We invited two passionate Cornishmen up with the best Cornish pasties they could find for the Royal Taste Challenge!

We secured considerable press exposure, highlighting the credentials of The Pembrokeshire Pasty against the established Cornish variety.

The advantage of using The Marketing Farm – creative ideas seamlessly integrated across all marketing disciplines.

Powerful Branding

We  developed a striking logo and consistent branding underlining the brand values we identified as part of our master marketing strategy plan. This is reflected across all packaging and design elements.

Distinct Design

We also designed the colour scheme and frontage of their very first shop, the first of a planned national roll. This opened in Tenby on 11 March with the Pembrokeshire flag proudly fluttering in the wind.

National Headlines

Our February media launch generated headline coverage across Wales, commanding interest from picture agencies, national and regional press, radio and TV. More here

Successful Event Management

Their Royal Highnesses visit to The Pembrokeshire Pasty & Pie Co. shop in Tenby on 30 June 2010. The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall met the Directors and the team, visited the shop and of course sampled some of the delicious pasties.

Media Hook

We arranged a real taste challenge outside the shop by tasting both, The Cornish and The Welsh pasty, to express the friendly rivalry between Cornish and Pembrokeshire pasties.

Effective Consultancy

After the success of the launch of the first store in Tenby and in the lead up to the opening of a flagship store in Cardiff, Pembrokeshire Pasty & Pie Co. have opened a new branch of the company, Pemby Foods, with the help of The Marketing Farm.

All of their delicious pasties and pies will be made fresh daily on a farm and distributed to supermarkets and wholesalers. We aim to bring a taste of Pembrokeshire across the country.

Market Growth

The Marketing Farm continues to direct and manage all the marketing, brand and design development for this ambitious company to help them develop a national network of pasty and pie stores across UK and enter the retail market.

Further information

Please read our latest blueprint.

The specialist furniture company, located in The Cotswolds, pride themselves on their excellent craftsmanship and superb design – and so naturally needed a new website and branding strategy to complement their exquisite furniture.

Launch of  a Quality Marque To Support Our ‘Halo Product’ Strategy

The Marketing Farm have created a strong new logo, created new promotional material and designed a ‘stamp’ to be placed on all of Damn Good Furniture Company’s signature pieces as a marque of quality. Read more here about The Rocker, the first signature piece, designed to support this campaign.

We have also worked closely with the clients to build a website which is both easy to navigate and visually appealing. Please click here to visit.

Watch out for more on Damn Good Furniture Company in the media as we launch a new PR campaign to raise their profile further…

During the election campaign, Cheltenham was blanketed with Conservative billboards, the result of significant financial targeting of this marginal seat by their Head Office, backed by Party donors. However, I for one was not surprised to see that the Liberal Democrat majority increased despite this advertising.

The electorate will not be told who to vote for. Billboards, in particular, give the impression of Big Brother politics and unless the posters are very clever in their subliminal messaging (and they were not), they will have little effect. In fact, I would dare to say the effect could be negative, if only to spur the very voters targeted to shore up the opposing party.

The reason I see the electorate wanting to witness cross party compromise and real and true policy reconciliation in Government is because of the value society now places on honest communication. In today’s politics, when the party differences are relatively slight as they all clamber for the mass of middle votes, ‘lion pit’ warring politics does not seem real or honest. Simply, it does not ‘stack up.’ Therefore, we have lost faith in our politics and politicians (I would dare to say the expenses row was more symptom than cause). Hearing politicians talk of near Armageddon should their opposition win power, and vice versa, becomes as tiresome as it is dishonest. The outlandish nature of the cross party bickering and exaggeration of claims becomes so ridiculous that we, the electorate, lose interest, faith and resopect.

Marketeers had adopted consensual marketing long before the politicians. Turn the word ‘electorate’ to ‘consumer’ and you see the quest for honesty as a parallel. I visited The Real Food Festival in London last week and it was truly inspiring and exciting to see how the industry for honest, natural food and drink is burgeoning. We want the truth behind the label, whether on our strawberries or our jumper. Websites empower consumers to rank, vote, interact and comment. Social networking sites spread truth like wildfire. Successful advertising has long jumped from preaching from its pulpit to interacting and engaging with its congregation. Today, empowered by technology, honesty and truth have become paramount demands of the Consumer. Underestimate them at your peril!

In this Election, the influence to change the election result from the vested interests of our national newsprint was diminished in favour of the more honest (and faster growing) video medium. The Leaders’ Debates ignited the nation’s interest and are a reflection of how critical video is becoming in today’s marketing mix. These debates may have been full of subliminal messaging (recited set pieces, choreographed posturing etc) but the electorate felt at last able to deduce their own conclusions. Indeed, video advertising is forecast to become a formidable force on mobiles and smartphones as it proves it can move products and heighten brand awareness in measurable ways.

Be honest and be real and, whether brand or politician, perhaps your most feared threats and opportunities may become your greatest marketing allies!

Matthew Rymer

Managing Director

An infection clamped beneath that molar with nowhere to go shakes the very foundations of your jaw and teeth. That innocent tooth, which has taken years to grow and countless tubes of toothpaste, will probably have to be removed. An infection at the core – at the nerve ending – can destroy all you have grown.

If your marketing strategy is infected with poor information, it will eventually destroy everything you proceed to develop. As any good dentist will say, prevention is better than cure. Although I believe my dentist, Malvern’s Chris Bocking, is the world’s best, I would not hesitate to agree!

Solid information provides sound roots from which a successful marketing campaign can grow. Without this, you risk infection and a costly extraction.

Decisions over potential opportunities, target market selection, market segmentation, planning and implementing marketing programmes, marketing performance, and control should all be underpinned by market research.

These decisions are complicated by interactions between the controllable marketing variables of product, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Further complications are added by uncontrollable environmental factors such as general economic conditions, technology, public policies, competitor activity, and social and cultural changes.

As if this does not provide enough headaches, we need to add to the mix the complexity of consumers. Relevant information can at least help us more reliably predict consumers’ response to marketing initiatives.

I am not arguing that marketing is a complete science. I would not be so passionate about marketing if it was. However, these are essential questions to ask before committing to any marketing campaign:

Your Customers
What are their locations, age, gender, buying behaviours and motivations?

Competitor information
Do you know their identities, marketing strategies and customer relationships?

Product information
How do your customers talk about your brand, products and service and likely impact of technology developments?

Industry information
What is the big picture? What are the future demand and supply trends and patterns?

Competitive opportunities
What are the under-served consumer segments and unmet consumer needs?

Qualitative research using depth interviews, focus groups, surveys, field tests and observations, supported by primary research yielding new, relevant and specific information will answer the above questions.

The Value of The Smile
I write this from a hotel near our Romanian office where the staff appear friendly and smiling. Last week I stayed at London’s Soho Hotel (a converted multi storey carpark!) where the staff were also exceptionally happy. It seems a rarity in hotels these days, but smile and world smiles with you.  It costs nothing and is a great marketing tool! And lest we forget, a good smile requires healthy teeth!

Matthew Rymer, Managing Director, The Marketing Farm Limited

We will analyse the very earth (or essence) of your brand proposition. We will recommend measures to prevent contamination, and offer fresh ideas for brand growth. These will be suited to the climate of your marketplace, the nutrients you have available, and the vast crop of marketing techniques and technologies now available.

Here are our four key points to help you select and protect your Trade Mark……

1). Make it original!

The best Trade Marks are invented and not descriptive of your goods and services (think Google®, Daz® or Kodak®). Remember – the more distinctive your Trade Mark, the stronger your registered protection will be.

2). Search!

As a first step, use the internet and the UK Intellectual Property Office website to search for Trade Marks that are identical or similar to your proposed Trade Mark.

3). Seek professional help and register it!

A Trade Mark Attorney will advise regarding more detailed searching and registration – it is not simply a question of filling in boxes. To obtain robust protection, careful consideration must be given to various factors, including the format of the Mark to be filed and the specification of goods/services.

4). Think of the future!

In the six-month ‘priority’ period after the filing date of your UK Trade Mark Application, corresponding Trade Mark Applications can be filed aboard, claiming the filing date of an earlier Application. Since most Trade Mark systems operate on a first-come-first-served basis, it is important to secure the earliest possible filing date.

Remember that a UK Trade Mark Registration is prima facie evidence of your ownership of the Trade Mark in this country. Although unregistered rights do exist (under the common law tort of Passing Off), these rights are not immediate and only arise after substantial use/advertising of the Trade Mark.

For more information or help and advice on protecting your brand, please contact us.

Attraction is in the suggestion, not the obvious. When we flirt with the opposite sex,  we are tantalizing, exciting, challenging and inviting a response. We are certainly not baring all!

Generating successful media interest in a product, service or business reflects the very best of a successful flirt.  The moment a press release joins all the dots and tells the story it is doomed. It will be too long, too opinionated, too obvious and too advertorial. The best press release pinpoints seductive facts and suggests investigation and exploration.

If you had a six pack or a rather ample bosom, you would not bare it and label it (at least, I would rather hope you would not!)?  However, your sense of fashion might suggest it. Ask any copywriter or journalist for a little advice and more often or not, they will advise you to write, then shorten it, then shorten it further and then condense it.

We just staged the initial, and regional launch, for our client The Pembrokeshire Pasty & Pie Co. They are opening a small pasty and pie shop in Tenby on 1st March. Our release was short but signposted the greater story. Within 24 hours, it was headline news across Wales – on radio, TV and in the press. The Pembrokeshire Pasty is to battle The Cornish. Every paper picked up on two lines in our background notes: that the Pembrokeshire Pasty recipe might have been invented to feed the workers building St David’s Cathedral in 1181. Had that been our headline, it would have been questioned. As an understated possibility, it was not. There is certainly circumstantial evidence to suggest this is true, but no hard evidence as yet. That is the successful flirt.

Media relations excites me. The journalists, freelancers, producers, researchers and editors all want a story and I strongly believe there is a story behind every business. Just akin to flirting – everyone can attract someone.

And So To The Marriage!

Now, onto the inevitable consequence of successful flirting… Marriage! I believe too many businesses struggle alone. In these difficult economic times, there is more reason than ever to look for strategic alliances (marriages!) for the greater success. There was recently an article in The Sunday Times exposing a well known author for plugging a rather delightful holiday resort in her latest novel in exchange for a rather expensive holiday.  As the publishing world reduces advances and prepares for the ebook revolution, authors will increasingly look to manage their own affairs more acutely. Her novel will be judged on its merits. Why promote a resort by accident when one can create a viable alliance?

Small town shopkeepers are suffering more than most in this current climate. More than once, I have seen a pair of neighbouring shops – both suffering – and wondered if they knocked out a side door they could reduce and share staff costs. We may regard ourselves as a nation of small shopkeepers, but I do wonder whether our lack of community spirit reflects itself in business too?

I challenge any business to look again and ask themselves: Who can we ally with? To share customer databases, to endorse each other and to generate news stories, profit share and piggy back exposure?

A successful business may flirt with and marry as many as they are able to. So why be celibate?!

Matthew Rymer

Our perspective of our self tends to be very different to the views held by others. And, such is human nature, often what is most important is not what is said, but what is not said.

The nature and value of branding to a business is so very similar. Before we begin a marketing project, one of the very first questions we will address is ‘What are the brand values?’ This inevitably leads into identifying the unique selling points (USPs) from which we will draw the building blocks for our concepts and strategy. Staff internal to the business will have an approximation of how their brand or business is perceived, but not the clarity or perspective a neutral agency can achieve. At this stage, honesty is critical!

Painting a Portrait

Just as every individual has a talent set – a unique proposition, so does every business. The more those differences are accentuated through the personality of the brand, the more detached the customer proposition is from cost and competition. After all, the faceless brand can only succeed if it is the cheapest. Of course, and I am contradicting myself here, like the human counterpart, there is always a face. Tesco’s own label foods are specifically designed to look unattractive. It would cost no more per unit for the store to move away from blue and white and produce beautiful packaging but this would steal sales from the higher end choices offering the stores greater profit margins (often for the very same product!). Customers seeking value want to identify value in the packaging.

The character of your business, products or services needs to be understood and detailed like a novelist would their own characters. The greater the clarity, the less noise in the messaging. We have all met someone who is ‘full of themselves’  - loud, noisy, brash and arrogant. Do we like such people? No. The truth is, such individuals are generally expressing confusion and an inner weakness. Individuals with a clear purpose and confidence in who they are need to say fewer words. They are often understated and concise and thereby achieve far greater impact and relationship success. And so it is with brands!

Reduce The Noise!

Understanding and identifying your target market is critical to profiling your brand. Target markets are living and breathing and ever changing and so must your brand live and develop. Therein lies the value of rebranding. You are revitalizing and emphasising the core values of your brand whilst redressing it to relate to the generational shifts in fashion, taste and circumstance. As people develop and grow their relationships, so must a brand.

The clearer the personality, the less noise, the more confident the messaging and greater the impact. Successful branding ensures less is more. Now, that is good news for the marketing budget in a recession!

To sharpen the edges of your brand with limited advertising spend, consider stirring controversy, humour, strong personality and mystery. The myriad of online and mobile marketing opportunities now allow canny brand owners to stretch smaller marketing budgets much further than was historically possible.

There is also a trend towards what I term ‘brandshare’. This is where you develop a community out of your customer base and position your brand at the hub. This trend is propelled by online and mobile applications providing now near endless opportunities for connecting, sharing and discussing. For example, an increasing number of online stores such as Amazon are now selling their products through their customers’ reviews, not their own blurb. Encouraging your own customers to perceive your brand as their own and promote your own products! Can it get better than that?

Matthew Rymer

For some months now, we have been working with Tenby businessman, Oliver Booth (pictured below) and the well known London businessman, Dominic Spencer Churchill, to prepare for the launch of a national chain of food outlets, branded The Pembrokeshire Pasty & Pie Co.

All the products and fillings are made, grown and reared on Pembrokeshire Farms or seas. The first outlet is opening in Tenby on 1 March, followed by Cardiff two months later and an ensuing roll out across England.

We are anticipating considerable media interest following five themes:

• The outlets are championing Pembrokeshire
• We are resurrecting The Pembrokeshire Pasty recipe
• We will be doing battle with the very different Cornish pasty
• That this is a good business news story marking the launch of a new High Street brand
• The passion and social profile of the respective owners.

We look forward to keeping you informed as this story develops. In the meantime, download our blueprint document here.