Everyone has heard the old advertising slogan: sell the sizzle, not the steak.
Well, when it comes to selling steak, nobody sizzles more than Stephen Alexander and his meat shop, Cumbrae’s.
The place has achieved nearly legendary status in Toronto since Alexander opened his first location in 1994: high-end restaurants boast on their menus that Cumbrae’s is their supplier, reviewers praise it to the sky and foodies have given it a word-of-mouth buzz that no amount of advertising could buy.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Alexander, a transplanted Aussie, is passionate about what he does and is a persuasive salesperson. Check out his videos on www.cumbraes.com and you’ll find yourself wondering how to get your hands on one of his $50 a pound, dry-aged Wagyu ribeyes.
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The videos also tout Alexander’s “handmade food” philosophy, taking viewers to Cumbrae’s farm and those of its carefully chosen suppliers to see how Wagyu and Angus cattle, Texel and Dorset sheep, and Berkshire and Tamworth pigs are raised.
All in all, it makes for a heck of a story and that’s the key to success in farm-direct marketing, isn’t it?
No, Alexander says.
“You can’t just sell people a story. You can talk about how it was raised and how it’s organic or raised without antibiotics or you can use fancy terms such as ‘rare heritage breeds,’ but if it doesn’t eat well, what’s the point?”
Alexander has a recurring nightmare in which a customer tells his neighbour or co-worker that he’s got to get the meat for his big dinner party from Cumbrae’s and the guests end up saying, what’s the big deal?
“That not only makes me look bad but makes my customer look bad for recommending us,” Alexander says.
“If that ever started happening, it would not be good. Not good at all.”
For Alexander, raising turkeys in an open-air barn can’t be just a gimmick. Ditto for all those other feel-good practices, whether it’s feeding cows more alfalfa and less grain or refusing to treat them with antibiotics.
Of course, those are just three elements among many. Genetics, feed regimes, low-stress housing and handling, and processing procedures such as dry aging beef or air chilling poultry form the foundation for Alexander’s approach.
But the biggest reason for Alexander’s success is that he makes sure he doesn’t fall into the trap of believing his own story. How?
“Blind taste tests,” he says.
“I’ve participated in more than a hundred blind tests over the years and the results are consistently there.”
Because of its reputation, Cumbrae’s products are often tested by food reviewers and culinary organizations. Alexander also conducts them himself. He teaches classes in a chef’s program in a local community college, which he uses to conduct double-blind tests where neither he nor the students know the origins of the cuts of meat being tested.
It’s a simple thing to do, but a scary one. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to develop a line of heritage vegetables or grass-fed beef. Who wants to be told that their product is pretty much the same as the guy’s who does things the conventional way?
Still, those old advertising pros aren’t dumb. Selling the sizzle can take you a long way, and there’s nothing dishonest in selling your customers a story along with their lamb chops.
But as a business owner, you have to be dispassionate. Your loyal customers may swear that your free-range chickens or heirloom vegetables taste better, but would they be able to pick out your product in a blind taste test? Would you?
Knowing the answer to those questions is key when it comes to pricing. If you’re charging premium prices, you have to have a premium product.
“If you’re charging twice as much, it better taste twice as good,” Alexander says.
Glenn Cheater is editor of the Canadian Farm Manager, the newsletter of the Canadian Farm Business Management Council. The newsletter as well as archived columns from this series can be found at www.farmcentre.com.
