After a career in agri-food marketing, Caroline set up on a farm to create her own brand of artisanal pasta, Papote. As a participant in season 2 of Hectar's Farm'Her program, dedicated to female leadership, Caroline told us about her beginnings as an agricultural entrepreneur, the creation of her brand and of a product with impact.
Can you introduce yourself?
I'm Caroline Payen, co-creator of the Papote brand. I come from a family of farmers and chose to do my training in the food industry, with one objective: to work on the subject of promoting French agriculture. I began my career in marketing with major agri-food groups. Today, I live in the Marne region of France, I'm the mother and mother-in-law of 3 children, and my husband, a farmer, has become my partner. It's with him that I created Papote, a brand of artisanal pasta, born on our farm. We grow our durum wheat using agroecological methods, then have it transformed into flour by a local miller, before producing the pasta in our workshop on the farm.
You have a career in marketing. How did you use it to develop your food business?
Marketing has been an essential parameter in the construction and development of the brand. It's part of Papote's ambition to have a real communications and branding component. Marketing is sometimes a little absent from certain projects rooted in farms. Here, we've used it from several angles, to develop the brand in a controlled way. Firstly, in the construction phase: we defined the target and therefore the positioning of the brand, so we knew who we were selling to and how. This enabled us to make sure we weren't on the wrong track and that we were selling the right product. Having an idea is great, but it has to resonate with consumers. To do this, we used the inspiration of design thinking to build the brand, which allows us to validate, right from the start of the project and at every stage, that the product corresponds to a need. To do this, we called on a panel of beta-testers with whom we conducted qualitative interviews (individual exchanges with open-ended questions) and then quantitative interviews (computerized questionnaires with closed-ended questions, which enable us to receive many more responses). We surveyed the panel about their consumption of various food products, including pasta. We then directed the questions towards concepts that we had developed from the qualitative studies carried out beforehand. This enabled us to be guided in our project and to question future consumers on very concrete data: packaging, pasta shape, distribution channels...
In your opinion, what assets has your marketing career given you to help you succeed in your career as an agricultural entrepreneur?
I've been able to make use of several assets: the first is knowing how to work as part of a team, and being able to create the brand and product in consultation with other people. The second is to take on the responsibility of developing a brand concept. Just because you're from the farm doesn't mean you can't create a universe. That's what allows consumers to recognize us! Finally, the 3rd point would be communication, which remains essential. Doing is good, but letting people know is important too! When you launch a product on a farm, you have to meet your target audience and send out the right messages in the right way.
How did you settle into your new job?
The transition was a logical one, following on from my career in the food industry, combining sales and marketing, with a desire to be as close as possible to the products of our agriculture. The underlying desire to be an entrepreneur was there, and the fact that I met my husband, who also had this desire to communicate about agriculture, was the catalyst. It's both a communication and production project, the two are linked. It's a brand that we want to pass on, both on agricultural subjects and on quality food. Marketing was a natural part of the project. Nevertheless, I had to unlearn certain things, because when you come from a large, highly structured group, you have to learn to adapt to our scale!
How have you benefited from the program?
I decided to do Farm'Her because I told myself that there were only benefits to doing this program, even if at the outset I hadn't identified all the benefits I was going to be able to derive from it. If I can sum it up in one idea, today I find that I have a new capacity to make my project shine more brightly in the service of the food transition. This means being aware of the obstacles that can stand in the way of female leadership - including the obstacles we impose on ourselves! The program enabled me to unlock self-imposed barriers, and to develop a sense of legitimacy, which has a confidence-boosting effect. In the long term, the program gives you the tools to move towards new perspectives, in self-knowledge and self-assertion. In this way, you can put all the power of your own uniqueness at the service of a project. The program has a revelatory effect!
Papote pasta is sold in Eastern France and Paris, as well as online. For further information: https://papote-pates.fr
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