The 2025 Shift: How F&B Brands Are Turning Marketing Into a Tool for Influence, Not Just Income
It’s easy to assume that creating a great product is the most challenging part of food and beverage success. But lately, that feels like the baseline. What’s turning heads and turning new products into lasting brands is marketing.
Not just the ads. The thinking behind the product. The way it’s introduced. The channels it lives in. And most importantly, the emotional space it occupies in the customer’s mind. Marketing is doing far more than driving awareness. It’s shaping strategy from the ground up.
Here’s how that’s playing out in 2025.
Marketing as an Innovation Engine
Some say product innovation starts with retail feedback, while others argue it comes from customer insight. In practice, both can be true, but the brands gaining momentum are often those using marketing as a fast, responsive engine for testing and learning.
Take Surreal Cereal. Their D2C channel doubles as an innovation lab. Campaigns range from playful brand collabs (yes, even with sex toys) to parody launches that test new product territory. None of it is random. The team uses consumer response to show evidence of “incrementality”, which gives them leverage in conversations with major retailers like Sainsbury’s. This turns marketing into a discovery tool
When every shelf and social feed is packed with choices, the story becomes a differentiator.
Partner and Wine found success by going beyond TikTok virality. Their strategy tapped into an aesthetic mindset, picnic culture, lifestyle design, and products tailored to a female audience that values both function and beauty. The result? A brand that feels made for a specific kind of day, not just a bottle.
Bombay Delicatessen approached it differently. Their Belgian chocolate samosas stood out, but the real win was rebranding from Bombay Sweet Center to something more expansive and aspirational. Launching their “Bombay high chai” became a cultural moment, drawing national media coverage and footfall. It wasn’t accidental, it was deliberate storytelling through product and experience.
Positioning Built on Desire (Then Subtly on Health)
Product framing still makes or breaks first impressions. And in 2025, many food brands are flipping the usual script.
The Delicious Company doesn’t lead with “better for you.” Instead, it anchors the brand in indulgence flavours that feel comforting, rich, and craveable. Once interest is there, it layers in
the gluten-free or vegan message. It’s a more brilliant sequence. It avoids taste scepticism, especially among health-conscious but flavour-first buyers.
Surreal’s choice to focus messaging solely around “protein” works for a similar reason. Sharp, narrow positioning cuts through. Long lists of benefits? They blur together. Focus builds trust.
Distribution as Brand Signaling
Where a product shows up matters just as much as what it tastes like. For premium brands, traditional supermarket shelves aren’t always the first step.
Some teams are using curated platforms like British Fine Foods to appear at high-profile events, such as Wimbledon and Ascot. It’s strategic. Those moments put the brand in front of the right audience without the constraints of mass retail margins.
Distribution is doing double duty: moving product and building brand equity.
Packaging That Speaks (and Sells)
We talk a lot about performance marketing, but what about the performance of your packaging?
Some brands are growing simply because their packaging format is shareable or different. Think cookie dough gelato bites or that iconic Innocent bottle shape. These things aren’t incidental; they’re brand assets.
And the shift toward sustainable packaging? That’s not just a climate decision. It’s a consumer trust decision. Buyers are paying attention, and packaging is often their first touchpoint.
Personalisation Showing Up More
Not every product needs to be tailored to an individual, but there’s growing interest in subtle ways to personalise things.
Some brands, like Dirty or Biomedia, are doing this by offering functional additions, like mushroom adaptogens, that let customers feel like they’re choosing a version that fits their mood or need. In many cases, the core product stays the same. But the customer feels seen, and that counts.
Launching a new product in the food and beverage industry is expensive, competitive, and risky. Retail buyers know it and want reassurance that a brand can drive demand.
That reassurance often comes from marketing. When a founder can point to strong engagement, tested messaging, and a committed audience, the pitch becomes much stronger.
Some teams are even delaying retail conversations until marketing traction is in place. It’s not about skipping the sales team. It’s about making the sales process easier by creating proof first.
Where This Leaves Food & Beverage Brands in 2025
Looking at all of this, one pattern becomes clear. The brands growing in 2025 aren’t the ones with the most significant ad budgets or flashiest launches. They’re the ones building marketing into every part of the business, from how products are conceived to how they’re discovered and remembered.
Marketing isn’t something they do after the product is ready. It’s part of how they get there in the first place.
Want help building a marketing engine that fuels growth from innovation to execution? At Intense Group, we work with Food and Beverage brands across Europe to do exactly that. Let’s talk. Contact Us.
