The second of the two posts about the takeouts and insights from the savvy speakers at Marketing South 2019, where I had the privilege of being the MC for the event held in Ōtautahi, Christchurch on 2 May 2019.
Jason Buckley from Hell Pizza – “If people are talking about you, you’re winning”
What a ride that business has been on since it’s founding in 1996. Their ‘in ya face’ controversial brand is well-known throughout the country. At times, Jason says they’ve got it right and other times, things did go too far. From buying someone’s soul on TradeMe, rabbit pizza at Easter, and handing out condoms, Hell have certainly both challenged and intrigued Kiwis!
The founders sold, then bought back the company, and during the time when it was owned by the Burger King NZ franchisor, the marketing got extreme - some of the campaigns were very controversial and ‘in poor taste’ and the ASA received a lot of complaints.
But once back under the wing of Jason and the original founders, things got back on track, blending cheekiness and great quality pizza. Their new vision was to be the leaders in NZ fast food and they’ve worked hard to pursue that strategy.
They’ve delivered that through quality food, being one of the first to change to free range, which increased costs over 20%, yet they kept their pricing as it was. They also created the first vegan pizza in 1998 and are certified vegan now, which comes with a hefty price tag and rigorous three-monthly inspections. Hell want to prove that they do what they say they do, they’re connected to communities and that quality, fast food is available.
Their marketing focused on using social media and supporting communities through sponsorship of key charities such as Rainbow Youth, initiatives that support kids reading, among others.
You can’t do all that while competing in the race to the bottom on pricing. So they haven’t. It costs more to use free-range, high quality, local ingredients and they strive to balance quality, convenience and affordability. They focus on value, while still pushing the boundaries around their brand and campaigns, but now more carefully balancing the sensitivity of their content.
Jason firmly believes that (if it aligns with your brand and values) that being bold, brave and cheeky works. He says “If people are talking about you, you’re winning”
Greig Brebner of Blunt Umbrellas with Lessons on How to Succeed When Only 1% of Patents Become Successful
Greig’s opening slide of an old-school workshop, designed for tinkering and repairing summed up the drive behind Greig’s ethos and vision for Blunt Umbrellas. He believes in the ‘fix and repair’ approach which contrasts with today’s ‘disposable’ mindset. It was this, and the image arriving in London of rubbish bins stuffed with umbrellas, that helped him hone his engineering focus and go about developing a long-lasting, repairable umbrella. (NB the full background on Blunt is here)
He shares his lessons along the longer-than-expected road from idea to commercialisation.
One of the big 'a-ha' moments was that he didn’t need to innovate everything. He learned to "respect the good parts, and change the parts that don’t work". Greig shares that this approach also makes it a lot easier for people to embrace a new design or concept – apparently, we like things that are 80% familiar and 20% innovative.
Also that only 1% of patents become successful, so focus on having:
- A good idea
- Clear vision
- High standards
It was these three areas that led the Blunt team to launch their proof of concept and go back and focus on better construction. To hear the market feedback (they were told ‘don’t give up your day job’ and to play the volume game), to adapt their distribution strategy and create their own brand, and then to reject 40% of their first large production run which lead to their 38-point quality check. This has all enhanced and supported their brand and reputation of being well-made, repairable and a top quality fashion item.
Greig wraps up by asking us all to support the commitment to reducing the ‘throw away culture’, to be sustainable and make products and solutions that are better, repairable or that can be broken-down.
Six Points From the Panel Discussion:
- Facebook is cheap but not easy, it’s accessible but not always effective – ask the questions (where are our customers!) before applying tools and tactics
- Can be easy for businesses and marketers to get overexcited and over-invest in channels so choose wisely and measure the results
- Do allocate budget to longer term brand building – examples of over 4000% ROI on brand compared with 150% on product or offer
- TV is not ‘dead’ – in fact it’s ‘having babies’! “On demand” has grown from quarter of a million views to 16-17 million
- For those inside organisations, get educated and keep up with the latest marketing developments so you’re not using your marketing budget having your outsourced providers educating you
- Vexatious is a great word!
Brydon Heller of Hellers - "Know What Your Product Stands for"
With over 650 staff and a well-recognized brand now, it’s great story about how this was achieved from humble beginnings in a butcher shop in New Brighton, Christchurch. Brydon is a fifth generation butcher and leads the marketing for the brand today.
He blends marketing speak with pragmatism and shares:
- Know what your product stands for – for Hellers, taste is #1
- Be market-led but know what you’re good at – they’re great at meat products and while they’ve stepped out into non-meat options, that didn’t work and they’ve come back to their core focus. They now produce four million sausages a week and two million slices of bacon! A week!!!
- Their range is developed by foodies! This reflects their ‘taste first’ approach. Brydon’s sister Fiona is a Chef and leads the product development.
- Make sure your brand and culture are aligned – you can see that having foodies design product when your brand is focused on taste, makes sense.
- Invest in the upkeep of your brand – re-branding led to a significant increase in sales. It was an investment financially and 12 months of effort, but well worth it.
- Keep developing – Brydon’s Dad says ‘the best sausage hasn’t been made yet’ and that’s shaped their focus on improving quality and taste, and launching new products.
- Packaging matters – they changed the game by creating and moving to the ‘gas flush pack’, the tower pack for sausages. This new way of packing forced new ways of displaying their range in supermarkets too and overall lead to an increase in sales.
The resounding sentiment from Jason, Greig and Brydon was that ‘gut feel’ matters! There were times where they’ve taken some risk and created a new feature, campaign, product or partnership that’s resulted in huge success so heed this, take an (evaluated) punt and see what happens!
Tim Loftus of ChristchurchNZ - We Are Explorers!
The final speaker for the day was Tim Loftus of ChristchurchNZ, and I won’t do justice writing about his content, or to the sentiment in the room when he played one of the new videos showcasing Christchurch and the ‘Explore’ narrative, so instead I encourage you to check out their content on social, and their media library here: https://www.christchurchnz.com/media/newsroom/a-user-guide-to-the-christchurch-story/
To get on board and explore the city, learn more about the diverse range of businesses and talent we have here, and use these awesome assets in your business or brand content wherever you can https://toolkit.christchurchnz.com/.
