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Insurance that beats the competition
Bred for a future, but what is the price?
Keith now uses his industry experience to build a premier marketing strategy for his own equestrian brand at Seagry Stud, focusing on breeding dressage foals for international competition.
The talk touched on a number of wider marketing principles relevant to British breeding, inviting the seminar participants to take a fresh look at their approaches and strategy.
Keith reminded us of the basic marketing premise that one needs to consider the end customer and their needs before ‘making the product’ – in our case breeding from our mares. Breeders will recognise that all too often, we do not think about how we will sell our foals until they are born.
Using the example of Johnnie Walker whisky, we explored how different products and versions of the brand were relevant to different consumers and contexts. Each of these had a different price point and volume. Good breeding decisions therefore need to start with an awareness of a target buyer for what we breed, including the size of the market and the price one can realistically expect to achieve.
What followed was a fascinating insight into the size and nature of the British horse population and equestrian industry, based on recent survey data. Some of the headline figures provided food for thought to many of our breeders.
The size of the horse population, although it has been in decline following the economic downturn in 2008, is still considerable, with an estimate of 875,000 horses in the country at the moment. While this is good news to breeders, indicating that there is still a high demand for horses in order to maintain such a large population, the average price of a horse in the UK gave a rather
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less encouraging figure of around £2,000. It is impossible for most breeders to breed a foal, let alone raise a young horse until it is under saddle for anything near as little money as that.
Of course, these are only averages, with many top performance horses selling for a significantly higher figure. This made it all the more obvious that breeders have to be aware of their brand position in the market and plan accordingly.
What followed were valuable further insights into some of the market segments breeders could aim for. While the majority of horses in the UK, 53%, were primarily used as leisure horses, 15% of those surveyed said they were participating in dressage, with a further 12% taking their horses eventing and 8% show jumping. This gives us sizeable markets requiring horses bred for a competitive purpose.
The challenge for breeders is to connect with those buyers and show that British bred horses are now among the very best in the world. This is something we can aim for collectively, but also individually. Keith showed how important it can be to build a consistent and appealing brand using social media and online facilities. He also shared with us his plan of getting his young horses out competing with some young up and coming riders, to the mutual benefit of his stud and new talent in need of good horses.
We were truly privileged that Keith was prepared to share with us the benefits of his experience and engage in this extremely illuminating and useful session for all breeders keen to achieve the very best sales results in the coming season.
Keith very kindly permitted us to video his talk, which will now be made available to all our members via our website
britishbreedersnetwork.org.
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