Where’s the beef? Selling an experience through food

Two enterprising Australians are appealing to Chinese tastes with a savvy approach to marketing.

Cattle-farming brothers James and Rhys Williamson with student Iris Wang. Picture: Colin Murty

Perth-based Rhys Williamson has won thousands of fans in China this year with his videos on how to cook Australian beef. Speaking in Mandarin in a one-minute video, Rhys stands over a BBQ in a sunny park in Western Australia, explaining the different ways meat can be cooked in the great outdoors.

Within days, one video on a Chinese social media website had 1.5 million views and 160,000 likes.

“We are selling an experience through food,” says brother James, who is managing director of their family meat exporting company, Latitude28 — the latitude of their family property near Geraldton, north of Perth. “Rhys is the face of the brand. He is giving them a story about something they are passionate about already — the Australian lifestyle and Australian food.”

The videos, which also show Rhys cooking in his apartment in Shanghai after a workout, have helped launch Latitude28 meat in the China market this year. “We got 1.5 million people watching the video and it cost us nothing,” James says.

Latitude28’s profile on Chinese social media platform Douyin

The brothers, the fourth generation of the Williamson family involved in the beef industry, aim to sell Australian beef direct to Chinese consumers using online marketing e-commerce channels such as JD.com, and Alibaba’s Taobao.

The Williamsons see selling their authentic Australian background as part of their pitch to brand-conscious, health-conscious Chinese consumers. “We are very focused on humanising our brand,” James says. “It’s the only way to engage with our audience.”

The brothers say there is a strong demand for Australian beef, which commands a premium price in China, but there’s an authenticity problem, with only about 50 per cent of the beef marketed as Australian actually coming from Australia. Latitude28 uses blockchain technology so consumers can verify exactly where their beef has come from. The beef is packaged with QR codes which allow customers to scan for information on all the participants in the supply chain.

‘We are selling an experience through food’

The brothers’ interest in China goes back to 2013 when they decided to spend a year in Beijing learning Mandarin, believing that China would be one of the big markets for Australian meat.

“We decided to invest our time in learning Chinese,” James says. “We spent a year living in Beijing to study and learn the language and the business culture.”

Latitude28 launched during a year of record sales of Australian beef to China, boosted by a combination of a low Australian dollar, the US-China trade war and swine flu, which has reduced the supply of pork in China, creating a demand for other forms of protein.

The Williamsons see their business as digitally driven – with online sales and engagement with consumers through their smart phones. “We are at the forefront of digital engagement with our customers,” James says. “We want to empower our consumers with the confidence that 100 per cent of the meat they buy from us comes from Australia.”

This and more great stories in the September issue of The Deal.

He sees their initial customers as mainly digitally engaged Chinese consumers aged between 25 and 35.

The company started with beef, which is shipped directly to retail customers from warehouses in China, but is now expanding into selling Australian lamb to restaurants in China.

The brothers live in China and travel back and forth between Shanghai and Western Australia.

“We love China,” says Rhys. “A lot of people get deterred about the difficulties of doing business in China but China is something we are pretty passionate about. Living in China and becoming involved in Chinese culture is not a chore for us. We thoroughly enjoy it.”

The Williamsons’ grandfather Reg came to Western Australia in 1904, buying a property near the Dale River. James and Rhys see themselves as the next generation of the business, moving into the big market in China using technology to engage directly with digital-savvy customers.

“We see the best way for us, as the younger generation, to do our bit in making sure that Australian meat is the trophy product within the Asian market is through engagement with consumers and authenticating our product,” James says. “That can only be done through technology.”

The two spent three months this year working out of the Austrade landing pad in a co-working space in Shanghai. James says working out of the landing pad, which gives Australian start-ups three months’ support in China, has given Latitude28 connections which have helped broaden their network in China and clarify their business plan. “We have a big journey ahead of us,” says James. “There’s a very big opportunity in China. And we have a clear pathway of what we want to achieve.”