Brands for a Better World: Nick Budden of Flavor Forward

Posted inBrands for a Better World

Can a brand, product, or marketing strategy change the world? Maybe not directly, but today’s guest believes that he can positively influence consumer behavior for a healthier and more sustainable future. Nick Budden is an innovation strategist on a mission to create $500 million in healthy, sustainable food innovation by 2030. He founded Flavor Forward Strategy to help food brands innovate with purpose and, in today’s episode, he joins us to talk about the psychology of behavior change, how you can use these principles to make a positive change in your life, and how brands can inspire life-changing behaviors through their products and marketing. We also share some recommended reads and resources, recipes to make vegetables taste better in 2024, and much more! If you’re intrigued by the potential for brands to shape a better world, this episode is your gateway to understanding how you can become an agent of positive change. Tune in to be inspired to make a meaningful impact, one choice at a time.


Key Points From This Episode:

  • How brands can inspire better behaviors by solving common problems in innovative ways.
  • Examples of brands making a meaningful impact by influencing consumer behavior.
  • Three elements that must converge for a behavior to occur (according to BJ Fogg). • Benefits of employing process-oriented goals over outcome-oriented goals.
  • Surprisingly simple and reliable strategies to build sustainable habits.
  • Ways to reframe existing motivations rather than trying to create a new motivation.
  • Why New Year’s resolutions typically don’t last and incremental changes work better.
  • Consistency over intensity: why it’s better to start with easy, practical, and enjoyable routines.
  • Small interventions that add up to improve your daily lifestyle.
  • The “nudge” that helped Nick make positive changes in his own life.
  • Books to help you change your habits, ride the CPG growth curve, and even live longer!
  • Why you should find ways to make vegetables taste good in 2024. 

Read the transcript and find links from the episode at Brands for a Better World.


The Brands for a Better World podcast (formerly Evolve CPG) is hosted by Gage Mitchell, founder (CEO) and Creative Director at Modern Species, a sustainable brand design agency helping better-for-the-world brand launch, evolve, and grow to scale their impact.