Savory Marketing: Ramen to Go 🍜

How to Use Content to Make Your Startup a Beloved Brand

Photo courtesy of Luke Costley-White’s marketing presentation at PakCon 2024

Startups often want to know how to a) make their company a household name, or better yet a verb, or b) how to go from just a known company to a beloved brand. To answer that, I buzzed over to the Marketing & Sales Hive at Project A’s Knowledge Conference, or #PakCon2024. 🐝

There, the Director of Marketing, Luke Costley-White masterfully hosted a kick-off session using a very tasty analogy. He took us on an unexpected journey starting with a simple question: Have you ever deeply thought about ramen? Its magical broth and delicious noodles have become so iconic, it has earned an international emoji. 🍜

The morning calm before the storm of people & ideas at PakCon; photo by Elisheva Marcus

Luke convinced us that broth is like a brand. With its layered nuances, it’s not just one flavor but rather built upon multiple layers. To be a great brand is to create a memorable harmony of different flavors – blended perfectly. You want to be a brand like THAT, not yet another company. In other words, don’t just be the noodles — that’s boring soup. Be a zinger of a dish!

He got into the three types of broth and three types of noodles. He advised understanding the various flavors and cautioned against cooking noodles wrong. Pick the right ones, cook them well, and cook enough to satisfy.

The three types of Ramen broth that Luke presented; photo by Elisheva Marcus

The companies that can truly scale, he says, that can become beloved brands are the ones where people want that company as a part of their lives. So if you are the competition, you can’t rest on just being cheaper. Here’s where content becomes a central ingredient. It’s about your unique content and weaving storytelling of the product into their lives. Speak to them through your content. Fundamentally, have a value and mission that people can connect with as a basis for that content.

Luke says user-generated content is like hand-cut noodles — even more special. And speaking of relying on people and influencers, there’s nothing more powerful for a product than a personal recommendation. He should know; he authentically evangelizes plenty of companies to others, and in doing so, adds a key ingredient of trust.

Luke Costley-White, Director of Marketing at Project A with a keynote on: Ramen! Photo by Elisheva Marcus

But remember this mantra: ‘You are not your audience’. So create content that is most valuable to them. Ensure that if you took it away, it would matter. Optimize your SEO and distribute your content well.

Here’s a test question he asks his potential hires: How would you do a Reddit ad strategy or creatives for a different channel? (BTW, here’s a great idea.) Spoiler alert: vary your content across channels.

Luke’s staggering stats & 5 predictions bring brands closer to customers:

1. 🏁 Speed: If you are running ads, be sure to get viewer attention in the first 2–3 seconds. Otherwise, you’ve lost your audience. He predicts connected TV kills linear TV, since you can target your segment of viewers and rely on more measurable objectives.
2. 🎧 Pods: Podcasts are taking over. The ads are wild on podcasts, up 21% and with USD 4 Billion in ad revenue annually. So take advantage of reaching niche audiences and utilize the thought leadership, customer engagement, and branding opps that podcasts provide.
3. 🎙 Smarts: That said, don’t necessarily launch your OWN podcast. You don’t need to expend the effort to run a great one. Rather, first look into other similar podcasts and research target audience tastes. No, there won’t be an AI explosion in content. But yes, it can help in refining your content, prepping guest interviews, visuals, and promotion.
4. 📈TikTok: TikTok is becoming super mainstream & not going away despite banning threats. 1 out of 4 people use TikTok and ad space there is growing: USD 17 Billion in ad revenue annually. But don’t do the strategy yourself. Get other people who understand the platform to do it.
5. 🔗 LinkedIn: LinkedIn is big — with 3 users joining every second. It is also flirting with even more cringe, optimizing vertical video just because it wants to. So if you want to partake, the bar is low: accept crap production and natural light, and just go forth. Anyone can do it from within the company, not just the CEO. Actually, it might as well be you.

Hope you find this content flavorful and useful. Please LMK & thanks, Luke and team Project A, for inviting me to drop by.

To learn from all kinds of VCs like I do, join me on LinkedIn, X, and IG. 👋