Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/110595
FROM THE PUBLISHER This Brand Was Made for You and Me Filling in for Matt Thomas this month is guest columnist Chris Crocker, Specialty Food Association's senior vice president, media. A t the Winter Fancy Food Show, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade introduced the Specialty Food: Craft. Care. Joy.TM brand, and announced that it's also changing the name of the organization to the Specialty Food Association. After years of struggling to answer the phone in one breath, few in our offices will miss the old association name. It's not just about changing our identity, though: it's about building yours. The vision adopted by the Association's board last year called for the creation of an identity for specialty food. As an organization of 3,000 purveyors and tens of thousands of brands, we sought a single identity that represents our constituents as much as it represents the organization and its offerings. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I believe that most of you are in this business by choice, not just to pay the bills. It may not be a calling but it is, for many, a passion. Our consumers have an affinity for specialty foods, and the reasons extend well beyond taste or simple indulgence. It's a tall order to identify and synthesize all of these factors into a single, resonant identity that can be used to elevate the visibility of the category and convey why it matters. How do you characterize the very gestalt of specialty food? The development of the brand took a year of discovery and strategic work by a team of Association staff, members and branding experts. It involved intensive trade and consumer research, uncovering key insights: most notably, that specialty food is the term most embraced by consumers and trade to connote our products, and that these foods are most positively connected with the personal attention put into their creation and handling, with the passion of the producer, and with the pleasure derived from sharing in the specialty food experience. Those findings fueled our positioning and brand strategy. The Craft. Care. Joy. tagline and the handcrafted nature of the logo attach those dimensions to the Association's identity. It will take some time for us to fully integrate the new identity across our offerings, and longer still for the brand to establish itself in the market at large. Just as the new brand speaks of and for you, so, too, does this magazine. We've already got the name, but soon we will wear the new identity. By sharing in it, we will reinforce and extend our role as both an information source and a standard-bearer for specialty foods. |SFM| by Chris Crocker Senior Vice President, Media ccrocker@specialtyfood.com HAVE A COMMENT? facebook.com/fancyfoodshows Go to specialtyfood.com/ccrocker/brand. MARCH 2013 5