Category: Branding

When brand performance begins to falter, the first place to look is whether the brand’s promise is aligned with the consumer’s top purchase decision drivers. Whether marketing a successful brand or managing a brand turnaround, the most important notion to truly understand is your consumers’ preferences and how they are evolving. Clearly understanding these preferences will allow you to evolve your messaging in parallel to create maximum appeal. This is the ‘why’ of your brand.

It Takes Work to Stay on Top 

Keeping a brand properly positioned requires vigilance. As each brand and company is unique, there are innumerable ways that brand messaging can stray from its consumers’ desires.   

For example: 

• Often, the corporate culture does not want to challenge what has historically been accepted or the approach of the last marketing director. 
• Many times, sales departments will influence consumer messaging, leaning hard on what the trade feels is important, thereby overlooking the consumer’s desires.  
• What was once a powerful message may no longer be relevant. The consumer marketplace is changing rapidly. How products are consumed and perceived can change quickly.  

What Drives Consumer Preference?  

There are nearly endless reasons why a brand may be preferred by an audience. And at times, there is more than one in play. Here are several common drivers: 

• Lower price  
• Higher quality 
• Convenience 
• Special performance 
• Higher awareness and familiarity 
• Unique design or engineering 
• Cultural affinity with the audience 
• Greater distribution/availability 
• Greater product variety 

Gather Insight Without the Overspending 

The traditional way to understand consumers’ drivers is some form of market research, whether formal or informal. Unfortunately, custom research is out of budget for many brands, so marketers need to be savvy in how they gather information. 

Alternative Ways to Gauge Drivers: 

• Consumers vote with their dollars.  So, follow the trends in growth and sales. What is driving these trends? 
• Digital media provides immediate feedback on ideas and concepts.  What posts, ads and word combinations are producing clicks? What conversations are trending on social media? 
• Segment your buying audience. Understand the consumer’s various frames of reference, such as what their other choices tend to be and how they use the product. The differences between groups are often quite revealing.  
• Look into research panel studies like MRI | Simmons, which periodically examine a variety of categories. Sometimes this information can be accessed through media sources and agencies. 
• Drill down on the consumers’ media habits and lifestyle choices. This can be done through licensed research such as Nielsen | Scarborough.  This can help you break out preferences by geographic region. 
• Get into the market.  Marketing should not be driven from headquarters.  You need to get into the market by going to shows, events and wherever you find your audience. Interact with them regularly, and the truth will reveal itself. 

Transforming Data into Brand Engagement 

From the insights gleaned, a new model for consumer messaging should be built.  This model should consider the holistic brand situation. Determining a brand’s ideal positioning is not a formulaic process. Artificial intelligence (AI) alone will not get you there!  It takes authentic intelligence, plus creativity and intuitive analysis. It is important to keep things simple: There is immense power in listening to the consumer and appealing to the simple truths in their lives. 

With your new insights, you must craft a powerful new consumer messaging platform and bring it to life in a meaningful way. 

Let’s Talk

If you’d like to discuss, we are available for a conversation at no obligation to you. Reach out to Brian Bennett at bbennett@stirstuff.com.

When a brand’s performance starts to slip, it’s tempting to experiment and address the outward signs of weakness –  the symptoms. But often, the symptoms of brand trouble don’t reveal the root of the problem. They are just a sign of deeper problems, indicating that changes need to be made. But what changes? 

Unless you are certain of your problem and have the skillset to correct it, your fixes won’t stick. You’ll burn time, money and energy and still end up in the same place. Sometimes, these reactions create additional problems and begin to send a brand into a negative spiral. It’s important to get it right the first time. 

If you’ve been tweaking and tinkering, trying all the apparent solutions, but growth still stalls, it’s time for a reset. Step back. Zoom out. Take a fresh look, a new assessment. Look at your industry, category, business model, brand message, media and campaigns. Be open to change. As they say, ‘what got you here will not get you there.’ You may need a third-party consultant, who is not so close to the brand, to come in and lead the process. 

The marketplace is changing at an ever-increasing pace. There is little that you can take for granted. 

We suggest you begin at a macro level to isolate the issues: 

1. Can we rule out product design? 

• Is the product performing for its consumers at a competitive level? 
• Are others innovating where we are not? 
• Is the category evolving and leaving us behind? 

2. Are pricing, distribution and promotions to blame? 

• Do we make it incredibly easy to shop, price and buy our product? 
• Are we reaching our consumer in the media they most frequently consume? 
• Are our customers leaving great reviews about us on social media for others? 

3. Does our image and message resonate with our target audience? 

• Do we know what drives their decision to purchase? 
• Do we conjure positive perceptions and feelings?  Are we likable? 
• Are we seen as authentic, enthusiastic and well-intentioned? 

The Path Forward Starts with Smart Planning  

When a brand is underperforming, it’s usually not because of one thing—it’s a complex web of missed signals and unrealized potential. Knowing when and how to make changes takes expertise, dedication and the willingness to get uncomfortable with old habits. You don’t just need ideas. You need a holistic plan that’s strategic, built from scratch and tailored to your business—one that removes friction and unlocks growth. Given the stakes it is best not to go it alone. This is the time to bring in a marketing consultant/agency like STIR  and its Futurescape Planning Process.  

We’ll find the issues. We’ll map the fix. And we’ll spark the kind of creative and strategic energy that doesn’t just solve problems, it repositions your brand for the future. 

So, if your brand feels stuck, don’t just tweak. Transform. Let’s talk.

This article provides a high-level overview of what it takes to change the fortunes of your brand for the better through a brand turnaround and how to do it as effectively and efficiently as possible. Along the way, there are links to additional blogs on some of the specific subjects mentioned.

What is a Brand Turnaround?

When a brand is failing to perform in ways that run deeply through an organization, further than advertising or PR alone, it becomes evident over time. More than just a creative boost, it becomes clear that the core direction of the brand is not leading to success. The brand vision is cloudy and uncertain. Corporate leadership can see from objective performance metrics that something deeper, a brand turnaround, is necessary to meet corporate growth goals. And in that capacity, our company, STIR, has created a long list of successful resurrections for brands in a wide variety of categories. We are happy to share some high-level learnings with you here.

Typical symptoms of brand failure that drive leadership action are:

• Loss of or low market share
• Flat or negative sales trends
• Poor profitability
• Emerging competitors
• Underperforming products and sales staff
• Low website traffic and consumer engagement
• Unimaginative and unsuccessful marketing efforts

A brand turnaround in marketing is a comprehensive exercise that becomes necessary when the organization needs a fresh strategic perspective and a holistic refresh of its brand communications and digital infrastructure. Positive change at this scale goes beyond executional elements like logos and ads to detailed upgrades of marketing operations, marketing technologies and staff expertise. To make the necessary change, internal expertise often needs to be supplanted or augmented with the vision and talents of people trained specifically to accomplish this goal – brand turnaround specialists.

An Integrated | Holistic Capability Is Required

A brand turnaround is not an easy fix. A brand’s marketplace presence has many important components. These all need to be aligned for success. The weak-link analogy applies here. Addressing some, but not all elements simply will not generate the positive change leadership seeks. A growth engine needs to run on all cylinders. Few internal marketing professionals, within companies of any size, have the specific knowledge and experience to direct optimal alignment across all the specialized marketing tools involved. It is even more difficult to try to align and manage multiple independent vendor specialists in all marketing disciplines, as each will suggest actions that serve their own purposes, not a holistic brand solution. A holistic brand vision is required, and integration and management skills are paramount.

Mastery of All Disciplines Is Necessary

Here is a list of elements that must be expertly analyzed, aligned and rebuilt to produce positive results. Each requires mastery of best practices as well as a vision for integration. (Not every company needs or can afford all of these disciplines, but most need several of them to some degree.)

• Business review – Business situation, sales, marketing, corporate strategy, competitive, research & plans
  • Eight Steps to a Successful Rebrand
• Off-page SEO – Google and aggregator listings, rankings, content and reviews
• Digital infrastructure – Database / CRM, integrator & email capability
  • Build a Marketing Machine to Produce Growth and Profit
• Thought leadership & content marketing – Assess internal SME’s, blogging, video and existing content efforts vs. target audience needs
• Website performance – User experience, content, speed, on-page SEO, conversion path & performance, tracking tools
• Social media – Paid history & organic following, platform utilization, editorial content, CTA, engagement, cadence, listening & community management
  • Integrated Paid Social Campaigns Transform Marketing Plans
• Programmatic digital media – Prospecting and retargeting campaign utilization, performance
• Paid search – Evaluating existing campaigns and assessing the optimal structure of a paid search campaign
• Public relations – Generating awareness, third-party endorsement is a powerful brand tool
  • You Need to be More Mediagenic
  • Selling by Storytelling
• Influencer marketing – Can leveraging the recommendations and publishing power of influencers drive business and commerce for your brand?
  • Influencer Marketing will Influence Your Level of Success
• Terrestrial media – Evaluate previous spends and plan effective campaigns
• Event marketing – Where, when and how to participate in or stage events
  • Be the Talk of the Trade Show With Earned Media
• Marketing plan development – Objectives, strategies, audiences, geographies, spend levels, brand positioning platforms, media and messaging

Achieving Success Requires Sophisticated Planning

Each marketing element has its own unique role in the promotion of the updated brand. Through planning, all tactical efforts are aligned to strategy and scaled to achieve objectives. Catering individual strategies to address unique audiences and business situations on budget requires experience and skill. Marketing technologies must be developed to support the prescribed marketing techniques.

To accomplish this, a marketing plan is developed that unifies and integrates all elements and efforts. This plan also serves to unify sales, marketing and management in a new and reinvigorated direction. Your team needs total buy-in on the new direction for a turnaround to occur.

• A Brilliant Marketing Message is Simple

Developing Messaging That Will Resonate With Customers & Consumers

Particular care is taken in updating and/or interpreting the brand’s positioning and messaging at a strategic level. Advertising creative and content execution are the tip of the spear and must be crafted carefully to the requirements of the individual media and individual audiences to achieve desired effects.

• To Turn Your Brand Around, First Rethink It
• How to Develop Your Brand Story
• What’s the Matter with Your Brand?

With some companies, that messaging begins with a new company or brand name. With others, it’s an updated logo. In almost all cases work begins by creating a more compelling and highly functioning website. Clear, compelling and complementary creative is necessary to capture the attention and imagination of customers and consumers at the top of the sales funnel. The brand also needs to generate appropriate messaging that delivers a consistent brand persona at all touchpoints as prospects move through the sales funnel to conversion. The grand design for messaging should synchronize with the newly designed customer journey specified in the marketing plan.

Bringing In A Brand Turnaround Specialist

If this process sounds complex, that is because it is complex. If a company and brand leader tasks a team of first-timers to complete a brand turnaround, the end result is virtually guaranteed to take too long and produce suboptimal results. If the goal is to set the company/brand on an immediate path to success with massive upside potential, then a brand turnaround specialist like STIR Advertising & Integrated Messaging is the partner you’ll need to create success. We have literally changed the fortunes of companies, making them fortunes in the process.

While this process is complex it does not have to be tremendously expensive. A financial investment will certainly be required, but the process can be scaled to virtually any business. If your brand is not producing the growth and profit that it should, the key question should not be whether you can afford a brand turnaround, it is whether you can afford not to engineer a brand turnaround. Positive results are usually seen within a 12-month period. These efforts generally pay for themselves within a two-year period. After that point, your brand will be on a long-term path to incremental success and profitability for many years to come.

Let’s Talk

An initiative of this scale is something to consider carefully. If you’d like to talk about the process further we are available, at no obligation to you, for a conversation to help you assess whether this course of action will benefit your brand.

This article is meant to help leaders look at their brand and organization through a productively critical lens. In doing so, perhaps they will see new opportunities more clearly. You will not find answers in this article. You’ll find a lot of questions, and some important insights. Ask yourself these questions and you’ll reveal the answers you need to start your Brand Turnaround.

A Brand Turnaround Requires a Turnaround in Thinking

If you want to turn your brand around, you’ll need to think of it differently. As a leader, you’ll need to lead the way with innovative thoughts, generating insights that drive positive change.

Brands can bring on their own decline by not adapting along the way, prioritizing profitability and avoiding risk. The following are some counter-intuitive questions designed to help you see a different perspective on your brand. The answers will reveal the first steps of your brand turnaround. (We suggest that you record your answers. Ideas in writing are much more powerful.)

“Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” – John Maxwell

Don’t think about your brand or company. Think about what’s going on in the industry – not just your current competitive set but a larger, much broader competitive one. Ask yourself:

• What are the most innovative things going on in your product categories? Is your brand evolving as quickly as the market has?
• Are you aware of the most advanced communications technologies? Is your brand using the most contemporary tools?
• How have the consumer’s habits and usage changed? How is your brand shifting to adapt to these new behaviors?
• Where is industry growth coming from? What trends are driving this?

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it’s what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook

Go back to the beginning. What got you here? Brands are often born and grow with a single focus, and that success often leads to broadening, dissolution and distraction. Can you recall:

• What was your brand’s original focus that made it successful?
• What is your brand’s current focus?
• What product offerings are currently at your brand’s center and why? Has that evolved?

“Success demands singleness of purpose.” – Gary Keller

Don’t think about your product. Think about the big idea behind it. Profitable brands need to own an idea that satisfies people’s desires. That idea needs to align with a marketplace need, not just physically but also intellectually and emotionally.

• Rather than think in terms of what you make, ask yourself:
  • What idea do you truly own, and who are the people who are passionate about that idea?
• Rather than think about who your customers are, ask yourself:
  • What defines the people that respect your idea?
• Rather than what those people spend money on, ask yourself:
  • What are these people really after?
  • What is the psychological reason why they choose or don’t choose your brand? What is the benefit(s) that they seek?
• Rather than assume that people need what it is that you sell, ask yourself:
  • Why should they care about what we sell?
• Rather than ask what people know about your brand, ask yourself:
  • How do people feel about my brand?
  • Why is my brand relevant to its key audiences?

Forget the problems that confront you every day. Rather, envision an ideal Futurescape scenario. Imagine that your brand has become everything you wanted it to be. Imagine that it is growing in new ways and becoming a more important part of the consumer’s life. Ask yourself:

• What would you be selling and at what price point?
• How would your brand be engaged with its users?
• What niche does it fill?

“You can’t fix what you can’t measure.” – Peter Drucker

Don’t think about what is broken, find what is working. A successful brand is like a chain. Every piece should add significant value. Can you identify:

• What elements of your marketing materially contribute to sales?
• Where do your leads, sales and profits come from?
• Which products and audiences are growing and which are shrinking? How quickly?

“What got you here won’t get you there.” – Marshall Goldsmith

Now, envisioning your turnaround Futurescape success, assess what it will take to make that happen. Ask yourself:

• What does a team with clear ideas and skills to take the brand to new promising places look like?
  • Full-time employees
  • Vendors
  • Partner companies
  • Automation and technologies
• Will the business model, programs and products you have in place address needs of the future? How must they change?
• How can you reach the customer of the future via marketing technology?

If you’ve come this far and asked yourself all these difficult questions, you’ve uncovered many of the key insights necessary to chart a new, more successful course. If you need help consolidating that into a Futurescape Marketing Plan and brand turnaround, STIR is standing by to help.

Specialty foods are always a delectable topic of conversation! The 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show, that I attended with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, establishes key emerging trends for the specialty food and beverage market each year. I find the trends in the food industry reflect contemporary culture in interesting ways. After all, food is just as “fashionable” as any other consumer product.   

Many trends and products launch at these shows only to crash and disappear.  Remember clear beer? Everything with oats in it?  This year I noticed the influence of technology – and how that has migrated to small companies. Here’s a look at a few trends from the show. 

Mango Madness Everywhere 

Just like fashion sees a hot color each year, so too, there is a “hot” flavor that emerges at the show. This year, mango reigned supreme. Attendees couldn’t escape the bright, tropical notes of mango, which found its way into everything from cheese to candy.  
 
Specialty Food Association (SFA) Trendspotter Amy Sherman noted some of the most buzzworthy mango-infused products included: 

• Paradise Green Mangoodles – A mango “noodle” shaped fruit snack,  
• Rondele Mango Habanero Cheese – A sweet-meets-spicy spreadable cheese bringing the heat. 
• Lakrids by Bülow Mango Vanilla Chocolate Coated Licorice – A decadent twist on licorice with tropical and creamy layers. 

Snacking for Any and Every Snacker  

Snacking continues to dominate the food scene. From gourmet popcorn to protein-packed quail eggs, this year’s show proved that snacking is not just about a quick bite. The snack product lineup blended nutrition with crave-worthy flavors, offering something for every kind of snacker.  

Wellness is still a focus, according to the Specialty Food Association Trendspotters, be it energy-boosting bites or snacks designed for gut health. Brands are prioritizing ingredients that nourish while satisfying cravings. If you’ve been down the snack aisle recently, you may have noticed the evolution of the munchie. Creativity is driving this category, with unexpected flavors and formats pushing the boundaries. 

Here are some standout snack innovations from the show, including some selections from Specialty Food Association Trendspotter panelist Cathy Strange of Whole Foods: 

• Oegg Inc. Quail Eggs – A protein-packed, bite-sized snack perfect for on-the-go nutrition. 
• Rise and Sun/Eddy’s Premium Matcha Popcorn – A luxurious, antioxidant-rich twist on a classic movie snack. 
• Kangkong King Salted Egg Kang Kong Chips – A bold, umami-packed take on vegetable chips. 
• Mizunaga Fisheries Marusa Japanese “Shirasu” Oil Sardines – A nutrient-dense seafood snack rich in Omega-3s. 
• Side Project Jerky x Kiki Aranita Huli Huli Chicken Jerky – A Hawaiian-inspired take on jerky with savory-sweet flavors. 

Crafted with Care (And a Conscience) 

This growing trend gets buyers back to authentic and sustainable foods.  And buyers want to know how it’s made, what it’s made from, who makes it—every step of the process now garners interest from a discerning consumer. Specialty Food Association Trendspotter Sarah Lohman remarked that consumers value transparency and ethical practices in the brands they support, and brands should be vocal about those practices.  
 
In the case of Wisconsin Cheese Makers, who are some of the best in the world, there is plenty of innovation, which they lean into for marketing. However, their best play at this show is to commit to telling their amazing stories and sharing their generations of old traditions, which are the reasons behind why they produce such incredible products. Simply put: good people, from family-owned companies, making amazing products that are building upon the foundations established by their pioneering ancestors. What was once “old-fashioned” is now the height of style in the world of specialty food trends. 

When involving higher-order brand development, it truly is. 

We must define and deliver the benefit

In brand marketing, the messaging execution rises past details of product attributes and shallow descriptions. It’s about conveying an emotional experience that goes beyond mere utility or function, highlighting the transformative joy and contentment associated with the brand. It must deliver a promise that is tied to the personal and emotional benefits the experience brings to the consumer and their understanding and perceptions of the market. 

We must understand the target audience’s deeper motivations

Fantasies are closely linked to motivations and desires as they reflect what individuals long for. Tuning into the optimal benefit discussion, we look to the mindset of the consumer. What is it that people truly seek? What is their heart’s desire? It is seldom what is seen on the surface. There are deeper motivations. For instance, do they want a hearty meal, a romantic dinner or a gourmet dining experience? Often, the fantasy is more about how others perceive them than the experience they are having. 

The brand promise should be aspirational

Since people are chasing a fantasy motivated by their deeper desires or needs, the promise and perceived benefit or value of a product are often beyond reach and cannot be quantified or proven. It doesn’t need to be because what you are selling is a state of mind. You are selling an intangible feeling, the essence of contentment, happiness or satisfaction. 

To deliver on fantasy we must build brand mystique

Mystique is an aura of mystery, power and awe that surrounds a person or thing. The term itself means “favor given” or “gift of grace,” a compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others. Brand perception and mystique must be broadly shaped consistently over time and only then reflected in ads. Mystique cannot be manufactured. It must be cultivated and reflected. It is enormously powerful. 

Brand marketing helps to fulfill people’s deeper wants and desires

Yet, perceptions and psychology enable that ownership in the case of both the user and those they seek to impress. Brand messaging may convince you that you will be content and get more satisfaction from consumption of a brand or product and because that is your expectation, you allow yourself to be more content and have more satisfaction when that consumption occurs. 

There are many wonderful craftspeople around the world who make special products. Consumers crave these handcrafted works of art en masse. But if that’s truly the case, then why don’t all these businesses grow on a steep curve? Mainly it’s because artisanal product makers don’t understand the power of storytelling. It’s through the creation of an emotional and compelling narrative that artisanal brands inspire consumers to take action.

In a sense, the unique story behind an artisan’s product should become their brand. And without a defined brand, a product is nothing more than an obscure commodity. Commodities generally sell for low prices and lack of profitability inhibits growth and success. So, without the story, there will likely be little success.

Market for the masses

When meeting craftspeople and speaking to them informally, they tend to impress others with their undeniable passion, 24/7 commitment to their work, and their depth of knowledge. One can learn fascinating things about their personal journey and their product just by having a casual conversation with them. And that, folks, is a passionate brand story – one that is easily shared and repeated over time. Makers need to replicate this one-on-one customer experience with produced communications that reach far more people via mass media. For an emerging brand, taking advantage of the power of social media to tell their story may be the only way enthusiasts across the country would ever have access to understand the special characteristics behind the product.

Build brand equity

Investing time and energy to build a brand and its story is a wise move, because it allows consumers to value the product and develop a sense of trust in the maker. When that trust is established, people are generally more willing pay more for their goods. As a result, there will be a greater volume of items sold, producing cash flow and profits – all because there’s been a mindful investment in the brand.

Brand storytelling builds business on many levels and through many media. For example:

• Gain media distribution
• Improve placement at retail
• Generate trial
• Boost social media engagement
• Increase repeat sales and loyalty
• Raise margins and profits

Growth of an artisan brand requires retailers and distributors to invest in the brand by adding it to their portfolio and placing it on their shelf. But before they take that leap, they will likely want to see evidence that your brand is interesting to the consumer. They will want to see that the right story is being told – one that resonates with people and motivates them to make a purchase. Your brand must demonstrate to retailers that it will make the product move, thus helping their bottom line in tandem with yours.

Tell your story – and tell it well

Since the beginning of humankind, people have loved listening to and reading stories. Newsflash: Not much has changed. Your customer wants to hear your story. Retailers want to hear it. The better you communicate your story, the better the results will be. Stories should be crafted to include key narratives that are meaningful to the most important audiences. While this concept varies by product category, there are some common themes that can guide you:

• Instead of just focusing on promoting the quality attributes of the product, tell the back story – the motivation and process behind it all. It’s not just the business you are in or the physical product you produce; it’s also how and why you do business or make the product that will separate you from the pack.
• Sourcing is another critical part of your story. For example: From where do you source your ingredients? How do you treat those sources? How do you make the product? Who do you work with? This is what readers are craving to know. McKinsey research shows that the majority of specialty product audiences must know or want to know a significant amount about the product before converting.

Separate your product from your brand

Many business owners simply believe that product attributes and price are the most important distinguishing features. That’s true, but a brand is much more complex than that. You must separate the product from the brand.

To do this, craft the character and story of the brand as diligently as the product itself. It is often more powerful to talk about some of the softer, more emotionally charged product benefits. Instead of sharing miniscule details of how your food tastes, tell someone how it will make them feel. Will it induce nostalgia? Will it make them feel energized? Will it allow them to feel better about their dietary decisions? That’s why so much of the conversation should revolve around the unique back story of where the product comes from. The special care that goes into making the product. The special people who do it and why they do it. Share the essential emotional drivers with your consumer. After that, the next step is up to them.

Romanticize your story

Romance is a big part of storytelling and branding. We’re not just talking about flawless love stories with fairytale endings. We’re talking about conjuring feelings of excitement and escape from the ordinary. In order to activate the very real emotions of the reader, write with reverence – similarly to how you speak. Accentuate the unique. Provide some extra detail. Draw attention to the most important plot points. Add the same sense of humor and charm that you share when you are giving a personal company tour. Give your brand an actual voice and make the tone apparent and brand appropriate.

It’s also important to show off your key differentiators. Everyone is unique, but what specifically makes someone who they are? This same philosophy can be applied to a brand. Your brand’s key differentiators may be programs or innovations that define your values. Meister Cheese’s Cow’s First program is a great example of this.

Here are some storytelling elements to consider featuring prominently across your owned media:

• Show archival pictures. People are enamored with history, and visualizing how the company has grown over the years further demonstrates the hard work put in to create a successful brand.
• Share awards you’ve won and prominent recognitions you’ve received.
• Talk about the physical land you’re on, including any environmental concerns, if applicable.
• Share how well you take care of the people who work for you. Culture and respect are extremely important.
• Share how and why you are involved in the community including charities and nonprofits you support
• Be transparent. If you have old equipment, tell them that you do it by hand. If you have new equipment, talk about how clean your product is.

Artisans often don’t see the magic in what they do – because they do it all day, every day. And sometimes, they don’t necessarily feel that their story is that much different than the other excellent producer down the street. Give yourself some credit and accept the fact that you are indeed exceptional. There’s room in the market for you, but it all comes down to telling your one-of-a-kind story.

If you’d like help shaping your brand story, reach out to bbennett@stirstuff.com.