As the frozen yogurt market becomes ever more crowded competitive, the stronger, more successful brands are the ones that offer distinctive benefits that consumers prefer. Preference translates into a higher willingness to pay and loyalty. How does a frozen yogurt shop define its brand? We asked IFYA’s Packaging and Branding Expert, Andy Lin, to provide branding advice for frozen yogurt stores. Andy is the Web and Marketing Manager for CarryOutSupplies.com.
The Importance of Branding in Today’s Competitive Frozen Yogurt Market
By Andy Lin
Frozen yogurt has been at the forefront of the foodservice dessert sector for the past several years. Despite the market being flooded with frozen yogurt stores, there seems to be a new froyo store popping up around the corner every month. As the leading disposable foodservice custom print packaging supplier for the frozen yogurt industry, we (at CarryOutSupplies.com) are often asked for branding advice by our frozen yogurt store clients. To answer that question, we need to understand what a brand is.
What is a Brand?
A brand is not just a logo, a business name, a tagline, or any aesthetic elements. Rather, it is how people feel about the business. Everything about the business contributes to the brand identity: the products, service, people, price, reputation, store design, atmosphere, etc. The service that CarryOutSupplies.com provides to our clients, custom print cups, is just one of the building blocks that helps create the brand identity. International and national brands spend hundreds of millions on branding each year to build and maintain their brands. But that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t be successful with branding or that it is only meant for big franchises. Many of our franchise clients have been with us since they had only one location. Because of their forward thinking they saw the importance of a strong brand and they presented their one store as a brand. Over the course of a few years they kept developing on their brands and grew to become successful multi-location franchises.
Defining Your Brand
Every business that wants to be successful in a competitive environment needs to think about its brand and contrary to what most people believe, it isn’t done just by putting your own logo and design on a paper or plastic cup. Even though the frozen yogurt market is still expanding, highly contested areas have been experiencing oversaturation. Furthermore, new dessert ideas are springing up every season, competing for the same consumer base and dollars.
Offering a different, enjoyable experience is what separates your business from the rest. If a business isn’t putting effort into branding, it is making itself vulnerable to the competition. Quite simply, a generic frozen yogurt store is not going to attract customers or keep potential competitors at bay. On the other hand, a strong brand will positively add to the success and longevity of the business.
The questions that all business owners should ask themselves are: What kind of experience do they want to provide to their customers? How do they want to be perceived? For example, do they want to provide an establishment that is fun, trendy, cool, hip, friendly, comfortable and/or family-oriented? To achieve their goals of building a successful brand identity, the surrounding neighborhoods and the targeted demographic should be taken into consideration when formulating a brand identity. It doesn’t make much sense to market to a consumer group that is not in tune with your message.
A good brand identity should convey all that the business wants to be to the customers as completely as possible. It doesn’t need to be set in stone; it should be evolving and adapt to changes in economy, social and popular trends. The identity should be consistently reinforced through the daily operations of the business to the customers and the public. This is good starting point for crafting a brand identity and laying the foundation of a successful business.
About Andy Lin
Since joining the CarryOutSupplies.com family, Andy has become well-versed with the ins and outs of disposable foodservice supplies. Over the years, Andy has assisted clients throughout the U.S. by giving special attention to their needs regarding quality, branding, operations, and cost saving. He understands what is truly important in the industry in order to succeed and stand out from the crowd.
About CarryOutSupplies.com
CarryOutSupplies.com caters to the US foodservice industry by supplying generic and custom printed disposable supplies. Since the very the beginning of the fro-yo boom, CarryOutSupplies.com has been serving the frozen yogurt industry and helping stores and franchises propel their brand and image to new heights.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Frozen Yogurt Association.
