Whole Foods Brand Going Stale?

Branding meant nothing to me until I started my own company. Through the process of creating the MetaMemes brand, the branding filter was turned on in my brain and now I can’t help but notice everyday examples of branding successes and failures.

The Whole Foods supermarket chain has developed a great brand. I shop there almost exclusively for a number of reasons, most of which have to do with their brand. They sell high-quality, fresh, healthy food. I know that I can pick up anything in the store and it won’t have high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils. They support local farmers and they were the first Fortune 500 Company to buy 100% of their electricity in the form of wind energy. Whole Foods also made it cool to bring your own cloth bags. (I am proud to admit I owned cloth bags before it was cool.)

This is where my story gets interesting. As companies grow, it gets increasingly difficult to sustain a brand.

In the old days, Whole Foods baggers would pack my cloth bags full in a combined effort to save a tree or send one less plastic bag to the landfill. Lately, my baggers have been filling each of my big sturdy cloth bags only 1/3 full and then asking if I want paper or plastic for the rest.

Whether a company is small or large, every employee, right down to the grocery bagger, contributes to the brand. I like Whole Foods as a company and I hope they either slow the growth or make more of an effort to sustain their brand. Because without that brand, I’m afraid all they would have left to offer is high-priced food.