Fixing our broken food system is one of humanity’s most urgent challenges. Nearly a third of all the food we produce currently goes to waste—depriving millions of people worldwide of proper nutrition and generating tons of greenhouse gasses in the process.
A major cause of the problem lies in modern food supply chains. They work in a race against time where delicate produce must travel across thousands of miles to make it into store shelves just in time for peak ripeness. This creates an extremely wasteful system that generates significant losses for everyone involved—from farmers and retailers to consumers.
Apeel, an agricultural tech startup, is seeking to change this with a plant-based food coating that extends the shelf life of produce. Launched with the help of a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the company works to reduce food waste and carbon emissions by giving supply chains more time to source, transport, and sell produce.
Their website masters the art of speaking to both business and end-consumers with friendly copy that breaks down the fine points of Apeel’s technology while leveraging facts, figures, and social proof to build brand authority and gain readers’ trust.
Apeel drives B2B growth by connecting with end consumers
Although Apeel is a B2B brand, the nature of its product means it must also speak to consumers. All produce packaged with Apeel’s technology feature a sticker with their name, logo, and web address. Curious shoppers will head to their website—sometimes while still in the produce section—to find out what that green sticker on their fruit means. This turns Apeel’s website into a critical touchpoint for driving consumer brand awareness and sales growth to support their B2B brand.
But, beyond informing people and businesses about its product, the biggest challenge Apeel faces in copywriting for sustainable materials is convincing readers of its technology’s safety. Food additives are a topic around which consumers have developed many anxieties. After years of witnessing companies adding questionable ingredients to our food, we’ve all grown highly suspicious of our food system in general.
Apeel gracefully addresses these worries with clear and transparent language, positioning its product as a safe, earth-friendly alternative that helps people, businesses, and the planet. Here’s how their homepage approaches copywriting for sustainable materials:
- Address skepticism. “Plant-based protection that helps the product you love stay fresh for longer.”
The headline on Apeel’s homepage gives readers a complete snapshot of the company’s value proposition and mission at first glance: a safer, better way to help produce last longer. By borrowing from the halo effect of the “plant-based” moniker, Apeel establishes its product as free of artificial chemicals and begins its job of allaying readers’ worries surrounding its safety.
- Decode complexity. “This peel is powerful.”
As readers scroll, Apeel doubles down on its value proposition by spelling out exactly what its product is—a plant-based layer that slows spoilage by reducing moisture loss—and offering them the opportunity to jump to a more detailed explanation.
- Communicate business value. “Apeel gives the entire supply chain more time. That’s better for your business, your customers, and our planet”.
Longer shelf lives address a key pain point for businesses: creating more time for sourcing, transporting, and selling produce. Mentioning supply chains here is key. After the pandemic’s historic disruptions, building resiliency into supply chains has become a top priority for firms across myriad industries. Apeel cleverly seizes the opportunity to position its product as a means to that goal.
Apeel offers a fresh formula for copywriting for sustainable materials
Apeel’s “How it Works” page uses a knowledgeable yet approachable voice that positions them as a trustworthy source of information while helping readers understand the complexities of their product. Their formula for copywriting for sustainable materials alternates in-depth descriptions with short, snappy sentences that help drive the point and lighten the mood. Here’s how it works:
- In-depth description: “Our plant-based protection slows water loss and oxidation, the primary causes of spoilage”.Apeel doesn’t shy away from using big words and formal terms to describe its product. This helps establish authority and communicates to readers that Apeel is the real deal. They know exactly what’s behind their tech and why it’s beneficial, and—more importantly—they have nothing to hide.Summary: “Oxygen stays outside. Moisture stays inside.”
Using an image of an avocado cross-section, Apeel condenses its value proposition in two simple and memorable phrases that become one of the main takeaways on the page.
- In-depth description: “Learning from nature – mimicking the cuticle layer.”
Drawing a clear link between nature and their technology helps Apeel continue to chip away at readers’ concerns surrounding the safety of its product. Again, they don’t skimp on big words and thoroughly expand on their meaning in the caption below.
Summary: “Made from food to protect your food.”
Using alliteration, Apeel makes it crystal clear to readers: our product is safe, edible, and 100 percent natural.
The page concludes by reiterating a corporate mission guided by altruism rather than profit: “Our mission is to work with nature to reduce food waste and create abundance for all.” With this statement Apeel showcases its product as the solution to a problem that businesses have long wrestled with and consumers are starting to grow more conscious about. Readers leave convinced that longer-lasting produce is good for people, businesses, and the planet.
Apeel knows how to talk business
Apeel’s ‘Retail’ page shifts gears into a more familiar B2B tone that hones in what matters to businesses: longer shelf lives, cost savings, and growth. The page mixes the snappy copy used elsewhere on the website with longer, wordier statements that break down Apeel’s tech and its benefits while showcasing the company’s business savvy.
The page opens with a value proposition that means little to the average consumer but is extremely valuable for produce retailers: “Accelerate category growth.” Below, it expands on that benefit by explaining exactly how Apeel can help their business: “Differentiate your fresh department with longer-lasting produce.”
After capitalizing on social proof from consumer testimonials, Apeel gets to work on listing the pain points their product addresses for retailers by stating: “Longer-lasting retail growth comes from our performance-based approach that focuses on addressing retailers’ unique needs.” This may seem dense compared to the copy elsewhere on the page, but since it’s geared towards a business audience for whom these words carry a valuable meaning, it works perfectly in this section.
A winery found a way to rise above competitors
Alongside ripe competition in the storied Willamette Valley, Flaneur Winery wanted to stand out. So Russell Litchenthall, Director of Hospitality & Sales, reached out to an old friend at MarketSmiths. We were able to learn and tell the business’ unique backstory, explaining the origins, philosophy, unusual name—and historic grain elevator, a major visitors’ attraction. The published copy is as beautiful as the images that make this winery website stand out.
Apeel markets at the intersection of B2B and B2C
With consumers growing better informed and curious of the technologies behind everyday products, businesses will increasingly have to market at the intersection between B2B and B2C. As Apeel’s example shows, brand awareness on the end-consumer side can become a key differentiator and a powerful driver of growth on the business sales side. Marketers seeking to strike a balance must carefully consider how end consumers will interact with their products and services and work to maximize every touchpoint.
Working on a product that will make our world a better place? The team at MarketSmiths can help you shape your story! Contact us to learn how we can help you with copywriting for sustainable materials.
