270B is a minority-owned business
270B is a minority-owned business
and part of the National Minority Supplier Development Council Inc.
Kagan Baker
Natural Products Expo West 2023 Conference Recap
EXPO West is the largest trade show focused on natural foods. It draws around 100,000 people each year to Anaheim, CA, to see and showcase the best new products and brands. While each brand’s objective in participating varies, it is an ideal forum for gaining retail distribution and forming new partnerships. Jeffrey Lefkovits (Director of Client Services) and I visited for the first time this year with the goal of staying up to date on the latest and greatest food trends, as well as meeting potential new clients. In our conversations with hundreds of individuals over our three-day stay, a few key themes arose; sustainable and good-for-you products, duality of retail distribution plans and consumer marketing activity, and the increase of in-house marketing departments.
Sustainable + Good-For-You Products
When talking about natural foods, sustainability and healthful choices come hand in hand. Many brands proudly touted their water conservation tactics and B Corp Certifications (something I haven’t seen in consumer messaging nearly as much).
Regenerative agriculture, a new term to me, was a hot topic. It encompasses a holistic farming system that improves water and air quality, enhances ecosystem biodiversity, produces nutrient-dense food, and stores carbon to help mitigate the effects of climate change. 1 To learn more about the importance of sustainability, read Elise’s blog here.
Many of the brands we sampled were focused on “better-for-you” alternatives to beloved favorites – specifically, pastas and meat substitutes. The innovation of ingredients to attempt to trick our taste buds was fascinating. However, the number of ingredients that I could not pronounce that were included to recreate the texture, color, taste, etc. makes me question the health benefits compared to the original.
Chicken or the Egg: Distribution or Consumer Campaigns
The overwhelming purpose for brands to exhibit at EXPO West was to gain additional distribution in retail. While this focus makes sense, what struck me was the importance of the other side of the coin: consumer awareness and engagement-driving campaigns.
One brand representative from an established 100-year-old brand told us he had just finished a meeting with a major retailer, and they loved the product. The retailer asked, “How will the brand drive consumer demand and get products off shelves quickly?” In other words, they’d take the product if the brand could prove they can turn on marketing channels to drive traffic to stores.
On the other hand, several of the emerging brands we spoke to establish a direct-to-consumer model before moving over to big retail, proving that their products have consumer demand before approaching retailers. While neither is the equivocal “right way,” it is critical to not only think about pushing your brand on consumers, but the opposite pull strategy of driving consumer awareness and engagement.
Rise of In-House Marketing Departments
We had conversations with representatives from emerging to established brands, with marketing solutions that varied from all-in-house teams of a few people to large agency partnerships. We were surprised by the seeming rise of in-house teams among newer and emerging brands. These teams did everything from packaging to website and creative marketing materials – and the finished work was fantastic. This trend is made possible by the rise of digitally native young millennials and Gen Z in the workforce versus previous generations that relied heavily on agencies for this work. As an agency ourselves, these conversations gave us a moment to reflect on where we can lend value to our client partners.
The main benefit I see of agencies is to provide an outside perspective, something lost when marketing is done completely in-house. Unlike very large agencies, 270B’s model is to stay lean and bring in the right people at the right time so that we can flex up or down per the needs of the task at hand. With this advantage, as well as our many years of combined experience, we offer something unique to our clients.
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