How’s this for clever marketing…..

I recently interviewed Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones AKA ‘The Black Farmer’ for an episode of my Business Growth Secrets Podcast – he was full of business tips, advice and anecdotes from his long and varied career – this story of how he got his products into the large super markets really stood out to me!

In business its important to be creative, try something different, lead with your product and always look after your customers.

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones left his job as a runner at the BBC with enough money to cover his bills for 3 months.

His dream was to one day have his own farm.

A talented marketer, he started his own marketing agency – this allowed him to finally save enough money to put a deposit down on a farm in Devon.

Whilst in Devon, Wilfred realised there was a big gap between urban and rural Britain and decided to create a brand to bridge that gap – he launched his own range of Sausages using the brand name ‘The Black Farmer’.

Back then, if you wanted to launch a brand you had to go on tv (this was pre-social media) there was no budget for TV ads, so Wilfred went on a ‘tasting’ tour around the UK.

The sausages were a huge success! the trouble is, they weren’t readily available in the supermarkets or big distributors.

So what did Wilfred do?

He put all the big supermarket buyers on his website and asked the people doing the tasting to call or write to the buyers and ask them why they are not stocking these sausages – and guess what? it worked!

The Black Farmer range of Meats and Beer is now available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and more!

‘Your customers are your salesforce – look after them!

The full interview is now available on iTunes and Spotify, click one of the images below to listen to the episode.

I hope you enjoy it.

– Adam Stott
Founder, Big Business Events