In 2011, Dave Mergle was hired by Grieg Seafood B.C. to establish a strategy for its BC raised, farmed Atlantic Salmon. At the time, no one could imagine the new ground that would be staked with the creation of Skuna Bay, Vancouver Island Craft Raised Salmon. Through his time founding, leading and operating Skuna Bay Salmon from 2011 through 2018, the brand under Mr. Mergle become recognized for its marketing excellence, winning a Bronze Clio Award for Brand Identity and the title of Marketer of the Year in 2017 by the BCAMA. A truly unique brand image, Skuna Bay Salmon achieved a reputation for its leadership in innovation, new product development, ground-breaking packaging, unparalleled marketing partnerships with the James Beard Awards, US Open Tennis Tournament and Kentucky Derby, national distribution, and for contributing a significant profit-driving asset to the owners and customers.
Retained in 2018 to create, develop and execute Blue Ocean Mariculture’s Hawaiian Kanpachi BRAND STRATEGY in the US and around the world. We developed a comprehensive brand strategy and overall sales and marketing strategy after an exhaustive REVIEW OF THE FARM’S ASSETS AND SWOT. We developed QUALITATIVE RESEARCH WITH TOP CHEFS around the US. We led an AD AGENCY SEARCH, finalizing a shortlist and making the final decision on the Agency of Record to develop the new Hawaiian Kanpachi brand image. We secured the JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIP in the Sustainable Seafood Impact program, executed Chef Fest at the Four Seasons Resort on Kona and HAWAIIAN FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL throughout the islands. On the sales side we oversaw the company’s sales team and hired a FIELD REPRESENTATIVE to develop the important Hawaii business. We secured listings with COSTCO AND BLUE SUSHI SAKE GRILL, established preferred category relationships with the largest food service wholesalers on both US coasts and reorganized the chain of distribution in the Islands with direct relationships with distributors, retailers, resorts and restaurants. Through NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT we improved the fillet program, developed a super-frozen product strategy, presented new packaging options.
━ website development & branding integration
━ social media posting, analysis and tracking,
━ strategy for online marketing to consumer, or by channel (retail vs food service digital marketing)
━ retail packaging: direct to consumer
━ branded boxes
━ spec sheet box inserts
━ styro or corrugated seafood boxes
(plain or branded)
━ gel packs
━ Creation of retail sales strategy
━ Point of sale materials:
retail signage
shelf talkers
fish case marketing tools
━ Branded boxes
━ Sell Sheets
━ Branded retail sampling strategy and tools
