The Natural Products Expo West show is an exciting gathering of people dedicated to shaking up shopping carts through advancing natural products, and the energy was infectious. The convention covers 555,000 square feet of booths and brings in over eighty-five thousand people over the course of a week. Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast host Katie Mleziva is back from the show with insights on where the industry is headed, and what food and beverage trends you can tap into for your brand.
One of the great things about conventions is the chance to make real connections with people you’ve only met online or on the phone. Founders, podcasters, consultants, investors and others in the natural food industry all get together to meet over their shared love of good food (check out the pictures on Instagram and the Real Food Brands Marketing Round Table Facebook group).
Katie always reinforces the need for you to create a differentiated brand strategy and story, and the sheer amount of brands present at Expo West reinforces that your brand needs to have a clear and meaningful story attached to it in order to be relevant and memorable. What’s more, you need to develop a strategy that aligns both the front end and back end of your business to deliver on the promise of that story.
In order to make people see your brand as a part of who they are, not just a product they buy, there needs to be an essential reason for being that runs through every single thing you do that is centered on your customer’s needs.
In this episode you’ll hear Katie’s key takeaways from Exp West that can help you right now as you look for what’s next in your new product pipeline. We cover everything from packaging design trends to new niches that are just waiting for innovative products, and more.
If you were at the show, Katie invites you to message her with what you found most interesting or exciting, and if you were not at the show, feel free to reach out to see what she saw related specifically to your category.
In This Episode:
- The Color Blocking packaging trend.
- Is CBD another functional ingredient, or a platform to create a brand around?
- How to start thinking about incorporating functional ingredients into your product.
- Why functional carbonated beverages that replace soda have big potential.
- New trends to pay attention to in the plant-based foods and snacks space.
- The polarized ends of the spectrum with more focus on vegan, plant-based, grain-free, high protein and animal-based functional ingredients like collagen.
- The tricks and traps of sugar replacement.
- How to stand out in a crowded market like bars and balls.
Quotes:
“What you need is a story and a strategy to align the backend and frontend of your business to deliver on that story.” – @realfoodbrands
“Just talking about your functional ingredients is not enough anymore.” – @realfoodbrands
“There’s a lot of excitement about packing as much power into our food and drinks—naturally—as we can.” – @realfoodbrands
“Choose your (sugar) replacements carefully because some products, when untested, can have an aftertaste and people might not always tell you that that’s why they don’t buy.” – @realfoodbrands
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