BLOG: Dougal Paver wants brands to tell him their story

We're obsessed with brands.  We love them (Heinz beans) and we can hate them, too (witness some people's view of Ryanair). 
There are even brand obsessives - the car market's full of them.  My mate Tom proudly tells me he's an alfisto, and that the plural is alfisti.  Cognoscenti (to keep the Italian theme going) will recognise that he loves Alfa Romeos.
The 'back story' behind brands is often critical to their appeal. The blokes in red braces call it 'brand heritage' and it can make all the difference to engaging with prospective customers and unlocking the emotional appeal of a brand.
In certain markets it's often a case of no heritage, no sale.  Or, at the very least, the absence of understanding of a brand's heritage can diminish its value in customers' eyes.
A case in point is the market for shotguns.  A more brand-obsessed sector you couldn't hope to find.  Top of the tree sit Holland & Holland and Purdey, the grand-daddies of 'best' English shotgun manufacturing.  A single gun can cost upwards of £80,000 - and that's in a market where most people pay around £2,000 per weapon.
The Spaniards make 'best quality' guns, too, but a combination of lower labour costs and the snobbishness of the English market means that a comparable model to Holland & Holland's Royal - let's take the AyA No 1 De-luxe as an example - may cost just £16,000.  To even the expert eye there's only a whisker of a difference between them, but a goodly portion of the £64,000 is accounted for by brand association.  That's some premium.
For back stories no-one can match Victor Sarasqueta.  He was the only Spanish gunmaker with the royal warrant and for a hundred years produced best quality guns from his factory in Eibar, the ancient gun-making town in the Basque country.
All today's great Eibar gunmakers can trace their lineage directly to Sarasqueta - Arrieta, AyA, Grulla, Pedro Arrizabalaga and more.  Such is his standing in the town that 26 years after his firm folded they still have a street named after him.
Thing is, his name's fallen off the radar among British shooters.  His guns rarely appear in the second hand market and if they do they were often the more workmanlike products, such as the number 4, that underpinned his output.  "Who's Victor Sarasqueta?" would be a fair refrain in a conversation among shooters.
True 'best' Sarasquetas are rare finds and that lack of familiarity - that ignorance of the back story of this legend of gun-making - means you can find a serious bargain.  My friend picked up a numbered pair at auction in mint condition for £3,600 recently.  Every shooter dreams of owning a numbered pair of 'best' guns.
Experts tell me that they're more than a match for the Aya No 1 - £32,000 a pair - and the equal of Birmingham's finest such as Westley Richards (£72,000 a pair).  And here was him getting them for £3,600.
So, if you want to add real value to a brand, give it some heritage.  Invent a great back story.  Build its emotional appeal.  You'll find the premium you earn well worth the effort.  For the rest there are bargains like Victor Sarasqueta.

Dougal Paver is managing director of Paver Smith in Liverpool