Following the pandemic, consumers are more motivated to shop with small and local businesses. One survey of UK consumers conducted in 2021 found that half of respondents said they were more likely to support small businesses compared to before the pandemic.¹

And for Dytch, playing up her status as an independent brand selling a Scottish product proved to be a good way to build up a customer base . “People think, ‘it’s a small Scottish-owned business, I want to support it’,” she says. “I have definitely found more of that than I was expecting.”

Working with a local supplier to produce the hats was a priority for Dytch when she was first starting the company, and the Scottish Borders region is known for its wool mills. “I was really keen to know that the beanies were being made in Scotland, because there has got to be some authenticity there and it’s a nice part of the story,” she says.

Part of the appeal, she says, is the personal touch when it comes to customer service. “I think with a small business, people like to talk to a human,” says Dytch. “Having that personal approach, especially with the business the size that it is now, will in itself generate customer loyalty.”

When it comes to marketing, the tools available may have become vastly more varied and sophisticated in last 20 years, but sometimes age-old tactics can prove just as powerful when building a customer base . For as many as nine in 10 consumers, recommendations from friends and family trump any other form of advertising.²

Dytch says that a lot of her customers have found her through recommendations from friends. She puts that down to having a high-quality product – which she admits she almost stumbled across by accident when the samples she was sent by the mill exceeded her expectations. “People have been very complimentary about the actual product,” she explains. “If it’s a scratchy hat and it doesn’t fit properly, people aren’t going to wear them and then they’re not going to tell their friends. The actual product is lovely, and based on that I get a lot of recommendations.”

The high quality also encourages customers to come back and buy another hat, perhaps as gifts for loved ones. “I’ve definitely had repeat business in that way,” says Dytch.

Being part of a niche interest group helped Dytch expand her customer base in the early months of the business. When launching the beanie, she found her first customers on Facebook groups dedicated to hillwalking or “Munro bagging” (the term for climbing all 282 Munros). “It’s nice to know that the business is being run by somebody who’s interested in what these people are interested in,” she says.

Being a passionate hillwalker herself also helps when it comes to thinking of new products, or the kind of content to publish on the website. One product she has added is the Munro Baggers Kit Bag, which contains the essentials for safe hillwalking, such as a survival blanket and whistle.

“People were coming to the website [to buy a hat] and saying, ‘I just got this for my daughter, she’s just climbed her first Munro,’ and I thought maybe there’s a gap in the market for [an essentials kit],” Dytch explains. “There are a lot of people now coming to the hills totally new. If I’d been given this when I started it would have been very useful.”

Working together with other businesses in a similar space can have several advantages, such as helping build brand awareness among your respective audiences, or allowing you to share knowledge with like-minded business owners.

In the run up to Christmas 2021, Dytch decided to run a campaign over 12 days, promoting a virtual hamper which included various products and experiences for hillwalkers. She called on contacts that she’d made through her day job (Dytch works in events) as well as other small businesses she’d come across since launching the Munro Beanie.

“Or brands that I knew from being a hillwalker myself, that I’d followed for a while,” she adds. “I just reached out to several them on Instagram and asked if they wanted to put a prize in my hamper. And from them I’ve had some lovely feedback, to say that people loved it and [they would] love to do more.”