Why Kind keeps it simple in latest wellness-focused marketing play
In a consumer ecosystem that increasingly favors wellness, choosing nutritious foods should be as effortless as possible, according to Kelly Solomon, Global CMO of Kind Snacks. That’s why the consumer goods brand focuses on combining its simple ingredients with an equally digestible marketing strategy.
To communicate the more unadorned message, Kind has a range of promotions planned for the year, signaling a renewed commitment to simplicity and putting its core ingredient – whole almonds – in the spotlight. Key to this push is a new TV commercial, unveiled on February 27 on linear channels, which not only marks the company’s first in over a year, but also the first under Solomon’s leadership. The company also has a series of immersive activations planned throughout the year, designed to showcase simple eating while promoting its core value, kindness.
“We want to make nutrition easy to understand, whether you’re an older consumer who just doesn’t understand what it takes to be healthy, or a younger consumer who honestly has the same questions,” Solomon said.
Mars Inc. fully acquired Kind North America in late 2020, a few years after it took a minority stake in the healthy snacks company.
The commercial, titled “I See Almonds,” stayed true to its name. The concept mimics interviews with people on the street, with a moderator challenging respondents to identify an ingredient in Kind’s Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt bars to win a prize. A surprised respondent quickly dials almonds as an answer, seemingly unaware that a giant billboard directly behind the person is showing a video of almonds being drizzled with chocolate.
The creative, which debuted on YouTube and Hulu on February 13, includes a 15-second and a 30-second version and was built with Energy BBDO. In creating the concept, being direct was a priority, Solomon said.
“We wanted to be super laser-focused — you really don’t have time in 15 seconds to tell a complicated story,” she said.
Such no-frills thinking is also an informed decision based on less than successful past performance, the manager continued. Kind’s final commercial entitled “Choose to Be Kind to Your Body” First airing 2020 and should point out the positive outcomes that could result from choosing Kind, such as the ability to change the world or, perhaps more feasible, being kind to others. However, looking for inspiration, the brand’s message struggled to resonate.
“You look at it three times and think, ‘What’s going on here?’ Solomon said. “Sometimes you’re too close — you fall in love with it — and then someone who’s never seen it comes in and it doesn’t make sense to them.”
The launch date – mid-February – was intended. The period just misses the “new year, new me” hype and hopefully catches people at a point where they want to make more realistic changes to their New Year’s goals, such as: B. Choosing healthier snacks, Solomon said. In general, consumers today value wellness more than they used to. According to a McKinsey study, about 50% of US consumers report Wellness as top priority in their daily lives, up from 42% in 2020.
“We do social listening, we look at search engines and we understand what consumers are interested in and what questions they have – consumers are dying to know what they are putting into their bodies.”
Nutrition goes full of glamour
With the stakes raised for a successful execution, Solomon is confident she can lead the snack brand’s marketing strategy, even though she comes from a less conventional background. Before being named Kind’s CMO last year, the manager spent 15 years with makeup giants L’Oréal and Estee Lauder, most recently senior vice president of consumer marketing at MAC Cosmetics. Still, the similarities between food and beauty are clear, she said.
“There’s a huge echo of the beauty industry in the food industry,” Solomon said. “Beauty is very personal – it’s tailored to your body, just like nutrition.”
One of the differences, she added, is that marketing in the beauty industry often revolves around enhancing certain products. At Kind, however, the focus is less on the product and more on making the brand tangible. So Solomon and the team have made it a priority to shine a spotlight on Kind’s mission to promote simple eating and kindness.
One method the brand uses to communicate its message is through immersion, which often takes the form of pop-up events, she said. Most recently, the brand has teamed up with Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi to launch Padma’s Kind Kitchen, a speakeasy-style pop-up restaurant opening February 28-March 1 at Chelsea Market in New York City will be open to the public. To participate, consumers must perform a small act of kindness that grants them access to a range of healthy menu items. Other events planned for this year include Earth Day and Back to School.
Aside from activations outside of the home, Solomon also hopes to continue shaping Kind’s social media strategy around its mission, particularly on TikTok and Instagram, noting that purpose-driven content has worked well for the brand. Kind has joined the growing number of brands recruiting influencers for such efforts, and has partnered with chefs, nutritionists and others who can talk about the brand’s nutritional value.
At a later date, the brand also formed a Super Bowl LVII-centric partnership with Donna Kelce, mother of Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles, who faced each other during the game Speech before the game with the duo on social media, which ended with a reminder that “kindness always wins.”
Aside from evolving the brand’s social media presence, Solomon quickly realizes that Kind’s brand strategy is already solid and realizes that taking on the responsibilities of Chief Marketer is less about shaking things up and more about it , to strengthen a solid foundation.
“The marketing strategy before I came here was very much about how we bring our brand purpose and mission to life, how we let the consumer know what we’re doing here, and that’s what we’re still focused on,” she said.