We were able to secure a number of thought leadership articles, product reviews and reader competitions, as well as significant social media activity.
As marketers, we know that brand differentiation is crucial. If potential customers aren’t sure what your brand does better than its competitors, then why would they choose to buy from you?
Yet there’s a strange phenomenon that can occur when you’re responsible for marketing your brand. Although you’re tasked with promoting the benefits of your business on a daily basis, it can be complex to identify what really sets your brand apart from the crowd.
That’s why many businesses turn to external marketing agencies for support. It can be much easier for us to see what makes a brand unique than it is for their own marketing team, because we can take an objective view of their market and their position within it.
And that’s exactly what we did with Nature’s Feast, a leading bird seed company that needed some support with building brand awareness. Keep reading to find out how we helped them to achieve sell-out sales.
Understanding Nature’s Feast
Nature’s Feast is a bird seed provider that truly cares about the birds it feeds. Passionate about keeping wild birds fed and healthy, they develop seed mixes that they enjoy and that provide all the nutrients they need.
In fact, the team at Nature’s Feast actually asked birds what they want in their feeders. They carried out their pioneering and scientifically proven Optimum Foraging Study to identify the feeding preferences of different types of British birds.
The data they collected has helped them to develop bird seed blends that attract a range of bird species into the gardens of those who scatter them.
What was the challenge?
Despite taking a novel approach to product development, Nature’s Feast was struggling to stand out in the bird seed market. They were keen to reach customers interested in wildlife conservation and home and garden topics, but they weren’t sure how to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Nature’s Feast therefore tasked Cognition with devising and implementing a national campaign to boost its brand awareness and market share.
Our strategy for building brand awareness
To our team, Nature’s Feast’s unique selling point was clear. Their Optimum Foraging Study is an excellent piece of research that details the ingredients that most appeal to different species of bird.
But this USP wasn’t quite as obvious to their audience, because although Nature’s Feast used the data from the study to inform their bird seed blends, they hadn’t published it.
We knew that boosting awareness of the Optimum Foraging Study would be a great way to boost awareness of Nature’s Feast as a brand. So we put together a comprehensive media relations campaign and a targeted blogger engagement programme to launch the study and bring it to the attention of Nature’s Feast’s target audience.
So successful they sold out
We were successful in securing a number of thought leadership articles, product reviews and reader competitions for Nature’s Feast, as well as significant social media activity.
With Cognition’s support, Nature’s Feast achieved:
- Coverage in a range of high-profile and national media titles, including The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Birdwatching Magazine and Gardens Illustrated.
- A significant increase in social media traffic, including more than 1,000 new Twitter followers, and a 149% increase in visits to Nature Feast’s website.
- Strong relationships and positive online product reviews generated through blogger engagement.
In fact, one of these relationships resulted in a Nature’s Feast feeder being featured on BBC Gardeners’ World and subsequently selling out.
Nature’s Feast were delighted with these results, and now clearly feature the Optimum Foraging Study in their product and marketing collateral to make sure their audience understands why they should choose Nature’s Feast’s bird feed.
Struggling to stand out from the crowd?
If you could use some support in building your business’s brand awareness, contact our team of marketing experts today.
