International Marketing and Communications Management Assignment

Dear Deborah and Maria,

It is with heartfelt appreciation that we thank you for noticing what is unmistakeable about our brand. You get us!

We want to thank your junior consultants for making it so plainly evident that our brand has something valued. They get us too!

We have a portfolio of specialist fresh and organic foods from Rwanda. Its observable that we are currently selling them locally here in Rwanda and that we are now ready to be 'noticed' as the 'best choice in our product and brand category' (either fresh coffee and Kofi Sachets and/or raw honey- and its by-products-beeswax, pollen for other end users) in new international markets. Thank you for supporting this recognition.

You clearly see us and through your research you have shifted our attention to a point where we recognise that we already have something real and tangible to communicate to the target customer. Thank you for this overview, that we already have 'what it takes' to feel even more visible in the market place. Thank you, for helping us to see that the task at hand is to collect, and to assemble together into a cluster, a concentrated set of images that on mass communicate the essence of what our position is about. Thank you. We are evolving.
Your deliberate focused efforts, in collating the essence of our message, avoiding diluting it into a watered-down message, means that it will not be a jumbled mess which takes away the value of the brand position. Thank you for reminding us that you are concentrating on the collection of images, etc, which is indeed as a clustered expressing the brand essence. We are looking forward to seeing that into the catalogue.

You have assisted us already in shifting our perception. Shifting us from 'seeking' a position in the marketing place, which led us to feel that we did not really have anything and had to catch up to the Western brands. To 'seeing' that, our clear positioning is already here, and it just needs to be distilled into its essence. To focus on the essence rather than diluting it. Thank you for providing this shift in perception. This gentle push means that we no longer are seeking to be noticed, but instead to notice that we have already decided to see the 'itness" of what we stand for and to make that 'itness' even more detectable and attractive. We look forward to how you will make that 'itness' even more apparent and irresistible via the catalogue. We are evolving. We are evolving.

One thing that we noticed from the research that your junior International Marketing and Communications consultants have completed, is that we can step away from the 'pick me' attitude, that we do not have to wait to be notice and to evolve away from being positioned around quality or price alone. That sharing and collaboration between us is incredibly supportive. Your guidance came from you detecting what is already unique and rare about our positioning, which is coming through all the authentic research you are conducting. Thank you, thank you, thank you for welcoming your own reading of 'us' coming from your research.

Going forward, our expectation is that you will be providing us with two-part catalogue (look book, pricelist) along with the guidance essay. We expect that we shall be using this guidance essay almost like a training manual to teach our Rwandan staff about what are the best signs, symbols, images, colours and so on, that the named wholesale buyer in the UK and recommended country will easy recognise.

We were wondering if you could reemphasise our expert positioning. We were wondering could it come in the form of a welcome introduction in the look book. We were thinking that it could come in an introduction section, a sort of welcome letter written by you of course, pointing out how what we do really set us apart in a marketplace where it could still be argued that we look like everyone else in the product and brand category. What do you think?

We want to avoid looking like others from our country and category, yes by building on the common themes of the category, but definitely looking different too.

We also are looking forward to your guidance essay because we intend to use it as a sort of roadmap that keeps us on track and helps us to refer to what we need to keep doing to maintain the confidence of the buyer's you suggest that we reach out to.

We feel incredibly pleased when we think about you working on this project with us. We are pleased that you plan to use lots of 'points of difference' and 'points of parity' imagery as reference points. That this imagery recognises what is already there, plus makes us more aware of the most and least recognisable images linked to us. We look forward to how you will then 'curate' photos, video, sound, font, font variations, logos, patterns, stories, to position us in an 'opposite' manner, to ensure that we stand out in the marketplace. We look forward to reading your justification of all of this in your guidance essay.

As you know the catalogue (look book: price list) sits within a bigger communications process. And that the bigger process of communication, where we display, exhibit and demonstrate the value that we offer to the target customer. We plan to use all your positioning guidance to shape the promotional funnel.

We can just imagine the international buyer reading this catalogue. We can imagine that both the UK buyer and the international buyer will really enjoy it. Enjoying it to the point that they decide to connect with us. That is our ideal outcome!

As you know we are actively involved in providing local jobs in Rwanda. The women, the families all appreciate the efforts you are putting in to guide about exporting. We value the UN's SDG's and want people to know that. Do you think its worth using them in our SDG's? Will the target believe it, or will they think we are being fake? What do you advise?

As we mentioned, we are curious about what are the most noticeable, observable images that you will use to express the unique, rare, about the country that we plan to export to, our country and the life of the target audience. Their most recognisable, observable, images of sustainability, innovation, art, country of origin, food, drink, culture, music, family and so on which you will use in the look book. Will you be getting ideas from research using the CAGE and Hofstede models? Will you be using that great book written by Geoffrey Moore

'Crossing the Chasm' when you are thinking about what is most noticeable for certain target audiences?

You might not know this, but our holding organisation, Rwandan Whole Foods does not have an agreed brand identity. We do not have a clear brand archetype either for Rwandan wholefoods who we sell through or ourselves individually. We only have a few elements for our own individual brands, that we have already sent you i.e., the logo and a few colours, nothing else. Now that we have mentioned it, we are keen for you to use brand archetypes. Out of the twelve available, which one do you reckon we are? Do you think it differs from our holding firm, Rwandan Wholefoods? Do you think we have the same brand archetype as them or not? You will tell us. We look forward to your ideas.

Thank you for helping us to serve our country as well as sell internationally. We know that you will be directing your junior consultants to ensure that we move from the' past, historical' imagery and to curate imagery that makes it easy for the buyer in question to see how we ideally fit into their existing product offer.

We are ready to step into a new era in our international business life. One where we can exhibit this expanded horizon of what the named target customer currently imagines possible for our country of origin, product category, brand category. One where we display a life where we show and feel more gratitude and fulfilment.

We look forward to this exhibition of important work in the new year, Jan 2023.

So, in closing we know that you have an amazing process, and we are looking for a catalogue (look book, price list) and guidance essay which positions our brand and the products as 'authorities', experts. That we are valued from an advisory position, that informs people about our unique brand solution/method, and for those sceptical about Rwandan quality, to really display that our quality processes are the same as many other world-wide standards. We are keen that you give our quality processes a unique name, to ensure that they are valued, rather than commodified.

Deborah, Maria, we will let you introduce more details required for this next piece of work to the junior consultants. Thank you for this breakthrough experience.