Nowadays, marketing and advertising are all about consumer engagement and establishing relationships, and the best example of this is social media. Does that mean brands didn’t form relationships with their consumers before Twitter and Facebook were built?
Not at all. Stonyfield Farm, the organic dairy product company based in New Hampshire, is a perfect example of creating consumer engagement around a product – long before the social media days.
Erik Drake, Stonyfield Farm’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, spoke at the Ad Club’s CMO Breakfast Series on Tuesday morning to discuss his team’s strategy to get organic yogurt into the hands of grocery shoppers. The company boasts more than 85 percent of the market of organic yogurt purchasers in the U.S. But when compared to non-organic companies like Dannon and Yoplait, who can offer yogurt at a much cheaper price point, Stonyfield Farm still has great strides to make.
And, perhaps most importantly, organic products are expensive to make, and in order to keep retail costs at a minimum, Drake says that Stonyfield doesn’t dedicate many dollars to marketing.
For Drake and his team, the marketing starts with being true as a company. As a company, Stonyfield Farm believes in the benefits of eating organic, and Drake describes that as the key message they hope to get across to consumers. What and who a company is on the inside, he says, is felt by consumers on the outside.
From there, it’s easy to establish a connection. In the early days, Stonyfield used their lids as an initial form of marketing – a small space to get their message about the benefits of eating organic out there to the consumer.
Event marketing also plays a large role at Stonyfield, but Drake is quick to note that it’s much more than just setting up booths and handing out free yogurt cups. Each consumer they come in contact with is another opportunity to spread their mission about eating organic and letting others in on their passion for the products they make.
Partnerships with like-minded companies are another marketing strategy for Stonyfield. Companies like Annie’s Homegrown and Preserve, the eco-friendly product’s manufacturer, have similar ideologies and similar target audiences, and are able to support each other in getting their mission heard.
Finally, with the advent of social media, Stonyfield can have constant, engaging conversations with people across the nation. For example, there is the “Have A Cow” campaign, in which consumers can adopt a real Stonyfield cow and get updates on her well-being. Or, there’s the “Just Eat Organic” rap video made by Stonyfield CEO, Gary Hirshberg. Drake and his team know that organic can be a very boring subject, and ensure that their mission is always fun and engaging, as evidenced below.
