SEEDWISE
LEVERAGING A CHALLENGER’S FIERCEST WEAPON: THE MIGHTY PEN
BACKGROUND
Operating as a challenger brand is as much a state of mind as it is a state of being. A mental switch that, once flipped, can dramatically change how a brand views its competitors, its category, and most importantly, itself.
Fully embraced, a challenger mindset can and should touch every part of a brand’s business, but nowhere is this shift more readily apparent than in its messaging.
Creative writing, as applied to headlines, copy, concepts and content, will not only form the largest portion of any challenger’s advertising arsenal, but also define the character and quality of all of their marketing efforts. It will serve as, quite literally, the voice and personality of the brand across every touchpoint.
Here’s a peek into our Brand Articulation process.
ISSUE
For a brand based solely on seeds, SeedWise had a lot to say. These mighty morsels have so many benefits — almost too many benefits. When written out, they lacked a singular, focused and compelling story. Power? Protein? Nutrition? Sustainability? Do–goodery? SeedWise was tempted to say it all — and that was part of the problem.
ANSWER
We had to help this challenger brand find their insight…that ONE nugget of truth that gets heads nodding before we share the full creative expression. And rather than listing off attributes, we needed to start building meaning beyond the product alone.
So, we started by crafting a positioning statement, ultimately answering the question: “What does SeedWise provide that its competitors do not, and that its customers want and need?” We uncovered this unimpeachable truth: From its business practices to its baking processes, SeedWise is uncompromisingly good.
Keep in mind, this is not a tagline. It’s not even a consumer-facing statement. It’s an internal, foundational positioning to inspire all the writing that follows. But to start building SeedWise’s story, we had to break these two words down. What does it mean to them to be uncompromisingly good?
Okay, cool. We’ve got our positioning statement mapped out. The next step in our process is arguably the most important: our defense. We write this in the form of “reasons to believe” — where insights meet attributes. Everything here has to ladder back up to our northstar, “uncompromisingly good,” so there’s no ambiguity about the stand we’re taking.
As Ernest Hemingway famously said, “the only kind of writing is rewriting.” Indeed, this sentiment rings true throughout our Brand Articulation process. Get the thought down, then tweak the dials until the words soar. After a whole lotta mulling and munching, we had four RTBs on our hands; Seeds, Snackability, Taste and Goodness.
So, by this time, we have a pretty good story going. And our clients have some snappy copy to feature on their homepage or paint on their walls back at HQ. (Keep in mind, what we’re sharing here are excerpts from a 60-page deck!)
The final step in our process is the creative test drive. Not ads, really. More like ad-like objects. Is the strategy simple? Ownable? Does it have legs? We have our creative team invest some time to prove it out.
RESULTS
All that work before we even think about execution, you say? Absolutely. Challengers can’t waste time spewing meaningless, unmotivating garbage. They need to know what they’re going to say before they start spending money saying it.
As a result of this process, Seedwise now knows how to taunt (poke the bear, be competitive) and how to flaunt (show off their uniquely ownable truths). Shaping these Fighting Words into social media messaging, testing in the wake of brand positioning revealed that 70% of respondents were likely to try a SeedWise product after exposure to the content.
Do you have a deck full of Fighting Words? If not, give us a ring. We have all 26 letters of the alphabet at our disposal. And we’re not afraid to use them.