Beyond Quick Wins: How Food & Bev Brands Drive Lasting Demand and Loyalty

August 7, 2025

7 min read

Written by:

Tara Johnson Senior Content Strategist

Tara Johnson is a marketing strategist with 10+ years of experience in digital strategy, content creation, and advertising. At Power Digital, she leads content planning, creating high-impact resources that boost visibility and drive results. Tara believes in no magic wands—just smart content and a passion for sustainable, authentic growth.

Reviewed by:

Power Digital Growth Marketing Partner

Power Digital is a full-service growth marketing agency helping brands accelerate their revenue with data, strategy, and execution. Known for our award-winning teams and nova technology, we bring clarity to complexity and build marketing that scales.

Table of contents

1. Why Food & Bev Loyalty Demands a Demand-Gen Mindset
2. DTC Retargeting: Build the Path to Repeat Purchase
3. Retail-Focused Brands: Influence the Journey Before It Starts
4. Subscription Brands: Retargeting as Retention Fuel
5. Measure What Matters: Beyond ROAS
6. Final Thought: Loyalty Is Earned, Not Targeted

To Top

In the food and beverage space, loyalty isn’t built on one click—it’s built over time. Brands must influence demand early and often, showing up with precision and consistency across every touchpoint. Whether you’re driving to retail shelves or a DTC cart, the real opportunity lies in guiding shoppers along a complete journey—with retargeting as one piece of a much larger puzzle.

Why Food & Bev Loyalty Demands a Demand-Gen Mindset

Unlike other verticals, food and beverage brands deal with perishability, impulse behaviors, and low price points that make one-time conversions easy but repeat purchases more complex. Success depends on sustained frequency and brand familiarity—not just closing the cart.

Your goal isn’t just to convert a single visitor. It’s to hit users with relevant, high-frequency touchpoints that build appetite, intent, and eventually, habit. That’s true whether they buy online, in-store, or through a subscription.

DTC Retargeting: Build the Path to Repeat Purchase

For DTC, retargeting plays a clear role in progressing users from discovery to conversion to repeat purchase. But it can’t stop at cart reminders.

Here’s how to think bigger:

Segment by Journey Stage, Not Just Cart Activity
- Retarget all site visitors based on actions taken (product page views, video views, email clicks), not just abandoners.
- Trigger replenishment flows for consumables and discovery flows for broader assortments.
Turn Engagement Into Habit
- Use post-purchase retargeting to promote bundles, recipes, or cross-category SKUs.
- Reinforce behavior with loyalty perks, personalized email/SMS content, and timed re-engagement.
Test and Track for Long-Term Value
- Measure repeat rate, LTV by SKU, and churn timing.
- Use platform indicators (engagement rate, click-through rate) to refine which audiences and creatives perform best over time.

Retail-Focused Brands: Influence the Journey Before It Starts

When the primary purchase happens on-shelf, traditional retargeting takes a back seat. Without first-party purchase data, brands must shift from bottom-funnel tactics to upper-funnel demand generation.

Maximize Frequency and Familiarity
- Reach target audiences 10+ times across digital and paid media channels to drive recognition and recall.
- Use contextual targeting (e.g., health-conscious snackers, parents, gym-goers) to stay top of mind.
Drive Store Traffic With Intent Signals
- Use geo-targeted campaigns and retail media networks (Instacart, Amazon, Walmart Connect) to reach shoppers near the point of purchase.
- Deploy seasonal or limited-time messages to create urgency and drive in-store foot traffic.
Bridge Retail and Digital with Loyalty Hooks
- Encourage users to upload receipts or scan QR codes for loyalty rewards.
- Use cross-channel engagement (social, email, influencer content) to keep in-store buyers looped into your brand ecosystem.

Subscription Brands: Retargeting as Retention Fuel

Brands with a recurring model must use retargeting to reduce churn, increase bundle size, and introduce new SKUs.

Preempt Churn with Predictive Retargeting
- Identify drop-off points and serve timely winback campaigns.
- Highlight loyalty rewards, bundle savings, or limited-run flavors.
Introduce New Products Through Familiar Behavior
- Use purchase data to retarget high-LTV users with relevant product launches.
- Pair high-performing SKUs with new entries to encourage cross-sell.

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Measure What Matters: Beyond ROAS

Retargeting alone won’t make or break your growth. What matters is how it supports your full-funnel strategy:

Track repeat rate, subscription longevity, and SKU-specific LTV
Compare performance by channel (Meta vs. influencer vs. retail media)
Double down on what builds habits—not just clicks

Final Thought: Loyalty Is Earned, Not Targeted

Retargeting is powerful, but it’s not the whole playbook. Food and beverage loyalty is won through frequency, contextual relevance, and omnichannel alignment. The brands that win don’t just chase abandoners—they shape shopper behavior across every stage of the journey.

Want to transform your demand strategy? Let’s talk. At Power Digital, we help food and beverage brands turn fleeting clicks into lasting relationships.