Hello, friends –

 

It's been a whirlwind month here at Cider HQ (and, honestly, everywhere?!). But we couldn't let it get to March without saying hello and sharing what we've been thinking about.

 

Below, you'll find a few reflections from our recent retreat in Mexico with the wonderful Ladies Who Strategize, a beautifully simple example of authentic brand communications by a small spice company, and reflections from one of our favorite client partners.

 

Thanks, as always, for being here. And while our dance card is full through much of the first half of this year, we'd love to tackle any and all of your thorniest brand problems in Q3! Drop us a line, and let's chat.

 

Cheers,

Laura

 

A friend recently shared with me an email from the up-and-coming spice brand Diaspora Co. entitled, “We know our packaging isn't great…”

What a headline!

 

The company had been getting complaints, it seems, about the challenges of opening and closing their square-shaped tins. Faulty foil meant mid-shipment spills were becoming commonplace. And the structure wasn't keeping out the moisture, so spices were clumping.  In short – they had a pretty big problem on their hands.*

 

But Diaspora's founder decided to leverage this moment for brand building, rather than crisis comms – embracing proactive storytelling rather than reactive justifications. In three key steps,  she taught a masterclass in honest-to-goodness brand leadership:

 

Diaspora's founder didn't sugarcoat the fact that they'd disappointed people with their faulty packaging. There was no dancing around the issues, and there was no vague and fluffy allusion to “optimization” moving forward. She used clear and accessible language to outline the problem, and describe what they were doing to address it with new packaging rolling out next year.

 

The next thing she did was to explain all the ways the new packaging would improve the customer experience. From ensuring the integrity and quality of the spices to the operational and financial requirements of the fulfillment process, all of it came back to the way the customers would benefit from innovation. It's the customers, stupid!

 

A mea culpa is nice. A disarming moment of transparency is noteworthy. But what really stuck out to me is that Diaspora's founder wasn't afraid to make an ask of her community – for their patience, and for their patronage. In order for her to grow and improve the business, her customers need to stick by her. And so she quite simply asked for that. Honestly.