Why Simple Sells. The Shift That's Reshaping Food & Drink

The future of food isn’t more complexity, it’s radical simplicity.

Consumers are pushing back against over-processed, over-marketed, and overcomplicated products. They want fewer ingredients, clearer messaging and brands they can trust.

M&S just dropped Cornflakes with ONE ingredient: corn. No sugar, no salt, no preservatives. Just corn.

This isn’t just a new product launch - it’s an M&S product launch… and a direct challenge to decades of industry messaging. While big brands spend years pushing “low-calorie” and “artificially sweetened” as the healthier choice, consumers are waking up to the fact that simpler is better.

For challenger brands, this is a massive opportunity. But only if you get your messaging, positioning & marketing strategy right, and luckily, we know a thing or two about that!

Strip back your messaging until it’s instantly clear

Why? Because if customers can’t understand your product in 3 seconds, they’ll move on.

Brands like Tonic Health & Dash Water thrive because their products and messaging are as simple as their ingredient lists.

For example, Dash Water doesn't talk about "hydration innovation" they just say "Water. Bubbles. Wonky* Fruit. That's it." Customers get it, instantly.

Your move. Review your brand messaging. Could you make it clearer, faster?

Your brand should be instantly recognisable visually & verbally

Why? Because brands that embrace simplicity can cut through better on supermarket shelves and online. Challenger brands that own a distinct look, tone & feel make customers trust them faster.

We recently worked with The Curators to help them stand out amongst the shelves by refining their positioning, balancing big flavour with high protein in a way that actually resonated with their customers.

Through deep customer research, we identified that taste beat protein for repeat purchases, and so we helped them improve their packaging, messaging and retail execution to focus on craveability first, functional benefits second.

From this...

To this...

Your move. Audit your brand identity and ask, does it reinforce trust? Or is it adding confusion? If The Curators had stayed stuck in their old positioning, they wouldn’t be competing in mainstream snacking today.

Simplicity in product doesn’t mean simplicity in marketing

Why? Brands that succeed take simple ideas and integrate them into broader marketing strategies. A clear product message needs to flow into paid, social, email and retail campaigns. For example, Oatly built an empire on “It’s like milk, but made for humans” - a single clear message used across every channel.

Your move. Take your core product truth and weave it through every single touchpoint, from your website to your social ads to your retail shelf talkers.

At Brand Hackers, we help challenger brands refine their brand messaging & positioning so they own their space, build growth marketing strategies that turn simple product stories into powerful campaigns and integrate messaging into social, retail and email.

If you want to ensure your brand is positioned to win in this new era of radical simplicity, let’s chat.

And remember, don't keep this content to yourself! Share it far and wide with other bold brand founders!

Cheers,

Rach