Is being regenerative enough?

 Is being regenerative enough for consumers to buy your product?

The main challenge in marketing regenerative food products is that most consumers don’t know what “regenerative” means.

So unless you want to sell to the 0.01% of people who know it and care enough to seek out these products, it’s not the main purchase driver.

This idea was well articulated by Ladd Wahlen on the Regen Brands podcast.

Ladd is a potato farmer and runs Roots Potato Chips, a small US based regenerative brand of potato chips.

Even though they had been telling their regenerative story on the back of their packs, their initial traction did not come from that.

None of our distribution was because of the regenerative story. It came from having an artisanal, local and very tasty product.

Ladd Wahlen from Roots Potato Chips

Customers cared more about them being Non GMO or glyphosate free.

So instead of using regenerative as the jumping off point and traying to tell that (complex) story, it’s more effective to understand why consumers buy the product today, and then have regenerative provide deeper meaning to that.

So if people care most about the taste and unique story of the brand how does regeneration play into that?

Taste: growing a potato using regenerative agriculture results in a super tasty potato packed with nutrients. Because our factory sits next to our potato fields, we can turn every potato into chips within hours, making sure our chips are as fresh as they can be.

Unique story: Potato farming is very common in the state of Idaho. But lack of rain and winds are turning fields into dust. Most farmers combat this with more machinery and inputs to keep things growing. But it’s becoming harder every season, and wiping out farmer families that have been living in the region for generations. Regenerative agriculture offers a way out. By refocusing attention on the soil we become more resilient, grow a more consistent crop, and keep our farming communities together.

One last insight I took away from this excellent episode by AC & Kyle was how being regenerative can help with retention. If consumers like your products, they get involved which keeps you top of mind next time they need to buy something.