The Vietnam war started November 1st, 1955. Long and bloody and gruesome.
The Oat Milk war started in October 13th, 2016. Long and frothy and gruesome.
OATLY and Alpro were like the US Military - huge amounts £££, huge amounts of marketing napalm, huge amounts of military prowess.
Minor Figures were like the Vietcong. Small and nimble and fast and snappy.
The Vietcong shattered US morale by thinking differently.
The US Military could out muscle them, but they couldn’t out think them.
The Vietcong strangled the US Moral Troops through guerilla warfare.
Random ambushes, a crazy tunnel network through the tall, thick, verdant jungle. Booby traps and surprise attacks. On el reg.
The Oat milk wars weren’t fought in Vietnamese rainforests, the battlefield was the streets of East London.
OATLY, Alpro, Minor Figures and other brands all ferociously fighting to win listings in East London Coffee and Indie shops.
When you can’t compete with budget. You must compete with creativity.
Minor Figures knew 10x creativity beats 10x budget.
Minor Figures may not have won the battle, but Minor Figures certainly didn’t lose the war.
I’ll be frank OATLy is
Minor Figures most recent filed accounts show turnover of £33.7 million (from my little buddy, Claude). They have a team of over 75 people across the UK and North America (thanks again Claudey chief).
Will aka Willy Rixon was the creative and brand mastermind.
The bloke who made Minor Figures blossom into all it’s verdant acid-trippin’ technicolour.
Had the joy of chinwagging with Willy in Nashville on the poddy.
Here’s 5 Guriella Warfare tactics Minor Figures adopted for Major Results.
ALWAYS ASK THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION
Too many brands take “advice” or “category norms” or “expertise” or “how it’s always been done” at face value.
Stu, Will and Johnnie, the Minor Figures co-founders, ALWAYS probed deeper.
Minor Figures’ Superpower = always ask the question, behind the question.
Why is that normal way to do it?
Why can’t we do it differently?
Why can’t we do it in a strange way ?
Why can’t we steal ideas from weird and wonderful places?
Why can’t we have more fun and joy with this?
Minor Figures adopt the 5 Layers of Why mindset.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
always ask the question, behind the question.
99.9% of brands never ask the 2nd or 3rd or 4th question, behind the question.
Take any assumption or category norm and blitz it to smithereens with WHY.
The deeper you go, the richer the magic.
The more questions you ask, the greater the unique gold.
At London Coffee Festival, Minor Figures are consistently weird and iconic.
They banished the banal gimps with perfunctory iPad, lanyard, crap breath, Water Melon Ice Lost Memory vape addictions giving out free Blueberry Muffins.
Feast your eyes on the below, chiefs.
2.SALES > EVERYTHING
Most see Minor Figures as a quirky, psychedelic, avant garde brand.
They are.
However, peel beneath the service.
Stu, Will, and Richie are Wild Sales Dogzzzz and Commercial Cool catzzzz
Minor Figures balance “brand” with aggressive commercial drive and strategy.
You may have the best “brand” in the world, but if you can’t sell or unlock distribution.
You’re fucked.
Conversely, lots of distribution doesn’t equal a SICK brand.
A la Byron Fix Up. Look Sharp’s book “How Brands Grow” and “Mental Availability” vs. “Physical Availability”
Minor Figures adopt Sumptuous Barbell Strategy:
SICK Brand <> KiILLER Sales/Commercial Strategy.
People, including me, don’t realise just how commercially savvy Minor Figures actually are.
3.BRAND IN SERVICE OF COMMERCIAL PAIN AND GROWTH POINTS
When Minor Figures launched into cafes, replacing other brands like OATLY and Alpro.
Regular East London Hipster Dipster cafe customers often got aggy and complained to their local barista
“Stevey, I’m SEERIOUSLY hyper ventilating, have you changed your oat milk supplier, this tastes really acidic?”
“Juliano, our coffee is too acidic, BRO”
“Plump - what have you done to my algae flat white?”
(yep, I know, first world problems)
The reason?
Coffee IS acidic.
It’s meant to taste acid.
Other Oat milk brands smothered all the acidic taste out the coffee.
Minor Figures used BRAND to solve this commercial headache and unlock growth.
Transform adversity into opportunity.
Transform setback into growth.
Transform bug into feature.
Enter:::: High on Acids.
A campaign to raise awareness and normalise acidity in coffee, it encouraged users to upload quirky images of acid trippy coffee to win a supply of minor figures.
They even gave out “Acid Tabs” at sampling events to show the taste of different coffee acids.
Most brands use “commercial tools” to solve commercial problems (more promotions, more FSDU’s, more Influencer spend, more Meta ads).
Minor Figures used BRAND IN SERVICE of solving actual commercial problems to unlock growth.
Brand is always in service of actual commercial problems.
Most see them as seperate.
4.FOLLOW THE VIBRATIONS
Sir John Hegarty and Sir Paul Smith say the hardest grapple about any creative work is
Developing your own taste
Developing your point of view
Having the courage of your convictions to follow through on the above.
Minor Figures have a heuristic for sifting through and picking great ideas. Follow your vibrations. Follow your energy.
They KNOW and TRUST their unique point of view and taste.
This is incredibly hard, but once you have it, it’s very nigh impossible to copy.
Brand is a Moat.
Follow the v- - ib - - ra——- tio-ns.
Follow Your e- - n- - e - - - r- GY.
5.WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER? WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER, REALLY?
In b2b, most, including myself, assume Minor Figures’s “customers” are baristas, right?
Wrong.
Fucking Wrong.
Minor Figures, in true Minor Figures probing style, when hitting field sales and the streets.
They asked more and more questions and found out their consumers weren’t baristas.
Instead, they were musicians or actors or creatives, trying to make it in the Arts world, working in cafes, as a side hustle, to fund their dreams.
This changed EVERYTHING.
Will launched MFFM (Minor Figures FM) - a platform connecting coffee shops around the world through music. Each cafe was able to upload a playlist and connect with other baristas music tastes around the world.
No other Oat milk brand could execute this. The deeper you understand your consumer, the more you can surprise and delight them.
The wider and deeper the brand moat.
6.GO DEEPER IN UNDERSTANDING YOUR CONSUMER.
In the zenith of the Oat Milk Wars, the front line stretched from Shoreditch to Hackney Wick turning at Islington.
During The Battle of the Somme-in-Solomons, most sales reps went into cafes and dropped off merch or swag.
NEWSFLASH! BRAH!!!!
Every brand under the fucking sun is doing that.
BOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGG
GO DEEPER. FIND OUT YOUR CONSUMERS ACTUAL & HIDDEN PAIN POINTS.
Minor Figures realised baristas often get incredibly dry hands and blisters from working coffee machines all day.
So instead of dumping off another pair of socks.
They created this ICONIC WHAM, Barista Balm, to moisturise baristas hands during shift.
Minor Figure are THE iconic brand who understand the dance between Commercial<> Brand. Brand <> Commercial better than anyone else.
Most brands see “commercial” and “brand” as silo’d departments.
Brand solves brand problems
Commercial solves commercial problems.
right?
Minor Figures use brand to solve commercial problems and commercial to solve brand problems.
Easy in theory, very hard in practice.
Especially when your Brand Manager is a 27 year old ket head from Hackney and your Commercial Director is 52 year old cyclist from Beaconsfield
The poddy with founder Willy goes live next Monday morning.
If you’re currently at war. Listen to this.
It’ll help you think differently.
PEACEEEEEE xxxx
Popey xxx
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