Wildfarmed is a regenerative food company that sells flour and bread.
They work with 100 farmers across the UK and France to produce wheat in a regenerative way and then selling it to bakeries, pizza shops.
Before, most of their sales were B2B, with their flour being an ingredient for others, which meant that the Wildfarmed brand was never really center stage.
That all changes with the launch of their own branded breads across supermarkets in the UK.
Now they need customers to get onboard and buy their products.
Like with all of these Brand spotlight posts, I’m trying to find out how brands like Wildfarmed sell the benefits of regenerative agriculture.
Let’s jump in!
The brand
The Wildfarmed brand oozes cool, not surprising for a company co-founded by half of Groove Armada.
The visual identity is pretty bold: bold all caps text, bright colors, interesting graphics and lots of movement.
Now I’d like to cover how Wildfarmed communicates at each of the different stages of a simple funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion & advocacy.
Awareness
In the awareness stage, Wildfarmed is to reach new people that haven’t heard about their brands, products or farming practices.
One of the most common ways to do that is through advertising.
And Wildfarmed chose the launch of its first TV commercial well. They ran it alongside the TV show Clarkson’s Farm.
Andy from Wildfarmed was also featured on the show where he put the concept and principles of regenerative agriculture into action. You can see a clip of that on their Instagram.
The visual style of the ad build further on the brand:
It’s a pretty wacky and very different commercial.
And while almost the entire commercial shows the transformation of a seed into the grain and bread, it stays a long way from the word regenerative, principles or production methods. (Probably rightfully so!)
The dreary and artificial office is transformed into a field full of grains and flowers.
Words that are used:
- Transforming landscapes
- Reconnect to the wild
- Life changing bread
This last one, one person experiencing the benefits of the “life changing” bread seems to be one of the cornerstones of their campaign.
The Life Changing phrase is used throughout their marketing. From this commercial to their site all the way to the packaging.
Here is an interesting quote from George Lamb that shows they’re being very strategic about how to communicate regenerative:
“We could have very easily fallen into a regenerative story, and at the beginning we did. We were going: ‘Oh, we’re retaining water and sequestering carbon and increasing biodiversity.’ All that stuff’s totally valid, but you can’t start a conversation with it. I’ve got to pull you in with emotion,” he says.
“When you see us on shelf, we’re not going to look like anything else in the bread aisle. We will catch your attention. And then you have the opportunity to unravel this amazing story.
“You might just want to go to the first layer, which is Groove Armada and the fella off the telly. Or you might want to start getting into nematodes and worms. However far you want to go, we’ve got something that will pull you in.”
Consideration
In the next phase of the marketing funnel targets people that have heard about Wildfarmed. Or they saw the wacky ad
When you have heard of Wildfarmed, or seen their ad
If we take a look at their Instagram, we can see it in full action:
There is almost a 50-50 mix between posts that talk about the Wildfarmed story, regenerative agriculture, and posts that put the product, its bread, front and center. These aren’t boring loaves of bread, but mouth watering sandwiches.
One other message that they’re telling at this point is about the contents of the actual product: no additives, palm oil, etc.
Conversion
Then if all went well, customers find themselves in the bread isle of their local supermarket, see Wildfarmed bread and buy it.
To be clear, a small minority customers will follow the exact funnel we’ve outlined above: they see the ad, follow the Instagram and now put Wildfarmed bread on their shopping list.
But in most other cases, a customer is doing the weekly shopping while at the same time trying to keep track of their kid running around the supermarket, they need bread and are staring at all the different options.
If there is no prior history, as is the case with most new products, the bulk of the selling is done on the shelves, potentially helped by additional point of sale materials.
The packaging needs to pull the biggest weight. Here is what a Wildfarmed bread looks like:
I’m not an expert on bread isles in UK supermarkets, but I’m sure the packaging is pretty different from other products.
The bright green color, big logo and a bunch of wacky visuals.
Some of usual culprits like stalks of grain, butterflies and birds, but also disco balls, tractors and a sound system.
The phrase “Life Changing” is again used. And if you pull the product from the shelves, there are a few extras on the packaging:
- Super tasty
- Naturally nutritious
- Farmer friendly
- 100% traceable supply chain
This tells a bit more about their story and network of growers. But it doesn’t really mention anything about regeneration, soil, nature, biodiversity, etc.
This is not a knock on Wildfarmed. I’m writing this article because I’m fascinated at how they communicate this to their customers!
To wrap off this stage, I want to share an interesting quote from Waitrose brand innovation manager Oliver Chadwyck-Healey:
We know our customers care about where their food comes from, and have a real appetite for delicious products, which is why working with Wildfarmed is the perfect recipe.
Oliver Chadwyck-Healey, Waitrose brand innovation manager
From that quote, “have a real appetite for delicious products” probably is the most important part.
Wildfarmed isn’t on the shelves because it is regenerative. It is there because it a solid product.
Advocacy
The work is not done when the sale is made. If a customer is happy, you can try ti theurn them into an advocate for your brand.
Right now it’s unclear how Wildfarmed is doing this, maybe they haven’t thought about this yet. Or it’s hidden from me because I’ve never had any of their products.
But if I find something, I’ll update this section!
Leave a Reply