Differentiation, Branding, and Packaging (MFBS-555)

ALWAYS check your Moodle course page for the complete list of required readings

The course readings provided here are resources in the CIA Library or Open Access

There may be additional readings provided by your instructor.

• Total Food Service – Branding Lessons From Top Food and Beverage Companies
• Brand Finance – Brand Beta Part-1 What is a brand?
• Brand Finance – Brand Beta Part-3- What are the most popular brands?

• Big Think – 10,000 years of branding explained in 6 minutes
• Seth Godin’s Blog – Define Brand
• Interbrand – Breakthrough Brands
• Bain – Insurgent Brands 2023
• Prophet – Brand Relevance Index 2023
• Kantar Report – BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands 2023
• Brand Finance – 3 Global 500 2023
• Fast Company – The 10 Most Innovative Food Companies of 2023
• TED Talk featuring Joseph Pine on What Consumers Want
• HBR – The Brand Report Card by Kevin Lane Keller
• Forbes – Three Techniques for Building a Successful Food Brand
• Kevin Lane Keller – Lessons in Building and Managing Strong Brands (on YouTube)
• The Wall Street Journal – 7 Trends Disrupting Retail and Consumer Products
• KelloggInsight – Why Does You Brand Need to Exist (audio - 23 minutes)
• KelloggInsight – “How Will you Tell your Brand’s Story?” (audio - 24 minutes)

• Forbes – Can This Couple Unseat the Nation’s Biggest Pancake Brand?
• Seth Godin’s Blog – Food = Fun
• Seth Godin’s Blog – The Simple First Rule of Branding + Marketing (Even Yourself)
• NPR - How I Built This: Impossible Foods - Pat Brown (audio - 64 minutes)
• Freakonomics Radio – The Future of Meat (audio - 55 minutes)
• Inc. – Friends Thought Beyond Meat’s Founder Was Crazy. His Billion-Dollar IPO Proved Them Wrong
• CNBC – Why Starbucks Failed in Australia (on YouTube)
• TED Talk featuring Malcom Gladwell: Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce
• Taste Radio – Uncovering A Billion-Dollar Opportunity "Hidden in Plain Sight" (audio - 45 minutes)
• TED Talk featuring Patty McCord: 8 Lessons on Building a Company People Enjoy Working For
• Building a Culture of Innovation: Eric Ryan (on YouTube)
• Taste Radio – Tony’s Chocolonely (audio - 30 minutes)
• IDEO’s David Kelley – Design is Magical (on YouTube)
• Marty Neumeier- Minding the Brand Gap and Beyond (on YouTube)
• NPR – How I Built This: Adam Lowry + Eric Ryan (audio - 54 minutes)
• For packaging inspiration visit:
  • The Dieline
  • Design Rush – Sixteen Best Food Visuals
  • Dieline – The World’s Best Packaging
• NPR – How I Built This: Clif Bar (audio - 33 minutes)
• FDA – What’s New with the Nutrition Facts Label
• FoodDive – The Origins and Evolution of Nutrition Facts Labeling
• Brandwatch – David + Goliath: Lessons for Food + Drinks Brands
• FDA – Warning Letter: Kind, LLC
• FDA – Kind, LLC – Close Out Letter
• Time – FDA Decides to Let Kind Call Its Bars “Healthy” Again
• Today – Are Kind Bars ‘Healthy’? FDA Settles Battle Over Snack Label
• NPR – Nut So Fast, Kind Bars: FDA Smacks Snacks on Health Claims
• US Patent + Trademark Office
• Holistic Primary Care – Bar Wars: The Un-Sugarcoated Truth About the Clif vs. Kind Controversy
• Food + Beverage – Clif Bar Sued for Infringing Kind Trademarks
• Case Text – Kind LLC v. Clif Bar + Co.
• The Blog – Preventing Copying or Preventing Competition?
• AGG – Kind LLC v. Clif Bar + Co.
• Delish – How A Redesign Transformed These Ugly Duckling Products Into Cult Favorite Food Brands
• The Branding Journal – What to Learn From Tropicana’s Packaging Redesign Failure?
• New York Times – Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers are Passionate About Packaging (Activate your Academic Pass to NY Times using your CIA email here to access NYT for free)
• Select four (4) articles from the list:
  • The New York Times – Before She was CEO, She Cleaned Toilets (Activate your Academic Pass to NY Times using your CIA email here to access NYT for free)
  • Ad Week – Land O’Lakes Isn’t Talking About Its Logo Change and That’s a Big Mistake
  • India Country Today – There’s Another Story Behind That Land O’Lakes Butter Box
  • Packaging World – The Curious Case of the Disappearing Maiden—Land O’Lakes Rebrands, Skirting Controversy
  • Fortune – Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford Shares the Real Reason the Brand Ditched its “Butter Maiden”
  • Pop Culture – Aunt Jemima, Land O’Lakes + 8 More Brands Who’ve Changed Their Racist Logos Over the Years
  • Eater – Exorcising Aunt Jemima
  • Washington Examiner – Son of Land O'Lakes Artist Defends Native American Father's Work (CIA Library credentials required for access)
  • Wall Street Journal – Mia Land O'Lakes, 1928-2020 (CIA Library credentials required for access)
  • The New York Times – Land O’Lakes Removes Native American Woman From Its Products (Activate your Academic Pass to NY Times using your CIA email here to access NYT for free)
  • The Washington Post – Land O’Lakes Did the Right Thing by Nixing Native American Imagery (CIA Library credentials required for access)
  • Advertising Age – Uncle Ben’s Rebranding Falls Short, Say Critics (PDF posted to Moodle) (CIA Library credentials required for access)
• Fast Company – Why #Blackout Tuesday Became a Symbol of Empty Brand Gestures
• Certification Sites (to review):
  • Fairtrade International
  • USDA Organic
  • Non-GMO Project
  • B Lab
  • 1% for the Planet
  • Regenerative Organic
• John Berger – Contagious: Why Things Catch On (on YouTube)
• TED Talk featuring Seth Godin: How to Get Your Ideas to Spread
• NPR – How I Built This: Dave’s Killer Bread (audio - 1 hour, 9 minutes)
• Marketing Lessons for Companies Big and Small (20 minutes)
• Life Hacker – How to Get at Marketing, With Seth Godin
• Google Tools – Your Digital Marketing Toolbox

• Prophet – Brand Equity vs. Brand Value: What’s the Difference?

• Crain’s Chicago Business – Kraft Heinz's Boca Bummer: Food Giant Bought Fake-Meat Maker 20 Years Ago (PDF posted to Moodle)
• Maclean’s – Salvation Burger (PDF posted to Moodle)

• Reuters – ‘Golden Arches’ Come Down Near Moscow as McDonald’s Russia Rebrand Begins
• Food and Wine – Say Goodbye to Diet Snapple
• Seth Godin – All Marketers Tell Stories (available for free on Seth’s website)