Three Steps to Messaging a Tech-Enabled Food to Consumers

Storytelling is most effective when it resonates deeply with its audience.

In my experience crafting marketing strategies and messaging for new products made with innovative technology, from plant-based proteins to food grown with CRISPR, it is important to effectively connect the technology to the familiar habits, rituals, and needs that a potential consumer faces in everyday life.

When creating an effective storytelling strategy for a tech-enabled innovation, brand, or product, I use a three-step approach:

1.  Is the technology expressed using familiar, approachable language and images?

2. Is it presented in a way that is relevant to the consumer?

3. Is the story original?

First, I believe that it is important to use common, familiar terms and visuals to express the application of technology to a new food. It is essential that the story told is authentic to the process -- for example, if a product is "field-grown" or "made with the latest in fermentation, a process that has been used to preserve or make food for 12,000 years." By establishing a foundation based in the familiar or proven, the listener is more likely to follow you deeper into the tech aspects of your story.

Second, once consumers are familiar, it is important to make the technology relevant – how will the tech-enabled food address consumer pain points? For example, will it help the vegetarian to get more protein into their diet? Will it encourage a picky eater to consume more fruit? It is imperative that consumers make the connection that the tech-enabled food is solving a problem for them -- that the "why" behind it is meaningful to their life. In addition, as adults here in the U.S., particularly younger ones, become more attuned to the impacts that a changing climate and other global challenges will have on the foods they eat, broadening a brand or product's story to include how the emerging food technology that they use addresses or stands to address those challenges will only grow in importance. This might include helping producers to grow or make products with fewer inputs, like water, or to deliver protein options without harvesting animals.

And third, it is important to tell original, nuanced stories. How can you, as a leader, tell stories in new ways? Your food products likely deliver meaningful differentiation to consumers and channel partners -- make your unique storytelling as differentiated as your products.

All-in-all, storytelling is one of the most important ways to communicate your differentiated tech-enabled products. So, once your familiar, relevant, and original story has been crafted, weave that narrative into speeches, into blog posts, into short-form video to “get the word out” on how your new product will make a difference for both individual consumers and society more broadly.

Some tactics to consider when crafting your story include:

• Get out in the field or plant. What do you see? What surprises you? What do the people on the front lines have to say?
• Follow culinary trends. What are well-known chefs excited about? What food trends are popular on social media?
• Gather thoughtful insights from other experts. Check out Mike Lee of The Future Market or The Hartman Group for fresh perspectives on tech and food.