Creating concept, brand and business producing Danish game products, earning a 20% marketshare after just two years.
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Dansk Vildt (Danish Game) is a shared brand for game shot and processed in Denmark. The number of people who can handle and process the delicate foods that can be made on from game is decreasing, at the same time as shooting the game is increasingly becoming a exclusive experience. This will eventually cause the game itself to become a bi-product of the sport. To avoid this to happen and to make well-prepared game accessible to modern households, I took initiative to establish a company, along with my business partner Nils Natorp, which could process and market Danish game. Concept development The biggest challenge in preparing game is to keep it from drying out. It is difficult and traditionally requires a lot of fat, which is why many modern and lean households are reluctant to use game - besides the practical and to some extend misunderstood ethic preservations. I came up with a production and marketing concept and invited a fellow hunter and advertising specialist to join the project. Production I got in touch with Defco Foods who was able to handle large scale processing of the game using Sous vide to preserve the juices and the tenderness of the meet. We chose Pheasants and duck to start with and came up with a number of tasty products, based on sauces that we knew would go well with the meet. Marketing Supported by Danish Hunters Association, Danish Game Producers and various other stakeholders, we launched a campaign in three parts of the country to promote our product and game products in general, and in three days I handed over 900 samples to customers in supermarkets in Denmark. Great experience. From 1999 until 2002 we processed approx. 20% of the total of flying game that was shot in Denmark. When a ban on lead shots were imposed, we had to terminate the production, due to difficulty in treating the increasing number of feathers in the meat, as a result of lighter alloy that replaced lead. The Brand "Dansk Vildt" is still in use. OUTCOME: By identifying WHY less people was consuming less game, we were able to address the difficulties and the perceived problems with game preparation and consumption in the way the product was designed. As a result, we were able to put a whole new product on the retail market, where it had never been. In just three years we processed 20% of the total of flying game shot in Denmark (1,200,000 birds). A bi-product of the effort was the establishment of a community brand for all game processed in Denmark: Dansk Vildt (Danish Game). SKILLS IN ACTION:
Reference: Nils Natorp, CEO at Geocenter Møn's Klint, E-mail: [email protected] |