Can a founder’s passion for creating a brand be the most significant contributor to brand value? A study just released by the Journal of Consumer Psychology and the recent acquisition of BLUE Buffalo dog food provide some valuable insight into this question.
The Journal of Consumer Psychology measured brand authenticity based on two storylines:
1) Intrinsic motivation, or the passion of the inventor to turn her love of baking into a business.
2) Extrinsic motivation, where a brand was created as a line extension by a large gourmet snack food company.
The results revealed brands formed and driven by “intrinsic motivation” were considered to be more authentic and higher quality. Here’s an excellent example:
The BLUE Buffalo super-premium pet food brand story was founded on intrinsic motivation. The Bishop family owned a lovable Airedale puppy they named Blue. As with my dogs, Blue quickly became part of the family. Unfortunately, early in Blue’s life he was diagnosed with cancer. The dog’s cancer motivated the Bishop family to investigate a wide range of pet health issues, including nutrition. Working with a “leading holistic veterinarian and animal nutritionist” they developed a dog and cat food line they branded BLUE Buffalo. The first product was BLUE Life Protection Formula. Today BLUE is the #1 selling natural pet food in America.
Authentic brand stories are often enriched by reaching outside the organization. And BLUE Buffalo did just that. They formed the BLUE Buffalo Foundation and worked with the Petco Foundation to investigate causes of canine cancer. See the results of their work here.
And their story doesn’t end there. The financial value of the BLUE Buffalo story was realized when General Mills purchased BLUE Buffalo brand for $8 billion. That’s quite an ending to an authentic story whose tagline reflects its intrinsic motivation: “When you love them like family, feed them like family.” Check out the story of BLUE here. It really doesn’t get more authentic than this!
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