Content marketing is storytelling to gain strategic advantage with target audiences

Castle Butte, Big Muddy Valley

A bit of background

For those who don't know where Saskatchewan is located, ours is a beautiful Canadian province located in the heart of the North American Plains region. Stunning in the diversity of its natural environments from grasslands to boreal forest environments, home to thousands of lakes and rich ecosystems. Generating awareness about Saskatchewan as a tourism destination among international audiences has always proved challenging. Awareness of Saskatchewan's tourism resources may be relatively high with audiences in neighbouring provinces like Alberta, U.S. states like North Dakota, and Saskatchewan expats who return each summer to visit friends and relatives, but the lure of Saskatchewan among potential medium and long haul visitors is still a work in progress.

Air connections have steadily improved with major U.S. hubs like Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago, making it easier for international visitors to get here but, but better known destinations with direct international flights and mightier marketing budgets bring considerably more clout in travel markets at a time when factors that affect tourism industry competitiveness worldwide make it difficult for emerging stars to play in the major leagues.

It is easy to understand why destination marketing organizations like the Canadian Tourism Commission would bet on winning horses like the Calgary Stampede, which has greater potential to generate a return on investment, than on a small town rodeo in rural Saskatchewan which would provide just as evocative an experience for visitors, but might be more difficult to get to and require a somewhat more "specialized" outlook on what a Canadian holiday might feel like in the client's mind.

For the record, I have been bringing clients from around the world who didn't know anything about Saskatchewan before getting here for quite some time, through my former tour operator activities with Great Excursions. The main resource I used to engage these clients is sharing with them:

• the authenticity of experiences they would enjoy while in the province;
• documenting the distinctive character of the journey they would embark upon;
• generating content and communicating that content to them.  

Storytelling - that is all it is!

I knew from available market research what my target audiences sought in terms of quality of experience indicators. I proceeded to look for these in the holiday products I would offer them, and I looked to incorporate the right partners as suppliers and agents in the travel trade that were in a position to capitalize on that kind of editorial content availability. Chronicling facts about places, people, communities, and about how hosts are grounded in their respective communities does makes a difference, as you will see.

An international tourism organization where content marketing is central

Perhaps the most vivid illustration of how I was able to harness the power of editorial content for partners, customers, and ultimately the corporate bottom line, is the partnership initiative I established with UK-based responsibletravel.comhttp://www.responsibletravel.com/ in 2002, a specialist online travel agency that uses content marketing tactics to sell accredited responsible travel products to discerning travellers around the world. That company came into being with the financial support of Anita Roddick, founder of  The Body Shop. They actually initiated the conversation with me, and likely found Great Excursions because content marketing was also a core strategy for us. RT.com was in a position to provide us qualified leads in difficult to access European markets. We were able to provide the content they needed to market our products in the segments they targetted.

Using available market intelligence, I conducted intensive research to identify Canadian product suppliers I might wish to establish a travel trade relationship with as an international wholesale tour operator. I conducted comprehensive interviews with company owners and staff about their business practices on environmental, economic and social fronts. The body of my research was used to craft responsibility policies documenting how each of these products was made possible and impacted favorably on local host communities, thereby creating a competitive advantage in the eyes of those customers for which travelling responsibly is an important consideration.

My company’s customer relationship management system required that the communication of these beneficial practices be shared with clients from the lead generation phase to the published independent review that was authored by the client at the end - enticing new clients to come on our trips.

In my next post I will elaborate on specific examples of tourism operations and products with which content marketing tactics proved a pivotal strategy.

Prairie Berries to make a pitch on the Dragon's Den

Just heard through the grapevine... Saskatchewan's Prairie Berries is apparently to make a pitch on the popular Dragon's Den CBC television show. I look forward to finding out what pitch they have in mind. The company describes Saskatoons as a kind of ‘Superfruit’:

"The word ‘Superfruit’ refers to fruit which contains high sources of antioxidants. From a nutraceutical perspective, antioxidant rich fruits have anti-cancer, anti-aging, and anti-heart problem effects on human body. The benefits of antioxidant have contributed against cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and act as a protective guard to our immune systems."

The health merits of Saskatoons have been known for hundreds of years. Their pulp has been exported to countries like England as fruit filling. Will the Dragons buy into the success these Saskatchewan entrepreneurs have been enjoying in recent times?

We will see. I wish them well because local bounty initiatives like this make a difference not only in diversifying local agricultural products, it also helps profile Saskatchean as a tourism destination worthy of discovery.

Regina-Based Venture Uncaps Gluten-Free "Beer"

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

A Regina-based company owned by over 200 Western Canadian seed growers is providing an alternative alcoholic beverage to people with celiac disease and wheat allergies.

Nubru Gluten Free, developed by FarmPure Beverages, is about to sell out of its first 6,000 cases of product that have been tested in the Manitoba market.

FarmPure uses an innovative, patented process. "We're making a clear, neutral concentrate out of protein sources, such as peas and soybeans," said Chief Operating Officer Carl Flis. "From that concentrate, we can do two things - we can formulate it to taste like any beer in the world, make coolers, wine coolers and fruit coolers; or we can license that technology out to existing breweries." FarmPure Beverages plans to pursue both options.

FarmPure Beverages production innovation will be attractive for other breweries. "By implementing the technology, they can reduce their production costs significantly, because we're reducing the traditional brewing time, which is 21 to 28 days, down to nine to 11 days," Flis said. "An existing brewery can increase the production of their plant without any capital investment."

The first test with FarmPure Beverages' own product line was the Nubru blend, which was a 50/50 blend of FarmPure's product and Fort Garry Lager. The advantages of blending are that it reduces costs and improves the head of the beer.

Since the original Nubru blend, FarmPure Beverages has developed the Nubru Gluten Free beverage, which is currently being distributed in the Manitoba marketplace. Upcoming products include Nubru Red, which is similar to Rickard's Red, and a cider.

The gluten-free market of food and beverage products promises growth. According to Flis, celiac disease is the fastest growing diagnosed disease in North America. An estimated one in 133 has the disease. "We're not there to build breweries around the world. It's a specialty market, and celiac patients and people with wheat allergies are looking for alternatives."

Although the target market for the Nubru line is people with celiac disease and other digestive disorders, the product has broader appeal. In its first round of market testing, Nubru was rated on par or better than traditional light beers. It scored especially well with the young female segment of the market.

FarmPure Beverages has an ambitious plan for the distribution of its products, but first, it will strive for brand recognition. "It's a new technology where the possible products we can generate are endless. At this stage, it's getting the first concepts out there, getting the name known, and then we can start further product development," Flis said.

Next, they plan to expand into Ontario and Quebec, then British Columbia. Europe already has a number of gluten-free products, based on rice and millet, using traditional brewing processes. Breweries there have tried to emulate the traditional European beer tastes.

The Nubru products have a North American taste. The market is attractive to FarmPure Beverages because there are fewer competitors. Flis names a Quebec-based company and Budweiser, with a product called Red Ridge, as the two main rivals.

"If Budweiser is getting into the market, I think we're on the right track," he said.

For more information, contact:
Carl Flis, Chief Operating Officer
FarmPure Foods
Phone: (306) 757-3663, ext. 111
E-mail: cflis@farmpurefoods.com
Website: http://www.farmpure.com/

Beekeepers association continues to buzz

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association (SBA) has been around for 85 years, but this energetic organization does not intended to slow down anytime soon. In fact, it is buzzing with continued progress and the opportunity to further its research.

Recently, the SBA was given a $366,729 grant under the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food in Saskatchewan (ACAAFS) program to continue its important work for another three years. The grant is targeted at the organization's ongoing project breed productive, gentle honeybee lines with improved tolerance to mites and brood diseases.

The SBA's continued research will help to establish breeding methods to develop bees with genetic resistance to parasitic mites, eliminating or reducing the need for chemicals. This practice protects the environment from harmful organophosphates, the consumer from food safety or quality concerns, and the beekeeper from bee colony losses.

"This research is essential, due to the fact that two mites, the tracheal mite and the varroa mite, have made their way to Canada, and have become devastating over the last 10 years," said John Gruszka, Provincial Apiculturist for Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food. "These mites have caused the honey production industry in Western Canada to re-think and change how it operates."

Gruszka says that, beginning in the early 1940s, Western Canadian beekeeping developed as what is known as a package bee industry. "We used to be able to purchase two pounds of bees and a new queen from the southern states. They would be trucked up here in April, installed in the colonies, and produce a honey crop. Then the bees would be destroyed and the same process would be repeated the following year," he stated.

"Since the advent of these mites and the concerns over how devastating they are going to be, along with rapid increase in the price of the honey, there has been a movement to learn how to keep bees in our climate. It was re-thinking an old technology and applying new methodology."

The SBA was at the forefront of this movement. When the tracheal mite first gained prominence, the organization applied for and received money from Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food's Agriculture Development Fund to test how much of an impact it would have on the industry.

When the varroa mite appeared, the industry approached government to change the regulations on importing honeybees into Canada. This resulted in a certification program that permitted only mite-free honeybees to be imported into the country.

"The SBA has been working on breeding a honeybee stock that is suitable to our climate and that minimizes winter losses, which allows the bees to come through the winter in much stronger colonies, enhancing honey production. They are now showing almost complete resistance to the honeybee tracheal mite and some resistance to the varroa mite," Gruszka said.

"The SBA has been instrumental in getting research done in order to tackle the concerns and threats to the honey production industry, and in working towards a long-term solution that will alleviate some of our current dependence on chemical applications to keep these mites under control."

The SBA has more recently established the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development Commission to administer a producer-based development fund.

The commission collects approximately $38,000 per year from Saskatchewan beekeepers, which is used for the genetic breeding program, as well as for advertising and promotion on the provincial and national scale.

There are roughly 140 commercial beekeeping producers in Saskatchewan (and another 1,000 hobby beekeepers) who provide around 1,000 summer jobs bringing in the honey crop during the extracting season. On a per-colony basis, Saskatchewan is one of the largest honey producers in the world, with a 10-year average of about 200 pounds per colony.

"Saskatchewan produces between 20 and 25 million pounds of honey per year, most of which is exported to other parts of Canada, the United States and the world," said Gruszka.

For more information, contact:
John Gruszka, Provincial Apiculturist
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Phone: (306) 953-2790