Cooking up fresh ideas to grow your business is a recipe for resilient growth. But it’s not without its challenges! With examples of real brands, we’d like to inspire you to help your business grow. And one of the techniques that we want to share with you is storytelling.
So let’s take you into the culinary world of Our Place.
Our Place is a kitchen and tableware brand. It transcends the functional aspect of objects that are an integral part of our daily lives. But Our Place takes them back to the core of every dining experience: the community.
The brand’s product line is highly-curated, thoughtfully-crafted, and above all, value-driven. Our Place’s multifunctional cooking pans, plates, bowls, drinking glasses, forks, and spoons are created in a clean, minimal aesthetic. Isn’t it a perfect backdrop for the cultural diversity and unique stories of the people who use them? It reminds us that food is identity and every opportunity to take out the tableware is an act of culture and connection.
What makes Our Place stand out as a resilient brand?
Consistent messaging around their brand and business mission
We love this brand’s clarity of mission, which is the first pillar of our Resilient Growth framework. Our Place communicates the value of “connection through meals” upfront, a copy point usually reserved for the Mission Page. With every page, the website visitors find stories of different families and their treasured food traditions and customer reviews for the product on display.
How you can implement this, and take it up a notch:
Storytelling is an effective and organic way to communicate your brand values so that they resonate with people.
Stories don’t only sell, but they also humanize a brand
Stories don’t only sell, but they also humanize a brand. Find a story angle in your mission or brand and highlight it across your communications. Create a consistent narrative, bring it to the front and center in your product pages and social media accounts.
A Catchy Sign-Up Offer
Why offer a discount code when you can offer something more enticing like a free product? With many e-commerce stores offering discounts and coupons, asking for a first-time visitor’s email is getting harder these days. Raffling off a freebie in exchange for a sign-up accomplishes many things:
- You stand out among every other brand dishing out discount codes—and as a result, stand out in the minds of customers.
- Depending on cost, logistics, and sign-up rate, raffling off just one freebie a day might bring your cost of acquisition down compared to giving a discount code to everyone.
- People love to post about free items received. As they share online, you earn social media mileage for free. Provide them with a unique hashtag and receive a steady stream of user-generated content daily. Not to mention, prospective customers will sign up as well to try their chances!
Now it’s your turn:
Consider your costs versus signup rate, and decide whether this is viable for your business. You may also test it during peak traffic season around holidays like Christmas and Black Friday and plan promotions around these.
An “Authentic” Instagram Feed
Stylish images have come to define the Instagram aesthetic. Our Place takes the platform back to real-life, less-than-perfect imagery.
With posts featuring real people loving the products, it is at once refreshing, engaging, and authentic. This, of course, aligns with the brand’s mission and its knack for storytelling. This approach highlights community members, founders, and users, and above all, food’s socio-cultural significance.
How you can try this:
Ask yourself, how can your brand show up authentically? A brand that lends itself well to social media through visuals and captions that tell an engaging story is a great place to start. Anchor this on a substantial brand value, and you’ll find it will be easier to start genuine conversations. The result is a social media presence that engages with people like other brands don’t.
Our Place’s value-driven strategy reminds us that brands need to be of genuine value to customers, no matter how utilitarian your product is.
Take a cue from the brand, adopt a Founder’s Mindset, and highlight your reason-to-believe across your communications. With time, your products will carve a place in people’s homes and their hearts.
Your business is doing well already… but it can do better. The strategists at Insights Lab can help you unearth opportunities unique for your business and create a strategy that will make your business unstoppable. Care to give it a try?