Gressingham has become the first ever fresh meat producer to be awarded CoolBrands status. CoolBrands are chosen by members of the British public and an ‘Expert Council’ of 37 leading influencers, including Sadie Frost, Kelly Hoppen, fashion designer Julien Macdonald and fabulous foodie Gizzi Erskine.
The entire selection process is independently administered by The Centre for Brand Analysis. The result represents a major coup for Gressingham. www.gressinghamduck.co.uk.
As the principle supplier of fresh duck to the UK grocery retail and food service markets, Gressingham has invested heavily over the past year to encourage an additional ½ million consumers to cook with duck. Activity has included rebranding, new product development and widespread recipe marketing providing over 400,000 free recipe books to shoppers and a significant push into digital marketing. All of this has created the largest marketing campaign ever undertaken for fresh duck in the UK, designed to reposition duck as a ‘regular treat’ that is remarkably simple to cook and break down the biggest barrier to usage, consumer knowledge and confidence to cook with duck.
At the heart of the brand’s success is the Gressingham Duck itself, a unique breed grown on Red Tractor approved farms across East Anglia and popular with chefs and scratch cookers because of its meaty succulence.
High quality, yet affordable luxury
Joining the likes of Apple, Virgin Atlantic, Bollinger and Pret A Manger, Gressingham is one of a select group of brands across 55 categories. The CoolBrands award is a major step and marks the brand’s dedication to providing a high quality, yet affordable luxury. Since 2001, CoolBrands has been canvassing the opinions of experts and consumers to produce a barometer of Britain’s coolest brands. Each brand featured in the list has qualified for inclusion based on the collective opinions of the Expert Council and 3,000 members of the British public.
Steve Curzon, Associate Marketing Director at Gressingham, comments: “We’ve worked hard to encourage consumers to cook duck at home and are delighted that our efforts are paying off with more people realising how delicious and simple it is to cook. Being awarded CoolBrands status is a huge honour for Gressingham and we are sure that it will help us to encourage even more people to try cooking with duck.”
Stephen Cheliotis, Chairman of the CoolBrands council, comments: “It is a phenomenal result for Gressingham to have made this year’s CoolBrands list alongside the likes of Apple and Aston Martin. It’s not an obvious choice perhaps but both the influencers and public alike are clearly impressed by the brand’s provenance and quality. They have almost single-handedly been responsible for making duck a healthy alternative and stand-out against the usual options”.
For more details on Gressingham including downloadable duck recipes, video demonstrations on cooking duck or to receive a free duck recipe book please visit www.gressinghamduck.co.uk.