It was a TOUGH day yesterday - finally sitting behind the video camera. It's something that challenges me hugely.
Like it or not, Covid and the subsequent travel restrictions have kept our flow of international customers and buyers at home. "Sell online" sounds easy, but it's a HUGELY crowded marketplace. And so one has to tell one's story, often, and from a thousand different angles.
Preparing for end-of-year seasonal giving and the need to MEET new customers online, I finally decided we needed more than happy snaps and our usual online game. And so I have started working with a digital marketing specialist, Isara Sriya from Studio 239 here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Step one? A proper About Us video, which was requested by our Chinese customer in order to help us secure more Chinese business for New Year and beyond. And so it needs to speak to an Asian audience. Me? I would have liked and chosen to do an in the field, hands-dirty kind of video. But Covid restrictions have closed off our indigenous growing areas to us, and the COST of schlepping video and sound guys 4 hours drive away was prohibitive, even had it been possible.
And so Khun Isara is making a hybrid 2 min About Us using still shots, voice over and (this was the tough bit yesterday) some living-room style footage of me introducing myself and our Thai company.
Gotta say it's a TOUGH job to present in a way that isn't completely natural for you, but which speaks to a new audience segment. It's also TOUGH for your 27-on-the-inside to see what your almost-58-on-the-outside self looks like to others.
Recording each segment 3-4-5 times? And then playing with the script to make it READ and SOUND more natural? I found it all rather stressful. A serious learning curve, in fact, despite having done a fair amount of movie and TV work in my life.
Miss 17, my only daughter and the major shareholder of our Thai public company, sat on the sidelines as my favourite coach, happy-snapper and mostly cos I want her to see & experience every aspect of how a business is created, run and managed. After all, she is the Heiress.
Our script? It went sort-of like this:
You care about your health, the environment, your family. And you care about Mother Earth.
Based in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand for more than 15 years, Pure Thai Naturals is a family business in every sense of the word.
I’m Marike – Dutch born, Australian raised and the Founder of Pure Thai Naturals. My beautiful Thai daughter, Ploi, is our company’s major Thai shareholder.
We produce natural skin, personal care and traditional Thai herbal products. No added chemicals, sustainably sourced and organically grown. We package in non-plastic wherever possible and aim for recyclable. Most importantly, our products are cruelty free and NOT tested on animals.”
But we’re not just a business – we’re a social enterprise creating employment for displaced Karen people along the Thai Burmese border.
We teach organic growing to Karen people displaced after decades of military conflict – many are stateless refugees who can never own land and who have few employment prospects in the rugged mountain country along Thailand’s borders.
When you choose a Pure Thai Natural product, you’re helping us to invest in a community of displaced refugee people who ask only for opportunity and a fair livelihood.
We ship our products world-wide and yes, some of our products we can custom-label and co-brand with you.
Every day we decide, through the things we buy, what kind of a world we will leave for our children.
We hope you choose wisely.
Pure Thai Naturals. Organic. Fair Trade. Cruelty Free. From beautiful Northern Thailand.
Serious kudos to Khun Isara who is an utterly laid-back-no-drama kinda guy and who KNOWS how to talk to an Asian audience. Which is w WHOLE different world, a different style and a different message, I have learned!
Pondering the ins and outs of marketing our business creatively online to different cultures, in an authentic and real way within very confined covid-cash-flow parameters, whilst largely sidestepping the whole Zuckerberg quagmire.
Happy to be working from home again, in my yoga pants and without the requirement for makeup. Feels so much better! 😆
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