What do you do when nobody understands your product?

These days, there are incredibly innovative products being launched, the kind that don’t fit neatly into any existing category. The recent CHFA NOW show in Toronto was full of them. They elicit a “wait, what?” reaction because they don’t quite match what shoppers expect.

Understandably, for the founders of these products, the instinct is to start explaining. Describe the product as much as you can, point out its superior nutritional profile, spell out the high-quality ingredients, ethical supply chain, or the numerous potential uses. The list can be long.

It’s a lot for consumers to take in: what your product is, how to use it, when, with what, and why it beats everything else on the shelf. The details can be difficult to retain.

Does that mean consumer education should be abandoned? Not at all. It is a crucial part of building a brand. The challenge lies in when and how it is done.

Here’s an analogy: think back to the time you met your significant other. Did they start by listing their education credentials, the awards they won in high school, or the workout regimen they follow? I’m guessing not. It was probably the twinkle in their eyes or the goofy smile that stirred something in you and made you lean in closer. You liked how they made you feel, and that’s when you got interested in knowing more about them.

A similar behavioural insight applies to brands. I know this from experience.

Special K: from weight management to feeling seen

Many years ago, I was managing a small, newly launched brand for Kellogg’s India, Special K. It was positioned on weight management. At the time, breakfast cereals were an unfamiliar category in the market, so Special K faced multiple education challenges, including:

• How eating, rather than dieting, can support weight management

• The nutrition story: lower fat, high protein, high fibre

• A food format that ran counter to many prevailing beliefs: adults didn’t drink milk; the day was supposed to start with warm, freshly made food, not cold stuff from a box; and breakfast food was supposed to be savoury, not sweet.

Instead of leading with these topics, my team and I decided to lean into the brand’s emotional promise. Helping women feel seen and celebrated, we reasoned, would motivate their curiosity and engagement. To make the aspiration credible, we provided a short, structured program, the 2-Week Challenge, that built better eating and lifestyle habits.

The results were powerful. The creative message outperformed norms on every attribute of ad effectiveness, including enjoyment and relevance, trial rates spiked up and sales landed on a higher trajectory. Through market visits and follow-up conversations, we saw women studying the pack, visiting the website and calling customer service for guidance and support. In one consumer interview, I remember, the woman started asking me questions about it!

The consumers had become so invested in the payoff that they were willing to educate themselves.

To be clear, this wasn’t a straightforward, simple decision. In choosing to drive emotion-led communication, we had to evaluate and commit to a trade-off with other marketing activities, like sampling and education. We also didn’t go into this blind; a pilot campaign had demonstrated the strong appeal of the message on trial and repeat sales. We made a calculated bet on the back of data and consumer understanding before scaling up nationally.

You don’t need to be a big CPG brand to do this

This might feel like a big CPG story, but it isn’t. The premise – build from an emotional insight – is something any challenger brand can choose to adopt. The raw material to pursue this is also available to all: online reviews, social posts, the comments sections, conversations with your own customers, and any research studies you might have done.

It’s not about big budgets, fancy research or large teams. It is about uncovering the need that hides within all that information. To do this, you need a mindset that approaches your consumer holistically, as a person. It means taking the time and care to listen for what’s not being said, hearing the rationalizations that mask inner desires and connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated comments and actions.

CPG companies don’t have a monopoly on this; in fact, challenger brands are often closer to their consumers than big CPG companies. But it still requires decoding what you’re hearing.

Flip the question

If your brand is wrestling with consumer education, flip the question: Not “how do we educate consumers?” but “how do we motivate consumers to educate themselves?”

Compelling emotional promises make people willing to do the work. It’s worth checking how much your brand taps into that. Here are two questions to start with.

1. How do you finish this sentence: “When people use our brand, they feel ___”?

In a recent campaign, Tata Tea promised a “hug in a mug” with their cup of chai.

If you find yourself answering the question with things like “quick dinner option” or “high protein,” you’re describing features and functional benefits, not feelings. That’s a sign you may not have an emotional promise yet.

2. Is the feeling carried across your pack, website and online content, or do the materials stop at describing the product?

Rise Kombucha puts two words on the bottle: “Feel Alive.” I’m new to kombucha and can’t tell whether millions or billions of probiotics is the right number. But I know what “feel alive” means, so when my eyes first caught this, I spent a few more minutes reading their explanation and checking out their website. It repeated the feeling and gave me more information. I even compared Rise with Kirkland, my current option. Two words made me reconsider my choice.

You can’t say everything everywhere, especially on packaging. But the essence of your emotional promise needs to show up at every touchpoint, whether it’s two words or something else.

The takeaway

The food and beverage industry is seeing some of the most exciting, category-breaking innovation right now. Consumer education is part of the job, but it doesn’t have to be the card you lead with. Instead, lead with the feeling, and make sure the education is there for consumers once they’re curious.