Stock & Land article; February 18, 09; The Southern Island Lamb Company
Rowena McNaughton provided a detailed introduction into SUTT-LE marketing and its new branding, marketing and distribution service called new-market.
Mark has had over two decades of marketing experience. Mostly focused on marketing grocery brands, lately Mark`s been enjoying the task of differentiating wool for The Merino Company (TMC):
This time with even less preparation than ever before but at least I`ll be wearing merino wool to keep me astoundingly comfortable. Unlike the 1,000`s of folks in synthetic garments I`ll be comfortable come rain or shine, that Driza-Bone Activ shirt breathing beautifully!What have I learnt in the last two years? NOTHING (not entirely true but dramatic for the purposes of the story). The things that worked in the past continue to:
Learnt nothing - but have had some great experiences marketing wool. The same simple marketing principles can apply to meat, dairy, grain, even wine. If you are interested in 712 days of wool marketing, please go see:www.merinocompany.com/blog
In any supermarket category those retailers have hundreds of products competing to grab a share of the shelf space (or, `real estate` as we like to call it!).So, with a highly concentrated and powerful retail market in Australia, how do you break in? Some would argue you might just have to pay top dollar to secure that space or two on the shelves, others would argue your product needs to simply be super special, a little different, scarce!!Sutt-le Marketing works with great products to make sure they realise their true value, not simply a commodity price.
His comments on Monday April 2nd this year was that the Tasmanian meat producer is, by definition, unfortunately a `price taker`.I find this extraordinarily interesting because my business is centered on this idea of differentiation and it is differentiation of a commodity that can potentially move it, and its producer, from price taker to price maker.We know Tasmanian wool has substantial differentiation in the market. Not only is it Tasmanian but it is also fine, strong, even and relatively scarce.I wonder about the lamb meat that comes from Tasmania and the opportunity it presents? I bet there`s an opportunity to become a price maker.
