#19: Magic Spoon—How One Tagline Dethroned Sugar and Disrupted a $65B Industry

Business Made Simple Podcast

StoryBrand.ai

Marketing, Story, Bmsu, Businessmadesimple, Brand, Business, Bms, Storybrand, Entrepreneurship, 474622, Storytelling

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s not enough to have a great product. You have to position it so customers instantly understand the value. That’s what separates the brands that break through from the ones that disappear. Magic Spoon didn’t invent cereal, they just told a better story: one where protein replaces sugar, and taste isn’t sacrificed for health. And they did it with a smart tagline, a well-defined villain, and a brand voice that made people pay attention. So how can you sharpen your positioning to you stand out like they did?

In this episode, Don and Kyle break down the marketing genius behind Magic Spoon’s rise in a crowded cereal market and how it became a household name. From tackling the sugar-loaded bad-guys of the breakfast aisle to delivering a tagline that opens a story loop and closes the sale, Magic Spoon gives us a playbook worth copying. Tune in to learn how to identify your brand’s real enemy and position your product so it’s instantly understood.

Unlock the power of a framework that works—the StoryBrand Framework at StoryBrand.ai. It's like having the world’s best copywriter create high-converting marketing whenever you need it. Start your free 7-day trial at StoryBrand.ai.

Learn how to make your marketing and messaging work using a proven framework in the updated book, Building a StoryBrand 2.0. Order it now on Amazon or wherever you buy books!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Why That Work podcast presented by storybrand.a.I.
0:07.7	If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't,
0:12.6	you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked,
0:15.9	then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life.
0:19.4	Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.
0:24.7	Today we're on Magic Spoon.
0:26.5	Done.
0:27.2	I'd never heard of it.
0:27.9	Before today.
0:28.4	In fact, when you said Magic Spoon, knowing that we always talk about products,
0:32.4	we're going to talk about magic spoon, I assumed it was sort of an infomercial,
0:36.1	like non-sticking spoon, like a non-stick pan.
0:39.1	That's where mine went, which is interesting that that's the name of the company.
0:43.7	And when somebody just says the name of the company or the product, I thought it was something else.
0:47.8	That would normally be a mark against you.
0:49.5	Yes.
0:50.1	Like if I need to know when you name the product kind of what it is and what it delivers.
0:57.2	So that's the first thing our listeners can learn.
0:59.6	You know, if you get the product name right, it really helps you.
1:04.6	You don't have to, but it means that you have to now educate me about what you're talking about rather than the product telling me what you're talking about. Yeah. So if you're starting out, if your Magic Spoon, they start
1:15.9	in 2019 and you come up with that name as from a tactical standpoint about communicating about
1:21.6	what the product is itself. Yeah. Would you lean into that name first to kind of try to make that synonymous?
	...

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