Knowing Your Audience: How Surreal Cereal Mastered Their Market
How do new brands make their mark in established and concentrated markets? As a startup, going up against larger-than-life household names can often be perceived as a losing battle, deterring a business from executing an idea to its fullest. But, there are the occasional instances where new brands have not only been able to break through, but actually stand their ground against competitive giants. And Surreal cereal is doing just that.
Founded by Vita Coco veterans Kit Gammell and Jac Chetlad, Surreal cereals are sugar-free, gluten-free and vegan cereals inspired by our favourite (although less healthy) childhood staples.
Since their launch earlier this year, they’ve steadily been growing and gaining recognition as the new, disruptive cereal brand in the market. But how?
Creating a unique solution…
The cereal market is a well established one, and so there was an initial challenge for Surreal to set themselves apart from the rest. Surreal provides customers with the nostalgia of their favourite childhood cereals without the guilt, but with the added nutritional value. This is a fantastic midpoint between major competitors in their market; less exciting cereals providing nutritional value and sugary cereals that people love but don’t necessarily benefit from.
Additionally, Surreal isn’t afraid to be disruptive. With a lot of their campaigns referencing big-name breakfast cereals with high sugar content, taking aim at the likes of Frosties on billboards around London. A less conventional strategy like this one feeds into their left-field approach but also increases visibility from established audiences.
Establishing themselves through branding…
From their inception, Surreal have consistently made one thing clear: what they stand for.
Surreal aims to “make the kind of cereal we all loved as kids nutritionally relevant for today”.
Sending a message like this one means customers have a clear, accessible understanding of their product. They’ve demonstrated what sets them apart from the rest.
Surreal has also been very intentional with their image. They have successfully crafted their image as an “offbeat brand”, whilst tapping into the aesthetic of childhood cereals, incorporating a health conscious yet playful image.
Their packaging also clearly uses icons to explain their ingredients and health benefits.
They are aware of the need to grab the curiosity of their audience without losing their attention, a useful tactic to apply when gaining familiarity in a market.
Marketing against the grain…
Surreal definitely has a knack for making the most of their marketing efforts by adapting content to suit audiences according to specific channels.
For instance, most brands use LinkedIn as a B2B marketing tool, adopting a more corporate tone of voice, which can make for a rather monotonous timeline.
Surreal on the other hand has gone in the opposite direction. They noticed an opportunity to go against the grain by applying a direct to consumer strategy and challenging the status quo with attention grabbing headlines with a more distinct, playful tone of voice, as they recently did in their recent free cereal campaign.
It’s no wonder they’ve got 10,000 followers on LinkedIn, a following almost equal to their Instagram account, while many brands still face the challenge of growing engagement across all platforms. It’s safe to say Surreal has mastered their audiences across the board.
A great lesson to takeaway from this case study is how Surreal’s intentionality in their brand messaging served as a strategic catalyst into their market.
What lessons from this do you think you can apply to your startup?
For more expert advice on how to identify your audience, check out: How to identify your niche to scale
