B-to-B Marketers Need to Tell Brand Stories

FoodNavigator Feature Says: “Ingredient Suppliers have brand story to tell too.”

Mark Hughes, president of Anderson Partners Food Ingredient Marketing, recently had an extended conversation with FoodNavigators’ Maggie Hennessy on the need for food ingredient suppliers and marketers to tell their brand stories as part of their marketing communications plans. They talked about how the best ingredient marketers create premium positions for their products that differentiate them from their competitors and create value perceptions that let them break through the clutter of other commodity ingredient products. Maggie wrote a feature on the conversation for FoodNavigator that can be found here.

Food ingredient marketers can use the same branding techniques as consumer food products in telling their stories to their B-to-B customer and prospect audiences. By focusing on the best practices of other successful ingredient companies, food ingredient marketers can build authentic brand stories that resonate and engage their audiences. Content marketing strategies and B-to-B social media platforms can help spread the word and build an even wider audience. All of the principles of good branding and the branding strategies and tactics that apply to consumer products can be successfully deployed to support the ingredient product brand as well.

The most successful food ingredient companies we see are those that execute fully integrated marketing plans to tell their stories and create premium positions for their brands. You can see examples of these brands and case histories on the Best Practices section of our website. Highlights include best practices like featuring ingredient applications, branding product sample packaging, content marketing tactics and trade show strategies. We also put together a Food Ingredient Marketing Best Practices Report designed to help you develop more successful food ingredient marketing communication programs.

If you have brand stories you are telling about your food ingredient products, we would love to hear about them in the comments.