Like many businesspeople, I’m concerned about how things will play out in 2009. But I have to be thankful for small mercies, like being in the food business. No matter how diffi cult things are, people still need to eat. I’m thankful that the decisions I made early on when I set up my business are now holding me in good stead.
At the time, when we were right in the middle of the organic craze, any new brands were told that this was the way to go. Looking at the latest data, organic foods are taking a real battering, sales are falling fast, and it’s one of the first things to go as people start tightening their belts. The positioning of The Black Farmer, however, was always ‘affordable premium’, and pegging our pricing to own-labels.
I still have great plans for the brand in 2009. I’m in discussions with the various supermarkets to try to get them to extend my range into more stores, and I’m attempting to get them to take on board new product lines. We’ve always wanted to make sure we’re not just sausages, so we’re bacon, we’re chicken, we’re ham, we’re barbecue products. One of the things I’m looking at now, and I’ve always been interested in, is going into the food service sector with The Black Farmer Grill.
We trialled the concept last year, and I’m glad that we did because it gave us an idea of what works, and what doesn’t. I’m now looking for a partnership with someone, or other opportunities to take that forward. I believe that now is the right time to be focusing on that sort of thing. By the time that partnership comes to fruition, we’ll be at the end of the downturn… I hope.
The Black Farmer cookery book is scheduled to launch in June, and I’ve just finished the mammoth task of writing and creating the recipes. We’re also planning a national sampling campaign in the spring, and I’m in talks with McCann Erickson about a television advertising campaign. If I can get the increased distribution, you’ll be able to see The Black Farmer being advertised on TV for the first time.
I recognised that there are still an awful lot of people out there who don’t know about the brand, and I want to try to give them a sense of what it really stands for, its philosophy. That is much better illustrated in a 30 or 60-second TV commercial than in a poster. It’s quite a striking brand, but it needs a tone of voice to provide a little more help for people to understand why to buy into the proposition.
I started my first business during the last recession, and one thing I’ve learned is you’ve always got to be positive. When the instinct is to pull back from marketing, that’s the very time to be spending money in that area.
Sometimes there will be things you can’t control. We launched in Ireland a week before the pig crisis. We’re back on shelves now, but we’re behind and it’s a good reminder of how precarious business can be.
The challenge for me, and for lots of businesses in the current economic climate, is to survive the next 18 months. If we do, then that really does put us in a better shape for the upturn. But even though I’m optimistic about the future, I still have my fingers crossed behind my back.