Getting to know your Local Food Consumer

1. Getting to Know Your Local Food
Consumer
November 25, 2014
Jessica Kelly
Direct Farm Marketing Program Lead
Business Management Unit

2. Agenda
• Foodland Ontario research through the
entrepreneur’s lens
• Conducting business intelligence and
marketing research
• Examples from local food businesses

3. FOODLAND ONTARIO
RESEARCH THROUGH THE
ENTREPRENEUR’S LENS

4. Local Matters.
• How might you leverage the strength of the
Foodland Ontario brand?
• How do you express local to your customers
and in your brand?

6. Customer 1 ≠ Customer 2
• Which segment is your business best suited to?
CAN
NEED
WANT

7. CONDUCTING YOUR OWN
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
AND MARKETING RESEARCH

8. What is Business Intelligence?
• Collecting and processing information about
– Your industry;
– Your business;
– Your customers;
– Trends in the regulatory environment;
– Business opportunities and threats; and
– Technological developments

9. Performing Business Intelligence
• Industry publications and information sources
– Print or online publications; government resources
• Using your business networks
– Sharing ideas and opportunities, networking
through industry associations
• Direct observation
– Observing customers and competitors
• Intelligence sources within your business
– Internal financial and sales records, feedback
from staff

10. Marketing Research
IS…
• A process to compile
consumer and market
information about a
specific question
IS NOT…
• Just for new
businesses
• Just about surveys
• Always expensive

11. Steps for Conducting Marketing Research
1. Identify the Problem
2. Devise the Research Plan
a) Primary research
b) Secondary research
3. Collect Data
4. Analyze Data
5. Report and Interpret Results

12. A Word About Online Analytics
• Free tools are available
• Website stats to consider:
– Visitor counts
– Technology
– Referrals and sources
– Bounce rates and exit pages
– In-page analytics

15. A Word About Online Analytics
• Extends beyond website stats to:
– Email campaign stats;
– Online ticket/retail sales;
– Social analytics (by social channel);
– Online reviews (Trip Advisor, Google, Yelp…); and
– Competitor analytics.
• Blog series current exploring these topics:
– https://agritainmentweekly.wordpress.com/

16. EXAMPLES FROM LOCAL
FOOD BUSINESSES

17. Spirit Tree Estate Cidery
• Pizza tasting night to reward dedicated
customers and gain insight to build inaugural
pizza menu.
• Cider tasting panel with a food scientist to
refine product characteristics.

18. Pizza Tasting Night

19. Pizza # 1 Pizza # 2 Pizza # 3 Pizza # 4
Please rate each
category out of
5 with 1 being
poor and 5
being excellent
tomato sauce,
mozzarella, basil
white sauce,
potato,
proscuitto,rosem
ary & asiago
tomato sauce,
wood-roasted red
peppers,
mozzarella,
italian sausage
tomato sauce,
pesto, oven
roasted tomato &
garlic, chicken &
goat cheese
Appearance
Smell
Amount of sauce
Sauce flavour
Amount of
Toppings
Crust
Amount of
herbs/spices
Overall taste
Ingredients to
add/increase
Ingredients to
remove/decrease
Comments

20. Cider Tasting

22. Murphy’s Farm Market and Bakery
• iPad point-of-sale to monitor
customer preferences for
products and packaging.

23. Outdoor Farmers’ Market, Covent Garden Market
• ‘Bean Poll’ to learn about
visitors to the Outdoor
Farmers’ Market.

25. Exploring Value-Added Opportunities
• A learning series that will help you make better
decisions and increase profits by teaching you how
to:
– Generate new ideas for value-added products and services;
– Assess your idea’s business potential;
– Identify and manage potential risks; and,
– Determine and plan what it takes to turn your idea into a
reality.
• Interactive webinars held over three lunch hours in
February/March
• For more information visit ontario.ca/e996

26. Contact Information
Jessica Kelly
jessica.m.kelly@ontario.ca
519-846-3404