Hi Liz,

Thanks for your great initiative in asking the question. Branding is one of the hardest but also one of the most exciting challenges to overcome.

I had a look at your website, and you do have a great range of herbs and spices. I can see what you're trying to achieve by targeting a niche, but it's unclear the exact niche you're targeting, whether it be those looking for only pure herbs and spices with no preservatives that are naturally gluten free, or those who are looking for premium brands, in which case I couldn't tell really tell your premium brands from non-premium brands either. I also see that most of your retailers / stores are based in Victoria currently, perhaps location is the niche you are considering?

In any case, deciding on your niche is critical. You need to based your decisions on your goals, your successes to-date, your products and what customers told you they like about what you offer. It will be easier to go from there one you know the niche you're targeting. For instance, I see you have lots of spices beyond those used in curry, and it wouldn't do it justice to be branded as "curry creations", unless of you have had so much success here that curry herbs and spices is what you're going to focus on.

By the way, congrats on having a website. Just a quick observation: I can see a lot of potential for creating content by telling a story behind each of you herbs and spices and the mix blend. These are what food bloggers crave for. I love cooking because I love the stories, the culture, the origin, the adventure, the medicinal benefits, and so forth. Just imagine how such content can help draw traffic to your site but also bring your brand to life, whatever you decide to go with..

Hi Liz, Your heading for this questions poses an interesting dilemma - with different product lines how do you break down and make it clear for your customers what they are buying (and hopefully enjoying) while leveraging the rest of your business and your brand. As Phil said above, concisely identifying and setting parameters around your niche is vital. Whether you have one niche market you are targeting or several with different product lines (curry, garden, etc), each should have rules around it and what it does. My initial opinion for you would be to go for a by fourleaves type strategy. It will allow you to leverage your overal brand wherever you choose to head, or if you choose to add or change the niches you sell to. It is important though that whatever your product, it fits under your overall umbrella. While the branding and marketing side is important, ultimately it is the experience your customers have of your products and "fourleaves" which will guide them back to you. Great product and a name to pin it to will win over customers more than a catchy sub-brand.

My thoughts are...

1. Do an analysis of what your competition is doing.

2. Ask, "what are our ideal customers doing when they want to buy spices and how can you appeal to them with packaging, image etc.

3. What set's your spices apart from the rest, in the Supermarket the spice mixes are getting complex even for the std spice Co's.

4. What feedback have you had from what you are currently selling and how can you use that to your advantage.

5. Have you been able to create a focus group of ideal customers to chat to them about what you have?

Hi Liz

Great question and many times we ask this of businesses to get them thinking about what they are trying to achieve. House of brands (usually where the customer targets are different) or branded house (usually where customer could buy multiple products in similar product category - Apple) and it depends on your long term business goals.  

Question you could normally start with are what your plans for diversification, who are your customers now, who are you ideal customers?

Then work out the benefits of you products over the competition so you can identify this quickly. Currently your websites are a catalogue for resellers, so the next level of questions

1.       -are you are targeting business to resell or

2.       are you selling to retail customer, who will then go looking for your product.

It is possible to do both but this must be clear from the front page and the website must lead then down the correct path easily. This is a combination of design, imagery and messaging.

Getting back to your branding question it is all about what customers are you targeting, then you can decide best way to execute. Thanks Scott

Hi Liz,

Can you elaborate on your question? What help do you need from the community? Have you considered who your target customers are and what will resonate with them? Look at what / how your niche market is finding products similar to yours. How will your product stand out?

Regards,

Phil