Graza: When Brand Strategy Changes Consumer Behavior
Source: @graza via Instagram
Graza has achieved profound success in a market dominated by legacy brands and established perceptions of the product. Since its launch in 2022, Graza has exploded onto the scene, becoming the fifth largest olive oil brand in the United States by August 2025. Instead of following the playbook, Graza changed the rules by changing how Americans thought about olive oil. From their distinctive labels, innovative packaging, and social media focused marketing, Graza changed the way consumers purchased, used, and talked about oil–to explosive success.
Table of Contents
The Marketing Mix
Drizzle and Sizzle
Selling a Story
Learning from Graza
1. THE MARKETING MIX
Each part of the brand, from the name, packaging and pricing, to marketing strategy, retail presence and social media utilization embodied the overall brand strategy: premium, accessible, and the easiest purchase of your week.
Product: Graza Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made from 100% Picual olives sourced entirely from Jaén, Spain. Simplifying the supply chain meant that Graza maximized quality and minimized prices while appealing to health-conscious, busy consumers. In an era where oil is demonized, allergens abound and health recommendations are complicated and contradictory, Graza made sure their nutrition facts were a no-brainer. Single ingredient products inherently imply quality–there was nothing to mask impurities or artificially enhance an inferior product. This established Graza as a premium product, no explanation required.
Price: As a premium-accessible brand, Graza created an attainable luxury for every household: an easy upgrade that fit into a monthly budget and didn’t require intensive research. At $0.65 - $0.85 per ounce, Graza sets above the $0.38 - $0.60 per ounce for store brands, but below $1.10 - $1.80+ for premium extra virgin olive oil. In separating their products into cooking and topping oil, consumers not only understood why things were priced the way they were, but appreciated they were spending where it counted.
Placement: Not even six months after launch, Graza could be found in Whole Foods. Consumers didn’t have to search for Graza, Graza came to them. Now found in every major retailer and in over 11,000 locations nationwide, Graza isn’t boutique or niche. A presence in any large retailer gives legitimacy to the brand, but Whole Foods reinforced a premium edge, as opposed to other nation-wide retailers like Walmart or Aldi.
Promotion: Before launch, Graza sent out 300 bottles of their oil to influencers: no strings attached. Their entire marketing budget, with no guarantees. This big swing led to genuine word-of-mouth buzz and authentic consumer generated content. As a result, Graza opened big, selling out on their first day. Through social media, Graza continues to reach cooking aficionados and newbies alike. Graza established themselves in the conversation, and started new ones.
2. DRIZZLE & SIZZLE
Source: @graza via Instagram
Graza understood that only half of American households consumed olive oil. This untapped market potential also meant half of consumers walking past their product on shelves didn’t know what to look for in their olive oil, or how to use it. Right in the name, Graza eliminated any confusion, making it clear how to use their product–no research on the difference between Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Olive Oil required, no worries over smoke points or wasting the “good stuff”. Instead of investing in educating the consumer, Graza eliminated the need, boiling it down to a single question: cooking or finishing?
For Graza, there is an honorary 5th P: Packaging. On a shelf, Graza stands out. Clean and uncomplicated, with the name front and center. Graza doesn’t look like everyone else, because they’re not everyone else. With a squeeze bottle, Graza made olive oil accessible to first-time cooks, and brought a piece of a professional kitchen to the amateur chef. By design, a squeeze bottle leaves little room for error, making the product simple and intuitive to use. The squeeze bottle eliminates the risk of over pouring while simultaneously encouraging use. It’s that much easier to add olive oil to your salads, roasts, even your coffee!
Graza is selling an everyday pantry staple and a specialty product to the same consumer at the same time, increasing their average order value and ensuring they are the only place consumers buy their olive oil from. And olive oil based products! After cementing themselves as a leader in cultural conversation and a rising force in the industry, Graza leveraged that credibility and brand share into other consumer product goods like potato chips, olive oil mayo, and “Frizzle”, a high heat cooking oil.
3.SELLING A STORY
Source: @graza via Instagram
Through their unsponsored, influencer-first marketing strategy, Graza not only shaped the conversation around the brand, but around olive oil itself. Extra virgin olive oil isn’t just relevant, it’s fun! Fun to use, fun to look at, a fun way to make a pantry staple purchase feel like a treat. In an industry dominated by legacy brands, labels with rolling Italian hills and elaborate categories and labels, Graza changed the status quo by making Graza the olive oil of the next generation.
Graza understood that good marketing sells your brand, but great marketing sells a story. Graza promises a version of you that is chic-er, healthier, and can cook just that much better, for the affordable price of $37 for the duo.
Learning from Graza: Tips from The Apricots Media
Reduce Friction By Design: Graza made their product the path of least resistance. The less consumers have to think about purchasing your goods, the more likely they are to do so. Make your product the easy choice, not one that requires extensive justification or explanation. Highlight your CPG’s intrinsic value.
The Best Marketing is the Easiest to Understand: Graza didn’t overcomplicate things. Simple packaging, simple messaging, simple marketing. This doesn’t mean unsophisticated; it means cohesive, trustworthy, and comprehensible. Eliminating as much “fat” as possible from packaging, marketing, and social strategy so your brand promise is clearly conveyed.
Word of Mouth is King: User-generated content is word of mouth for the digital age. Consumers are trusting organizational and individual tastemakers less and less as a recommendation can be purchased for top dollar. Trust that your product will speak for itself–sometimes the best marketing is free! Encourage the everyday user to use and review your product, and don’t underestimate the power of subliminal messaging.
Graza used uncomplicated strategies to highlight their intrinsic value–never losing sight of their core mission. Through poor harvests, tariff increases and copy-cat competitors, Graza based their strategy around how to put high quality olive oil in as many people’s hands (and plates) as possible.
Graza made purchasing their product the easiest decision their customers made all day. Subscribing to our newsletter will be the easiest decision of yours.
MORE RESOURCES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLCPH-dma9k (Whole Foods CEO interviews Graza CEO and Co-founder)
