Bizstartup.ie - Your product is your strongest marketing tool

“It’s very easy to get someone to buy your product once, but to get them to buy it twice is the important thing. As the saying goes ‘fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’. I think 95pc of your marketing effort is around your product or service. If that isn’t right, you can have all the fancy packaging and promotion you like but it won’t work.”

Power of public relations

He says Cully & Sully has used public relations a lot and it works really well. “We have found a lot of food critics and journalists are very supportive, it’s great to get endorsements from the likes of Tom Doorley or Myles McWeeney. We have also entered loads of awards competitions and won many, which doesn’t cost anything and is very effective.”

In-store demonstrations

Cully & Sully work a lot with people at store level also, doing in-store demonstrations and offering coupons. “Getting people to try your product is really important,” Sully says.

Brand power

The image of the Cully & Sully brand is also an integral part of its marketing strategy. “It came from our research that people wanted to trust where their food was coming from because at the time the sector was dominated by private-label large companies. We put our heads above the parapet to be the face of the company, gave our names to it and do everything on the website.”