How effective is your brand?

It all has to start with your product.

Is it good enough?

Do people like it?

Why do they like it?

What makes you different from the other competitors?

Why should customers buy from you?

Why is it so cheap?

Why is it so expensive?

These are just a few questions that you need to ask yourself about you, your brand, and your product.

Branding is the message you wish to convey to your current customers and in hope to attract new prospective customers.

It’s not just the physical appearance of your product or how it’s labelled, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And I believe this is where a few companies can get a bit distorted about their own brand, which can affect their overall marketing strategy.

Having a nicely designed product that ticks all the aesthetic boxes isn’t enough if you want to spread the word about your product.

You need to get enough people to try it and based on their feedback, then you can begin to have an idea of how well received it can be in a particular market.

Once you know, then it’s a matter of getting your message out there but it’s not about telling people to buy your product without providing them any value whatsoever… a salesman tactic which is cynically looked at.

“If your product is good, the branding & marketing surrounding this becomes easier. If your product is not, no matter what you do, it will be very difficult to convince the market”

What I’ve learnt is not to just tell your customers to “BUY, BUY, BUY!”, but instead to offer them amplitude reasons WHY they should at least try your product.

You’re offering them value without the pressure of buying…

Now if you build up a nice local fans group who love your product and then they tell everyone else about it, then you’ve won!

Then it’s a rinse and repeat game… with every so often, when you ask for a sale during certain promotional periods, you will undoubtedly get some sales, but remember that this shouldn’t be at the forefront of your branding and marketing strategy.

Branding should emotionally connect your product to the customer.

You can have a simple white label with hand written details stuck on the side of a jar or packet, but if people love your product, this won’t matter.

This also applies with cost… if it tastes good or is conveniently appropriate for your customer, then cost does not necessarily matter (but bare in mind not to extort your customers 🙂  )

As you naturally get good in telling others WHY they should use your products or services, then the chips will always fall into place.

Improved Chilli Oil Sachets

It has been a while since we released our initial batch of Chilli Oil sachets, which was back in 2017.

We had issues with leakages, where the oil managed to seep through the seals of plastic, so we decided to stop.

Fast forward to today, we managed to significantly upgrade the Chilli Oil sachets to a version 2.0 with better packaging film and better equipment.

It was through a collaboration with Colman Packaging that allowed us to vastly improve this product.

With COVID causing havoc within industries, most businesses in order to survive, had to pivot their business and adjust to the current climate.

Meaning their 5,6,7, 10 year business plans were immediately scrapped and turned into a daily mode of endurance and sustainability.

“Adjust and pivot your business accordingly to align with the current state of the platforms and environments both digitally and physically.”

As you can see, the improved sachets have a much robust plastic film, in this case, is opaque and slightly thicker than its predessor.

The machines used to produce the sachets have since been upgraded to allow for liquids and ‘bits’ to combine more effectively and flow seemlessly into the sachet form.

Businesses that have ‘evolved’ since COVID, have started to use or at least incorporate one time use products in their own business, in this instance, sachets.

The food industry has fortunately boomed during the pandemic and most traditional ‘restaurant styled’ businesses have mostly adopted the ‘take out’ system in order to stay in business (and hopefully remain in business).

Whist we are working on providing more options for our Chilli Oil, we have been contacted regarding sachets and provisionally generated interest in the Pizza industry… watch this space 🙂

Online growth is important for any business

The rule of any business is to ultimately get sales, this is a given. But when you step into the online world, growth and scaling your business just suddenly got difficult.

It’s a whole new different ball game now, that if you are perceived to not be ‘online’, you’re already behind.

The internet is a very busy place. To do something that you wanted to do ‘online’ years ago has already been done, if not, improved upon ten fold.

BUT, it is still not too late to jump on the band wagon!

To start now is better than to not start at all, you’ll still be in line with your competition, but have a mountain to climb.

So here’s where you get help… it’s not a sign of weakness, but a pry for business growth and development, and fast (well, faster than if you were to do it yourself).

The Seo and Content Marketing Experts

For Sun Wah Foods, we only started to seriously develop our online space rapidly and going all in within a space of six months, and it is building traction.

It could be further improved due to competitive analysis, hence we brought in the experts to try to smash the competitors out of the water.

We knew we had a niche with our Sun Wah Chilli Oils that no one was even close to replicating.

Sprout Me Media is a social media agency that we brought in to take care of our Instagram business page.

Already in a space of a few days, our followings have increased, and still are… and the engagement is tremendous.

You will be surprised what a small investment can get you!

With these agencies in place, and the rate that the business is developing on the web, we can be the number one Chilli Oil in the UK (the world, eventually).

Marketing Spending Myth

It is without a doubt that going big requires loads of hard work, marketing, time, and money. But can you go big without spending huge amounts?

We have been fortunate enough to be invited to exhibit our products at the Takeaway & Restaurant Expo 2017 in the Excel London.

This is a massive opportunity for us to show a potential 10-12,000 individuals and businesses that our Sun Wah Chilli Oils are what they want.

We are always educating prospective clients that our product, compared to others is all about the flavour, where others are based on pure heat.

Our niche has enabled us to step away from the masses and create our own delicious product, which we feel is good enough to be shared with the world.

Register your FREE tickets for this event and stop by our stall 9066 and give us a high five. It will be great to see the support and really identify with the crowd, WHY we exist.

Marketing in the right places at the right time is priceless, and just to be present with thousands of potential businesses is what every small business needs for that brand push.

“So exciting to see our brand at such a prestigious event, with 12,000 eyes potentially trying our product for the first time.”

When it is said that you can market without the necessary dollars, it is true to a certain extent, but to reach the masses, the money needs to be spent.

Organic marketing will reach your local audience, and this is good but you must be consistent with it, for example implementing social media and distributing it.

In time, the return on this initial investment, will come round and many more opportunities will have been created just by taking the plunge.

On the rarity nothing comes out of it, take it as an experience, learn from it and see how it can be improved for the following year or future events.

Re-branding Timing

Another bit of exciting news is the fact we will be re-branding in time for this big event, so as to make our Sun Wah Chilli Oils more corporate and retail-able.

Getting this right will only benefit our brand and for us to make a mark  and blow the competitors out the water.

The timing couldn’t have been any better and could really accelerate into 2018 with some legs.

So, what are you waiting for? Visit www.takeawayexpo.co.uk/ NOW to register for your free tickets.

Our first stall experience

What a couple of weeks it has been! With our first stall making its debut for Chilli Fest UK in sunny Eastleigh, and then following up with mixed bag weather in Melton Mowbray.

The Eastleigh stall was nerve wrecking, considering we have never set up a stall before selling our Sun Wah Chilli Oils.

After getting to know our neighbouring stalls, we realised that our £50 budget stall from Amazon, was not going to last the remaining events throughout summer, let alone the year.

It was clear these guys were long serving stall champions, each averaging 3-4 years experience.

But nonetheless, they each provided valuable tips for setting up and what to invest in for a prosperous stall future.

The second weekend in Melton Mowbray allowed us to quickly improve our set up and shake up our delivery of information.

As you can see from above, the Eastleigh set up was extremely basic, but it actually did the job.

The weather allowed it to stay up, which was fortunate, but the risk for the next few events was not worth taking, so a quick investment for a more sturdier gazebo had to be implemented.

Water based leg weights also helped with the overall structure, thus preventing a wobbly gazebo.

A red canopy added to the effect, being in the ‘chilli’ business, this was most appropriate.

The next best (small) investment were cable ties.

These were excellent in keeping up the table and top banners and supporting the stand up banner.

It was much stronger than string and allowed the banner to be fully stretched across the gazebo without having a floppy effect.

“Meeting the locals at the stall and getting them to try our chilli oils was very satisfying, since everyone hadn’t heard, seen, or tried it before.”

Swindon stall at Chilli Fest, 29th July 2017

Following on from two successful stalls, we can confidently move on into our next big one, which is happening in Swindon.

We just hope the weather holds out in this area, so we can provide the locals with more tastings of our quality Chilli Oil and hopefully produce some sales.

Our main objective for these events is to generate brand awareness, and become more nationally dominant, as opposed to just being London based.

With several more stalls arranged for the rest of summer and leading up to Christmas, we can safely say that the build up for 2018 will be huge.

The fact that we have our online store to back our nationwide presence is essential, it gives us a big stepping stone to propel the business further.

Learning How to Integrate a Platform within Shopify

A month ago, Sun Wah got involved in a space where a whole new learning experience was waiting for them.

Launching an online platform, without any prior experience was a challenge in itself.

With apps available now at your disposal in 2017, building an e-commerce site cannot be easier.

The great thing about these apps are the fact that you can integrate them together to enhance the whole ‘shopping’ experience.

Thus providing the sales cycle even more depth without being too ‘salesy’.

An awesome example is utilising Mailchimp with Shopify.

As well as being a product information site, Mailchimp provides the ability to engage with the customer. This ensures customer value and retention.

As a customer subscribes to our list, in exchange, we provide a nice little discount for them to use.

This email now is my key to keeping customers engaged with our brand, letting them know what new products we can offer, and more importantly, what discounts or promotions they can get for being loyal.

“Learning something new only strengthens my philosophy to growing a successful business.”

The Sales Cycle

The ultimate aim for an ecommerce website is to generate sales.

It is an additional sales channel for the Sun Wah business model to sell more Chilli Oil.

The priority is to create a funnel of leads and traffic to the main site.

Going hand in hand is educating customers on our brand and WHY we stand out from the rest.

What we are trying to accomplish is still an arduous task ahead, but what we are doing now IS working.

We need to continue to generate much more traffic, so inevitably, we are working with an SEO company to help us improve page rankings.

Generating sales requires appropriate marketing, be it on social media, leaflet distribution, or running a physical stall.

From here, it snowballs, the money you spend here is only the start, you shouldn’t stop but continue to keep creating different opportunities.

The ‘Thank You Economy’

As influenced by one of the greatest business motivators, Gary Vaynerchuk, his ‘Thank you Economy‘ is on the basis that when you treat your customers right, the return is exponential.

But be sure to give more than you receive, and do it an a way where you don’t expect a return, the ROI will be mind blowing.

These gift cards are not just for existing customers, but mainly aimed for the new customer or potential new customer.

It shows we are customer oriented and learning how to deal with them in a way where the process is exactly how you want to be treated.

It also keeps us in their minds, if they don’t buy now, that gift card will remind them of the experience they had before. The discount code should also trigger an impulse action (backed up with the education on the Chilli Oils).

Alla’s Yummy Food Social Media Influence

Finally, we have dropped a series of scrumptious videos, courtesy of Alla’s Yummy Food, for you to enjoy!

For those that are brave enough can actually attempt to recreate these tantalising recipes at home, they’re so easy to make.

The cool thing is that we reached out to Alla to see if our Chilli Oil could be introduced into her style of cooking. Thankfully she loved the product!

She was introduced by a good friend and we connected immediately.

Alla is a Russian and Latvian Food influencer and is very prominent on YouTube with a whopping 68k subscribers!

We agreed on potentially HOW to use it and Alla, using her creative genius, came up with a list of yummy recipes, which I skimmed down to three.

With her online influence, it was a great way to extend exposure to our brand and produce a unique way to demonstrate our product, especially in the food space.

“They’re all my favourites… I just want to try them all… Alla is so talented!”

Below are the links to the full recipes on YouTube.

Please subscribe to Alla’s Yummy Food on her YouTube channel for more amazing and creative food ideas.

She is also on all the other major social media platforms, follow her NOW @allasyummyfood

Double Chocolate Chilli Cheesecake

An extremely chocolatey cheesecake with a slight chilli tingle is enough to make everyone salivate.

Topped with fresh cream and chocolate sauce on it’s crunchy base texture, this concoction of pure delight is ideal for any home party. It will definitely be a hit with the guests!

Cheddar Chilli Corn Fritters

An easy to do fritter, which requires minimal ingredients and effort.

Once fried, the texture that comes from the crunchy sweetcorn along with the blend of cheese, flour and parsley is just immense.

The hint of Chilli Oil also gives it that little punch in the face. Yum!

Caribbean Jerk and Peach Chilli Sauce

Now this is an amazing sauce that goes well when marinating your meat for a barbecue, or just a snazzy dish to impress the family.

The richness from the peach, the flavour from the jerk mix, and the highlight from the Chilli Oil, all contribute to an epic Caribbean influenced sauce.

This will undoubtedly be enjoyed by everyone who fancies something slightly different in their food.

Eastleigh Chilli Festival 2017

We are exciting to be announcing one of many stalled events for 2017, and it begins with the Eastleigh Chilli Festival.

This is happening 15th of JULY 2017.

Try to make it, come and join the fun!!

An annual event held by Chilli Fest UK, which have all have been huge successes.

Allowing various companies to show off their variety of products and allow for the consumer to try.

As a family run business, scaling up has always been a challenge, therefore Sun Wah Foods has teamed with Chilli Fest UK to bring our awesome Chilli Oil to the public.

We pride ourselves as being a customer focused business, which is something we know our competitors are not doing.

We constantly engage with the public and always deal with existing customers on a one to one basis.

Now this upcoming festival and future events will be a defining point in our pursuit for UK brand awareness.

This event will be a packed filled event with 20 other different businesses, all promoting their unique products.

“Spicy madness. Chilli eating contest. Friendly atmosphere. FREE admission. Come and join the fun with local Chilli fanatics!”

Eastleigh festival will be the first of 11 stalls we have booked up for 2017, so we are trying our best to ensure everyone knows about Sun Wah Chilli Oils.

If you are interested in attending one of the events please follow this link or click the picture for more information.

You can be sure that these events will be crazy and spicy!!

We will literally be driving around the country, setting up stalls, and bring our unique flavour directly to your doorstep.

Please support us and come try our gorgeous Chilli Oil. If not, just come say “Hi!”

Follow us on Social media for updates and announcements

Online Sales – Sun Wah Foods

In 2017, we have entered a time where making money online is even easier than before with tools that you can incorporate into your business immediately to generate sales.

What makes it more interesting is the fact that everyone you see around you is active on their mobile phones, hence, a more smarter way to sell online.

E-commerce is just an alternative sales channel for your business, which caters for the busy individual. Especially from a mobile device.

The time has shifted from the desktop to the mobile device potentially making your business a 24 hour attention seeking beacon.

Whatever you use the internet for, it is there at your disposal and will be there for a long time.

On a business level, this is the time to be relevant online and be present, because if you’re not, you’ve already lost.

“Easy to use, convenient, and all from the comfort of my home!”

This is why our company Sun Wah Foods made the decision to start selling online and adding another sales generating channel to our business model.

It’s not to late to join in the fun, so as long as you have started.

We have created our first ever online platform, where you can purchase our Chilli Oil directly.

Now the sales page has been integrated with the back end distribution warehouse, our ecommerce store can be run automatically.

The next step now is to generate more traffic to the site and create more sales. Obviously, utilising various tools and apps to convert these numbers into actual sales is where the fun begins.

Sale is just a numbers game.

The road is still long but as we improve our SEO, and keep driving relevant towards the direct purchase site, we shall be prosperous and hopefully smash all our competitors out of the digital space.

Follow us @sunwahfoods on all our social media for updates and potential discounts for lucky customers 😉

Sun Wah Food’s Online Store

It is without a doubt the most exciting time within our business. We have jumped from a B2B environment to a B2C environment by implementing our very first online store. However, it wasn’t an overnight decision but a three month process.

This webstore will ultimately be the gateway for customers to purchase directly from the comfort of their home or mobile device. Who has time to wait till after work in order to go to the local supermarket, just to find out that they don’t stock the item you specifically wanted?!!

Argh!! The frustration is real. But don’t fear, our quality range of Chilli Oils are available to buy direct from our very own online store, chillioilonline.com.

The online store will now put our business ahead of our competitors because the fact is, they are not even in the space, so our company is already two steps ahead.

We have partnered up with a fulfilment company, Ogden Fulfilment, that deals with our back end inventory, so all we have to is tell YOU about our services and products… that easy!

The difference between this and ‘dropshipping fulfilment’ is the plain fact that this is our own British born product, that we hand make the Chilli Oils in our warehouse based in North London. We can keep track of our inventory, stock up when low, manually process orders, and even keep track of how much stock is sold.

Dropshipping is pretty much finding someone else’s inventory and sell that through fulfilment, this is a cost effective approach because the inventory is not kept in your own warehouse, all you’re doing is when someone places an order, you create the order and ship it through the third party, so in effect you become the middle man.

“Convenient, easy to use, a few clicks and it arrives in a few days… simple!”

Building our E-commerce Platform

In order for the E-commerce platform to work, we had to implement and integrate a number of applications to build a solid foundation for online presence. In particular, these are the back end applications that work together to deliver the ‘automated’ digital service that you see as the customer.

The three main applications outlined here are the backbone for our, chillioilonline.com.

WordPress

An easy to use application to form the basis of our partner website sunwahfoods.co.uk, which allows us to form a web presence and for potential customers to find us online.

WordPress is great for building simple web pages very quickly and to enhance your experience even more, it has ample plugins that you can integrate into your web pages so you can create a fuller user experience i.e. Social handler, SEO, or even sliding images.

Shopify

The place where you can create your online store immediately and have customers buying from you within hours.

This was a no brainer, obviously costing a bit for their services, but if you want your business to expand in the digital space in the 21st Century, this is the way forward.

Ideal if you sell a physical product, as their templates range from simplistic to artistic, and has the ability to form product catalogues according to your business.

MailChimp

This service is the link in the chain if you will, and will automate your email correspondence, creating a digital customer service agent for your business.

Once set up correctly and according to your business specifics, this could change the way you run your business forever. As your business grows, it is essential to take care of your customers, old and new.

MailChimp is a clever application, although I am still learning it’s capabilities, already I can see the long term benefits in retaining customers. The ability to keep existing customers in the loop with new deals, new products, or just creating an email conversation is amazing!

Check out our latest online store chillioilonline.com and start buying our quality Chilli Oil now, so you can enjoy your food today!

Follow us @sunwahfoods on most of the social media platforms for updates, progress, and enjoy our Chilli Oil journey.