Did you know that the success rate for new product launches in the food and beverage business is around 10%? This isn’t because the other 90% was just plain inedible or didn’t taste great. It’s because the food company behind them wasn’t able to adequately differentiate them from all the super similar products out there. This is why finding your niche in the food product industry and making it undoubtedly clear why your product is different is key to your success. We’re going to take a look at the niche food product industry, along with some tips on how to effectively promote your product.
Does Niche Marketing Work For Every Brand?
Developing a niche in the food product industry can be a highly effective strategy for targeting a specific consumer demographic, and can drive the success of your product to new levels. With the food market already containing unlimited choices, releasing a product that is different from the competition in any way, shape or form can create immediate success. This is especially useful for companies who have smaller budgets, and do not have the financial backing to heavily market their product in a way that they would need to if there was little differentiation between their product and others. However, niche products and niche marketing can’t necessarily work for every company.
Beth Day of Food Business News explains why niche marketing may not work with every brand and with every food product:
“Niche marketing is not for every brand. While large companies often use such strategies, it is difficult for them to reposition well-known core products. Consumers have difficulty seeing them as something else.”
Identifying Your Niche
In order to start your journey into the niche food product world, you first need to clearly identify what your niche is. A niche product doesn’t mean that you’re putting essentially the same product in packaging with a different label. What benefits does your food product have that others generally do not? What will a consumer gain by bringing your product home to their family over another?
Domenick Celantano of The Balance Small Business expands on what it truly means to identify your niche in the food product industry:
“Consider what makes your food and beverage product different from all of the others like it on the market. That is your niche. To be clear, it takes more than a great tasting product to pitch the supermarket buyer and then to get the customer to try your product, much less buy it again. Your product must be positioned as truly different from the competition. You have to separate your emotional investment in the product to really answer that question.”
Telling Your Story
When launching a niche product, it’s important to connect a story to your product mission. This truly applies to any product you sell, in any industry. Even if you’re selling a niche product, it’s likely that someone still has something similar out there. So how can you evoke that emotional connection so that a customer is drawn into your product without ever trying it?
5W Public Relations tells us how to communicate your story in How to Stand Out in a Niche Food Market:
“Everyone loves a good story. If you want to separate yourself from your competition, then learn how to tell your story. As a matter of fact, once you become great at telling your story, then you immediately eliminate all of your competition! You may be in competition with others if you are selling the same product, but there is no way that your competition can take your story from you and use it. Telling your story properly will create loyalty in your audience. People will begin to look for you specifically rather than putting you in line with the rest of your field.”
Here at The Greater Goods, we offer consultation services for your business, from food production to distribution. If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers.