Summer cider series: Q&A with Rekorderlig’s marketing guru Kieron Barton

Cruising around in a bright-red Strawberry-Lime truck and handing out Swedish fruit cider and tasty food is Rekorderlig’s response to some of the sophisticated marketing strategies some of its competitors in the UK have put in place for summer 2012. And it seems to work: the rapidly growing fan-base has seen the Swedish fruit cider producer becoming one of the best-loved imported ciders in Britain, with no slowdown in the growth of the brand since its introduction to the British market in March 2009.

Kieron Barton, Chilli Marketing managing director, is the brains behind the cider producer’s marketing campaigns and the concept of being a ‘beautifully Swedish’ brand.

Here, he explains the idea behind the Rekorderlig Taste Tour, the company’s vision for the future, and why he is certain that the Swedish newcomer will be playing a major part in the changing of cider’s perception.

Elisabeth Fischer: What makes Rekorderlig different from other ciders?

Kieron Barton: Rekorderlig is simply a different tasting product [compared to] other ciders. It really delivers on taste, providing a variation of different and exciting flavours.

We’re definitely setting one of the benchmarks in the area of fruit ciders. At the moment, we’re starting to be at the best of what we do and I believe it’s the best fruit cider out there. Consumers can see and taste that and that’s what matters ultimately.

EF: What’s the vision behind the Rekorderlig Taste Tour and how does it convey the company’s ethos?

KB: It’s really to give our consumers a small and beautiful experience of Sweden, to try some amazing Swedish food and make them experience our product. I believe it helps people to realise and see who we are and it will give them a great experience of our brand.

At the heart of Rekorderlig is that we are beautifully Swedish and with this tour we’re trying to give people a small understanding of Sweden as a country, some of its great food and drinks. Taking the taste tour around the UK has been really successful so far.

EF: What are the key consumer groups you are targeting with the campaign?

KB: Our target group is actually quite big but I would say it is 22 and older, going up to 45 years. But to be honest, we’re not restricted in what we’re trying to do. We want people of all ages to experience Rekorderlig because it’s a fantastic tasting product and I think it actually changes people’s perception to cider.

Our target group really can be any age range. We’ve got young and old people drinking our brand and they’ve come into it, many times, from trying our product at consumer events or a promotional event in a bar.

They may have not liked cider before – they might have been drinking wine or beers – but I’d say we’ve tapped on them with a great product.

EF: You mentioned that Rekorderlig aims to change the perception of cider. What’s the perception of cider today?

KB: To be honest, I think cider has already changed fundamentally over the last ten years and particularly during the last six or seven. Magners really helped to get more people to try cider simply by pouring cider over ice.

There was a real perception of cider just being a drink from Somerset that tastes a certain way and is drunk by a certain target market, whereas now it is a product that can be enjoyed by a whole range of people.

Magners fundamentally changed the way how people view ciders and it has grown since then. Our thing is to show people that you can enjoy and experience cider in a different way. We have strawberry and lime, we have a wild berry cider, we have orange and ginger cider – it’s just a way of changing the perception of people who still may see cider as a certain range of products.

EF: What are the next steps in your campaign and your vision for the brand in the future?

KB: We will continue to do what we are doing now, just much bigger, a lot louder, more colourful and in a lot more places. You will see us in different areas such as outdoors, offline, online and so on.

Rekorderlig, as a brand, is performing amazingly well year-on-year and for us it’s just about the continuation of this growth. So that’s why we will amplify what we have been doing.

EF: Where do you see particular challenges for marketing cider in the UK?

KB: I don’t see any particular challenges, to be honest. I think you could be selling any product, from drinks to gardening equipment, as long as you ensure that you understand who your consumer is. As a marketer you have to know what your brand is and ensure that you position yourself in the right way to reach your target market.

From a sales point of view the weather in the UK can sometimes be a bit challenging for a cider producer. But we tend to get around that because people enjoy fruit cider all year round, whereas consumers would enjoy regular cider only in summer. Fruit cider has changed the market a whole lot.

EF: How do you use Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels to market Rekorderlig cider?

KB: Social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed us to connect amazingly well with our target market.

Our target group is constantly online and it allows us to bond with them because that’s where they are. They live and breathe online, especially young people who are constantly on Facebook.

For us, it’s been fantastic as we’ve built a really incredible fan-base on Facebook and Twitter and it allows us to get messages out quickly about the brand, about new products.

We can engage, we can target, we can interact and we can really connect with people. It’s fantastic for a smaller brand like us to have a platform to get your word out there quicker.

EF: Social responsibility is absolutely vital when marketing alcohol. How does Rekorderlig go about this issue?

KB: Social responsibility is key, there is no question. We ensure that we do everything right by the Portman Group and we consider everything we do and put out in the commercial space. I believe that we’ve got great guidelines in the UK, a great Code of Conduct for the industry and that’s how we do our work.