HaloTop’s guilt-free-free messaging

We love it when a brand voice is built around a clear stance on something. And HaloTop's early voice was built around a rejection of the very idea of guilt.

Love it.

Low calorie food or healthy alternatives have two copy modes, most of the time.

It's all gym bro talk. Macros, micros, protein, FUEL, GRRRRR!

Or it's all about "guilt-free indulgence." (Which, as nice as that sounds, only reinforces this idea of food as something you should feel guilty about. Not healthy.)

Which is why we love HaloTop's messaging.

There's no guilt in this copy at all. Not even the promise of removing it.

In fact, it's all about indulgence. It's about permission to treat food as a treat, not something you need to work off.

So when they talk about 360 calories, it's not "low cal". It's "you can eat the whole tub". Love that.

(Also love the "or not" afterwards. It's all about freedom to choose what you do or don't eat. That is a healthy message.)

And sure, there's words like "light" and "protein" in there. But they're not the main message, they're there because that's what's expected of brands like this. (And, we suspect, are there for SEO too.)

But there's a bigger move going on here too.

HaloTop are rejecting the way the health food category defaults to speaking.

But they’re also borrowing the language of their non-healthy competitors.

Which is really smart.

(It’s the same thing Jason’s Sourdough does.)

Because they’re basically saying “look, we’re way tastier and more indulgent than that healthy, low-cal stuff” and “we’re as tasty and as indulgent as the non-healthy stuff, plus you can eat the whole tub”.

They’re scooping up customers from both audiences and speaking directly to them.

So smart.

So here's the question that'll get your brain ticking: who are the customers you're not talking to right now? Who are the customers you know your brand is perfect for but you're just not reaching with your messaging? How can you adapt your messaging to speak to your core audience and these people? What language from the products they're already buying can you borrow?

👆 That's the nugget that almost always leads to standout messaging. Follow it where it leads.