when i walked into whole foods last week, bam, i was immediately surrounded by eye-catching products. grocery stores rely on consumer behavior to maximize revenue, but what has always fascinated me is the way products are arranged.
how do you choose between 10 oat milk options? is it the placement? is it the brand recognition?
i ask myself these questions whenever i am at the grocery store. maybe its the adhd talking, maybe its my love for product marketing, who’s to say.
below is my guide, to how a brand can stand out in a world filled with oat milks:
leverage color and design to your advantage - while i enjoy the marketing of minor figures (pictured below), i am never going to choose them as my oatmilk. let me tell you why. (maybe i should also tell them) i think their packaging and design are great - minimal, clearly appealing to a younger audience, trendy - but they lack a clear product and why they are better. they are simply relying on their customer to choose them for their cool design and not much else. i think you can leverage design, but you also need the next two bullets on the checklist:
callout what the item is, and clearly - i am usually wondering, what are you, oatmilk? spell out what you are, and make it super clear. what i dislike about the minor figures oatmilk is that they are doing too much with their design. just say what you are, say you are oat milk that is better for ____ reason + a trendy design. where you fail to grab a potential customer’s attention is when you lack all 3 of these and only have an eye-grabbing design.
tell me how you are the best option, and fast - product marketing 101; differentiate! when i’m quickly scanning oatmilks, i’m looking for an oatmilk that checks all 3 boxes for me. what i like specifically about oatly, is that they tell you their story on the side of the box. they have excellent packaging, a clear product, and share with you why they are the best option fast: “No dairy. No nuts, No gluten.” and even appeal to our ethos with a story about how by purchasing their oat milk, you are essentially changing the world. again, oatly is checking off all 3 bullet points and in part explains their success to dominate the oatmilk industry, even partnering with starbucks.
on the way out of the grocery store, once i have purchased my oat milk of choice, i’m confronted with the “i really shouldn’t buy it but i really want it” section — i.e. the sweets, cookies, and candies at the exit. why does this happen? how do brands capitalize on consumer behavior and psychology? "two-thirds of what we buy in the supermarket we had no intention of buying," says consumer expert Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. the majority of this revenue actually comes from when you are in line to check out, giving you enough time to toss something you didn’t need into your cart. you try to rationalize this purchase by thinking to yourself: “well, i already spent 50 bucks, what’s 4 more?” or “wow, those chocolate-covered peanut butter cups sound great right now”
so, by now you are probably wondering: what is my oatmilk of choice?
answer: chobani extra creamy
and guess what, chobani checks off all 3 bullet points (leveraging color, a clear callout, and the “tell me why you are better”)1. what i like most is that chobani differentiates each type of oat milk by colors (i know that the one i buy is the red one, not the yellow one) and their branding is clear as day.
next time you are at the grocery store, let me know which oat milk you pick up (and if you are not drinking oat milk…well…i guess the same rules apply?)
these are made up marketing terms, by me. but i think they are rather effective.