Sitting in a hotel room one morning last week checking email, munching Good Life Granola straight from the bag and thinking about The Quest (Part 1 of this series), I looked at the label and it struck me that the two new products I’d hunted down to try that week both use the same word in their advertising message, “artisan.”
I heard about Indiana Vodka from a marketing message which resulted in a multi-city quest to find it. I heard about Good Life Granola from a friend and had him send me a bag. Good Life Granola’s packaging states, “All Natural Artisan Blend Granola” and Heartland Distillers‘ first sentence on their website reads,
Located in Indiana, Heartland Distillers is a dedicated artisan distiller of finely crafted spirits. We hand produce our spirits in small batches using our copper pot stills, and all of our products are made from the finest ingredients.
Dictionary.com defines artisan as, “a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson.” Wikipedia adds more details,
The term can also be used as an adjective to refer to the craft of hand making food products, such as bread, beverages and cheese….Manufacture by hand and with hand tools imparts unique and individual qualities to artisanal products, in contrast to mass produced goods where every one is nearly identical.
Our shrinking world in terms of communication, travel and production has opened the doors for products with stories like this to succeed. It’s a story that resonates with me (apparently) and many others. This isn’t a new thing; local, artisan, high-quality, smaller, personalized product stories have been making trendwatcher reports for years and the current outlook is still great.
How does this apply to you? Even if you have a service business or sell a mass market product, there are ways that you can capitalize on this market approach. Consider how you can adapt the artisan story for your product or service. Some keys things to consider are that artisan products are often:
- hand-crafted
- local (in distribution and/or ingredients)
- made from high-quality ingredients and/or processes
- individually unique (variations are part of the process and enhance the product)
If you have a service business, could you open a new division that worked with clients to create an artisan experience specifically tailored to their needs? One where they create their own experience from a list of services you offer? Or one that is more personalized in another way?
If you have a mass produced product, is there a way to offer a more customized or hand-crafted or locally-connected option alongside your main line? I need a new laptop bag and I spent too much time last weekend on timbuk2′s website playing around with designing my own bag from the fabric options available. I’m sure they don’t sell as many of the custom bags as their stock offering, but they definitely have a strong appeal to consumers who already like their brand and appreciate uniqueness.
If you’re a locally-owned business and can’t adapt your product or service to an artisan branding method…can you adapt your environment? Many boutique hotels are doing it successfully–furnishing their rooms and public spaces with locally-produced artwork, producing a strong local identity.
How else can you adapt this concept for your business? Feel free to add ideas below in the comments. And, while you’re considering the options, go order some Good Life Granola. I’m picky about granola because I used to make it at home growing up. This is good stuff; that’s why the image shows an empty bag. Go get some!
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Nice Post! Perfect topic for your Marketing Snacks!
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