What Hummus Taught Me About Brand Architecture
I’ve spent the past week thinking about hummus. Not eating it, thinking about it. And I’m now convinced it's one of the smartest product strategy moves in recent FMCG history.
Let’s rewind. Hummus used to be a single product in a sea of dips. A civic-minded chickpea paste, lumped between cottage cheese and, if you were lucky, basil pesto. Then something strange happened. It started multiplying. Brands began releasing Roast Garlic Hummus, Carrot Hummus, Beetroot Hummus, Wasabi Hummus, Chocolate Hummus (a bridge too far, perhaps).
What’s significant here isn't the flavours, but the quiet shift in how hummus elevated itself from a product to a platform. That’s classic brand architecture 101, but it’s been done better in chickpeas than most categories with million-dollar brand guidelines. It’s not just a range extension. It’s a subtle repositioning — from “a singular snack” to a category champion. The same logic is how feijoas somehow became a national personality trait.
So what’s the takeaway for marketers? Flavour is one thing, but framing matters more. When you stop treating your product like a blip and start treating it like a category in waiting, the entire strategy opens up. And that applies whether you’re hawking dips, data plans or dog food. Sometimes becoming an empire starts with quietly stocking the supermarket fridge. Just please, leave chocolate hummus out of it.
Let’s rewind. Hummus used to be a single product in a sea of dips. A civic-minded chickpea paste, lumped between cottage cheese and, if you were lucky, basil pesto. Then something strange happened. It started multiplying. Brands began releasing Roast Garlic Hummus, Carrot Hummus, Beetroot Hummus, Wasabi Hummus, Chocolate Hummus (a bridge too far, perhaps).
What’s significant here isn't the flavours, but the quiet shift in how hummus elevated itself from a product to a platform. That’s classic brand architecture 101, but it’s been done better in chickpeas than most categories with million-dollar brand guidelines. It’s not just a range extension. It’s a subtle repositioning — from “a singular snack” to a category champion. The same logic is how feijoas somehow became a national personality trait.
So what’s the takeaway for marketers? Flavour is one thing, but framing matters more. When you stop treating your product like a blip and start treating it like a category in waiting, the entire strategy opens up. And that applies whether you’re hawking dips, data plans or dog food. Sometimes becoming an empire starts with quietly stocking the supermarket fridge. Just please, leave chocolate hummus out of it.