Aunt Fannie’s

Keeping it real for a natural cleaning brand

Category: Natural cleaning
Services: Branding, packaging
Breakthrough: The Microbiome

Brand strategy & CD, one year as CMO: Julie Kucinski
Design: Ledyard, Melanie Haraldson

photos: Nicole Feest, Ryan Dyer

The situation

The fast-growing brand needed an upgrade to keep momentum in the cut-throat world of natural cleaning. Yes, cut-throat.

The original brand riffed Rosie the Riveter. Name change was off the table. And there was a desire to position into a microbiome-friendly direction.

Starting as a consultant, I worked as their CMO for over a year. Welcome to the urgency and reality of daily ROAS, board meetings, retailers, COGs, etc.

The strategy

Position against zealous chemical cleaning AND foo-foo green.

Vinegar is effective, natural yet polarizing. It will always be niche, so we celebrated it with a can-do cleaning day energy and benefits of cleaning well -
- not oversanitizing

-not overpoisoning

- telegraph efficacy & safety with a modern look shot with “real people” and surprising visual plays

We originally went big on Microbiome, taking on overcleaning. BIG CLEANING took notice. Some legal challenges later and we doubled down into the vinegar and natural pest story.

“I can just make that myself” “It smells!” - we took the top objections turned them into positives, creating an energetic brand that felt more like outdoor decor than Millennial bland.