Constructing a business is more an art than a science. That’s what made it attractive to Graza founder Andrew Benin. He wanted the chance to be creative and to make use of branding and messaging to attach with people he had never met. “This was my version of art,” he says.
So when Andrew discovered a passion for olive oil during a visit to Spain, he knew this was his likelihood to specific his love for this product. And he did so by selling single-origin olive oil back within the U.S.
Graza launched its Sizzle and Drizzle olive oils in 2022, and since then, the green squeeze bottles have caught fire within the cooking world. Influencers, chefs, restaurants, and at-home cooks alike are fans of the brand. The corporate was even featured in Bon Appetit and The Latest York Times.
In some ways, Andrew says olive oil is a frictionless product, a simple sell. “That is in each pantry. It has massive household penetration,” he says. But the corporate still needed to cultivate a transparent vision in a saturated market.
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5 suggestions for branding an on a regular basis product
Despite the fact that there are a lot of olive oil brand available at grocery stores within the U.S., customers didn’t have a robust brand affinity. “That was the chance to say, ‘Well, there’s a special way of doing this, a special way of positioning something that everybody already knows about,” Andrew says. Here’s how he and his team approached marketing for his or her cult-favorite pantry staple.
1. Get advice out of your network
One in all the primary people Andrew asked for feedback was Mike Anthony, a chef at Gramercy Tavern in Latest York City. “He actually really helped with positioning Graza and said, ‘Don’t start one other gourmet food brand,’” Andrew says.
Andrew focused as an alternative on making a reasonable olive oil without compromising quality, and located there was a spot available in the market between the expensive glass bottles with labels written in Italian and low-cost, diluted olive oils.
2. Take consumer insights with a grain of salt
Andrew says he received pushback on the thought from friends, family, and investors. A number of the concerns from consumer research were misconceptions concerning the smoking point of olive oil and that Americans preferred to cook with more neutral oils.
But Andrew stayed true to his vision. “We will sell what we like, not what we’re being told the buyer is asking for.” And he let the sales and customers speak for themselves.
3. Work with a branding agency
Andrew credits Graza’s branding agency for being a key player within the creation process. “[We were] leaning heavily on our branding agency to tug every part out and help us put it back together,” he says.
The corporate landed on branding that was fun and joyful to make the olive oil more approachable to the house cooks in its audience.
4. Be patient for the inspiration to strike
Inevitably, a number of the most iconic parts of a brand won’t come from a branding exercise. Andrew says you’ve gotten to be patient for those “Aha!” moments.
“The squeeze bottle didn’t even come from years working in a restaurant,” Andrew says. “It actually happened within the shower.” He was using a squeeze soap bottle and realized one of these bottle can be perfect for olive oil, much like those chefs used at restaurants.
5. Dare to be different
“If something’s working within the marketplace, that signifies that everyone’s doing it,” Andrew says. And that may result in homogeneity. Brands can begin to look the identical.
Graza was intentional in attempting to be different in the various ways it communicated its brand, including on its website. “We needed to be very confident in our perspective and never let best practices dictate how our site was going to be created because that is how we’d just feel like everybody else,” Andrew says.
To learn more about how Andrew developed a passion for olive oil and founded Graza, take heed to the full interview on Shopify Masters.
