Influence Food: how to stand out as a food brand
Influence marketing is being developed in the food industry sector. This sector has the most sharing on social networks. There are even more than 170 million publications on Instagram. The results have demonstrated a high visibility of communications that are being exploited progressively.
The impact of a food influence campaign on food products is taking up more and more of the brand's identity. The strategy adopted by the influencers has focused on targeting customers according to the content of each food brand. In view of these advances, calling on kitchen specialists for the taste qualities of the food product is no longer useful.
What we need to know about the place of influencers
With the advent of social networks such as Instagram, food brand communications have become increasingly attractive to Internet users. For the influencer, the principle is to capture their attention to put them in confidence with food brands.
Communication is becoming more and more interesting since 1 in 3 people are in contact with an influencer on social networks. Currently, customers and prospects are engaged to finalize purchases with the promotion of food products on the internet.
Marketing influence has taken over a large part of the communication market. Considering the advantages deriving from marketing influence, brands are considering revising their communication strategies, especially in terms of food influence. Attracting the attention of the internet user and encouraging him/her to read and follow closely the content published on a social network platform is enough to broaden the audience of an influencer. Today, advertising campaigns entrusted to celebrities have become "has-beens" and are kept in discounts. Today, the trust and sincerity of influencers towards clients has gained ground over the successes of celebrities and their audiences. The results are now being seen with a higher rate of brand engagement.
Set up an influence strategy to have a unique result
Social networks are currently advocating the use of legitimacy on their sites. Like users, developers as well as founders believe that this value should be seen as a general trend to adopt.
For food brand communications, food influence messages focus on two main strategies:
- The presentation of the intrinsic qualities of the product (presentation, taste, flavours, nutritional intake, etc.). Communication must be straightforward and clear. However, since its credibility is based on the clarity of the message, too much emphasis should not be placed on the brand.
- Guidance on additional information topics such as product source, local suppliers, commitment to sustainable agriculture, transparency, recycling of packaging, support for humanitarian causes, etc.
To confirm this "off-product" mechanism of influence in the advertising campaign, the Swiss food brand Nestlé opened the doors of its production sites to food influencers.
Find a relevant influencer who will be able to improve the image of your product
The choice of the best influencer for the food brand will be conditioned by several criteria. This information forms the basis for the search for the right partner. The first selection criterion will be the quality of the influencer's audience and professional sector.
The choice of hearing will have to be carefully analysed. Between two influencers, the first of which has a large community but may be opportunistic, and an influencer with a much smaller community but well engaged with it, the choice must be well arbitrated. Nevertheless, to bring down the balance, in a food influence marketing campaign, it is much more preferable to opt for a good engagement even with a much smaller audience.
The experience of the chosen influencer is of great importance since he or she will be responsible for ensuring the influence marketing strategy and the messages to be conveyed accordingly. Priority will then be given to the engagement rate in the influencer evaluation. As far as the audience is concerned, it must be recognized that an influencer may have tens of thousands of followers, but if they do not react to their influencer's publications, this audience remains static and does not represent a communication relay for the brands.
First of all, it will be necessary to look for the rising star through social networks and thus identify the audience with a good engagement rate among the followers of the brand presented. For this point, it will be necessary to confirm a person's commitment rather than their publications or even their social actions. Research should be carried out in depth on all social networks, focusing on well-defined geographical areas. This technique can be time consuming.
But it is also possible to find food influencers through influencer platforms like Influspy. With a series of unique features, the tool will be able to provide insight into influencers who know the brand while generating engagement.
Building a trusting partnership
Establishing a climate of trust with influencers is of paramount importance. The involvement of influencers is crucial for the brand. The contact must be as personal as possible in order to achieve the performance of the results.
Influencers will be responsible for the messages that will inspire confidence in the brand. The simpler and clearer the messages, the more qualitative the content will be. It must be recognized that the same requirement for involvement is for everyone. Teams will need to trust new influencers and treat them as colleagues as they should be.
Any influencer can give free rein to his ideas and performances with the authenticity and spontaneity of the contents of the messages to be communicated. Nevertheless and despite everything, the identity of the influencer must not be hidden behind the product to be promoted. To this end, the brand will also assume healthy collaborations on the subjects to be worked on. Once these conditions are well met, a collaboration becomes possible and the influence strategy is confirmed.
