Shop Local gives business support
What difference can winning the Southland and 2degrees’ Shop Local initiative make to a business?
Just ask entrepreneur Rhona Mackenzie and what she’s learned since she and business partner James Sweetbaum were told that their company, Red Shoots, was one of two Auckland winners in the 2020 Shop Local competition.
They received a $20,000 advertising package so have spent the past few months working alongside marketing and communications experts to come up with a plan to tell the country about Red Shoots and the businesses it runs.
That has involved doing a full analysis of two of their enterprises (Good Cocktail, Daily Good and Just Fresh Co) to gain a deeper understanding of their customers – and the potential to grow that base – identifying media partnership opportunities and devising a plan that includes print and social media promotion.
It’s something Rhona says she and James simply didn’t have the skills, experience and tools to do themselves.
The duo met through mutual friends on Waiheke Island nearly a decade ago and were already running successful enterprises.
For Rhona, that was LemonFresh, which has made real squeezed lemon and lime juice available to shoppers for a decade, while James was involved with family farming ventures in Fiji where, through Ranadi Organics, local women grow USDA-certified ginger and turmeric.
These ingredients now go into their Just Fresh Co range and Daily Good Health Tonics. The tonics, launched late last year, are a range of infusions made with organic, super-food ingredients, including ma¯ nuka honey from Aotearoa New Zealand and the organically certified ginger and turmeric grown on Ranadi farm. Available in three flavours – blackcurrant, ginger and turmeric – they are locally made, as well as gluten and dairy-free.
Having help with marketing and promotions, and the money to spend on them, has freed Rhona and James up to concentrate on growing these enterprises in New Zealand and in the United States, where they have already generated interest from some big distributors.
Now Rhona says they will be able to share their story more effectively here and overseas. It’s particularly important, she says, to tell New Zealanders about what they do because this is their home base. She can’t speak highly enough of how supportive 2degrees has been: ‘‘They couldn’t have been more generous with their expertise. I had always been a little scared about spending money on advertising because I wasn’t sure of how best to tell our story when there are multiple ways of spending marketing money.
‘‘Now I feel we’ve got a much clearer idea and have come to understand not to underestimate, for example, the value of print and pour everything into social media when you need a bit of both.’’
In the last two years, our Shop Local campaigns have run in seven regions (from Auckland to North Canterbury), had more than 1000 businesses enter, and put eight amazing businesses in the spotlight.
This year, we’re focusing on the mighty South Island, with competitions running in Southland, Otago, the West Coast and Canterbury. All entrants have the chance to win $20,000 towards their marketing and advertising, and the expertise of the 2degrees team to help them deliver it.
Entries are now closed and the judges are making their decision.