A note from Martin Humphrey:
I apologise in advance for this, as I do not usually send out begging letters, but I think that this one has a different objective, which will appeal to organic producers.
I hope the note below explains the situation.
We at Humphrey Feeds are pleased to be able to provide support to Sustain/Organic UK for this important promotion of `organic’ and would urge you to consider if you can assist too.
If you need any further information, I am sure that Catherine Fookes will assist in answering your questions.
Dear all
You may have heard about the generic marketing campaign for Organic Food & Drinks that Sustain is co-ordinating, with significant support and input from the Organic Trade Board (OTB). Full information is available at www.organicuk.org, for you to find out more.
This is such a crucial time for the Organic market. There is a great need to reinvigorate consumer interest in Organics given the impact of the economic climate and the recent negative publicity. We need to grow again and we need to work together to do it.
The UK Organic industry plans to run a three year generic marketing campaign with the ambition to achieve 15% volume growth per year, in line with the objectives of the Organic industry business plan prepared by the OTB. To achieve this we need to raise as much funding as possible in the form of pledges from across the industry.
We will be applying to the EU organic promotion fund for match funding, so for every £1 you contribute we can invest £2 in reaching a new wider audience of shoppers, using print and above the line advertising (this includes TV and press), online promotion and PR to motivate them to spend more on organic food and drink.
This is the right time for the industry to plan a generic marketing campaign which covers all sectors and communicates some simple messages to consumers about the benefits of Organic.
However for this bid to be a success, it needs your financial support. OTB and Sustain are actively driving the total amount of funds raised to date: the total has reached £165K per year for 3 years, the majority of which is from 8 large pledges. It is disappointing that representation across industry is so poor but there is still plenty of time to increase the funding to a significant level which will add to the impact of the campaign.
We are hoping for more support to build the momentum across the wider industry. I have emailed and spoken to a number of you already but it is so important that you finalise your level of pledges now – this can either be done through the website www.organicuk.org or, alternatively contact Finn (finn.cottle@organictradeboard.co.uk ) or I to send you a hard copy of pledge form to complete asap.
As we have the first EU Bid Marketing sub-committee meeting on Wednesday of next week, it is so vital that you pledge now. No money will be required until July 2010, but pledge forms have to be filled in by the end of September, so we know how much budget we have.
I would love to speak to any of you who may have questions or queries surrounding the bid. Just give me a call. The sooner we have committed funds, the sooner we can start a generic campaign – to rebuild confidence and to communicate the benefits of Organic Food & Drink.
Please RSVP to this email as we need to know whether you are able to pledge, or not.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Catherine Fookes, Sustain, Tel 07979 534050 catherine@everythingethical.com
Finn Cottle, Organic Trade Board, Tel 07825 032960