Building Brand Loyalty : The Whole Foods Hack

Whole Foods is a store that knows how to introduce new and exciting products and make them a success. We look at the techniques they use to do this well, repeatedly. Watch and learn.

For beverage innovators, Whole Foods is the holy grail of platforms to introduce exciting new products to a receptive audience. Of all the growth strategies for your beverage brand, arriving and succeeding in this wildly successful natural foods chain is a surefire way to boost your consumer base and sales.

Whole Foods is known for trailblazing—introducing unique, natural, and local products to its consumers before they catch on in other markets and spread nationwide. They featured organic produce as a staple before consumers could find organic choices at other grocery stores. The Whole Foods method of using foragers to go forth into the community to find new and interesting food and beverage items has even been adopted by other larger chains such as Sam’s.

The Consumer Connection

This focus on locality, originality, and quality is what makes Whole Foods such fertile ground for innovative beverage brands. As a startup, success is not defined by how many stores you’re in. It’s defined by how many loyal consumers you have.

What defines a loyal consumer? Ideally, you’d like people to become daily drinkers of your product. In order to hit your first one million dollars in revenue, you need to build a base of 2,500 daily drinkers. The best place to dig for these consumers is right in your own back yard. The average person drinks 8 to 10 beverages each day. You need to make sure that your brand is one of them.

Early Adopters

As a beverage startup, your target audience for loyal consumers will be "early adopters," or consumers who are on the hunt for new products. These are informed consumers who like to fully understand the product you’re offering. They’re also people who read labels and want to be informed about the food choices they make. This is what makes Whole Foods such a wonderful venue for new products, as its customer base fits that profile.

As you find and connect with those early adopters, they’ll start to have a positive impact on your sales. 1.5% of consumers can drive 80% of the sales for the average new product. Those are significant numbers, especially when your marketing resources are limited. These new customers will become your brand champions, recommending it to friends and family members. Because 55% of brand decisions are made by word-of-mouth recommendations, this will help you grow from early adopters outward to new customers.

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