Moving from Functional to Emotional Benefits

Then something happened over the next one and a half decades that brought the team back together. Companies like Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, and Blue Apron began disrupting established markets: eyeglasses, razors, and meals. They were creating the new subscription economy through digitally native vertical brands (DNVB). And supplements were ripe for the pre-packing.

“In my first conversation with Jason, it was clear that he was an incredibly smart and humble entrepreneur,” said Yadim Medore. “Even though he had started a similar business before, he knew that the market was different from what it was at the turn of the 21^st century. He knew he had a great platform and the science for the assessment, personalization, and quality of the supplements. But he also knew that he needed a brand.”

Given that Jason was just a few short months away from the preliminary launch of what was then called Vitamin Packs, Pure Branding provided strategic advice for this early iteration that served as proof-of-concept in the market.

“Jason saw that the brand needed to inspire and empower its customers and not just fulfill orders if it wanted to see long-term growth.”

“Early on in the relationship, we started to talk to Jason about transitioning the brand from functional benefits — delivering packs of vitamins — to emotional benefits,” said Yadim. “To his credit, he saw that the brand needed to inspire and empower its customers and not just fulfill orders if it wanted to see long-term growth.”

He recognized the need for foundational brand definition work, and Pure Branding was engaged for Brand Opportunity, Brand Strategy, and Market Research.

“Before we met with the team for a three-day opportunity and strategy workshop, we conducted in-depth interviews,” commented Susan Haeger, Pure Branding Executive Strategic Consultant. “Apart from the usual growing pains that come with startups, what we found was a group that truly believed in the potential, but wasn’t unified in how to get there. The goal going into the workshops was to encourage divergent opinions while bringing everyone together to reach a consensus for the future opportunity and brand strategy of the company.”

Leaders from all of the major functions of the company were represented: executive, sales, marketing, technology, R&D, and key investors. We led them through a series of collaborative exercises: a values auction allowed them to hierarchize their brand values. A symbology mapping exercise determined their desired brand perception in the market. Our brand dating game exercise demonstrated how much or how little they were differentiated from the competition.

“Each interactive exercise, each presentation, and each brainstorm brought the group closer together while also challenging their preconceived notions about the brand and product offering,” said Yadim. “Ultimately we identified the opportunity for the brand in the key 5 Forces: organization, offering, trade, category, and participant. Informed by those, we defined the brand strategy with a brand center, communication platform, brand pillars, brand voice, visual language, and brand name direction.”

“The power of the whole team getting together was great,” remembered Tamara Bernadot, Chief Nutrition Officer. “What was keeping me up at night before the meetings was addressed, and I was blown away with where we ended up. The workshop reenergized us, making us feel the newness was there again.”

With leadership alignment on the brand strategy, the next step was the market research phase to help determine the most valuable consumer targets, and provide the data needed to direct the communications strategy to better attract, target, and engage them. This segmentation study was designed to determine the persona segment profiles that would be the most receptive to the brand.

“We worked with Persona on the hypotheses, making sure we would develop consumer research that would produce actionable results for them,” said Peter Littell, Director of Marketing and Research. “We knew that we needed to get data that would inform acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

Pure Branding developed the research and conducted more than 1,200 online quantitative interviews of dietary supplement users, many of whom were either familiar with, or had tried a subscription supplement service. Following segmentation, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews to further humanize the segments into Pure Branding’s proprietary RealPersona™ segment profiles.

Jason recalled, “What was remarkable was how the research identified not only the key persona segment, but equally important was that it showed us the segments that could take us down a rabbit hole, and what to look out for. This is a business where assumptions are easily made based on transactions, and not on motivations. The market research made us smarter and more able to target those who have the greatest likelihood for retention.”

“Just as important as determining the right target and how to reach them was providing the creative team with the certainty around the direction and storytelling for Persona,” said Yadim. “Utilizing the brand strategy from the workshops and consumer research insights as their guide, a dynamic design language and narrative were developed in order to bring the new brand to life and resonate with the key targets.”

In August 2018, Persona was ready for launch.

“I won’t lie,” said Jason. “I can be patient, but I don’t like to wait unnecessarily. The Pure Branding process was thorough, and the results were well worth the wait. We are no longer just the company that delivers packs of supplements. We know how to connect emotionally with our key targets and thus establish deeper relationships with them. I know we as a brand are perfectly situated to take full advantage of this moment in time in the subscription economy. I also know we would not be as confident were it not for Yadim and his team, and the quality of their insights and consultation.”

To date, nearly one million consumers have taken Persona’s unique online health assessment. In May 2018, the company received significant investment from L Catterton, the largest consumer-focused private equity firm in the world. In December 2018, Series A1 financing closed, led by Emil Capital, a leading private investment company and the Growth Fund of L Catterton. In August 2019, Persona was acquired by the Swiss-based Nestlé Health Science.