There’s nothing like a good story. And there’s nothing like great food and drink. Unless it’s food or drink with a good story behind it.
Like Dogfish Head Midas Touch, a craft brew that’s made from the recipe for the beer consumed by King Midas himself. Every sip is steeped in history and archeological wonder which give the beer a special emotional element. In fact, sometimes I’ll serve the beer to friends, just so that I can re-tell the story. As humans and as customers, we love a good story, especially with food and drink.
So how about swordfish? How can a grocer make a pound of swordfish emotional? According to Hannaford Supermarkets, that’s pretty easy… just reveal the true story behind the fish. Especially is the story has already been made famous.
If you ever read the book, or watched the movie, “The Perfect Storm,” you have a sense of the adventure and dangers inherent in the livelihood of commercial fishing.
The book prominently mentioned a fishing boat captain by the name of Linda Greenlaw. Greenlaw is the only female sword fishing boat captain on the East Coast of the United States. And she and her crew regularly endures the fears, dangers and life-risking tactics to catch those same swordfish that you and I can buy on any calm day in the neighborhood supermarket.
Hannaford buys the swordfish caught by the crew of the Hannah Boden, the boat captained by Linda Greenlaw herself. And they sell that swordfish, branded “LINDA GREENLAW SELECT SWORDFISH.”
So suddenly, swordfish has become more than swordfish – it’s an emotional experience, now that the story has been revealed. According to the Portland Press Herald, Hannaford Supermarkets sold its first purchase, 34,000 pounds of “LINDA GREENLAW SELECT SWORDFISH” in just a week – which the chain considered a very brisk pace.
While there may be other differences between the swordfish caught by Linda Greenlaw’s crew and the stock caught by other crews, the difference that the customer is buying is the story that’s been tied to Linda’s fish. The story has always been there – the seas have always been rough, and commercial fishing has always been dangerous. But taking the initiative to tell that story, and tie it to the product through branding, is the difference between an emotional product that captures the imagination of the customer, and one that can sit on the shelf, and well, become old fish.
Here’s the point:
What’s the story behind your product? And how can you present that story in a way that will resonate with the people you’d like to buy it?
Everybody has a story. What’s yours?
Put a story behind the product that you sell - an emotional story - not a fish story!
