experiences for consumers. We say an unwitting stroke of genius, because to accomplish such a feat (becoming the #2 brand in a commodity-like category dominated by one of the world's largest food manufacturers) is no small accomplishment at all.

While all of the previous brand characteristics are critical to inspiring consumer love, we think customer experience and connection are an integral part of today's most successful brands. We asked John to comment on his company's focus on families. He notes:

"We do a lot of research with our consumers. We have a very active Annie's ‘mom's panel’ that we interact with very frequently on a product level. We listen to what our consumers are interested in, and over the years have been rolling out products that meet their needs - just like mac and cheese has done but in other categories that are important to them and their kids. These new products have been doing really well. When you get down to it, the core of the brand, as research has shown, comes down to trust. Annie's is a brand that's trusted. We're transparent, and we try to be transparent to reinforce that trust, and offer products that are convenient and delicious. That's a good combination for today's consumer. We have a brand that's well positioned for our gate-keeper moms (and some dads), but principally for women who make the choices for what foods get into the pantry."

Not only has Annie’s built a great brand, but they've also successfully navigated the recession. As we've recently noted in two separate white papers about retailers and brands succeeding despite the recession, Annie’s embodies some of the successful characteristics of upstarts growing from niche markets, despite faced with enormous competition. We asked John how Annie's has done during the recession:

"Despite the economy still being soft, we've done surprisingly well. Despite challenging economic times the natural, organic industry continues to grow, though at a slower pace. We've been doing significantly better than that. I think there are many reasons why, but a few are important: Our consumers continue to believe that health is important. They're making choices to be healthier, which research has shown consistently over time as well. They're making priorities where they can to purchase natural and organic foods, and particularly since Annie’s is focused on kids and the family, we know that moms are more willing to make sacrifices to feed the kids healthier. We've seen demand for our products do exceptionally well during the recession, and we think that's a big part of it."

Take Away

Great brands are not created from thin air and each has a story: Annie’s was originally sold from the trunk of a car, Nordstrom started in a shoe store in Seattle, Procter & Gamble began in a storeroom in Cincinnati where William Procter and James Gamble made candles and soap. Consumers resonate to brands with stories. Authentic brand narratives form the kernel around which brand experience is created. Annie’s is an example of a brand that has remained true to its original focus, while many of today's struggling brands and retailers have strayed from their roots as well as their customers.

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