Brand Empowerment Presentation presented by Trinity Brand Group 1/30/19.

Matthew Youngblood and Paul Kagiwada of Trinity Brand Group were greeted by a full house on Wednesday, January 30th.  Kicking off the first of Naturally Bay Area’s Education Series for 2019, the two shared “Best Practices for Brand Empowerment: From CPG to CBD and Beyond.”

They led the conversation encouraging companies and brands to look inward and get to know themselves by asking, “What are we?” “What are we not?” and, “What do we stand for?” By defining the brand, you realize you cannot be all things to all people. They shared examples about the importance of striking a balance and understanding what a brand brings from both a functional and emotional perspective. Functional features include innovation, new benefits or a unique product. Emotional features tell a story about the mission, the founders or the origins. Answering these questions and going through this process helps guide the creation of a brand positioning statement that includes a central brand idea, reasons to believe, behaviors and personality. It aligns the people and the business around a singular idea and guides decision making, behavior and expression. Matthew and Paul provided insight and tips on how to assess the “shopability” of a product, encouraging brand owners to walk in their consumers shoes. Will the brand or product come to mind while the consumer is shopping? Do consumers know how or where to find it?

Some of their tips:

• Stand out don’t stick out
• Identify category norms and flex from there
• Consider how you are using your packaging (color, graphics, structure, etc.)
• Design with the future in mind
• Let your brand’s authentic personality shine through
• Reward consumer engagement with special details and discoveries

While the information above only captures some of the highlights, Matthew and Paul filled the hour with a plethora of quality information and were willing to stay and answer the many questions of the group following. Thank you to Trinity Brand Group for their support of Naturally Bay Area and the natural products community.