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| Dara Busch |
Healthy foods and snacks are not just a niche interest for a small portion of the population any longer.
There's been an increased demand for healthy foods—as well as alternative nutrition options—from consumers. That’s great news for healthy foods and snacks. However, with the demand from consumers, the market ended up getting flooded with new options, so it's easy for healthy snack brands to get lost in a crowded sector.
Fortunately, there are several tried and true strategies for doing successful food public relations to promote a healthy snack brand.
Educating
These days, consumer concerns go beyond the nutritional content of the products they purchase. Companies that are open about the entire supply chain for their products and can prove their commitment to humane processes and sustainability are practically guaranteed to appeal to a wide target audience.
Many consumers who are concerned with such issues will get reassured when they see that a brand is honest—and they will often spend more money to get that reassurance from a brand.
That means companies should invest in educating their target audience about the benefits consumers will get from using their products, especially if those products aren't a popular part of the average diet quite yet. When a company has real research to support any health claims it makes, it's going to appeal to consumers who are more critical of the things they consume, and the business will quickly become more popular in the health food industry.
Generating attention
The odds are that most people don't go out of their way to find healthy snacks and food brands online. Instead, they're more likely to find a company's products inside stores.
What that means for healthy snack and food brands is that they need to stand out from their market competitors in a visible way, so they can get placed inside consumers' shopping carts. When there are hundreds of other options that consumers can get from similar healthy snack brands, the best way to successfully promote products to customers is by standing out from the crowd.
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A great example of a brand grabbing the attention of its customers is Dave's Killer Bread, which placed the company's mission and story directly on the bread bags.
Lifestyle
When consumers are purchasing healthy snacks and foods, healthy is only one element of the overall goal they are trying to achieve, that's on their mind at that moment.
They are probably trying to construct a healthier lifestyle for themselves, and when a company is able to identify that lifestyle, and then cater to consumers who are looking to switch up their lifestyle, businesses can help consumers see how their products can fit into the image those consumers have created in their minds. This might mean catering specifically to people who are trying to create a more athletic lifestyle, or even strictly to athletes. Or it can mean finding a particular visual aesthetic that's going to work for the brand or trying to fit into a niche diet that has a large following.
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Dara Busch is co-CEO of 5WPR.
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