‘Consumers want better than what they’re being served now’
“Food scandals like the horse meat incident sensitise consumers for alternative propositions they can trust,” says Mr Doorneweert. “The first entrepreneur or food company to provide trust in a scalable, innovative way, will make significant headway, impacting the operations of incumbents.
“Ireland has a natural disposition for some interesting value propositions. Branding could be part of the solution. A word of warning though: focus on making your product a unique experience to consumers. Quality schemes are important for internal arrangements, but consumers generally consider these to be a basic condition for purchase; a given. It’s not what they find compelling.”
A globally respected commentator and the author of the Value Chain Generation blog on Wordpress, Mr Doorneweert is to give an innovation masterclass on Irish agri-food at the DCU Ryan Academy in Citywest, Dublin, tomorrow. He will address around 50 Irish agri-food leaders.
Doorneweert says he has yet to see really strong initiatives with a global reputation, indicating both an opportunity and a challenge.
“You have to find what makes consumers tick and deliver something that exceeds their expectations,” he said. “Future opportunities lie in understanding your customer. The food industry has put itself at too large a distance from the consumer. The downplaying of the significance of meat scandals has shown this.
“Consumers are ready for a better proposition, better than what they’re being served now. Farmers have a huge opportunity, a space current industry is incapable of taking advantage of.”
On his blog, Mr Doorneweert cites initiatives by one producer in Kenya to develop trust at a local co-op store level, wherein the producer has hung a photo of his seeds next to the food product. A clear, simple pledge of the food’s origins, it has generated a very positive consumer response. He likens the simplicity of this message to perception of Ireland’s clean, green image.
“Our largest supermarket chain sells Irish beef called Green Fields,” he said. “This has a reputation of good animal welfare, cattle grazing outside, no funny business with feed. I think this is a good basis for a market proposition conveying trust.
Mr Doorneweert says that retailers are wrong to divide consumers into two groups, one focused on quality and the other focused on price.
“This is a huge myth,” he says. “Instead, you need to focus on your customers and the value they’re seeking. Then you’ll see that the customer who wants food at the lowest prices possible is but a segment of population, and there’s a gazillion other segmentation possibilities.”
* For more, see a recent post on Bart Doorneweert’s blog: valuechaingeneration.wordpress.com
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