ARO thread 2

[OneHeartySnail]

To continue the discussion...

What next? What did the launch aim to achieve? Did it get the desired result?

And features a pair of tits. And if you squint, it looks like a bit of a cock in between them

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I really am curious about what, if any, professional advice she's getting around marketing this. First the weirdly long brand name and now the first PR product doesn't feature any ingredients from an orchard and has nothing to link it with Meghan or Montecito. The sticker and lid seem a bit naff, but suggests they're going for a home made look, but as far as we know the jam could have been imported from China. Surely it would be better to make a product with the ingredients they can grow on their own estate, with some promotional photos of Meghan picking fruit off trees etc.? And if that's not the image they're going for, why is it all so twee? It all seems very muddled.

Also, you can buy Duchy Originals in Waitrose and in other outlets too.

A jar of jam would have to be very special for someone to seek out a website, order it online for presumably well over the usual cost, and then pay and wait for delivery. I think she would need a collaboration with an established retailer, online or bricks and mortar, to be a success.

Jam is such an everyday product, and strawberry the most basic of all. She could at least have gone for something with more of a California vibe.

I really am curious about what, if any, professional advice she's getting around marketing this

Whatever she's doing, I think it's brilliant marketing.
She's sent out a few jars to friends, and the amount of attention that's getting on here and Twitter is great.
She barely even needs to do any marketing. People are doing it for her.
I've even seen someone on Twitter mock up their own jar and post it online which says something like "worlds most pretentious jam" and put it out there like it's some big put down
I bet she's just laughing, people like that are doing all the publicity for her 😁

Edit to correct bold

If it wasn't meant to be talked about, why were samples provided to influencers?

Well yeah her name recognition is huge, obviously, she was never going to struggle to get people to know about the product, but what's making them want to buy it? That's where the strategy seems unclear.

Yes, exactly! I would've wanted to launch with something less common. Even if it had to be jam, she could have gone with apple cobbler, cherry & black pepper, caramelised pear, fig and ginger etc. Flavours that actually feature fruits grown in orchards and are less likely to already be in the average person's pantry.

Strawberry jam is a classic though.
Sunny afternoon tea vibes.
Caramelised pear, ginger or fig jam?
Much more niche and not the same
Bit arty farty imo.

Oh and cherry and black pepper jam?
That sounds .....erm.... interesting 😳

But surely if you're building an online business, finding a niche is what it's all about? You can get any number of strawberry jams in every supermarket across the country.

And 'sunny' and 'afternoon tea' don't really go together. Neither does a traditionally British product go with 'American Riviera Orchard'. The whole thing is a bit of a mess.

Strawberries and black pepper is delicious.

I couldn’t agree with you more GoodAfternoonGoodEveningAndGoodnight it’s bordering on deranged!

A competition to find the most ridiculous things to criticise someone for. M & H have left UK to fund their own income, and when they take steps to do exactly that, everyone piles on and nitpicks. It’s fairly obvious the website has been designed to run in advance of, and alongside, both of their new Netflix series. It’s aimed at a US market so would be fairly strange if it satisfied the tastes of UK consumers which are completely different.

Personally, I think it’s great they are trying to make a living from their own efforts.

And this thread full of nit-picking and sneering and negativity, which has been going on for days, is running concurrently with a Daily Mail story criticising Meghan’s jam. Funny that. Honestly, with a few exceptions, I would be truly ashamed if my thoughts ran concurrently with any articles in the DM about pretty much anything!

Yes, I am not going to order something online and pay postage if I can get it across the road. There needs to be a unique selling point, it's not clear if ARO has one yet, other than being linked to Meghan.

Were you here while others picked apart a marriage? A woman with cancer? A photo?

It is, and I promise cherries work brilliantly too. Sadly I'm all out and waiting for cherry season to return before I can make more.

I'll never unsee that now. It's as bad as the Windsor one; that looked like a pair of buttocks.

Yes, agree, people want them to make their own way, their own income .
They now are, and still there's a problem?
Why?!
Makes sense to aim it at a US audience and not the UK.

It looks like a diagram of female reproductive organs to me!

So what?

I guess I just lost my in-laws
I don't know where they went
So I'm gonna make some money
They’re not gonna pay our rent (Nope)
I got a brand new apron
And I'm gonna wear it tonight
I wanna get in the kitchen
I wanna make some jam
Na-na-na-na, na-na, na
I wanna make some jam
Na-na-na-na, na-na, na
I wanna make some jam
So, so what?
I'm still a duchess
I got my jam jars
And I don't need you
And guess what?
I'm having more fun
And now that we're done
I'm gonna show you tonight
I'm alright
I'm just fine
And you're all tools
So, so what?
I am a duchess
I got my jam jars
And I don't want you tonight

The FDA distinguishes between jams and jellies, and the label must reflect the content. You can Google the guidelines.

People in the US don't normally do an afternoon tea. It is a special occasion meal that you might do on vacation, as a pricey event with friends, but not as a regular meal. There is now a tour bus company that drives people round NYC while serving them tea that appears to attract elderly tourists.

If you order tea ( the beverage ) in the US, they often give you the hot water with the packaged bag on the side. This creates a horrible cup. The best tea that I've had in restaurants are in Turkish or Moroccan restaurants where they take it seriously and pour you a cup brewed from actual leaves.

Jam is usually associated with breakfast food and the odd cake or cookie filling. Jelly is often eaten with peanut butter in a sandwich.

I personally don't like jam or jelly and eat a savory breakfast. I order coffee when I go out and make tea ( the beverage) at home.

It will be interesting when the jam is up on the website to see where it was made and where the ingredients was sourced from.

@QueenMeghan are you OK, hun?!

😂

It's just about the advertising and the where she sources her ingredients from, honest

Yes, there's no accountability when you're giving stuff away.

But once it's being sold, like you say, contents and country of origin will have to be listed.

And she'll need distributors of course.

Lemon curd would have been better, if stuff in jars has be what ARO are selling. The lemons would bring to mind sunny Californian citrus groves and whilst being of a jammy sort of ilk, would be something slightly different.

I don't really want strawberry jam from thousands of miles away, made by someone (or the staff of someone)who finds it difficult to stick a label on a jar, when I can get a really good, quality controlled product in any supermarket, farm shop, gift shop or convenience store in the land. Plus, it's not too far off strawberry season here, when we can pick locally grown strawberries and make our own jam if we wish, for a fraction of the cost and environmental impact of having it shipped from California, which, unless I am confused, is not well-known for its amazing, flavourful strawberries, whereas the UK is.

The Highgrove produce looks lovely!
https://www.highgrovegardens.com/collections/food-drink-preserves