How Food Brands Become Cultural Icons (And Why Most Don’t)

Some brands sell food. Others become part of people's lives.

In this episode of Full Fat Marketing, Leonora unpacks how brands like Greggs became cultural shorthand, and why being 'good' is never enough to get there.

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And if you’re building a food, drink or hospitality brand and want help applying these strategies to your business, feel free to reach out at leonora@lrbcreative.com

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Disclaimer: Insights shared are based on Leonora’s experience with food and hospitality brands and are for educational purposes only. Results may vary.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I once asked a burger founder why he started his brand, and he said, because I like burgers. And look, I appreciate the honesty, I'm all about it, but almost tells you nothing about whether the brand has any real chance of becoming something memorable, meaningful, or culturally powerful. Because liking a food category is not a strategy. Now, to be fair, I've also worked with brands that jumped on a trend, moved fast, grew really well, and built with a very clear commercial goal. But they had the goal from the start. Just creating something because you like something without doing any market research is where the real problem can lie. So this is not about whether your reason is emotional or commercial, it's about whether you actually understand what game you're playing. I'm Lenora and this is the Full Fat Marketing Podcast, where you'll hear the uncomfortable strategy truths for FB brands that most people won't tell you, but I will. Now some food brands sell food, some food brands become shorthand. Shorthand is kind of like when a food brand stops just meaning the food itself. For example, you never really say or order a cola beverage. You always say, Can I have a Coke? Even if the brand isn't Coca-Cola per se and it's just an imitation of it, you would still say, Could I please have a Coke? And that is a much more powerful thing because shorthand travels, it slips into conversation, into jokes, into cravings, into memory, into routine. That is when a brand stops being just a place people buy from or a product and starts becoming part of how people describe life. That is what a cultural icon really is. Not just a popular brand, not just a busy brand, but a brand with nice packaging and good sales. A brand people can reference instantly because it already means something bigger than the product itself. And one of the best examples of that is Greg's. Greg's isn't just a bakery. It's shorthand for a very particular kind of British everydayness. It's fast, it's familiar, it's unpretentious, it's a bit chaotic, and it's weirdly beloved. That is why the sausage roll matters in this. Objectively, it is just a sausage roll. Culturally, it's much bigger than that. Now in 2025, the Greg's sausage roll was unveiled at Madame Tussaud's, and Greg's later called it a British icon in its 2026 preliminary results. That only works because the sausage roll had already stopped being just a bakery product and become something people instantly recognized as part of British culture. That's the lesson right there. A food brand becomes iconic when it stops meaning only the thing that it sells. Greg's means more than pastry, it means a whole tone of life, and that matters because cultural brands are easier to spread. People know how to talk about them. They know what mood they fit, they know who would like them, they know what kind of life they belong to, and that's what makes them stick. Another really good example that I've mentioned on the podcast is Joe and the Juice. On paper, it sells juice, coffee, sandwiches, and shakes. Pretty ordinary, but the brand has very deliberately built something people talk about as atmosphere and not just a menu. Its own site describes being a juicer as a shared culture of energy, creativity, authenticity, and community. This is why people don't usually talk about Joe and the Juice like it is just a place to buy a sandwich. They talk about everything else that comes with it. That is a completely different level of brand power because once people talk about your role in their world rather than just as what is on the menu, you're no longer operating as a normal food brand. You're becoming really symbolic. And symbolic brands end up moving much faster than functional ones. And this is where a lot of founders get stuck. They think making a good product is the whole job. It's not. Good products get you tried. It does not automatically get you remembered. It definitely does not automatically get you referenced. And referenced is where the power is. Because a word of mouth, most brands are trying to become memorable. Very few are trying to become referenceable. And that is the thing that matters if you want to move through the culture appropriately. Can people use your brand as a shortcut for something? Whether that be a mood, a craving, a type of energy, a certain sort of person, because if they can, the brand starts doing work far beyond the transaction. That is when it starts getting repeated for free. That is when it starts getting carried socially. That is when it starts feeling bigger than the thing itself. And that is why iconic food brands are not always the fanciest or the healthiest or the most critically respected. Sometimes they become iconic because they understand the role they play in people's lives. Greg's understands its role, for instance. That is why it feels bigger than the sum of what it sells. So if you're listening to this as a founder, operator, or marketing manager, here is the question I would want you to sit with. What is our brand becoming shorthand for? Not what do we sell or what trend are we following. What are you actually becoming shorthand for? Is it comfort, energy, neighborhood warmth, modern city life, late-night indulgence, a certain type of craving that you're wanting to be fulfilled, a type of person. Because until your brand becomes attached to something bigger than the product, it is much harder for it to become culturally powerful. And that's the real gap. The problem is not starting a food brand because you love the product. The problem is starting one without understanding what will make it matter. Food brands become iconic when they really stop being just places people buy from and start becoming how people describe life. That is when it becomes culture. Now that's the Full Fat version. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, you can listen to the Full Fat Marketing Podcast wherever you get your podcast with new bite-sized episodes releasing daily, Monday to Friday. You can thank me later for that. Oh, and before you go, if you're enjoying this podcast, I'd really love it if you left a rating and a review because it really helps more people find it. See you tomorrow.