Hey Outliers ☀️
How’s your week been?
I have a quick favour to ask before we get into this week’s email…
When do you prefer to receive The Outliers Newsletter?
We used to send it during the week on a Wednesday afternoon but have sent the last few out on a Sunday evening which seems to work well.
If you could reply to this email with ‘during the week’ or ‘at the weekend’ that would be super helpful.
Thank you ✌🏼
Now, onto today’s story…
Here’s what to expect today:
📰 Story: How Dr Will’s got people to choose them over Heinz
🧠 Insight: Know why your audience loves something before you offer an alternative
💪🏼 DIY: How to convince people to switch to your brand
🔗 Good links: A handy framework, some good advice and something delicious!
📰 Story: How Dr Will’s got people to choose them over Heinz
Dr Will’s make great tasting, naturally sweetened condiments.
And their ketchup contains 50% less sugar than the leading ketchup brand.
The brand was started in 2015 by co-founders Will and Josh.
Will is an actual doctor which is where the name comes from.
Dr Will’s stemmed from a story Dr. Will was told about parents having to add sugary ketchup to get their children to eat their vegetables.
This just didn’t add up; there had to be a better way. And so Dr Will’s was born to make condiments that made food better, not unhealthy.
But the condiments industry is a tough place to be.
You’re going up against childhood memories and a go-to option that’s become more of a habit than a choice for many.
“We have had to overcome some pretty ingrained and strong feelings to get people to buy our stuff. But with a great product and mission, it's not impossible.” — Dr Will
Changing behaviours like that is HARD but, as Will says, not impossible and Dr Will’s have certainly found a route to success.
They’ve done 4 things exceptionally well that, from an outside perspective, I think have played into their winning formula:
👉 They REALLY got to know their audience. Understanding what they like about the current options, what worries them and what they’re willing to compromise on gave Dr Will’s insight for both developing and marketing their product.
👉 They built the brand around Dr Will. A smart move. Having a doctor as the founder is not something that should be kept quiet and Dr Will’s have used this story brilliantly. Dr Will appears in a lot of their content helping to build trust and authenticity for the brand.
👉 Found a way to standout on the shelves. All of their competitors at the time looked the same, so they found a way to standout visually with their branding and get people thinking. Read more from Dr Will on this >
👉 Made the switch appealing through great content. Their content is educational (why the high sugar content in current options is bad) AND fun — recipes, contests and humour based content help add personality and more trust to the brand.
All in all, they’ve created a product AND brand that convinces people to confront their habits and try something that’s a hell of a lot better for them!
🧠 Insight: Know why your audience loves something before you offer an alternative
For Dr Will’s, understanding that people do like the sweetness of tomato ketchup and won’t compromise on taste when it comes to choosing a brand meant they knew they had to focus on getting the flavour spot on.
Clarity around the problem they were solving also gave their messaging direction, they lead with ‘great tasting’ rather than ‘healthy’ or ‘less sugar’.
Knowing your audience well and understanding why people make choices will guide you in all future decision making.
💪🏼 DIY: How to convince people to switch to your brand
👉 Get to know your audience really well, as early on as possible. A lot of startups leave it too late and produce something that people are actually not that interested in. By knowing your audience well right from the beginning allows you to make tweaks to your product so that it’s more appealing.
👉 Be very clear on the switch you want them to make and how it benefits them. Now you can use X instead of Y and here’s the benefit.
👉 Produce content that builds trust and helps people feel confident in the big decision they’re making to try something new and different.
👉 Get lots of social proof and use it well. Dr Will’s has loads of product previews at the bottom of every single product page — it instantly helps us see that other people are super happy, making the switch less painful.
🔗 Good links
🔗 A framework for better understanding your audience >
🔗 How to create shareable content >
🔗 Dr Will’s recipes (too good not to share) >
💌 Tell us what you’d like help with…
We started this newsletter for entrepreneurs just like you, and we want it to be as helpful as it possibly can. So tell us what you’d like help with and we’ll dig into it.
Or if there’s a brand you’d like to know more about, let us know and we’ll reach out to them.
Until next week…
Keep being an Outlier,
J + K