Organic Valley is considering shifting its brand positioning from focusing on being organic to focusing on being the best choice. This would help appeal to both diehard organic customers and the untapped middle market. Positioning the brand around simplicity and luxury could work for both groups - diehards would see it as affirming their choice, while the middle appreciates a simple message when overwhelmed by options. Executing this through simple packaging and an authentic message could help the brand succeed in both high-end and mainstream stores.

1. Organic Valley: Thoughts on Positioning
John Carvalho / January 2, 2014

2. Organic Valley’s problem: grow share without alienating
diehards.
How do we create “loyalty beyond reason” in a
commodity market with razor-thin margins?

3. Step 1: Figure out what
makes these Diehards
tick.

4. A hint comes from
understanding
Diehards’ at-shelf
behavior.
According to my
sampling of Whole
Foods employees,
these customers
don’t come in
asking for organic.
They ask for “the best” and
are directed to organic.

5. So, we start to untangle the relationship between “best”
and “organic” in search of a brand value proposition that
can resonate with both Diehards and the untapped
middle.

6. Instead of buying Organic Valley
because it’s organic, what if we
instead propose that you buy
Organic Valley because it’s
simply the best choice, and let
“organic” become a supporting
value?

7. Gourmet
But, being the best does not
simply mean the most epicurean,
the most fancy. Epicurean
appeals to Diehards, but doesn’t
appeal to middle-America
moms, and doesn’t help truly
broaden appeal.

8. Instead, let’s consider two ideas that are often placed in
opposition to each other:
Simplicity / Luxury

9. We’re constantly told luxury is a
question of more. More
horsepower. More flavors. More
features. Instead, we propose
something radical: that the quality
of a product is not related to its
number of ingredients. The luxury
of less. The superiority of
simplicity. Organic Valley is pure,
simple, and the absolute best
choice. And there’s a luxury in
that.

10. What does this do for each of our target audiences?

11. Diehards: profoundly affirming: all we’re doing is
reminding them that the choice they’re already making is
the choice they should have been making all along.

12. Untapped Middle: This is someone who is one step away from
purchase, but is a casualty of information overload: buy this
because Omega-3 promotes heart health- buy that because DHA
promotes brain health. She’s heard organic is a good idea, but
doesn’t feel she knows enough. She wants the best, not as a
badge of status, but because having the best lets her know she’s
taking care of herself and those in her life. She fully understands
she can’t maximize everything, so she wants to maximize the
things that count with the time and dollars she has. Milk, a family
staple, is one of those things.
In a world of noise and inauthenticity, a simple message of
genuine, attainable luxury can shine through like a beacon. What a
relief to know you’ve made the best choice- to not have to
evaluate the benefits of different additives because there aren’t
any.

13. How to Execute
Think of Honest Tea. Buy it at
Whole Foods? You’d think it
was a small batch brand
launched last week. Glass
bottles. Unsweetened blends.
Simple labels.
Buy it at Cub Foods, suddenly
you can tell it’s owned by
Coca-Cola. Plastic bottles.
Sweetened flavors. Next to
the Gatorade.
We don’t need to
bring Whole
Foods into Cub
Foods- we just
need to create a
brand that can
live in both
places.