Quotes from 'A book about innocent: our story and some things we've learned'.

1. innocent our story & some things we’ve learned

2. Starting a new venture: selected marketing quotes

3. innocent’s low-cost approach to the dark arts of marketing Make and keep a promise Choose the right stage name Look good Be seen in the right places Get yourself in the papers Give it away Go digital And then advertise

4. Everything you do, say or are, communicates.

5. 1. If you are setting up or running a successful business, you are going to need a marketing strategy.

6. Great brands STAND for something.

7. So if you want a marketing strategy to establish or sex-up a brand, start by working out your brand promise. It should be simple, motivational, distinctive and true.

9. Choosing the right brand name is important; the name itself must communicate the brand promise and what you stand for. It also needs to be memorable and distinctive, so it sticks with people like a good stage name. And to us it was also important to have something we’d be happy to see on a T-shirt, as we’d be wearing them most of the time.

10. 2. And then, make sure your product or service delivers against it. There is no more important part to your marketing strategy than the product or service actually fulfilling the brand’s promise.

11. As the packaging took place, and all the typical elements needed on a label were put in place, it become clear there was a gap left on the back. Other brands’ packaging didn’t seem to have anything else other than statements such as ‘your statutory rights are not affected’. We didn’t know what that meant, so we left it off. But that left more room, so the idea came to us to write little stories. The space was essentially a free advert; an opportunity to talk about the drink, the business and give people something more interesting to do than watch the person opposite them on the tube pick their nose.

13. Your packaging sells your product the first time.

14. 4. Where a band is seen also communicates. Celebrities know this.

15. 5. PR can make or break a brand.

16. If you read the papers you’ll find features where businesses and brands are written about on a regular basis. Make a note of the name of the journalist. Ring the paper and ask to speak to them. Explain that you’ve read their story and would like you / your business / products to be considered next time they’re writing that type of piece. Send them some samples. And a short press release, explaining what you do. Tell them what’s interesting about your business. Whatever that is different and relevant and true. If the story is interesting and you’ve pitched it to the right person, you may get to see yourself in print. And that first bit of coverage will do wonders when trying to persuade your customers / employees / mum that you just might be onto something.

17. 6. If your product is good, then there’s no greater advert than having someone try it. The person who knew this more than anyone was William Wrigley, the founder of Wrigley’s gum. In 1915, he sent 4 free sticks to every person listed in the phone books of America. As a result he captured 50% of the American gum market overnight, which Wrigley’s have retained to this day.

18. 7. Harnessing the power of digital media is a brilliant way to establish a brand.

19. We printed our website on our bottles and within the first few weeks received emails from drinkers who wanted to find out more about the company. We offered to email them news once we had any. To our surprise, all eleven of them said yes. Thus began what we now call ‘the innocent family’ – a group of people who quite like hearing what we are up to. The family is now 120,000 people strong.

20. Nowadays we also have a blog, films on YouTube, plenty of Flickr groups, Facebook fans, Twitter feeds and whatever else we can have a go at. These things are all just new ways in which we can have conversations with people. We like conversations, because they are two-way and if they’re good, you learn stuff. Basically, if there’s a new way in which our drinkers want to communicate with us, then we’ll get involved.

21. 8. It took until the 6th year of business before we started investing materially in advertising. Our plan was always to do it last, once the brand was distributed and established.

22. Thank you!