By Keri Algar
SYDNEY, NSW: In an everyday world inundated with advertising one wonders whether the message is getting through, whether subliminally or directly, or if consumers are switching off altogether.
For the fiercely competitive world of marketing any sort of brand penetration marks a victory. At Sydney’s highly acclaimed Seafood Cooking School at the Sydney Fish Markets, Fisher &Paykel (the appliance sponsors) are attempting just that.
For the first hour and a half of the cooking class, over 45 people (these classes are full 90 per cent of the time) sit in a small auditorium and pay close attention as Coralie Riordan prepares a Spanish paella complete with typically Iberian pre-lunch tapas of fried sardines, tomato salad and garlic prawns. The chef’s kitchen is F&P from top to toe, and all the appliances get a major workout from the chef.
The room fills with the delicious smell of seared prawns and as minds drift to dreams of the Mediterranean coast, Riordan remembers to turn on the rangehood and within a minute those dreams are dashed.
For the second half of the class, the 45 split into groups of 5 and commandeer an adjacent room with a dozen or so square cooking stations replete with top of the line cool drawers, ovens, stove tops and ranges; if the amateur cooks could ever forget who is sponsoring the appliance shebang they are duly reminded when Riordan whips out F&P branded aprons.
Not only that, but instead of the harsh bright lights one might expect in a kitchen the room is bathed in an almost romantic golden light, and this journalist is not sure whether this is to better represent the appliances, show off an air of elegance for the entire room or just relax the frantic cooks as they start wondering how on earth they are going to replicate Riordan’s performance.
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Each group of five cooks slice, chop and crush garlic, onions and parsley; crack crabs, peel prawns and clean cuttlefish. But amongst the slightly stressed and raised voices of too many cooks in the kitchen (literally) and the braising of onions and the burning of rice — on goes the very quite rangehood again — the groups are laughing, cooperating and hungry.
Quite unlike a Spanish kitchen, these cooks are not permitted a glass of vino whilst cooking, so it’s no wonder the they are eager to finish up and tuck into their gourmet meals in the dining room.
Ovens, stove tops and rangehoods are switched off, sweat is wiped off foreheads and heartbeats go back to normal as the F&P aprons are thrown in the laundry and are replaced with a well earned tipple as the 45 sit down to their lovely Spanish fare.
But back to branding, and a world ‘saturated in advertising’. Sunbeam has repeatedly credited its association with MasterChef for record sales reports for the last year, so there must be something to it. In this case, the foodies at the table say they love to learn how to cook new meals and they are dedicated cooking show fans: from Ready Steady Cook to MasterChef, this group is keen.
But, they do not admit to being consciously influenced in terms of their end of day purchasing decisions by any particular sponsor or brand, whether it is the Sharp TVs and Nespresso coffee machines used at the Sydney Seafood School or the F&P range.
They do, however, notice when a product is innovative or different, and they use the F&P pop up stove top as an example. Similarly when a person genuinely recommends a product they listen, such as when Riordan praised the functionality of a certain stick blender. But brand awareness is what sponsorship, subtle or not, is all about after all: better to offer it than not.
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