The New Kind

Has the noise and demand of social media meant you have skipped PR and traditional methods (think TV, radio, digital & print publications) in your strategy and solely focused on other channels to gain brand awareness?

Does even the thought of gaining PR and putting yourself out there give you an absolute fear fest which makes you avoid it even more?!

We hear you. We’ve all been taught that the media is scary. A place for celebrities to get shamed and outed.

It also seems a little dated, right?

Well, it’s time to change these thoughts.

Traditional marketing methods are still at the forefront of brand awareness and one of the best ways to get in front of your ideal audience.

Just like any other marketing channel, you just have to approach it strategically and confidently. You are interesting and you do have a story to tell, people want to hear about your journey and business purpose.

We first met Charlie (Founder of Seafoam PR) during our COVID lockdown (1.0) support sessions over in The Hangout. Charlie kindly offers 1-2 coaching sessions for group members to open the conversation on communication and traditional media. We quickly found that most, if not all, of the business owners we connected with were not considering traditional media/marketing within their strategy. So we thought it was about time we started the conversation.

This podcast does just that. We hope it sparks those initial thoughts of introducing traditional media methods into your overall marketing strategy.

In February 2019, Banana Scoops was just an outrageously innovative concept that Jess had been thinking about whilst working her “normal job”. A concept that created “nice cream” from bananas and other natural ingredients to make a “healthy” alternative to our favourite chilled treat.

Fast forward to just a year later and tubs of delicious Banana Scoops can now be seen in the freezer aisle in major retailers such as Ocado, Planet Organic and As Nature Intended.

What’s so outstanding about this achievement is that Jess managed to do all of this on her own. No team, no huge budget, just a lot of hard work and a strong want to create the highest quality product.

We chat to Jess to see just how she has managed to do all this on her own and what it’s like to connect with such major national brands. How she managed the many barriers and lessons thrown her way, and what advice she can offer to anyone looking to grow a start up to such a scale in one year without a team behind them.

Here’s just a snippet of the advice Jess offered during our chat….

Retailers won’t chase you, you have to put yourself out there, grab hold of opportunities (even if it’s slightly terrifying!) and push for your brand to be noticed.

When chasing suppliers, don’t follow up with a “just chasing the previous email” type of email. Always add additional value. Offer new developments, press articles, social engagement and just general good news pieces. You need to grab their attention and offer increased value on every touchpoint.

Don’t let a lack of funds/human resource/skill set stop you. Jess put together a basic brand design herself to get going, she then pulled upon connections to get where she is now. Branding is vital in standing out as a food product, but you can add to your brand with a really quality product, an innovative product, and your passion. You can then pay an expert when you have the funds.

Jess offers SO many more valuable insights as to how she has managed to achieved such a major milestone so early on. It is also so interesting to hear the process that goes behind meeting and getting the go ahead from a major brand.

These special footnote episodes are additional to our usual Journals, as we open up the discussion on a particular topic faced by creatives caring their own path. 

Even though this episode seems like the perfect start, it’s also a slightly unusual start as we are discussing the very end of a business, and open up on the realities of closing a successful business. More so, when is it right to push through when you feel that niggle to give it up, or do you follow your gut and close when the passion and energy for the business fades.

If you managed to catch the last episode, you would have heard my chat with Lucy Elliott, and how she ditched the London life to grow a large-scale chocolate business, Creighton’s Chocolaterie.

Even though that was only recorded at Christmas last year, things have changed quite dramatically for Lucy. 

I won’t go into the specifics now, as you’ll hear all about it in the episode, but the conversation went beyond the actual aspects of closing a company down. We discuss that horrible niggling feeling when the passion starts to die; when the fun creative elements of a business turn into business realities of balancing the books, paying those massive VAT bills; and the constant pressure to evolve and stay relevant. 

These feelings come and go in all of us, but when do you know when it’s time to make a change?

We also discuss why there is SUCH a huge pressure on the self-employed to keep going. Why is closing a business always seen as negative? It doesn’t always mean the business is failing, it might just mean that you want to change, to pivot, and to explore your options as you move into different stages of your life. 

I am so grateful for Lucy’s honesty during this chat. We cover so many important topics that many, if not all of us face, and really open up on making these big decisions. 

I must add, this is not a negative episode, even if we do have a good rant at times. It’s about listening to your own intuition, really reflecting and making the best decision for you. Also taking away the element that closing a business doesn’t mean your business hasn’t been successful, far from it in Lucy’s case. 

Let me know what you think, I’d love to know if you’ve encountered any of these feelings in your journey.

I have lusted after Lucy’s divine chocolate for a long while now. If the insanely beautiful packaging doesn’t get you, then the completely unique flavours will. I mean, choosing between ramen noodles and a breakfast bar was one of the biggest decisions I have ever made.

We were so interested in hearing Lucy’s story and how she’d dragged the chocolate scene into the 21st century at such a rapid pace.

We managed to grab a chat with Lucy just before Christmas last year (how did lockdown manage to make half a year whizz by without us really even knowing). It was obviously a really busy time for Lucy to take a moment out (sorry Lucy!), but what the next few months would bring couldn’t have been predicted by any of us. More on that at the end of this blog (little cliff hanger for you there).

Out of interest of learning more about the art of chocolate (after running a food blog on the side of a retail job), Lucy and her Mum enrolled on a chocolate making course. Little did they know that within 6 months they would be handed the keys to their first shop and they would be at the start of building the Creighton’s brand.

In our chat with Lucy, we discover more about those early days that led to the creations of Creighton’s, and more importantly, how they grew from that single shop in Leighton Buzzard to stocking in over 200 stores across the globe. Alongside product collaborations with huge brands such as TeaPigs.

We are obsessed with the brand that Lucy has developed through pure creative innovation. She utilised her small business status to move fast in the industry and stand out against the huge competitors.

So, I mentioned that there was a twist. Well, it’s a big one.

With the impact of COVID-19 and a few other reasons, Lucy has decided to close Creighton’s Chocolaterie. This isn’t a negative, far from it. Lucy is closing the business to pivot her focus (we know you’ll all love it!). We’ll be revealing all very soon!

In the meantime, we really hope you love this journey. Lucy is FULL of business wisdom from almost 10 years of growing Creighton’s to the huge success it has seen today (all whilst becoming a Mother, closing shops, opening factories, the list goes on!).

For more creative entrepreneurial success stories, check out https://www.create-collective.com.