Slogans and brands are created with customers in mind, but they can also have a powerful effect on the company itself.
In 2007, Kevin Martin and his brothers, Steve and Ken, decided to rebrand the retail side of Martin’s Family Fruit Farm, even though their main business is growing 700 acres of apples and packing for another 15 to 20 growers.
They didn’t do it on the cheap. They hired design and marketing professionals to create a new logo, signs, a jingle and a website, and spent heavily on advertising.
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“We spent more than you could justify on the basis of past sales, but we viewed it as an investment,” says Martin, the company’s president.
It worked. Retail sales grew by leaps and bounds, although they still account for only 10 percent of revenues for the Waterloo, Ont., farm.
However, the brothers had another goal. Their corporate value statement begins by proclaiming, “we are passionate about what we do,” and emphasizes the need for innovation and responding to customers’ needs.
Their website at www.martinsapples.com details “the art of growing a Martin’s apple.”
“We were branding what we do and how we do it, rather than branding the apple itself,” Martin says.
“I believe you need something that you really feel proud of, something that says who you are, something that you can get excited about.”
Excitement had been in short supply in the years before the makeover, both in the Ontario apple industry and at Martin’s.
Provincial apple acreage had fallen by nearly half, the rising dollar had slashed export earnings, Chinese apple concentrate had undercut the juice market, and innovation, such as adopting high-density plantings and new varieties, had been lagging.
“The tough years gave us a healthy respect for the fact that nothing is going to be easy,” says Martin.
“We learned that you’ve got to be on top of your game, you’ve got to be pushing the envelope, you’ve got to be looking at how you can learn and improve.”
He wanted his 60 full-time employees and up to 200 seasonal workers to believe the company they work for is a cut above average. Within the company, they talked about “the Martin advantage” and making excellence the top priority.
That’s why the logo, signs and promotional efforts had to be first class. The message wasn’t directed only at customers, but became a visual and constant reminder to employees that things were changing for the better.
“I wasn’t sure how we would get there, but I believed this (rebranding) would become the foundation of our business,” says Martin. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s been exciting to go on this journey and see the progress.”
Progress is measured in many ways, but one that Martin considers key is a new customer-first focus.
“That’s a big part of it. We always ask ourselves what an individual customer is trying to do and how we can help them do that,” says Martin.
“It starts with a sense of pride in the whole organization and taking everything we do seriously. Once you have that culture ingrained in the organization, you can go to customers and potential customers and say, ‘we can address your needs. We may not have the answer initially, but we’ll find a solution to any challenge.’ ”
For example, Martin’s grabbed one large account by meeting a retailer’s specific requirements for the packaging format. In the packing plant, a new camera system is being installed to replace visual grading.
The farm is moving as quickly as possible into high-density plantings with state-of-the-art irrigation and new varieties.
The retail side is a hotbed of innovative thinking, whether it’s creating a “limited edition” buzz for lesser-known varieties through its heavy use of Twitter and Facebook or developing it’s own branded apple products (two are in the works).
Excitement and the innovation it fosters aren’t easy to generate, but you can tell when it’s missing.
“I wanted a business card that I was proud to have my name on,” says Martin. “I wanted to have something that stands out about us that I could talk about when promoting our company. I believed we needed something we feel really good about, that represents who we are.”
Like it or not, every business, in-cluding every farm, brands itself. A message is being sent to customers, suppliers, employees and yourself when the sign by the lane is old and faded, the farmyard is filled with junk and weeds and the office is nearly as grimy as the shop. Your farm may not need a fancy logo, much less a jingle. But you still need to think about your image and what it says about you.
