Norwegian seafood company Mowi wants to decommoditize farmed salmon as a food product and firmly believes that it has the right brand attributes to achieve this ambition, CEO Ivan Vindheim told the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF) 2020.
“To a large extent, the salmon market is commoditized, and for most consumers a salmon is a salmon. But this is something that we want to change,” Vindheim said. “Our market research finds that consumers are willing to pay extra for salmon offering a higher food experience. Decommoditizing the salmon category will take time, a lot of effort and patience, but we want to do it and take it to the next step. It’s our goal and it can be done. Starbucks and Nespresso have shown what can be done in the global coffee market – they are a great example of decommoditizing. We don’t want to be a Starbucks or Nespresso, but it’s a good reference point. A global brand brings consumer loyalty and it brings higher margins ... It also drives capital growth and protects the category’s reputation.”
Vindheim told NASF delegates that Mowi (née Marine Harvest) “had dabbled” with branding ideas for a long time and then the decision was made in 2019 to move forward with it, capitalizing on its Mowi salmon strain that has been cultivated for more than 50 years and 14 generations, as well as the heavy investments made in the group’s global value chains.
Notwithstanding a few small local brands, there is currently no global brand for salmon, Vindheim said.
“That position is yet to be filled and we want to take it,” he said.
Part of this aim will be fulfilled by the change in the company’s name, because unlike the Marine Harvest B2B name, which didn’t have the “right associations” for consumers, Mowi has all the right attributes for branding, Vindheim said.
“The name is short, it’s unique and it’s the name of our strain. It also has a great letter combination with a letter ‘o’ which is a reference point for salmon as a product rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acids,” Vindheim explained.
Changing the company name to Mowi gave the branding strategy and efforts a stronger commitment and leverage, as well as long-term backing, he added.
“Having a corporate brand is very, very important,” Vindheim said.
Building on the pilot launch of the Mowi brand in Poland in March 2019, the company will now roll it out in both the U.S. and French markets over the coming months, revealed Vindheim.
“Combined, [France and the United States] account for close to 30 percent of the total global salmon market. It’s now the start. We began with foodservice in France in December and we’re launching into the retail segment in April. In the United States, we’ll start in e-commerce with Amazon Fresh in March, moving into traditional bricks and mortar retail in June. We are very excited by this. We’re now addressing some really big markets,” he said. “This is a long-term journey for us. The decommoditizing of the salmon category will take us some time but that is our ultimate goal.”
Bergen-headquartered Mowi is expecting a 2020 salmon harvest of 450,000 gross weight tonnage (GWT), with 260,000 GWT coming from Norway, 67,000 GWT from Scotland, 64,000 GWT from Chile, 44,000 GWT from Canada, 6,000 GWT from Ireland, and 9,000 GWT from the Faroe Islands.
Photo by Jason Holland/SeafoodSource
