#203 Etyen Segal – Caviar and Business

Marketing Caviar with Etyen Segal Etyen Segal is 21 years old and is a pro in marketing caviar. He runs Monarch Caviar, and has come to tell us all about it, as well as how marketing caviar works. Etyen is our youngest guest on The Next 100 Days Podcast. Also, he's very young to be heading a very successful, high-end business. He started his first Caviar Business when he was just 19 years old before moving on to Monarch. Marketing caviar Monarch Caviar is a relatively new company distributing black caviar. It offers you a new, modern approach towards their black caviar. Combining authentic traditions with a modern approach, they've created an unrivaled product, glorified by all caviar lovers and first-timers.It supplies caviar all over Europe while the caviar is sourced in Latvia, where the production facilities are. Annually, around 5 tons of caviar are consumed in the UK alone. Crazy! Most of that caviar is consumed at home. This is because, in restaurants, caviar has a higher purchase price. Monarch Caviar biggest sector is private clientele. Therefore, Etyen and his business team must focus on marketing trust and reliability. With such a delicate product, reliability and trust is really important for a consumer to buy it. Etyen calls this 'mouth propaganda.' That's got to be a 21 year-old thing! More than one product... At the moment, Etyen sells 4 different types of caviar. All are sourced from different types of Sturgeon and so they have different characteristics in terms of taste, size and texture. Retail prices for the cheapest caviar is £1000 per kg, and the most premium costs £1500 per kg. That's not obscene when you consider a premium party that you might eat caviar. Caviar isn't a daily luxury! When it comes to marketing, Monarch Caviar market themselves...much like any other company. This is very selective marketing. They show the brand at different events and associate with selective companies. http://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Brands-.mp4 Does caviar travel well? Like all seafood, it requires a very prompt time scale between purchase and delivery. The business ensures good conditions for the delivery of the product. It will come with ice packs so that the caviar is preserved in the right temperature, which is sub-zero. Premium customer care With a -2 degree temperature requirement, Etyen has his very own freezers to keep the caviar good. In fact, he designates special freezers to the customers who buy regularly! However, when you buy caviar it never stays in the fridge too long...it's too delicious! http://thenext100days.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Sturgeon-Farming.mp4 The frequency of the fish producing caviar depends on the farm. The method that Etyen's business uses means the fish only produce caviar once in its life time. Normally, it takes 8-10 years for the sturgeon to be ready. After producing caviar, it is killed immediately. Nevertheless, another caviar production process is called 'milked caviar'. However, this is not a traditional method and does not produce as good results. Etyen has never enjoyed milked caviar! How did Monarch Caviar come about? Well, it's an interesting story. Etyen's family has always eaten caviar. In fact, his Dad's friend owned a caviar company. When this friend's son created his own business, Etyen involved himself. He was about 16. It was fully established. Etyen works well in the business with a few other people. He's now the Founder and Managing Director of Monarch Caviar. Marketing to the affluent: how are you targeting your private clients? As Etyen has said before, his associates his brand with other brands of a similar ilk - champagne brands, maybe high-end vodka brands, etc. As a result, they tend to go to the same events and offer tasters. They then ask for contact details if the prospective is interested in the product. One thing Etyen mentions is that is can be a challenge to know wher...