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How do you turn people who are completely unaware of a product into enthusiastic fans?

This is the marketing question of a lifetime – and there's no way we can tell you it's a one-size-fits-all template. Some brands are successful in one direction, others need the exact opposite.

For example, Warby Parker used paid ads and influencer marketing to boost their direct-to-consumer glasses. Most brands believe this is the only way they can claim fame in the digital age.

But we will show that it really is is not the case. Creative brainstorming, coupled with understanding how to have the perfect first experience, is how a brand can achieve global success. 💡

It all starts with oats and the massive surge in demand for plant-based milk. The next time you have a coffee at your local coffee shop, ask them what plant-based milk options they have. When they say oat milk You will remember this story.

Oatly, a Swedish company founded in 1994, has spent 20 years trying to establish its oat milk in the plant-based dairy industry. But they kept having one big problem: getting people to choose oat milk on the grocery store shelves when they didn't even know oats could be milked.

So Oatly went back to basics.

How could they have a great first experience with their product that would turn strangers into customers and ultimately avid fans?

Understand your customer avatars

Instead of doing commercials for advertisements and hoping people would get better acquainted with the concept of oat milk, Oatly went to the drawing board. How could they have such a great experience with Oatly that when people saw it in the store they wanted to buy it?

Oat milk is a great addition to coffee instead of milk. Oatly knew that the demand for non-dairy milk in the United States would only gain momentum when you ride the cart with lactose-free, plant-based milk. They decided to enter the US market through the back door of artisanal cafes.

Oatly's customer avatar is willing to pay more to avoid traditional milk. But they don't know how much they would prefer oat milk in their morning latte over almond milk or soy milk.

Who could convince Oatly's ideal customer avatar to like oat milk instead of other milk substitutes?

Your local barista.

Other plant-based dairy companies had forgotten the middleman between their milk substitutes and their customers: the people who make their coffee. At this point, Oatly's customer avatars doubled. Yes, they were looking for plant-based milk lovers, but they also had to make the baristas the way they were.

Oatly created a barista mix especially for smaller coffee shops that is thicker than other plant-based dairy products. This makes it the best option for baristas trying to draw those cool designs in cappuccinos. It gave the same experience as frothing whole milk – which made the baristas more than happy to promote it as a great option for their curious customers.

Think about it, have you ever walked into a coffee shop and asked what milk options are there after ordering your coffee?

It's not a wild question. Now what if your barista says we have almonds, soy and oats? You say, "Um … I'm not sure which one is best?" And your barista says, "Oat milk works really well because it's thicker and more like regular milk."

You have just become an Oatly consumer. You have now tried oat milk and because it was made by your local artisanal coffee house you had a great experience. Your latte was brewed to perfection and you're more than happy to get exactly the same thing tomorrow.

And so a new plant-based dairy option was on the rise. 🌱

Go where your customers are already

Oatly didn't try to get into Starbucks right away. They went the other way around and looked for coffee lovers' favorite cafés. The first coffee shop with Oatly's infamous barista blend was Intelligentsia – a boutique hipster coffee shop in 2016.

Caption: Intelligentsia's Los Angeles Silverlake location via Instagram

A year later, Oatly had enough success to expand to other coffee shops, and by the end of 2017 the barista mix could be found in 650 cafes across America.

Oatly's rise to fame can specifically be traced back to her clients' knowledge. They knew what would make a great first impression and they knew where to place themselves to get a chance.

Using the popular aesthetic of smaller coffeeshops, Oatly didn't hit the market as the dominant brand – it was an exciting new option for your morning cappuccino.

Well, excited could be an understatement. In 2018, two years after its launch in the US, sales of oat milk were $ 6 million. A year later it was $ 40 million.

The demand for oat milk was so great that in 2018 the barista world became infamous for squeezing every last drop out of every Oatly Barista Blend package. None of this could be wasted because there was too much demand and too little product.

The demand was so great that 12-packs of Oatly, which normally sold for $ 50, went on sale on Amazon for over $ 200.

This is a traditional marketing success story.

Oatly Goes Digital

Oatly is going to be considered one of the most successful traditional marketing strategies in the digital age – but that doesn't mean they ever intended to stay traditional. Oatly is now online and has enhanced its customer avatars through its brand voice and design.

Again, they show us how well they know their customer avatar and that they are not afraid to go against the traditional digital marketing styles of other plant-based milks. Check out her Instagram caption for an idea of ​​her brand voice:

And they even have an Instagram account for Oatly Baristas where they highlight baristas. What other plant-based dairy company is focused on the consumer and the barista?

After examining Oatly's rise to fame, the only thing we can think about is how they built such a solid understanding of their customer avatar and the experience they have with their brand. This is marketing wizardry and we are here for it.

If you want to get to know your customer avatar just like Oatly, the first step is to use the customer avatar worksheet to learn everything from their values ​​and goals to the podcasts in the queue.

Okay, it's time to grab a nice oat milk cappuccino. This one is for Oatly.

Cheers to your success. ☕️