Clif Bar vs Larabar Brand Comparison

P R E P A R E D B Y K A Y L A F L O Y D O C T O B E R 2 0 T H , 2 0 1 6

Battle of the Bars

VS

Clif Bar & Company 1451 66th Street Emeryville, CA 94608

Larabar P.O. Box 9452

Minneapolis, MN 55440

Table of Contents

�  Introduction ……….……….……….….……….………….…… 3 �  Meet The Brands ……….……….……….….……….………… 4-5 �  Product Comparison ……….……….……….….……….…… 6 �  Audience ……….……….……….….……….……………………. 7-8 �  In-Store Presence ……….……….……….….……….……….. 9 �  Digital Presence ……….……….……….….……….………….. 10 �  Website ……….……….……….….……….……………………… 11-13 �  Social Platforms ……….……….……….….……….………….. 14-34

¡  Social Media Overview …………….. 15 ¡  Facebook ……….……….……….……… 16-18 ¡  Twitter ……….……….……….…………. 19-21 ¡  YouTube ……….……….……….………. 22-24 ¡  Instagram ……….……….……….…….. 25-27 ¡  Pinterest ……….……….……….………. 28-30 ¡  Google + ……….……….……….………. 31-33 ¡  Platform Winners ……….……….….. 34

�  This, Not That …….……….……….….……….……………….. 35 �  Evaluation ……….…………………….….……….….………..… 36 �  Winner …….……….……….….……….………….………………. 37

2

Introduction

Before going on a hike, or even just for a busy day, Clif Bar and Larabar are some the first two brands people think of when reaching for their

“backpack snack”. As category leaders in the health and lifestyle nutrition bar market, both Larabar and Clif Bar have a large presence on social media. The purpose of this paper is to

evaluate both the similarities and differences of each brand’s website, as well as multiple social

platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google +, and Pinterest.

The awareness, effectiveness, and maturity across all digital marketing channels for both brands will be evaluated to show which bar’s

brand is truly the strongest.

3

Meet the Brands: “Feed Your Adventure”

�  Founded in 1992 �  Co-owners and founders: Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford �  CEO: Kevin Cleary �  Privately-held company (had an offer in 2000, but

decided not to sell) �  500-1,000 employees Clif Bar stemmed from an idea Gary had while on a 175 mile bike ride. He had packed a lot of other snack bars, but none of them seemed to satisfy him. With his background as both a baker and mountain guide, he decided to start experimenting with recipes for a new energy bar. After landing on the perfect blend of ingredients, Gary decided to name the bar after his father Clifford. Distribution began at bike shops, outdoor stores, and natural food retailers. Now, you can find Clif Bars in grocery stores, convenience stores, and many other retailers nationwide.

From 2002 to 2013, the company purchased 425 million pounds of organic ingredients and they continue to divert

85% of its office waste from local landfills.

4

Meet the Brands: “Simple. Pure. Delicious.”

�  Founded in 2000 �  Founder: Lara Merriken �  Owner: General Mills �  Publicly-held company (GM) �  10,000+ employees (GM) Larabar, too, came from an epiphany. The idea came to Lara during a hike when she starting of thinking why there wasn’t a product on the market that was made with real food, portable, and that still tasted delicious while being healthy. She often says that the food-bar business chose her. Each of their products have only 9 natural ingredients or less. (I mean, that’s it?!) Larabar believes that the foundation for a sound body, mind, and spirit is derived from what you eat. Their wrappers are even recyclable through their partnership with TerraCycle and their chocolate/coffee beans are purchased from Fair Trade Certified farmers.

The first batch of bars Lara produced for retail had to be sealed by hand- all 500 of them! Now, millions of bars are

produced a year.

5

Clif Bar Larabar

�  3 different brands �  29 total flavors

Product Comparison

�  21 different brands �  115 total flavors

*They also offer Larabar Original Minis!

↵

6

Audience: Clif Bar

�  Adventurous; enjoy hiking, biking, swimming, rock climbing, etc.

�  Have an active and healthy lifestyle

�  They target many different segment markets due to the large amount of sub-brands they have

�  The simplicity and nutritional value of the ingredients are not a priority

�  Want an energy snack bar �  Targets both males and

females

7

Audience: Clif Bar

�  May not necessarily have an active lifestyle, but are very health-conscious

�  Check the ingredients on everything

�  Want a healthy snack bar �  The raw ingredients Larabar

uses appeals to those with special and specific diets (gluten-free, dairy-free, kosher, vegan, non-GMO, and soy-free). Finding grab-and-go snacks can be difficult for them and Larabar is a great solution.

�  Primarily targets women

8

In-Store Presence

Clif Bars and Larabars are both displayed in the health snack bar section of the grocery

store. Clif Bar has much more shelf space, due to the breadth of their products. This could give them an advantage for shoppers just

looking to grab whatever they see first.

The images shown were taken in a Kroger, where both bars were $1.00 each. What’s

interesting about how they were advertised is that the Clif Bars were labeled as $1.00, yet the

Larabars were advertised as 10/$10.00. This could definitely sway a few shoppers who may

buy these types of bars in bulk.

They are both packaged very similarly, the same as all other nutrition and protein bars. If one of these brands could slightly alter the way they are displayed and packaged on the shelves to differentiate themselves, they could be at a

large advantage.

9

Digital Presence

�  Strengthà The likelihood your brand is being talked about on the social web ¡  People are talking a little more about Clif Bar on the web. At 60% strength for Clif Bar, they seem to be talked about pretty

regularly online.

�  Sentimentà The ratio of generally positive to generally negative comments on the social web ¡  Larabar has slightly more positive comments in comparison to negative comments about their brand. For every 8 positive

comments about Larabar, there is a negative one.

�  Passionà The likelihood that people who talk about your brand online will do so repetitively ¡  The likelihood for individuals to talk about your brand more than once is much higher for Larabar. At only 15%, Clif Bar

should think of ways for consumers to continue to talk about them.

�  Reachà The number of unique individuals talking about your brand divided by the number of mentions ¡  There is a higher variety of individuals talking about Clif Bar than Larabar on the web, but both brands have a higher than

average reach.

*5-day average from Social Mention

10

Website:� www.clifbar.com

11

Website:� www.larabar.com

12

Website

�  Clif Bar’s website is very interactive and displayed in a grid-like layout. The home page has a lot of internal links within it.

�  A lot of their website goes beyond just explaining their products and company history; they have video stories of athletes (embedded straight from their YouTube), nutrition and training tips, a podcast for runners, and how they’re involved in sustainable sourcing.

�  They do a great job of integrating their brand throughout their site. Every section of their site is branded; For example, ClifLife, ClifTV, and ClifCast. Their “go explore” button scattered throughout several areas of the site really emphasizes their mission and what Clif Bar is all about.

�  Call-to-action buttons, such as ‘Buy Now’ and ‘Subscribe’, as well as an email newsletter sign-up are easily visible.

�  Links to all of their social channels are accessible on their home page. They are missing a Pinterest link.

�  One suggestion I have for them is to show content or a feed from other social channels directly on their site.

�  Larabar’s website is interactive, as well. They have a video playing as soon as you land on the home page.

�  They do a great job of linking their social channels directly on their website, as well as having their Instagram feed along the bottom of their home page. They should add a YouTube link.

�  Larabar’s website is also sectioned out, but in a much more simplistic way (just like their branding!) than Clif Bar’s.

�  I love the timeline page of their site. It does a great job of taking your through important milestones for the company.

�  They provide videos on their website, but they do not link directly to their YouTube; this could be a little unclear.

�  One suggestion I have is instead of having the master menu on the top of the right side of the webpage, to instead have collapsible menu tabs across the top. It may make it a little less confusing to the user that there are many other sub-pages within the site.

13

Platform by Platform Comparison

Social Media Overview

Platform

305,538 likes

349 people talking about this

237,948 likes

2,170 people talking about this

132K followers 40.3K followers

17,742,840 views 2,025,022 views

104K followers 52.2K followers

3.4K followers 2.4K followers

100 followers 77 followers

15

Facebook: Clif Bar 16

Facebook: Clif Bar 17

Facebook

Best Practices �  They link all other social media platforms within

their Facebook page through tabs on the side menu. You can directly view pins, videos, and photos.

�  Through the notes section, they keep followers informed on current events and crises.

�  They make an effort to keep the conversation going with users who frequently comment.

Things to Improve On

�  They are sometimes very scattered with their responses, it seems as if there is no strategy in place. Often, they respond right away, but other times they are very delayed (over a week late once, but they at least apologized). There were many unanswered questions in comments.

Fun Features

�  They created a quiz with their Instagram photos spelling out the answers.

�  A promotion was run for people in Canada to enter and try their new Clif Mojo bar.

Best Practices �  Engages their audience by asking fun questions

within their posts. �  Response times is high; responds within 1 hour. �  VERY active in getting involved in the conversation.

They comment on almost all of their posts. �  A variety of reading material is available within their

notes section, compared to the single post Clif bar has in their notes.


�  There are links to a couple of their other social platforms (YouTube, Instagram), but they should add tabs on the menu for their Twitter and Instagram, as well.

�  Another idea is to use the timeline that is already on their website and put it under their Facebook milestones.

Fun Features

�  Have a coupon tab where they occasionally offer coupons exclusively for Facebook fans!

18

Twitter: Clif Bar 19

Twitter: Clif Bar 20

Twitter

Best Practices �  For Clif, this platform has the most unique content

across all of their social sites. For Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, their content is all integrated.

�  Many of their Twitter posts are to engage with their athletic fans to both encourage, inform and congratulate them.

�  The level of engagement followers have with likes and retweets is huge.

�  They post the most frequently on this platform and use unique hashtags so that followers will get involved.


�  They do have a lot of original content not present in their other social channels, but it would still be beneficial to include integrated content more often.

Fun Features

�  Had a campaign with the hashtag #FromMeToBrazil for the Rio Olympics encouraging words of inspiration across seas.

Best Practices �  Their cover photo is great; including your mantra

consistently is always beneficial. �  Even when repurposing their other content, they

make a point to introduce a hashtag in almost all of their tweets. Even their bio has hashtags. Awesome!

�  Make good use of embedded tweets. A lot of companies fail to do this.


�  Clif Bar is extremely ahead of them in terms of followers. They need to find a way to gain more.

�  Have more original content than retweets. They seem to have way more retweets on their feed than their own posts.

Fun Features

�  They once used a Twitter poll to gauge consumer interest on which new flavor to release next.

21

YouTube: Clif Bar 22

YouTube: Clif Bar 23

YouTube

Best Practices �  They link to their other social sites and website at the top

of their YouTube home page. �  They have a wide variety of videos, but their overall

theme and brand image is still consistent. �  They do a great job of organizing their video content.

Things to Improve On �  Even though they don’t have any huge gaps of time where

they don’t have an upload, they should be more frequent with their posting. Recently, they’ve only been posting about once a month or less.

�  They have not responded to any of the comments in the discussion section.

Fun Features

�  One of the most unique videos they have is their ‘How Do You Adventure?’ interactive video. It allows you to click on links within the video that bring you to other scenes of the video. Even though this video is innovative, it still only has below 3,000 views.

�  A lot of their videos have purpose, through advice from Gary or giving the opportunity for Farmers to speak.

Best Practices �  They link to their other social sites and website at the top

of their YouTube home page. �  There’s a bunch of behind-the-scenes and company

background footage and on their channel.

Things to Improve On �  A lot of their videos are not included in any specific

playlist. I would suggest categorizing every video into a playlist for easier navigation.

�  Since view count is low, they should be spreading more videos through the rest of their social platforms.

�  Besides the “Food Made From Food” campaign, the last video uploaded was over a year ago. There is also a lot of disconnect with the theme of the channel overall. They need to have more variety in their videos, while still maintaining a consistent brand image.

�  Larabar should have some recent video content that resonates and connects with the consumer, rather than just sales commercials; there is SO much opportunity here for this fun and cute brand.

�  They also have not responded to any of the comments in the discussion section.

24

Instagram: Clif Bar 25

Instagram: Clif Bar 26

Instagram

Best Practices �  They are great about using user-generating content

and giving them credit by tagging the user in the post. They are constantly tagging other accounts in their captions, which draws in viewers.

�  They include a good mix of videos, scenery, and stories of athletes.


�  Their account is not verified, even though they have almost twice the amount of followers as Larabar, who is verified.

�  Clif Bar show many stories of people and photos of the lifestyle of their target market, but almost never show the actual product in their pictures.

Fun Features

�  Their hashtag campaign, #BeyondNuts, was a unique way to introduce their two new Coconut Almond and Peanut Butter bars. Every picture had two vertical halves of an outdoor scene, one darkly lit and the other brightly lit, to symbolize the two new flavors.

Best Practices �  Their Instagram is extremely aesthetically pleasing.

Catering to the female demographic, they do an amazing job with their picture quality.

�  Informative, creative, thoughtful, friendly. �  They are consistent with putting a hashtag of their

brand name in every single post. �  Have an immense variety of posts; videos,

regrammed posts, recipes, stories, new products, and even integrations with new platforms (such as Pandora).


�  Try new ways to boost their following; Clif Bar has almost twice the amount of followers. One idea is to introduce new hashtag campaigns or to just add more unique hashtags to the posts.

Fun Features

�  Larabar uses images of their product in almost all of their pictures; the color and simplicity of their brand is an attractive feature they love to showcase.

27

Pinterest: Clif Bar 28

Pinterest: Clif Bar 29

Pinterest

Best Practices �  Hashtags are used in the descriptions of all of their

boards. This is a great way to tie back into all their other social sites.

�  Most of their boards have three word names, such as ‘Climb a Rock’, ‘Catch a Wave’, or ‘Take a Ride’. This simple and easy names make them easy to remember.


�  Their Pinterest board is all about the athletic lifestyle. There is absolutely nothing about their product. It is important to connect with your audience’s hobbies, but Clif should have at least one board with recipes or snack bar related pins. Food is huge on Pinterest and they are missing out on a large audience.

Fun Features

�  They’ve done a great job separating their board by activity. This makes it easy if one individual only likes one type of sport because they can go and follow only that one board if they would like.

Best Practices �  Larabar has a great blend of product uses through

recipes and the flavors they offer, as well as lifestyle and inspirational pins.

�  In addition to recipes with their own products, they also just have a board devoted to other healthy foods. This shows that Larabar truly cares about helping their followers and are not just pushing their own snack.


�  Compared to Clif Bar’s 1,000, Larabar only has 306 pins.

�  They have liked no pins and their following could be boosted just by liking and engaging with other pinners who have similar content.

Fun Features

�  The Larabar ‘Snack Hacks’ board has great ways to use their bars in ways you would never think of. One idea shows their Gingerbread Larabar being used as as the base for a gingerbread cookie.

30

Google + : Clif Bar 31

Google + : Clif Bar 32

Google +

100 followers

Best Practices �  The cover photo, profile image, and video posts are

all identical to what is on their YouTube channel. This creates consistency across sites.

�  They include a great introduction and their tagline under their ‘About’ section.


�  Over the past year, they have just posted videos. In 2015, they used to post useful links, photo updates, and more. They may benefit from returning to their old roots and posting more of a variety.

�  They only link to their website, but not to any of their social channels.

�  They include their address and phone number, but should add their email under the contact information.

77 followers

Best Practices �  They do a great job of linking to all their other social

sites, as well as their website, in their ‘About’ section. They include an introduction and their tagline in this section, as well.

�  Having their phone number, email, and address included for their contact information is beneficial.


�  They need to include a cover photo. �  Their last post was made in 2014. In total, they have

only made 7 posts and all were videos from their YouTube channel. If they want to upkeep their following, they need to post more regularly, as well as posting a variety of content. They could post links of unique and relatable articles for their followers. At least they have kept the 77 followers these past 2 years!

33

This, Not That

×

Clif Bar has a presence on LinkedIn, but Larabar does not. This may be because Larabar is now owned by General Mills. Larabar should create a LinkedIn profile; there are still employees working for Larabar itself. What Larabar does have that Clif Bar lacks is a blog. Larabar’s blog gives tips for healthy living, recipes, stories, and inspirational thoughts. Clif Bar has a podcast and video series, which is why they may not have thought to start a blog. They should consider starting a blog to further connect with consumers and bring their brand into the sphere of thought leadership.

×

35

Setting the “Bar” High

The health and lifestyle snack bar market is very crowded, but Clif Bar and Larabar are two brands that come top of

mind for consumers. Even though both bars are in the same category of business, their digital marketing tactics

are vastly different. Clif Bar serves as a great online community for athletes. Their presence is all about lifestyle

and the stories that they tell. They highlight athletes and different outdoor activities, emphasize living in the

moment and being adventurous. While they have great content overall, they should focus on trying to have

differentiating content for each separate platform. Larabar, on the other hand, concentrates on the ingredients of their products. Most of their posts show images of the product

and connect the simplicity of their bars to a simple lifestyle. On social, they tend to talk a lot about healthy eating and

give recipes, tips, etc. A lot of times, they engage with their audience by asking questions in the captions of their posts.

36

And The Winner Is….

Drum roll, please! The decision was close, but overall, I believe Clif Bar has a slightly stronger and more

established presence across all digital channels. They have an effective following both in person and online. Their focus is athletes, but they still communicate openly to everyone, which is what has made them so successful. Their ability to address mistakes and issues via social media and constantly bring hashtags into the conversation has helped them excel

on every platform. They provide a wide array of differing content and are on a variety of platforms. They could have a

leg up since they have been around slightly longer than Larabar, but Larabar definitely has made their mark online, as well. Clif Bar could learn from Larabar’s clever posts by

trying to incorporate a more creative aspect into their digital strategy. Larabar also rises to the top when it comes to quick

response time for their audience. They are always monitoring their social sites to respond whenever needed.

Keep up the great work, Clif Bar and Larabar!

37

Clif Bar vs Larabar Brand Comparison

Marketing

Transcript of Clif Bar vs Larabar Brand Comparison