“Eat Like a Pioneer!” An open pitch to National Sorghum Producers

Earl Roemer at Nu Life Market, give us a call!

Dear National Sorghum Producers,

Hi. We’re SRH, a strategy, creative and media agency in Milwaukee. We love a sticky business challenge, especially when it can be solved almost entirely by marketing.

That’s why this article on WARC jumped out at us, and we think we might be able to help. You already know the problem, but for those who don’t …

Right now, America has entirely too much sorghum. In a normal year, China buys about half the sorghum we grow. This is not a normal year. Sorghum silos across America are currently packed to the rafters, and it ain’t moving.

Also, most Americans have no idea what sorghum is.

Obviously — and as the National Sorghum Producers, you already know this — you want to aggressively diversify international markets, create new uses for sorghum and maximize existing domestic demand. Which? You’re probably doing it already.

Let’s talk about building future domestic demand …

Ignoring ethanol producers, large integrated livestock operations and major domestic feed manufacturers — you shouldn’t ignore them, but we’re going to for now — we need to get a lot more sorghum in the cupboards, pantries, refrigerators and faces of everyday Americans. However …

As amazing as it is, sorghum is not a one-to-one substitution for wheat. Developing new recipes for new products with new ingredients and new production lines will take a serious investment of time and money. Yet there’s so little demand for sorghum right now, why bother?

Together, we’re going to create the bother. We’re going to make sorghum famous.

For those of you who are not members of the National Sorghum Producers, here’s a brief primer …

Sorghum is a gluten-free, ancient grain that has been a vital cereal crop for people across Africa and Asia since at least 8,000 BC. Sorghum thrives in hot, arid climates.

What do you do with it? You can turn sorghum flour into pasta or pancakes. You can flake it or extrude it to make cereal and snacks. You can brew beer with it and pop it like popcorn. The stalks can be boiled down into a sweet syrup called sorghum molasses. And you can make whiskey from either the syrup or the grain.

With a name like sorghum, it better be a superfood. Whole grain sorghum is packed with protein and fiber. It’s a great source of iron, potassium, niacin, vitamin B6, manganese, magnesium and a few other things. Also …

Sorghum is rich in phenolic compounds, which can reduce inflammation and may have anti-cancer effects.
It can reduce insulin resistance in people with diabetes.
As we mentioned before, it is gluten-free.

So yes, it’s good for you. And because it takes less water to grow sorghum, it’s good for the planet.

What does the current sorghum market look like?

Right now, people eat somewhere around 2% of the sorghum produced in this country, mostly as part of a gluten-free diet. According to The Insight Partners, the market for gluten-free foods is “expected to reach $13.49 billion by 2031 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4%”. Of course, the entire US food and beverage market last year was somewhere around $1.6 trillion.

The bad news? Gluten-free foods are a drop in the bucket, and sorghum is a drop of that drop in the bucket. The good news? It’s a massive bucket.

Okay, so how do we make sorghum famous?

First, we build “Sorghum the Brand” — with a logo/wordmark, colors, a font and other distinctive brand assets, including a jingle and a fluent device. More on those last two later.

Next, we give sorghum a new position.

Option 1: It’s an ancient grain. True, but quinoa and farro have that on lock.

Option 2: It’s gluten-free. Yes, but so are plenty of other grains, and the audience for gluten-free foods is limited. Important but limited.

Option 3: It’s good for you. True, but “good for you” can be interpreted as “not delicious,” “a sacrifice,” or “for hippies.” Sorghum needs to be for everyone.

Option 4: It’s a resilient grain that thrives in tough conditions. Interesting. That leads us to …

The first thing one of our copywriters said when he heard “sorghum” was, “Oh, like what they ate on Little House on the Prairie.” We laughed because he’s old.

Then we realized he might be on to something — life on the frontier, the pioneer spirit, self-reliance, stagecoaches, wagons and horses, the general store. Sorghum kind of has that vibe.

It’s easy to romanticize those times, but life on the frontier was really tough. People had to be incredibly resilient, just like sorghum. Ah!

Sorghum is the resilient whole grain for tough, resilient people.

We could take this positioning very seriously. Or we could have fun with it.

So here’s the pitch: “Sorghum. Eat Like a Pioneer!”

First, we propose a YouTube comedy series about a family living in pioneer days.

Think a comedy sketch show meets “Little House on the Prairie,” and every plot point revolves around sorghum. The features and benefits of sorghum would be sprinkled throughout. Episodes might go something like this:

Ma pretends to forget it’s little Ellie’s birthday. Ellie gets upset and runs away. Ma had already baked a birthday cake with sorghum flour and sorghum molasses. So Ma and Pa grab the cake and head out to find Ellie hanging out in a cave with a friendly bear. Ma, Pa, little Ellie and the bear sing “Happy Birthday”, and they all share a slice of cake. Sorghum saves the day!
One of the kids gets in trouble at school, so Pa has a talk with him. They sit around the fire together and share a bowl of popped sorghum while Pa shares fatherly wisdom. Sorghum brings families together!
Pa has to take the sorghum harvest into town, but one of the horses has thrown a shoe. Coincidentally, Ma accidentally turned sorghum into biofuel. Together, they invent the automobile, just in time to make it to town. Sorghum inspires innovation!

While not without heart — they are a family after all — the show would be completely ridiculous, and that’s the point.

The series would have its own website with real recipes, bonus content and guest bloggers. Characters from the YouTube show would do celebrity interviews. That sort of thing.

And one of the characters from the YouTube series would become the sorghum mascot (fluent device), and part of the theme song would become the sorghum jingle.

Next, we partner with Gameloft, the people who make “The Oregon TrailTM” video game and release “The Oregon TrailTM: Sorghum Edition” as a digital download. Players who bring sorghum along on their adventure never die of dysentery, and there’s lots of other sorghum-related action along the way.

After that, the National Sorghum Producers sponsor elementary school arts programs around the country, as long as schools agree to stage a production of “Sorghum: The Musical” based on the YouTube series.

Of course, the original cast recording would be available on Spotify and Apple Music, even though technically there’s no original cast.

We stage “Sorghum Days” in smaller towns across the country, fun weekend festivals dedicated to sorghum and the sorghum way of life. People can try popped sorghum, sorghum cakes, cookies, pancakes, pastas and more. Maybe there’s a sorghum whiskey competition with a trophy and bragging rights for the winners. A touring company of elementary school kids would put on “Sorghum: The Musical”.

And we’d support the show, the musical and Sorghum Days with a run of audio ads on podcasts. Live reads would be especially fun. These could range from silly to serious (focusing on health benefits) and could include things like recipes and skits.

We have a few more ideas.

The goal is to entertain, bring people together, get people sharing, get the media talking and build mental availability for sorghum.

So when people see sorghum bread, sorghum baking mixes, popped sorghum and other sorghum snacks, sorghum cereal, sorghum syrup, sorghum beer and sorghum whiskey on the shelves, they understand it, feel good about it … and reach for it.

And when larger manufacturers and retailers realize there’s a serious demand, they start meeting that demand. Maybe we’re putting the cart before the horse, but that cart is loaded with sorghum.

So what do you say, National Sorghum Producers? Do you have 30 minutes to chat?

And for those of you who aren’t in the sorghum business, there are plenty of ways to make your brand famous. Give us a call.

See you next time!

Sources!

“Tariff hit sorghum faces a battle only marketing can solve” – WARC
“Gluten-Free Products Market Size is Estimated to Reach US $13.49 Billion by 2031” – The Insight Partners
“What is Sorghum? A Unique Grain Reviewed” – healthline.com