11 Diversify and Grow
Once you're a superstar in the market that you have started out selling your product in and have a built a strong team in your business, you will be in a great position to take advantage of all of the opportunities ahead. You will no doubt start to broaden your horizons and think about all of the opportunities that are out there for your brand. This might involve going to new markets or new countries and maybe even coming up with some great ideas for how you can extend your brand into entirely new products.
Over the past four or five years, SuperJam has gone from only selling a couple of flavours of jam to offering a much wider range of products, and even selling things that aren't jam at all, such as books, aprons and gift sets. Not only have we broadened the range of products we sell, but we've taken our brand to new retailers and even overseas.
Finding New Markets
There will be all sorts of new places that you can search out to sell your products to. The reputation and experience that you have built up so far will stand you in good stead to take your brand to a bigger and more diverse range of customers.
Diversifying your brand might mean a number of things. It could simply mean adding more varieties to your range, offering your core product in a wider range of flavours, colours, sizes or packages, or in ways that make it more appealing at different times of year or to different groups of people. You might add a Christmas version or a Kosher option, for instance. You could work your way into other industries or the public sector simply by repackaging what you offer. By exploring different options like this, you can find entirely new outlets for your product that may not have been so obvious at first.
You could also consider what extra functions or services your customers ask for and develop a premium version of your core product to which your most die-hard fans are likely to upgrade. In the same kind of way, you might want to simplify your product and offer a budget option for consumers who can't access your brand at its current price.
There's a whole world out there filled with people who will love your product. You simply need a plan and some good support around you to figure out how to get it to them.
Diversifying the SuperJam Range
When I first started selling jam, I didn't imagine that I would end up seeing the SuperJam brand on anything other than jars of jam.
However, over the past few years I have been open to experimenting with new product ideas and we now have a whole range of kitchenware, including aprons, tea towels and totes, gift boxes, teapots, cake stands and all kinds of other products that are related to jam and afternoon tea.
By continually launching new products, we are able to keep our customers excited about the brand and it gives us a good excuse to keep in contact with the buyers at the big retailers.
I'm not very sure how far we could extend the SuperJam brand, but it makes sense that we should develop quality food-related products, such as like peanut butter, honey, curds and marmalades. There's no reason to say that one day we couldn't launch our own branded toaster or jam-making equipment.
I've got ideas to launch a range of jams specifically for kids, and to package SuperJam in tiny little jars to go on airplanes and hotel breakfast tables.
I really love coming up with new ideas for products that we can create. I'm sure that you'll be excited to see your brand extend into new areas too. What is most important is to make sure that what you offer to your customers is something you are proud of, that it ties in with your brand and is a worthwhile product. Otherwise, you could end up overstretching your brand and doing it a great deal of damage.
Making the leap from being a small company to a medium one is a point at which so many businesses fail. This might be because they risk all of their resources on an entirely new product, or they find that their brand isn't as well suited to life in a foreign country as they hoped it would be. Many entrepreneurs take their eye off the ball as their business grows, losing their grip on what really matters: their core product and the first few customers who brought them to where they are now.
Don't Stretch Your Brand too Far
I'm a huge believer in experimenting and, every now and again, trying out a crazy idea just to see what might happen.
Opening our own stores, dedicated to selling SuperJam, gift sets and a few related high-end food products, was one of those ideas. In 2009, during a recession, against the background of the closure of Woolworths and hundreds of other stores, landlords of commercial property were desperate to get people to open up in their boarded-up shops.
We were approached by a shopping centre in Aberdeen that had some empty space and offered us the chance to try it out at no cost, no strings attached, to open up SuperJam's first store.
It was quite an exciting experience. I found a few staff to work in the tiny little shop, put up signs and got some local press on the day we opened.
Business started out quite well, with lots of initial interest and we sold plenty of jars of jam. But sadly, the store struggled to make any money by the time the costs were covered and I decided to end the experiment after just a few weeks.
It seemed that the idea of opening a shop dedicated to selling jam was a step too far. Perhaps if we had a wider range and some more higher-margin products, like gift sets, it could have worked.
I was glad to have given it a shot and, who knows, maybe we'll come back to the idea of opening our own stores somewhere down the line. But for now, that was one of those ideas that just didn't work.
Going International
Much of the time you don't need to come up with crazy ideas for new products or new ways to sell your brand at all. There are all sorts of ways in which you can sell the same product but in different places, maybe even abroad. You could try getting your products into more stores in your country to start with, franchising your concept to other entrepreneurs in different areas or targeting a new niche of the market by working with specialist distributors.
In the case of SuperJam, it seemed obvious that, given the success of the brand in the UK, we could probably have a shot at doing the same overseas. What has really amazed me over the past few years has been the way in which the SuperJam story has travelled much further than the products have, even further than I have for that matter.
The story of the wee Scottish guy who got his gran's jam into big supermarkets has been covered on the largest news show in China, in newspapers in Canada and in documentaries about young entrepreneurs in Taiwan. SuperJam is used as a case study in business textbooks in Denmark and to teach kids English in Russia.
Of course, because of the media coverage, supermarket chains all over the world have got in touch, expressing an interest in stocking SuperJam. We've had approaches from up-market department stores in Dubai to some of the largest chains in the United States.
Initially, it was very difficult for me to follow up all of these enquiries. Not only were there language barriers, I didn't know technically how to export the products.
Although we have taken orders from the far corners of the world, SuperJam is not on sale in many outlets outside of the UK. The biggest barrier to our growth in foreign markets so far has been having a lack of local knowledge and contacts. I've figured out that the way to grow into each country is to find a local distributor to contact stores, get orders, market the brand and try to get press coverage for the story.
Although there can be many barriers to getting your product established in an international market, the rewards can be huge. As with every new venture, there's a lot to be said for starting small, giving it a shot and seeing what happens. One day, your product could be the next big thing in a foreign country you haven't even visited yet.
The Future and Beyond
If I look back at SuperJam's humble beginnings in my parents' tiny kitchen in Edinburgh, I can barely believe where it has ended up.
I know that the 14-year-old me would never believe it if you told him. I don't think anyone could imagine that what started out as a hobby and a few empty old jars could grow into a company supplying the biggest supermarket chains in the world.
What my story shows is that what starts as a hobby in a kitchen, garage, bedroom or garden shed, with a bit of love and hard work and support from people around you, can grow into something amazing. Something that changes a life. I know that SuperJam has not just changed my life, it has also created a livelihood for a lot of people and has had a positive impact on communities.
If I imagine how far SuperJam has come in these few years, I can't even begin to guess how far it can go in the future.
Launching new flavours and products is part of its future, as is launching in countries all around the world. But what is exciting for me is that it will involve all kinds of things that we haven't even thought of yet.
As long as I stay open to new ideas and opportunities, SuperJam can go as far and as wide as my imagination will take it. As for your own adventure, if you open your mind to new ideas and are willing to give anything a shot, you could well be amazed at where your journey will end up.