How Carman won over the majors

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday November 6, 2014

As marketers, our job is to produce and sell products, for the public to choose and buy. But in order to do this we need a marketplace, shelves, distributors. This is why, if you've followed this column over the years, you'll have seen me frequently complain about the shrinking space allowed to us out in that market.

The policies of the major grocery chains are working to kill off the smaller manufacturers. Need proof? Visit any Coles, Woolworths or IDG and you'll see how the supermarkets' own generic products have pushed the great brands off the shelves.

Nowadays you're lucky to find two brands competing against any home product. Even big names like Kelloggs or Kraft or Nestle are feeling the squeeze. The small local brands barely stand a chance and seem to be fading away.

Everywhere you look you'll see home brand cereals, dairy, meat, vegetables, cleaning products, frozen foods - in fact it's hard to think of a category where the competition has not been reduced to two or three brands against shelves of discounted home products. Whenever I raise this topic I receive emails of agreement from manufacturers and marketers - some well known names, though I have to keep them private because they fear the power of the retail majors.

So I am always delighted at the tales of the small manufacturer who has overcome the obstacles and made their products so uniquely desirable that they crash through onto the shelf.

This week you may have seen a TV commercial for Carman's Muesli range. It features the company's founder and CEO, Carolyn Creswell, at a very continental-looking garden breakfast setting surrounded by family and friends. Perhaps they are celebrating the success of Carmen's range of products and its ability to achieve distribution as wide-spread as the big multi-national brands.

As an 18 year old, Carolyn had a part-time job bagging muesli mix. When the company decided to close this business she bought it off them for $1000, and ran it from her kitchen in Melbourne.

So what is the most important attribute for business success? Look at the stories in any business biographies and it shines through: perseverance. Not giving in.

Carolyn hung in there for over 20 years, refining the product, building the distribution, forging the supply links. She is quick to make changes when they are needed - range extensions, listening to feedback from consumers. Which is totally different from conventional cereal companies, many of whose products were formulated a century ago and rarely adjusted since.

As she recently explained: "We introduced Blueberry Seed Nut Bars this year and they weren't performing. We replaced 'Seed' with 'Superfood' and doubled the sales. That's something you can do very quickly when you own 100 per cent of the company."

Recently Carolyn reviewed and reformulated her entire muesli range. They were hearing from customers that the muesli took too long to chew. "So we reduced the thickness of the oats to make it lighter and easier to eat," she says. "You've got to stay focused on that last 20 metres: the things a shopper will consider before they decide to buy. It's worth investing in."

The philosophy has been successful for her. She is now Australia's richest woman under 40, worth $83 million. She has export deals with the UK, South-East Asia and China. As she shows on Channel 10's Recipe to Riches, she is a marketer who knows her oats.