WITH our supermarket shelves increasingly filled with goods flying the Aust-ralian flag, one of the key companies behind this patrio-tic marketing push is taking its buy local message to investors through a public float.
Kevin McQuay, better known as Big Kev, is floating his cleaning products company later this month with plans to sell 12 million shares at 50 cents each to continue the steady growth of the company.
Big Kev Limited plans to invest any capital raised in research and development for new products to increase the company’s
market
share.
Big Kev
claims
the products account for 8.6 per cent of Woolworth’s total household cleaners category.
These supermarket cleaning products claim to offer more than just a sparkling clean home.
Big Kev is passionately devoted to Australia and concerned about the huge number of foreign goods that fill Australian supermarket shelves.
“If you walk down the aisle and see a Big Kev product you know immediately that it’s an Australian product. I want to keep the profit in our own backyard,” Mr McQuay says. “I really think we’re just so undersold to the rest of the world. Look at our inflation, GNP – we’re being sold out. There’s an economic war against Australia.”
The Big Kev range of products proudly proclaim they’re Australian with a bold Australian flag wrapped around the packaging.
It’s a marketing strategy that’s picked up on a new wave of patriotism that has emerged over the past few years in Australia on the back of emotional issues like immigration and the republic debate.
Market Equity account executive Matt Benson says the most successful national-istic marketing campaigns capture the underlying values and beliefs of the culture in which they operate.
“One could suggest that the recent debates over the republic, immigration and in particular the community effects of the global economy represent an emerging value system that might be attractive for the entrepreneurial brand manager,’ Mr Benson said.
Big Kev and Dick Smith have picked up on this new wave of nationalism and, for now, it seems to be proving fairly lucrative.
Big Kev publicist Catherine Webber says the float will allow what is basically a husband and wife team to take on the multinationals in the supermarket.
“There’s big bucks involved in developing new lines of products, that was one of the motivating factors for the float,” Ms Webber said.
“Kev wants people to own a part of the business and to be part of it.”
