From Fresh to Fatal
A strong brand promise is the guide to strong decision-making
One bakery’s lie could have been a customer’s last meal.
In February 2024, Michelle Siriani, the owner of gluten-free and vegan bakery The Savory Fig, dropped off donuts at the allergy-conscious vegan deli Cindysnacks. But when Cindysnacks’ owner John Stengel opened the box, he paused. The box contained a donut with distinctive ‘D’ shaped sprinkles that looked suspiciously like it came from Dunkin’ Donuts.
Stengel removed all Savory Fig products from the shelf. He reached out to Siriani, but she was defensive and couldn’t prove that the donuts were her own. In their initial text exchange, she was adamant: “These are definitely not Dunkin’ Donuts! If you don’t wanna put them out, don’t. But they are not Dunkin’ Donuts!”
Stengel tested the donuts for gluten, and his fears were confirmed: the test was positive.
Stengel shared the result on Instagram, and the backlash against The Savory Fig came quickly:
“What is wrong with you? You are endangering the health of many by passing off DD donuts as gluten free. I have celiac…that’s dangerous enough but what about the person with a wheat allergy? If they have an anaphylaxis reaction [sic] you could be responsible for their death!”
The Savory Fig promised to deliver delicious gluten-free and vegan products to their community. The reasons they failed to do so are no doubt complex.
When a company faces difficult choices, a strong brand promise is the guide to making decisions that align with their strategic narrative.
A strategic narrative is a customer-centric story that defines how a brand engages their buyer. This narrative follows the hero’s journey arc, outlining the buyer’s challenges, the stakes around them, and how the company can help the buyer overcome them to achieve a better world.
It also lays the foundation for the brand promise, showing buyers why they should trust the company. A strong brand promise doesn’t stand alone—it exists within the broader context of the strategic narrative to show buyers why a company is credible at helping them overcome the obstacles in front of them.
When a brand promise and strategic brand story are aligned, employees can live and deliver on their company’s promise.
The Savory Fig promised to provide delicious, allergy-friendly baked goods for people who often have no options at typical bakeries. Using Dunkin’ Donuts is a pretty obvious violation of a brand promise. But most of the time, it’s not so clear-cut.
In moments when the right choice isn’t obvious, employees need a strategic narrative to be able to deliver on their brand promise.
Without clear expectations, employees fail to uphold their promise and can fall into four decision-making traps that destroy customers’ trust:
Anchoring trap: The first information received disproportionately impacts later decisions and thoughts.
Status-quo trap: The desire to avoid change and maintain the current state clouds judgment.
Sunk-cost trap: A bias towards continuing to make decisions that justify previous decisions instead of changing course.
Confirming-evidence trap: Seeking out information that supports an existing belief while ignoring conflicting data.
These decision-making traps can and do affect anyone. But the clear expectations established by a strategic narrative equips employees to consistently make decisions that align with a brand’s promise.
In 2024, it became clear that the legendary meat purveyor Boar’s Head also lacked this essential framework. It led to a deadly Listeria outbreak.
Boar’s Head promises to deliver fresh, quality products without compromising on quality or cutting corners. They know that quality and safety are of the utmost importance in the industry and that compromises can’t be made: “For over 110 years, Boar’s Head has been doing things our own way. From the very beginning, we’ve been unwilling to compromise on quality, to cut corners, to put profits before excellence.”
That promise has allowed the brand to command premium pricing, a huge share of the deli case, and a brand that’s known nationwide thanks to its powerful distributor network.
However, “quality” is not the foundation of a strategic narrative.
Boar’s Head has achieved success through aggressive expansion tactics. Their network of around 400 distributors is contractually required to generate at least 90 percent of their revenue from Boar’s Head. Along with their strategy of expanding into multiple related categories like condiments, Boar’s Head has become one of the most popular deli brands in the United States and created a vast network of evangelists who promote their brand.
However, the lack of a strategic narrative to support their brand promise led them to consistently cut corners, resulting in the worst Listeria outbreak since 2011.
Mold, mildew, bugs, and “puddles of blood” were found in multiple locations at a plant in Jarratt, Virginia, including mold around the sink where employees wash their hands and bugs around deli meat. Without a clear story of what needs to change for the customer and why specifically “quality” is different at Boar’s Head—and why it matters—it’s no surprise employees interpreted this nebulous commitment differently than many customers would expect.
A total of 10 people have died from consuming Boar’s Head’s contaminated products with 59 hospitalizations.
Günter Morgenstein, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, was one of Boar’s Head’s 10 victims. “Günter was a great man who lived an extraordinary life,” reflected his son, Ron, “He should not have died from eating a sandwich.”
Whether in moments of crisis or routine decisions, small and large choices define whether a brand keeps its promise. A strategic narrative would have equipped Boar’s Head employees with the clarity and confidence to consistently deliver on their brand promise.
Without this framework—which in the best brands is the foundation for mission,values and more—they were unprepared.
Over the course of two years, Boar’s Head faced a series of decisions that ultimately led to this catastrophic Listeria outbreak:
Anchoring trap: The first signs of mold in the facility would have seemed like a minor issue. By the time “putrid” smells were first reported in January 2022, Boar’s Head’s employees had already convinced themselves that this was normal.
Status-quo trap: In 2023, Boar’s Head fired their sanitation manager Terrence Boyce for attempting to escalate the issue. Employees would have been even more reluctant to escalate the issue after that, sticking to the routine of day-to-day operations rather than questioning deteriorating conditions.
Sunk-cost trap: The problem could have been resolved without shutting down the plant if they had taken action immediately, but eventually the shutdown was inevitable. Now, they’ve had to recall 7.2 million pounds worth of products and shut down the plant indefinitely, causing around 500 people to lose their jobs in a town of less than 700.
Confirming-evidence trap: Every day without an outbreak reinforced the idea that production could continue without consequence. Employees who fell into this trap would have sought advice from others who also downplayed the severity of the situation.
None of these decisions appear consistent with Boar’s Head’s brand promise or its positioning in the market. But in every case, people were allowed to fall into these traps because they lacked the right framing for how to connect the promise with the deeper values the brand represented.
Picture the supervisor’s perspective: In the tiny town of Jarratt, Virginia, Boar’s Head is the main employer, single-handedly controlling the town’s economy. With less than 700 people living in Jarratt, a factory closure would wreak havoc on the local economy. The sudden loss of jobs has impacted everyone in the town, from factory employees to restaurants to auto shops: “Everybody’s got to get a job, otherwise it’ll be a ghost town.” On top of that, one sanitation manager lost his job for bringing up the sanitation issues—reporting the problem could have cost them their job as well.
Between shutting down the plant and continuing as normal, both have dire consequences, but shutting down the plant would have upheld Boar’s Head’s promise for quality without cutting corners.
A strategic narrative would have painted a clear picture for why customers need Boar’s Head, and why it’s different. Other brands have used theirs to resolve similar challenges.
In the end, a strategic narrative isn’t just a story—it’s a powerful tool that prepares employees to uphold their brand promise and everything their customers stand for. When employees understand their buyer’s needs, they deliver on their brand promise and uphold their company’s values.
Alicia Sigmon is a Brand Storyteller at Woden. Read our extensive guide on how to craft your organization’s narrative, or send us an email at connect@wodenworks.com to uncover what makes you essential.