Rethinking seafood marketing

According to the Ocean Cluster’s Thór Sigfússon, Iceland has lessons to learn from Norway, pointing out that the ’Norge’ label has been strongly established on Norwegian export markets – and there is also the way ‘Danish’ has become a by-word bacon as an example of what can be achieved in genuinely effective marketing.

“There’s no doubt that Norway’s efforts have been successful,” he said.

“We need to roll out a more systematic marketing strategy for our seafood production. The Ocean Cluster has put forward the idea of the government and the food industry as a whole uniting to set up a long-term venture to increase the visibility of Iceland as a brand for a variety of Icelandic food production. The Cluster has also been looking at options for ideas to co-operate with neighbouring countries on marketing strategies for Atlantic cod, especially for more distant markets.”

He pointed out that during the nine-week strike that kept virtually the entire fleet tied up from December and into February, it was noticeable that in spite of the efficient sales and marketing network that Icelandic companies have built up, and the country’s strong reputation for reliable delivery, there were no complaints from consumers that their favourite Icelandic seafood products were missing from supermarket shelves. He said that the complaints came from the agents and fish markets, while retailers had no great problems in sourcing Norwegian or Russian fish to replace the Icelandic whitefish products usually on their shelves.

According to Thór Sigfússon, this should be a wake-up call to trigger an effort to re-engineer the way Iceland and its producers think about marketing their production on export markets.

“Continuing to ignore marketing means that significant values are lost and this is something that we need to address urgently,” he said.