In a conversation with Pete Johnson, brand accelerator and growth specialist, we explore effective ways for brand building and growth. Pete's journey from Coca-Cola and Bird's Eye to working with challenger brands offers valuable insights into what makes brands succeed in today's marketplace.

Pete's extensive career spans both major corporations and emerging brands. As he explains, "12 years at Coca-Cola, starting off as a van salesman actually, and then moving up through to a trade marketing manager at head office. So that was obviously the brand that people often have in their mind because there's so many good things about it."

This experience with a global powerhouse was followed by significant time at another iconic brand: "Then I went to Bird's Eye, another fantastic brand. One that's slightly different because it's built on the quality of its products all feeding into one emblem in the centre, so peas, chicken, and vegetables."

After years in these well-known companies, Pete transitioned to working with smaller, growth-focused brands like The Spice Tailor, setting him on a path to his current role being a brand accelerator.

Pete begins by taking us back to the fundamental purpose of branding, using a historical example that remains relevant today:

"I believe the original idea of branding in my head, may not be, right? Which is cattle and cattle branding. I'm not gonna go to America, not because it's unfashionable at the moment, but because actually before that it was Egypt where different farmers had different herds of cattle and some of them fed them well, some of them looked after them, some of them didn't."

This historical practice served a critical purpose: "Branding was a really important thing because it told people who the cow belonged to. It also reminded them that or it was a trigger for them to go, yeah, good herd."

This ancient practice embodies the same principles that drive modern branding: "If you think about it now, it's exactly the same, isn't it? You've got quality in the centre. You've got to invest in the quality of the product, you've got to look after that over a period of time and care what your reputation is. Then you've got the distinctiveness of the icon, the brand. If people can't recognise it versus the next farmer, then there's no use."

Pete outlines a straightforward but powerful approach to accelerating brand growth, particularly for challenger brands:

1. Clarify Your Brand Story

"The first thing you do is to make sure that everyone's on the same page as to what the core brand story is. So it's shaping the proposition or fixing the proposition."

He illustrates this with his work for Fuel 10K, a breakfast brand where initial ambiguity needed resolution: "The first thing we did was get everyone in a room and did a bit of an exercise of perception from the inside as to what they thought they were and what they were doing. And we just ironed out some of the clashes, the things that perhaps everyone knew that there were clashes, disagreements, but we just got a centre of gravity on who they were."

Sometimes this means making tough decisions about which elements of your story to emphasise. Pete notes how the Fuel 10K team had to decide: "They chose to not spend too much time and money having to explain that, it didn't matter. What was great was the product, the taste, the energy and the logo and that sort of thing."

2. Energise Your Team Around the Brand Story

Once the proposition is clear, Pete focuses on alignment: "I look to energise the team. I mean, it's already started because they've understood the proposition they've got under the skin of it. But you've got a core team, you've got departments and then you've got agencies, all of whom need to stick to that story. And by doing so, it generates this energy that then can infect the customer and the consumer."

3. Invest Strategically Based on Brand Maturity

Pete is adamant that brands must consider their stage of development when deciding how to invest: "I'm forever telling clients to have a think about the impact of their comms spend at the size they are."

For challenger brands, he advocates focusing investment close to the purchase moment: "The younger you are, the newer you are, the closer into the shelf you need to invest." Pete explains that design plays a crucial role here: "Design can win and do everything for a young brand because it tells the story at the moment of truth."

As brands grow and gain scale, they can then expand their marketing further from the point of purchase: "As you grow and you have scale, it makes more sense to go to the moment of truth before that where people are thinking or not even thinking when people are experiencing brands and might be shaped into thinking coming into store."

One of Pete's unique perspectives comes from having worked with both corporate giants and small challengers. He identifies key lessons to take from big brand thinking:

"I think over time a big business brings in expertise and it learns about the shortcuts to success. That's the process. It's also simplifying the brand story. Only talking about things that really matter to the consumer - proven stories."

He highlights how large organisations excel at mobilising resources for key moments: "With a big organisation you can mobilise people for big like set pieces, if you like, the free kicks and the corners where you get everyone out."

While big brands have systematic processes, Pete notes that challenger brands have their own powerful advantage - authentic passion:

"What the small businesses do much better is, blindly following passion in a way that might feel inefficient to a big business. But it's that edgy, slightly crazy approach that is endearing."

This passion creates a unique relationship with early adopters: "The psychology is that they want to be seen as one of the first. It's not actually being one of the first. It's not the moment of enjoying something for the first time. It's the way that other people will view them for discovering something for the first time."

The Spice Tailor: Sampling and Brand Extension

Pete shares how The Spice Tailor used a counterintuitive approach to build their customer base: "They had discovered an amazing thing, which was by over-investing in people who love authentic curries, by reaching foodies and serving them a sample, which was hugely expensive, that actually was working for them."

This targeted sampling strategy built a loyal following: "They built a core. The other thing The Spice Tailor did brilliantly was the design work, the disruptive format change at shelf - the white background, the design work that celebrated the recipes."

When it came to brand extension, The Spice Tailor's name proved to be an asset: "The spice tailor. Nothing there ties you to India. Her image on pack didn't either because it was human and it was about a culinary exploration." This allowed them to expand beyond Indian cuisine: "The spices went on a journey in the era of spice traveling across Asia into Europe. It traveled through many, many countries. Everyone knows that spice is a traveling thing."

San Francisco Bay Coffee: Geographic Constraints

Not all brand names offer the same flexibility. Pete explains how another brand faced challenges due to its geographic name: "San Francisco Bay Coffee of course it's constrained by San Francisco in thought."

However, they found ways to adapt to new markets: "As it tried to get a footprint into the UK last year, and it's still really early days on that, we managed to knock over a first listing in Co-op by taking that core story but stitching around it the relevance of the UK."

For brands looking to make their first big move, Pete emphasises the importance of design and shelf presence:

"I think design is incredibly important. Given that you want to communicate your story, your unique proposition as a brand to as many people as possible because you believe that communicates an advantage of some kind, then the really important place to do that, is at the shelf. Because 100% of those occasions are going to have the communication that you get across."

He advises brands to focus on distinctive assets based on their core story: "My first bit of advice is to decide what your distinctive assets are going to be based on your most engaging or important, unique story element that you've got. There's lots of things in that sentence, but it's part of the story, but you've got to pick one part of it and double down on that forever."

Pete concludes with a powerful reminder about the importance of simplicity in brand communication:

"It leads to a poster with just four or five words in a picture rather than you trying to explain everything. Because the more things you say, the less people will be impacted strongly by one message."

Through Pete's journey and insights, we see how brand building is both an art and a science - requiring clarity of vision, strategic investment, and an understanding of how to make your brand resonate with consumers in ways that drive sustainable growth.

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