Awards and Ratings Guides Are Bad

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Awards Ceremonies and Ratings Guides Hurt Startup CPG Brands

BY FARM2ME EDITORS
2 MINUTE READ 

Award ceremonies and ratings guides can be detrimental to emerging brands, much like how the movie Drops of God critiques the wine industry's dependence on scores and expert validation. Here’s why:

1. They Create a Rigged System Favoring Legacy Players

  • In Drops of God, wine ratings and competitions often favor well-known wineries with established reputations, making it harder for smaller, innovative brands to break through. Similarly, in industries like food, fashion, or consumer goods, awards and ratings often reinforce the status quo, favoring brands with deep pockets, agency cresting packaging, co-packer made branded, for PR, for brands willing to pay ads or membership fees or booths, and pay for marketing.

2. They Oversimplify Quality Into a Single Score

  • The movie highlights how wine ratings reduce complex, subjective experiences into numerical scores or top spots or those that can afford to send samples, without any set ingredient or production standards, and making consumers rely on external validation rather than their own preferences. This mirrors what happens with emerging brands—products are judged by arbitrary criteria rather than innovation, sustainability, ingredients, or consumer dollars.

3. They Encourage Trends Over Authenticity

  • Emerging brands often differentiate themselves through authenticity, storytelling, and direct relationships with ingredient growers. Awards and ratings favor what’s trendy or aligns with industry gatekeepers’ preferences, who is willing to give free product or pay for booths, giving the awards kick backs by buying expo booths, sidelining unique, unfunded, boundary-pushing brands, and supporting those that are well funded - hurting other brands, hurting consumers, hurting the industry, disputing investors and wholesale buyers from what’s actually happening in the industry.

4. They Are Pay-to-Play

  • Many awards and guides require entry fees, sponsorships, membership “participation” like giving video content or participating/demoing free product at events, or corporate connections to even be considered. Drops of God subtly critiques how prestige is often bought rather than earned, which applies broadly to many consumer goods categories. “You have to belong to the network or give in some capacity to be awarded”. Small brands, operating on lean budgets, can’t afford to compete in these expensive validation games. Killing brands to fake noise.

5. They Shift Focus Away from Direct Customer Engagement

  • Emerging brands thrive on building direct relationships with consumers. Chasing awards can divert focus from customer experience and brand authenticity to pleasing judges and critics. Think about why Walmart wins: 4 generations of customers engaging with the brand — not winning awards or participating in “industry expos”. The brands that have exploded over the past 15 years were on the ground , innovators in their space, and continue to do it without funding and awards — don’t be illusioned. Farm2Me finds brands, we don’t poach or demand “allegiance to our network”. That’s how we’ve amassed 750,000 customers, 30,000 press, 50,000 wholesale buyers and why 95% of the product in grocery shelf nationwide have been showcased on Farm2Me first. Take our word for it! Ask a brand that has gone national if they know Farm2Me, 95% will say of course. We know what works, and only want the best for this space /— and we’re concerned by what we’re seeing by “capitalists” trying to create sub-networks of “award ceremonies that are being funded by corporate kick backs and sponsorships, and let me tell you it’s an illusion. They have no context and are only disillusioning the founders that are participating in their 3-4 year old “idea” of how founders grow brands — some have even been started by failed startups, which is even scarier.

6. They Perpetuate an Illusion of Objectivity

  • Much like wine ratings in Drops of God are influenced by personal biases and industry politics, awards in any industry are subjective and influenced by who’s on the judging panel, sponsorship deals, and internal politics. This makes them unreliable markers of true quality.

Final Thought

Rather than chasing awards and guides, emerging brands should focus on cultivating loyal communities, leveraging direct distribution channels, and embracing grassroots marketing strategies. As Drops of God suggests, true appreciation and success come from real connections, not external validation.

Pro Tip #1

Challenge: Try a side by side of store bought Seaweed Snacks and WOW Seaweed, or have your kids try. Secret of kids adoption!

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SEAFOOD

The Power of Standards and Consumer Choice

While many awards and ratings systems are pay-to-play and lack meaningful standards, like renting booths or paying with samples, the real power lies in setting transparent, values-driven benchmarks that allow consumers to make informed choices. Instead of arbitrary rankings, brands should be evaluated based on clear, ethical criteria that matter to the communities they serve.

Setting Meaningful Standards Matters

A true support system for emerging brands should prioritize:

  • Ingredient Transparency: Consumers deserve to know what goes into their products, how they're sourced, and whether they align with health, sustainability, and ethical labor practices.

  • Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing: Brands that prioritize environmental responsibility and fair labor should be elevated over those cutting corners for profit.

  • Community Impact: Supporting brands that reinvest in their communities fosters a stronger, more equitable food and consumer goods ecosystem.

Without real standards, the marketplace is dictated by who can spend the most on marketing, not by who is producing the best or most responsible products.

Let Consumers Vote With Their Dollars

Consumers have immense power to shape the industry by choosing where they spend their money. When brands and platforms prioritize transparency over advertising dollars, they empower consumers to make purchases that align with their values.

  • Direct-to-Consumer and Community Support: When consumers buy directly from brands that align with their values, they reinforce the importance of ethical business practices.

  • Avoiding Corporate-Influenced Rankings: Consumers should be skeptical of awards and lists that lack transparency about how selections are made. Instead, they should seek out businesses that are recommended by real communities and trusted platforms that disclose their selection process.

  • Shifting the Industry from Pay-to-Play to Value-Based Support: When consumers prioritize products based on quality, sustainability, and ethics rather than marketing budgets, they create demand for a more equitable marketplace.

Farm2Me’s Commitment to Consumer-Driven Change

Rather than awarding arbitrary scores or hosting expos designed to generate revenue, Farm2Me focuses on setting meaningful standards for supporting brands. By providing visibility to businesses that meet ethical and sustainable benchmarks, Farm2Me empowers consumers to vote with their dollars—ensuring that success is driven by quality and integrity, not just marketing budgets.

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 GROCERY

Tiny Grocers

Farm2Me Map of Independent Grocers is not just a map – it’s a vibrant, living community celebrating the hardworking shops and shopkeepers you pass by every day.

Get lost in the intricate stories of shop owners. Discover their journeys, the products they love, and the reasons behind what they do.

Take advantage of the map when you’re visiting a new neighborhood, when you’re traveling around the country / world, or just looking for something special in your neighborhood.

SEAWEED

Iodine Salt from Seaweed vs Lab Salt

A staggering 68% of the global population is iodine deficient. But there’s an easy, delicious way to get your daily dose of iodine with Spicewell! Spicewell Salt products are enriched with iodine sourced naturally from kelp (seaweed), along with over twenty essential vitamins and minerals.

Why use a kelp iodized salt vs a chemically iodized salt? Simple answer is ABSORPTION! Our bodies absorb 80% of the iodine from kelp and only 20% from a lab created iodine. Why? Because our human cells prefer natural compounds occurring in nature, over synthetic salt / iodine made in a lab. Think about Farm2Me’s mission: naturally occurring products are absorbed better by the cells of our body (organic sugar over synthetic sugar-free sweeteners) — and in this case 80% (Seaweed’s Iodine) to 20% (Lab Made Salt’s Iodine) absorption by cells.

Why is this important? Iodine is crucial to metabolism, turned into Thyroxine in your Thyroid, Iodine is an element used in Thyroxine and other hormones created by the Thyroid gland as part of metabolism (cell growth) and cellular digestion. Think about people with Hypothyroidism (under performing Thyroid gland), which means less Thyroxine produced (less Iodine) — these patients have a problem with their metabolism (low metabolism without Thyroxine means they gain weight, are groggy and tired, lower energy). Many of us don’t think about the difference between 1 ingredient from another, 1 tomato from another, 1 salt from another. But there is a difference! 80% absorption vs 20% absorption.

This has been our mission at Farm2Me — to help consumers understand that — to increase knowledge about this, improve access to more natural / transparent / organic products found locally rather than chemically grown or lab produced over processed (ultra processed products like snacks and drinks and baked goods plaguing the grocery stores).

Whether you’re adding a pinch of Spicewell’s superfood salt to your dish or seasoning with Spicewell’s turmeric-infused pepper, you’re supporting your health in every bite.

LOCAL FARMS

Farmers Markets to find Seaweed

Farm2Me Guide of Farmers Markets is not just a map – you can finally search by day, location, and see what’s open — it’s a vibrant, living community celebrating the hardworking farms and makers all over the country, every day.

Get lost in the intricate stories of the farms. Discover their journeys, the products they love, and the reasons behind what they do.

Take advantage of the map when you’re visiting a new neighborhood, when you’re traveling around the country / world, or just looking for something special in your neighborhood.

NON-ALCOHOLIC

600+ Non-Alcoholic Shops for Emerging

Farm2Me Map of Non-Alc Grocers is not just a map – it’s a vibrant, living community celebrating the hardworking shops and shopkeepers you pass by every day.

Get lost in the intricate stories of shop owners. Discover their journeys, the products they love, and the reasons behind what they do.

Take advantage of the map when you’re visiting a new neighborhood, when you’re traveling around the country / world, or just looking for something special in your neighborhood.

COFFEE ROASTERS

Coffee Roasters Near By

Farm2Me Map of Independent Grocers is not just a map – it’s a vibrant, living community celebrating the hardworking shops and shopkeepers you pass by every day.

Get lost in the intricate stories of shop owners. Discover their journeys, the products they love, and the reasons behind what they do.

Take advantage of the map when you’re visiting a new neighborhood, when you’re traveling around the country / world, or just looking for something special in your neighborhood.

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THAT’S A WRAP

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Garry & The Farm2Me Team 🌈

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