Rebranding to build:
A privately owned supplement company competes in the VC-backed big leagues
A small, privately owned perinatal supplement company needed to rebrand their homegrown look and build a messaging strategy to make them more competitive in a category filled with big VC-backed, doctor-recommended supplement brands. Foundationally, the product was far superior to its competitors, but at a premium price point, it needed to boost its legitimacy by refining its visual impact and honing its messaging to focus on its major differentiator: meticulous formulation by a seasoned fertility dietitian.
Challenges
Any rebrand faces significant challenges:
- With so many doctor-formulated and doctor-recommended competitors, differentiating why a highly specialized Registered Dietitian should be the professional doing this work was key, but not yet clicking with audiences
- No visual materials or guidelines
- No formalized foundational messaging or communications strategy
- No repository of information or educational materials for potential consumers coming from different fertility experiences and walks of life
Approach
I led the charge in taking the brand’s marketing strategy and execution forward, both in terms of product + sales and building industry authority.
Rebranding to expand: Dropped the initial branding, redefined the aesthetic, and, most importantly, made it easy for consumers of the initial iteration to understand and feel excited about our reasons for the rebrand.
Building the brand’s authority: Created an arsenal of SEO-focused content that was as goal-oriented as it was authentic (e.g., organic and paid social, blogs, newsletters, video). Content that is shareable and adds value at no charge is a proven way to garner respect and goodwill, blurring the lines between paid, owned, and earned media to increase sales and foster word-of-mouth advertising.
Digital communications strategy: Devised and executed on a website UX overhaul, Amazon A+ content, longform educational content strategy including blogs and e-books, and social media and email marketing initiatives that made the clinical, highly scientific aspects of the brand more easily digestible for larger market demographics.
Creating an experience: Orchestrated oppotunities to establish the founder as an expert and thought leader in the space while focusing on creating more consumer-focused experiences (e.g., hosting industry panels geared toward potential customers, getting the previously e-comm exclusive product into pop-up shops with the robust educational materials, designing booths for trade shows and practitioner retreats, etc.).
Results
Bottom line growth: In my time running marketing in-house, FullWell’s annual profits grew to $10MM, all as the company remained privately owned by the founder.
Authority score & brand building: The brand had a blog that consisted of five non-optimized articles when I came in. I developed a long-term brand-building strategy that took our content creation past the level of even our competitors, ghostwriting all long-form scientific content to be accessible and digestible for all of our readers, adding in tailored video and audio content, and utilizing metrics to dictate our email marketing and social movements. Our owned media output was so successful that it led
Demand generation: Brand authority created sales growth, and that brand trust bore demand for new products that customers were getting elsewhere but wanted from FullWell (e.g., fertility supplements, sleep and relaxation aids, etc.). This greatly extended the customer LTV, keeping the product on their shelf through multiple lifestages to open the door for the company’s continual growth.
