Flavour - promote & be proud of the food you produce!
About Flavour
Flavour is a new initiative funded by Anglo American, focused on helping food producers in and near the North York Moors National Park to promote their businesses. It has two parts:
To bring together farmers, growers, food producers, farm shops, farmers’ markets, veg box schemes, honesty box stalls, agricultural shows and events and to provide them with the marketing knowhow they need to reach more consumers.
To make it easier to reach consumers who care, and to convert consumers who could be convinced to care, by creating modelled marketing activities for participating businesses and organisations. This includes an online magazine-style platform* consumers; a curated newsletter and mailing list, social media and PR activities.
*we're just getting started with this but you can see a sample page (without article links yet) here
How you can benefit:
Through a combination of online marketing videos, Zoom calls and group guidance, you'll learn how to:
Promote your business to caring consumers who're ready to pay fair prices
Use essential marketing activities that feels streamlined and less overwhelming
Approach journalists and generate free media coverage
Raise your profile online
Use the right kind of photos and videos to grab attention and build your customer base
Flavour is for you if:
You are a farmer or food producer in or near the North York Moors National Park
You sell locally produced food or use it as a key ingredient in your cafe or restaurant
You are ready to join others in a small group to promote your business
You want to know how to promote your business more effectively to people who're interested in higher quality food at a reasonable price
There's no charge to participate. If you'd like to know more, please email susan@tourismnetwork.co.uk before 20th June.
Time to show our pride in Yorkshire food & drink!
Sicilians shout. We whisper.
Flavour has just started, but the seed for it was planted about 4 years ago. I went on a ‘Learning Journey’ trip to Sicily.
Together with around 25 representatives of other tourism and food businesses from the UK, we were given an incredible opportunity to get an insight into food heritage, promotion and tourism on the surprisingly lush island. We visited food producers, restaurants, hotels and had some really interesting discussions.
Taken at face value, some of the experiences were very simple: a picnic lunch among the trees in a lemon grove; listening to a third-generation coffee roaster as we tasted different coffees; and staying in some ‘interesting’ (awful) houses in a hilltop village that had been abandoned for years.
It was a true privilege to meet those very hospitable Sicilians and learn about their businesses, and discuss the experience with our group members.
Everywhere we went one thing shone through: Pride and passion for local produce
During our trip we looked at examples of entrepreneurship and innovation, and considered different approaches, but one thing stood out more than anything else.
The people we met were driven by their passion for what they did. They were so proud of their local area, the food they produced and the businesses they ran.
Sometimes the pride was entirely justified.
Sometimes it was slightly surprising because their business wasn’t 100%.
Yet that didn’t matter because the passion and pride were so infectious.
There are many differences between Sicily and Yorkshire. Weather, landscape, architecture… There's something else that really marks us out.
The Sicilians we met were all confident and ready to shout excitedly about what they do.
We just shyly mumble.
I’ve often said to businesses here in the UK that they should be really proud of what they do, be more confident, shout louder about how good it is. I usually get one of these responses:
I just do what I do, it’s not that special
I don’t want to be big-headed or sound pushy
I’m afraid of being more ‘shouty’ because people might not like it, or they might think I’m bragging about something that’s not really that good
I don’t want to raise expectations too much. I’d rather just give people a pleasant surprise.
My response to these comments:
If you don’t shout and confidently tell people about your business, how will they know about it?
You won’t get the chance to pleasantly surprise them because they won’t know about you or visit.
People like to have expectations. Anticipation is a major part of tourism and hospitality. How often would you really disappoint?
Confidently telling someone about your business or being proud of what you do isn’t pushy. It isn’t bragging. It’s being honest. It’s giving people an insight and helping them understand who you are and what you do.
We are proud of our Yorkshire food and drink. But we don't shout about it enough.
Many potential consumers don't know about your business.
They want quality food but don't always understand what it takes to produce it, or why it costs what it costs.
Flavour is about working together to change this. I hope you'll join in!
Susan