DELTA TWO ZERO

For an SME such as Severn Delta looking to grow its core brand the value of good PR is priceless.

One of the strengths of our core brand, Sarah Smith, is that it is unique, quirky, eco-chic, and its Fairtrade - basically there is an interesting story to be told about the brand. With a good set of USP’s and a comprehensive contact list for relevant magazine editors in your armory much can be achieved.

In the past 12 months Sarah Smith has been featured in a host of national glossy magazines including: Red, Candis, Essentials, 25 Beautiful Homes, Beautiful Kitchens, Period House, Your Home, Ethical Living , EcoLifestyle, Healthy & Organic Living, Cake Craft & Decoration and more.

As well as this some of our Sarah Smith Fairtrade products have been getting rave reviews online with Marie Claire online featuring our Sarah Smith Fairtrade Tea Towels as their ‘buy of the day’.

Just goes to show that you don’t need huge advertising budgets to make brand noise.

Sarah Smith has teamed up with Divine Chocolate Ltd to celebrate National Chocolate Week.

Divine Chocolate, the leading Fairtrade brand co-owned by cocoa farmers, is sponsoring national Chocolate Week 2008 (13th - 19th October).

Divine Chocolate is delicious and for the duration of Chocolate week EVERY customer purchasing Fairtrade Sarah Smith goods online will also receive a FREE bar of Divine Chocolate.

A couple of months ago I was approached by a woman organising a Bazaar to raise money for Cancer Reaserch UK.

Can you help I was asked. Of course I could and readily sent a box of Sarah Smith goodies for her to use as prizes. In response I was sent a lovely letter:

Dear Mr Shepherd

Your wonderful parcel has arrived. What a lovely addtion to our Bazaar the items will make!

I am so grateful for your kindness and especially your good wishes.

Please thank all concerned at Severn Delta

Kindest Regards

Etc

Lovely letter. Fantastic charity. Only too happy to help.

Recently I was approached by Roehampton University informing me of their mission to become a Fairtrade Status Uni. Read here to what this entails.

To help with their mission they had arranged a Fairtrade Festival celebrating & promoting everything Fairtade.

As our Sarah Smith brand now includes some Fairtrade certified cotton items I was asked if I could help by donating some product for their fashion show. No problem I said. Good cause. Good PR opportunity.

Anything that boosts the profile of Fairtrade is a worthwile cause in my eyes.

Judging by the photo they sent me they certainly had some fun as well!

It’s always great to get feedback from our customers. Especially when they are letters telling you how wonderful your products are like these two. Of our Sarah Smith cleaning cloths one reads:

Dear Sirs,

Please would you advise on the nearest stockist of your ’splash of colour’ collection, ultra absorbent kitchen cloths, please. By panic - on the last packet of. Such a super product. Cannot manage without

Thank You

Yours Faithfully

etc

Its satisfying to hear such wonderful praise. More of the same please!

Further evidence of Black Kites popularity amongst the forces can be read here from Clive’s blog Positive Churn.

Some great feedback and some priceless photo’s.

Really please with this comment posted on the Black Kite Facebook Groupd page:

Thanks for the free pack of Balck Kite Deo-Foot Wipes. I am off on exercise in a week or so, I will report back afterwards to let you know my thoughts on the products.

Also, keep up the support, its awesome that companies like yourself are supporting us squaddies.

Satisfying stuff.

The group is here

My latest post at Positive Churn covers one of my golden rules and a mainstay of the Severn Delta approach.

Hunt the Elephants.

Read the full post here

PR is about image right? How a companies image is portrayed in the minds of its public i.e potential customers, is crucial to its success. Building on this idea, I am also a firm believer that if you become a ‘good neighbour’ within your local community i.e sponsor local events, support charity’s, your local community will return the favour and support your business.

In light of this, Severn Delta recently decided to help the Support Our Soldiers (SOS) charity. SOS are a registered charity that gives support to soldiers serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas operations. Each year SOS send Christmas parcels to troops overseas to help boost morale whilst they are away from their family and loved ones. Earlier this month we, Severn Delta, decided to donate 1,000 products from our Black Kite range to the cause. These are to be included within the parcels that the charity will be sending out over the festive period.

The news of Severn Delta’s support was published within the local press who wrote favourably about our ‘generous’ donation to SOS. This news is sure to be received well by the local community, with army and marine bases situated locally and with many residents having ties with the armed forces. Plus it is an issue that is at the forefront of current media attention and is something that most people have an opinion on and can relate to. I have already received comments from people I know, as have other members of staff, praising the company for the support it is giving to our forces.

So all being well this excercise will have firstly shown our support to a good cause, but also boosted our company image and allowed us to reach people we perhaps otherwise wouldn’t have.

In my opinion simply being a company that produces quality products and expecting people to be enthused by them is no longer enough. It is the stories behind a company and its products that will catch peoples attention and imaginination and enable you to stand out from your competitors. We certainly feel that this is a good story to tell and hope that our customers and local community do too.

Dale Shepherd, PR & Marketing Executive

As the new PR & Marketing guy for Severn Delta it was put to me that some of our brands needing building. People needed to be made more aware that they exist and what they are all about.

Black Kite was one of the first to be put before me and here stood a masculine, good looking brand designed to appeal to camping, sports & travel enthusiasts.

Now then, how to tell people about it on a shoe string?

As the product appealed directly to me, being a keen sportsman and outdoorsy kinda person, I started thinking of ways I would like to hear about this product. Sure it would be cool if I picked up the latest issue of my favorite surfing magazine and was able to read about it there so sending press releases to relevant publications immediately appealed.

However, I felt this brand needed and deserved more to really stir peoples interest. My vision for Black Kite involved getting people to interact with it and think of it as more than just another ‘fad’ product. I felt it was important that people started to build a lasting relationship with it rather than a quick one off purchase which only serves to give false economy and doesn’t really help towards the long-term success of a brand.

This is when I got the idea of using social media as a vehicle for my vision for Black Kite (well the start of it at least). So Black Kite is going social, the official Facebook group is now a reality and is a place where people can interact with the brand. From here I plan to build up a following, attracting like minded outdoors enthusiasts whilst attempting to entertain them with interesting discussions, exciting competitions and of course advocating our excellent brand to the masses.

Only time will tell if this will be a success but you will never find out unless you go there.

Dale Shepherd, PR & Marketing Executive