Wake Up To Organic is a good ethical fit for us and also very user friendly.

Oats Healthy Living Store, Brixham, Devon

Why did you take part in Wake Up To Organic 2019?
Wake Up To Organic embodies the ethics that we ourselves endeavour to promote in our own business. To us, organic farming is not just an ideal practice, its a way of life that works with nature and supports the land and all organisms. We strive to use only organic ingredients and seek fairly traded ones where possible. If a food is unethical we would rather not use it than break our ethics. Not only is Wake Up To Organic a good ethical fit for us but it is also very user friendly. Promotional materials are provided with POS and digital versions. You make it very easy to engage with the promotion and get the most out of it! Every year we are able to get more and more out of it.

What did you get out of it?
Oats Healthy Living Store and cafe as a combined business, benefited greatly from improved sales on the day and new customers who hadn't previously known we were even on the high street! We have one new customer in particular who has become a daily regular for the breakfast muesli bar which was one of the recipes provided by Wake Up To Organic and has become a permanent fixture on our cake menu.

What did you do on the day?
We put a table up outside and prepared lots of breakfast tasters. We had someone manning the stall talking to passers-by, offering our tasty treats and opening up conversations about organic farming and healthy foods. Specifically we offered mini-versions of our cafe menu breakfasts such as granola, compote and overnight oats. We also offered samples of new recipes from this year's Wake Up To Organic campaign suggestions with recipe cards which we printed out. This allowed customers to easily buy the ingredients from the shop if they wanted and with the offer of a free goody bag when they spent over £15 in store - many people were pleased to do so. Lastly, we offered free tea or coffee with breakfasts ordered in the cafe and created  'specials' for the day also.

Was it a success?
Yes, the day was very successful. We learned a lot about profiling our customers. We were able to open up dialogues with people to discuss the ethics of food sourcing with people who might never have considered it in the past, as well as with people who knew a little but were confused. Our sales went up, we increased our client base and promoted our business in a positive way.

What was the highlight of the day?
I'm the chef for the cafe and being out there talking to people about food quality, nutrition and health was my highlight. It was great to engage with people on these topics that I am passionate about and hear direct feedback as to the quality of the food served and its deliciousness! It is always a wonderful feeling to receive heartfelt compliments on how wholesome and delicious the food I serve is. 

How did you market it?
We used Facebook as our main source of promotion, using the purpose designed material you had. A week before, day before and on the day. We put up posters and we have a community info board outside our shop which we also used. 

Do you have any great ideas for running your event next year?
This year was really great for us. The fact that we are literally offering organic breakfasts as standard is something we want to make more visible to our customers and really take advantage of with our promotion next year. Also in the pipeline is developing our website. Once we have a working website we are hoping to post news and events which we can share on social media to engage with new potential customers.

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