Gold standard in branding

If there's any question about the power of branding, look no further than Kerrygold, the 51-year-old brand of the Irish Dairy Board. By having an umbrella brand for exports of butter, cheeses and powders, Irish farmers are able to command a premium and sustainable price for their products.

Last year sales of Kerrygold reached €500 million and it is now Germany's number one butter. Jeanne Kelly, corporate communications manager with the IDB, says Irish farmers could not have achieved this without the brand, or the reputation of Ireland as a green country.

"When we market Kerrygold, we concentrate on four values: quality, taste, pureness and Irishness. We take for granted all the green fields and the fact that our cows are outside, but other markets don't have that. "

However, even big brands are not exempt from having to tailor their products to different markets. "Germany is a more mature market so we're doing value-added products such as cooking liquid," says Kelly. "In North Africa we're selling Kerrygold powdered milk, because they're at an earlier development stage."

Michael Cantwell, divisional manager for food at Enterprise Ireland says the Bric countries and Africa are important to us. In Ireland's core markets in Europe and the US. "Health, nutrition  and well-being are now more important. Also, food for the aged because of the ageing population. We are constantly looking at where else to market from an Ireland Inc point of view."