From relics to relevance for the Trust

07 January 2010 | By Ruth Mortimer

It seems that we are all turning to the simple life. While many organisations are reeling from the effects of the recession, National Trust is benefiting from what its director-general has termed a “growing shift towards authentic experiences”. Its paid visits rose to 14 million to the end of September 2009 from 11.9 million in 2008. Membership is up by 4% to 3.8 million.

The Trust, which manages historic properties, coastlines and land of value to the British public, is undergoing a repositioning. It recently ditched “the” from its name in a bid to be more approach­­able, and it aims to make the public aware that it is more than simply a manager of stately homes; it claims to have a wider remit about caring for the things that matter to Britons.

“We’re trying to capture the zeitgeist,” explains Rebecca Speight, a National Trust regional director, who oversees the brand’s food strategy. “We are trying to engage people in what we do. That stops us being about ‘the big house on the hill’ and makes us a part of people’s everyday life.”

In October 2009, the Trust launched a range of National Trust “British” branded food and drinks. The products draw on the organisation’s associations with heritage and are inspired by traditional recipes the Trust holds in its archives.

Ben Knapp, a country manager for Saffron Brand Consultants, says: “I think appearing outside the properties on supermarket shelves is a good step for National Trust. It should certainly help it build awareness among people who buy this kind of food, who are also the people that might be interested in visiting the properties.”

The new range is distributed through Waitrose and Asda in England and The Co-op in Wales and sets the organisation up to compete with brands such as Duchy Originals.

Speight explains: “People’s perceptions of the Trust are shifting. If you asked the man on the street, he would probably still think that we only look after stately homes. But that’s only a tiny part of the story. We need to stay relevant, and talking about food is a great way to do that.”

Speight is not just talking about the licensed range of food appearing in supermarkets. For the past few years, the organisation has been using sustainably sourced food from local providers at its locations around the British Isles. The Trust manages 150 of its site restaurants, so it has considerable clout to change how it sources its ingredients and suppliers.

Speight says the Trust aims to ensure that everything served in the restaurants is farmed, caught or slaughtered in a sympathetic way. “Caring for the land is really our core purpose and sustainable food is better for the land.”

Speight believes that food sourcing is a way National Trust can be involved in the big thorny issues of climate change and the environment without seeming too worthy. “Our research shows that people are turned off by being preached at,” she says. “It’s a message that means a lot more when they’re on a fun day out.”

Kitchen garden

For example, visitors to the restaurant at Barrington Court in Somerset will eat fruit and vegetables grown in the stately home’s historic walled kitchen garden. It aims to become part of their visitor experience, rather than a patronising message about sourcing or climate change. Half the produce from this garden is used in the restaurant; with the other 50% on sale in the site’s shop.

The shops on site are just as committed to the issues of local sourcing and sustainability as the restaurants, says Jane Temperley, head of buying, merchandising and retail development for National Trust.

This has been a challenge for National Trust, as traditionally each store was given stock from the central hub of the organisation. This uniformity of produce meant that in the past, it was difficult for each location to bring its own identity to the gift shop.

Now, says Temperley, each site is being evolved to better reflect the individual attraction, its location and the land around it. While each shop has a “menu of choices” about which products it stocks, it is now encouraged to stock items that reflect the character of its location.

“I hope that if people went into our shops now, they’d spot many things that are different from a few years ago,” she says. “For example, you might see people milling flour on site or hear shop teams talking about topics specific to the location. It’s all about making that connection with the area and bringing it to life for visitors.”

Aside from locally inspired items, Temperley says most of the goods that sell in high volumes in the Trust’s gift shops are inexpensive items such as stationery, calendars and small gifts. Although the cost of such goods means that purchases are often relatively low in value, she claims the volume more than makes up for this.

With 50 million visitors a year, it is no surprise to discover that one of the Trust’s most popular campaigns of recent times with consumers is its scheme releasing tracts of land to be turned into allotments. The organisation is committed to creating 1,000 new allotments by 2012 (300 are already up and running) and these are available to both its members and non-members.

The allotments are offered through the Landshare website, which is part of a marketing push by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to “matchmake” keen growers with land they can use. About 100,000 people around the country are said to be on waiting lists for allotments already.

Speight says the allotment creation initiative fits neatly into the brand’s philosophy of getting the public involved with the land without preaching. It has been estimated that the allotment spaces could produce about 50,000 sacks of potatoes a year or mixed produce worth £1.5m.

The organisation even has £500,000 in funding from government department Defra’s Eat into Greener Living campaign to support the Trust’s future work on sustainability. This includes training staff to communicate better about the issues involved and getting schoolchildren engaged in growing schemes.

“We’ll keep this type of thing running,” says Speight. “And we want to create even more growing spaces. The funding from Defra will help with this.”

The Trust’s marketing will also help push these responsible messages. Speight describes an initiative called Food Glorious Food, which ran last year, as “a big social marketing campaign”. The programme’s website, which is aimed at young people, allows users to log on and grow their own virtual vegetables. Consumers taking part are also able to get free real seeds from National Trust properties.

Saffron’s Knapp says this is the type of digital project that fits well with the Trust’s aims. “It relates back to its themes about the land, countryside and getting involved,” he notes.

But Knapp says that, ultimately, he does not believe a digital campaign will be enough to bring the Trust nearer to its aims of being closer to consumers, unless it helps amplify conversations taking place at a local level.

He says: “The most important thing for National Trust is to get out from behind the walls of its properties. It could even extend its local produce drive by appearing at local farmers’ markets near its grounds.

“Perhaps this could involve providing priority access for local people, holding more local events at the houses or on the land – anything that will get people talking and saying how great it is to have a National Trust property nearby. Ultimately, I suppose it needs to be seen as ‘a good neighbour’ by people in local communities.”

Viewpoint

Roula Konzotis, communications director in charge of marketing at professional institution RIBA

 “We are a historic membership organisation like National Trust. In the past ten years since I’ve been here, we’ve gone through a major process of rebranding and a fundamental look at what we were and where we want to be. We were an inward-looking organisation and had to make sure we turned outward and took a larger external role.

Like National Trust, we have become far less formal in tone. We have been researching our audiences and trying to become more responsive to them. That means doing things such as making sure we personalise messages with good customer relationship management systems.

Like every brand, membership organisations have to be involved in digital as it’s just another way of talking to people. For example, we use Twitter to keep people informed about events or tell them about new things. As with National Trust, it’s important to engage with people on a number of fronts.”

National Trust redesign

The National Trust redesign involves the organisation being termed simply “National Trust”; its recognisable oak leaf logo being enlarged; and a new palette of colours. The redesign, which was carried out by Wolff Olins, will be rolled out gradually, starting with membership forms and eventually reaching branded merchandise in shops.

National Trust director of marketing Sue Wilkinson describes the new look not as “a radical repositioning” but simply “a fresh coat of paint”. She says the new logo aims to convey a less formal tone, which better reflects how the Trust now operates.